July 20, 2022 • 35 mins
Jason and Mike reacts to the future team Juan Soto may end up on, Rob Manfred shows yet again how disconnected he is within the sport he commissions, and the American League VS National League!!!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio The
Jason Smith Show with My bas friend Mike Harmon. Oh
americanly meets the National League three to two All Star
Game at Chevez Ravine here in Los Angeles, where Dodger
fans were serenading one Soto its future Dodger chance during
(00:44):
the game. Now that was a good look, He responded
with a nice anywhere but here? Anywhere but here? Now, Look,
if you made me pick a trade, right, I've told
you I don't believe Juan Sotos getting dealt anytime soon.
The prospect hall plus the pressure potentially paying him, it's
(01:07):
gonna be a lot. Are you gonna really is a
contender going to just completely break up what they have
going on right now to get Juan Soto? Maybe it's
a it's a case of in a year, a few months,
but right now by the deadline, I can't see it happening.
We talked about it last night. A team like the Padres,
(01:28):
if they underachieve again this year with all the young
talent they have, could they send a boatload of prospects
to the Nationals in exchange for Juan Soto. Yeah? I
can see that. But if you said, what's the most
likely thing that's going to happen, you said, you gotta
pick one. You gotta pick one destination for Juan Soto.
I would go back to the team that for the
(01:50):
past eight years has always been able to make a
trade when they've had to, because they've had the players
in the farm system that they could deal out. They've
been able to maneuver around money to be able to
pay who they want to pay, let go who they
want to let go. If you made me say one deal,
I would say, could I see the Dodgers replacing Cody
(02:12):
Bellinger who hasn't been good in three years but still
former m v P. But how much longer can you
stick with Cody Bellinger? Could I see the Dodgers replacing
Bellinger in some kind of two or three team trade
where Bellinger goes someplace and the Nationals get prospects and
Soto and maybe another player that is do some money
go to the Dodgers. Yeah, that's the one. If you
(02:33):
if you made me pick one that could happen, I
would say the Dodgers replace Cody Bellinger with Juan Soto
and it's one of those trades where players wind up
moving around and and the Nationals get who they want
to get in another team is potentially involved in that deal.
I could see that one. That's the one I could see. Yeah,
I mean the Bellinger component is is problematic because we've
(02:54):
been doing this a lot with the NBA silly season,
and every time I see the proposed trades and well,
maybe this could happen, it's like you've all been watching basketball.
You realize this guy's got a really big contract, that
he's not good or not reliable or whatever the case
(03:15):
may be. And for Cody Bellinger, there's been a couple
of little streaks of power, but they're they're not anything
that he's been able to maintain over any length of time.
So to suddenly think if the Dodgers don't have people
in house that have been able to help him adjust
(03:35):
mentally and physically. I don't know who else is thinking
they're suddenly gonna fix it, right. We always joked about
an NFL coaches of I'm gonna fix this guy's problems.
But the Dodgers as an organization, hell yeah, I mean
we we talked about it all the time, regardless of
sport organizational stability and if you've got the ability to
(03:56):
build a farm system, implement a plan and process by
which you draft players and develop players, and you don't
keep changing that up every two to three years, then yeah,
you're setting yourself up for long term success. And obviously
the Dodgers have a giant vault behind them, so they
(04:17):
do have the ability when they want to to buy
their way out of any problem, so that that is
certainly a luxury most teams do not have. They also
draw what four million plus fans to Dodger Stadium every year.
The amount of revenue that the team generates is staggering.
Those Dodgers team stores sell a lot of pretty cool
(04:40):
merch and they sell a lot of expensive Dodgers merch,
so they're doing just fine. So being able to say, Okay,
we're going to bring this guy on and sign him
to a massive deal. Yeah. Absolutely, It's one of the
few teams that could. The Google Times will just sell
a painting to get one, so I don't even think.
And they could sell a fraction of a painting, they
(05:02):
could still maintain ownership. Here's a simonette. Yeah, well say
how much is that worth? This is worth like five
million dollars. That's the one. That's the one, that's the
one right there now, and and and and the other.
The other angle on this is just throw this out there.
If I said to you, not knowing anything about the player,
(05:23):
you can have the number one player in the Orioles
farm system, the number one player in the White Sox
farm system, the number one player in the Mariners farm system.
I mean, it's not call nick in the number one
player in the Cardinals farm system, or the number one
player in the Dodgers farm system. You would say Dodgers, Dodgers, Dodgers, Dodgers,
(05:45):
just Dodgers and Yankees. Prospects just mean more and teams
jump more when they hear that. Doesn't mean that the
number one prospect the Dodgers is better than the other prospects,
but they're valued more so. The Dodgers can say, hey,
well we'll give you two of our top three, two
of our top five prospects in our in our system,
and and and the naturals go yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(06:07):
that's great. Yeah, okay, we'll give you one Soto. So
that's one of the big advantages that the Dodgers have
is because their prospects are always rated higher than than others.
That's just a that's just a reality of major League
Baseball the last few years. So when it, like like
I said, when it comes down to it, who can
really do it? Who can swing that deal for Juan
(06:28):
Soto knowing that everything that goes along with it, you're
giving up the prospects you might want. You got to
have a lot of money ready because depending how this
deal goes, you don't want to let him just walk
and not give anything up. Because if you trade prospects
away who are great and then Juan Soto play, then
you can't let them go, right because you traded away
prospects who turned out to be superstars. Superstar Right when
(06:50):
the Rams traded for Jalen Ramsey, like, well, you have
to resign him now, don't. You can't just let it go.
Give it what you gave up for him. But yeah,
I think with any deal for want so if it's
going to happen imminently, which I I have great skepticism,
Like the Dodgers aren't gonna make this trade now. They're
not gonna make this trade right now. They're not gonna
(07:10):
trade for prospects. And no, this is a trade that
would happen at the end of the year when teams know, Okay, Sotos,
Sotos on the on the block. Who are we comfortable
giving up? How can we reshape the team in free
agency to go around the losses we're going to take,
because there's teams right now that are big time contenders,
are going Do we really want to upset everything we
(07:31):
have going on and trade guys away for Juan Soto?
Do we really? Is that really gonna help us? There's
gonna need time. This this is a big time player.
This is not hey player. X is gonna be a
free agent the end of the season. Okay, well we
can give up, but we can have this guy or
this guy and we can we can get someone. No,
this is you have to do a lot. You have
to you have to you know, cross your dear tees
and dot your eyes in a in a large way.
(07:53):
So this is when you get to the off season.
All right, now we have two more years of one Soto.
If we go get this guy, we got two more years.
Who are we comfortable giving up? Who can we replace
him with? Who can we go out and get, who
wants to come here? Who are we talking to? And
that's when a trade would happen. But now to make it,
to make it go so fast like now, I can't
see it. I can't see it. By the deadlines, it's
not enough time for the teams that are going to
(08:15):
be the very few teams who are going to be
out to want to make this Trads'm just gonna be
way less than you think, oh, ten twelve. Every team
would want want Soto, but what can you get up
for him? Not many can do well. But that's the
point is that you know, you see these reports about
Soto and would be suitors like, yeah, everybody would love him, right,
(08:36):
no question, But who can legitimately go get him? Now
there may be one or two teams that decide, all right,
we haven't gone all in and cash we're kind of
hanging around. Let's go all in and even if we
only have them for the two years. Okay, fine, he's
at a very reasonable rate for those two years, and
we do our best to try to resign and don't.
(08:57):
Now the nationals are interesting, be does you talk about
the sale being imminent and all that. You don't you
want a top notch asset like leading. It's like, what
what can we sell to local advertising? I don't know
we had We couldn't sign him. This guy is supposed
to be good, alright, right, I mean here, here's all
the stars that left, and now you you lose Juan
(09:20):
Soto as well, and just throwing that four forty tag.
It's just it fails for me because again the average
yearly value of it with the rest of the economy.
Oh and the price for top notch players hitting their
new deals keeps going up. So why would Soto sign
that kind of deal and limit the short term and
(09:45):
long term earning? He said, well, he's gonna get that
money till he's forty. It doesn't matter. He's missing out
on tens of millions of dollars in the short term
that could be compounding interest, uh and building him little
fiefdoms all over the globe. But how many teams could
really make an offer that that is substantive and are
(10:06):
willing to spend that have a farm system that's got
a ton of guys, because I guess that's where the
Nationals would end up going, all right, we need one
face guy. So it looks we've got a major league
ready player and here's a bunch of a top series
of prospects from an organization. Oh and we'd like to
(10:27):
negotiate a long term deal might be part of it
as well. We'd like to start kicking the can. Uh,
because if we're gonna give you a bunch of assets
again going back to the Rudy Gobert analogy, uh that
we were talking about earlier with the NBA, of here's
all the draft capital and all the players, then you
want to make sure that on the back end, the
(10:50):
guy you're trading for stays right. And it's not a
roll of the dice, like, all right, we're gonna do
all this and he's gonna resign with us a two years. No,
you're gonna have the conversations with Scott Boris and that
team as well as Soto, even though he defers to
Scott Borris. But you're gonna have those conversations long before
(11:10):
you know any trade is consummate. This is why it's
so important. Starling Marte was his hype man last night
for the for the home run derby. I mean, now
the Mets are jumping to Hey, hey Marte, they've been
friends for a while. Right here in every home run
you hit one, I'm right next to. But legitimately one
of the teams that could jump up, just because they
do have the cash reserves. Now, what does a trade
look like? I have no idea. No, That's why I
(11:33):
would probably be a It would probably be a three
team trade because a team giving up all of that
would want to get something extra back, like the Dodgers.
Do they want to give a trade, make a trade
where Juan Soto is going and like four good players
are going, maybe a couple of guys, like maybe it's
Gavin lux who gets traded or somebody else, and maybe
(11:53):
two guys from the team now and then it's two prospects.
Do they want to make that four for one type
deal or do they want to make a trade that
involves a third team where hey we don't want to
pay this guy this kind of money. Hey we'll take it.
On and we'll pay them this year and sow the
Dodgers get two good players. Maybe not well obviously it's
not gonna be one Sotos type, but they another player,
kind of like the Scherzer tray Turner deal where when
(12:16):
they made the trade they knew trade Turner and Max
sus Okay, we want to keep both of them, but
we know we gotta keep one because Corey seekers coming
up as a free agent. Maybe we can't keep him,
so Trey Turner would take over there. Hopefully we can
keep sure it was close between him and the medicine.
That's give him forty three million dollars in hey happy here.
So that's the kind of that's the kind of situation
where you want to kind of head your bets and go, well,
(12:38):
we did get too good play. We got one Soto
end So I I don't know that that's gonna be
a a straight one for you know, two team type
trade where you're gonna see somebody else wind up getting
involved in there. In there in a way, I just
like the chaos has come to Ajor League Baseball, right
we thought it was just the NBA no no, no,
hold my beer order to catch live editions of The
(13:01):
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. Is this that song where the person
counts from to fifty? Do you want to hear that again? Oh?
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
(13:23):
friend Mike Harmon. American League wins the All Star Game
three to two, and Rob Manfred still hates baseball players.
There's kind of your big headlines from today. I can't
say this headline is a shocker because it's completely on
brand for Rob Manfred. But today the Commissioner of Major
League Baseball was asked his opinion of the salaries that
(13:43):
minor league baseball players are getting. And this is a
big subplot to the Major League Baseball All Star Game
because for the past few months the money that minor
league baseball players make has been at issue, and minor
league baseball players need to make more money. The average
salary for a minor league player is fourteen thousand dollars
a year. Right, this is this is not the player
(14:06):
who gets taken number one overall and here's Matt Holliday's
kid who gets eight million. Now this is the average
minor league player who was trying to make his way
up into the major leagues. The average salary is fourteen
grand a year. Some players make as little as four
thousand dollars a year, and this is only the money
they are making while they are playing. So when they
(14:27):
are done playing and the season is over, they have
to go get other jobs that they need in addition
to trying to get better at baseball and move up
and be able to take time off to say, Okay,
I'm quitting now because I'm going to spring training and
I'm gonna be playing here. Uh, it's below the poverty line.
What's being made, it's below the poverty line. Rob Manfred
(14:47):
was asked today about the wages that the minor league
baseball players are making, and he said, quote, I reject
the premise that minor league players are not paid a
living age. Quote I kind of reject the premise of
the question that minor league players are not paid a
living wage. We've made real strides in the last few
years in terms of what minor league players are paid.
(15:10):
And then in a follow up reiterated, I reject the
premise that they're not paid a living wage. This is
beyond look and and to to say, boy, the guys
out of touch, the guy's tone death. Yeah, you can
say all those things about Rob Manfred, but I know
Rob Manfred and I have seen him have so way
too many anti player stances to know. This is just
(15:31):
another example of why he hates hate paids baseball players.
He hates them. He hates them. Everything, every bit of
labor that's an issue is anti player. He never talks
about the players and how great the players are and
you want to be able to push the next generation
of the game. No, it's always about the owners and
it's about money, and he never makes the players feel
(15:54):
like they are valued at all. And the players see
through this, right, you see you see guys responding Rob
manfren social idea when with eyes rolling emojis, you get
you get some players who don't care, and they say,
this guy's bad for the game. Rob Manfred, he's bad
for the game. He's not a baseball fan. And that's
and that's the biggest thing, is it. This is someone
who is the commissioner of the sport. And you can
(16:14):
tell there's a large facet of this game, the players
who make up the game that he doesn't care for
the players are necessary evils for him in Major League baseball.
This is a guy who's a lawyer, he's a business
guy's on the business side of baseball his whole career.
He has absolutely no feel for how to how to
adjudicate situations like this. And yes, he is anti player,
(16:35):
and I can't believe we have a commissioner of a
major sport that is so anti player, like Rob Manfred. Well,
the foolishness of it all is that you need that
feeder system to make this business work right and assuming
that your next big blood of players is gonna come
ready made out of college, even though the college game
(16:58):
is improving, is full heart party or that you know
when we talk about the international players and coming in,
there's all sorts of talks about drafts and changing the
way that structure is done. I mean, there was what
a eighty five million dollar lawsuit. We'll see how that
gets passed out. We've seen this in sports a number
(17:18):
of times, like there's this giant verdict. Okay, what does
it mean and who gets what? And how slow is
the appeals processed before any money actually changes hands? But
you go down into the big push there was at
least this is the spin in the pr of all right,
we'll look between thirty eight and sev increase in wages. Okay,
(17:42):
that's effectively four to five thousand dollars based on the
wage scale, and that's for five months, and say, okay,
well they go work the other six months. Now they're
still trying to work out, train and move up the
chain to where potentially they can lay in one of
those highly coveted spots on a forty man roster just
(18:04):
so they can get the money that comes with that.
So it's it's a broken system, right, because if you
don't have the low minor leagues building fundamentals and building
players to come to the major leagues, you start having
really bad product. And you can argue across Major League
(18:26):
Baseball right now, there's an awful lot of bad product. Overall.
The game is healthy, right, a lot of excitement, a
lot of stars, but there's a lot of bad teams
and there always are. But now you you go and
you watch, and the devil's in the details of the
fundamentals that are really not there. And part of it
(18:47):
is these guys are stressed having to do other things
where they're trying to be in the minor leagues and
they get called up as you know, as necessary by
some of these squads, perhaps earlier than they need to.
We play all these game aims with arbitration dates and
and you know, call ups and all the service time
and all this other stuff that you know, Manford, these
(19:09):
comments are just deplorable, you know, and and out of
touch with how his game is structured. Someone needs to
go back and just give him a quick chart, see
here's how this works. See. But that's the thing is
that I don't know that that's what it is with him.
It's past the point of hey, you're out of touch
or do you understand your game? Now? I think he
knows exactly what he's saying, and he's having the owners
(19:31):
backs because it's hey, could the owners pay uh their
minor leagues a living wage? No, no, no, I reject
that notion entirely. Now he's got the owners backs on
this because he wants them to not have to pay
any more money because these are the guys to pay
his salary, his seventeen million dollar a year salary. I
think he knows exactly what he's saying and what he's doing.
He just doesn't care. I'm a commissioner, I have the
(19:52):
backing of all the teams, and I'm not a big
fan of the players. So and I'm I'm gonna and
I'm gonna find no no turn where I can't say this.
So you know, in bargaining positions, I am. I am
at the strength, right, I am always at the strength.
You are never gonna be equal at the bargaining table
with me. This is my game. So whenever I get
a chance where I can let people know, hey, you
(20:14):
know what, I'm the commissioner and you're just a player.
Here's another example of it. I reject the notion what
you say, if you're a human, is you say, hey,
we're working. We're saying just to say what they've been doing. Hey,
we're making strides. We're doing some things. We have a
housing situation that we've made it better for players that
some players can stay and I have to worry about
(20:34):
paying for housing during the season. We're taking money away
from signing bonuses and putting it in in in s
grow for them or in certain accounts for them. We're
doing things to help, even though it's it's very minimal.
That's how you would normally answer that question because you
don't want the the narrative of oh, hey, here's major
league baseball in these cheap owners that won't pay minor
league Papa, but Rob May doesn't care. No, I reject
(20:56):
the notion of the question. Wait, but they're all making
under the pop a line. Nope, I reject that completely. No,
he's showing you where his where his all of his
loyalties lie, and he's he loses no chance to say,
I'm the commissioner, the owners have my back. You're just
the players, and you will do exactly what I want
you to do, and that's how it's gonna go, Which
is funny in Major League Baseball because I guess that's
(21:18):
the disconnect because it's major league and minor league, so
it's kind of the let me step down on you
a little bit because you're not too our league just yet.
He hates those pay He hates some major league players too,
but the union is powerful so they can at least
fight him a bit. But Major League Baseball they cut
forty two affiliates last year, and the stated idea was, well,
(21:43):
we'll be able to improve the conditions and increase the pay. Okay,
I guess she did that slightly, except for those hundreds
of guys that no longer are in camps trying to
get better, some of whom might have been able to develop,
but had to go make a tough choice of whether
to continue, you know, to play for fourteen thousand dollars
(22:04):
a year, or go begin to support their families, their
lives and move on into something else. Because I mean,
it's one thing for the stress of am I good
enough to hit, throw whatever, my my role is on
a team, you know, from a straight competitive and athletic standpoint.
(22:24):
The other is the giant weight of man I gotta
send money home, man I gotta do this, all of that.
It's crushing and under this system, this is just foolhardy.
You know. Obviously Manford's the mouthpiece for the owners. Well,
there are a bunch of dopes too. Dope, no, but
to put it in its basis terms, because they're they're
(22:47):
failing to recognize that they're they're killing their base of
their game, and it may not show up immediately. But
we always bemoan the lack of baseball diamonds you see
in in municipalities, and when one gets opened, it's met
and with such great reverence and an applause. It's it's amazing.
(23:11):
See I would be at this point seeing how leagues
are and what I would say where commissioners now lean
fully right, they always lean towards the owners. They paid
their salary. But you are seeing now in sports and
overt obvious impact of the commissioner is gonna do what
(23:33):
the owners want, right. You see that in Major League Baseball,
you see it in the National Football League, and you
see Adam Silver is a little bit difficult. He just
does what anybody else wants, and what anybody else wants.
I'm gonna I'm gonna do that because I don't want
I don't want, right, or if Mark Cuban, I'll do
what Mark Cuban wants, I'll do I'll do it. No, no no, no,
but I'll have anybody find him so I keep balance
(23:55):
with him. I almost feel like I'd like to see
professional sports each have two commissioners. You have one because
I'm thinking about this, thinking about Bud Sealing right where
when Bud Sealing was a commissioner Major League based ball,
me he was, he was a guy we talked about
all the time on the radio. Think about that, you
know how many commissioners do we talk about a lot
on the radio, Like Roger Goodell was a big, big
topic of conversation, still becomes one once in a while.
(24:17):
Finance silver, but Bud Sealing. Bud Sealing was a big deal.
Bud Sealing was someone who was so good for Major
League Baseball from the revenue perspective, right came up with
a new wild card revenue and everybody got rich. But humanly,
and and and and for dealing with the players, he struggled.
(24:37):
He struggled with all the the the human decisions that
he couldn't make, and there's a litany of them that
he had trouble with, and but the business wise he
was fine. So I would almost like to see each
board have two commissioners, where one is a commissioner that
does the business and deals with that's and and the
other one that deals with the outreach and players and
(25:00):
and players happiness and and and things like this, where
you can keep everybody moving forward under the same umbrella
and everybody is happy and they at least believe in
one of the guys they have being commissioners, and the
commissioners split that power. I would like to see that
because I don't feel like we're ever going back to
a to a time where the players are gonna be
(25:20):
evenly represented. When a commissioner takes over, the next commissioner
who comes in after Rob Manford, the next commission who
comes in after Roger Goodell, are completely gonna be on
owners sides for everything, and it's never gonna go back
the other way, right. Gone is the golden era of Hey,
we have to Yes, I the I work for the owners,
but we have to make sure the players are taking
care that that. That's not coming back. It's completely always
(25:41):
gonna be on business and let's make more money. And
if we have to cut the players in on the money,
we will, however, bear grudgingly. So that's kind of what
I'd like to see is to see each sport have
two commissioners, one take care of the business and one
take care of the other stuff. And at least then
you can control the image, you can control the attitude
of the players. You will have happier players, You will
(26:02):
have happier owners because they have someone looking out for them.
The players have someone looking out for them, And I
think it works, Yeah, but who's got final veto? Because
the players to get happier. They need money, which means
President Business has to come back over the top. No,
I do you tell me, and I make I make
the call. I make the final call on that you
didn't like the way I made it about the Lego.
(26:23):
I'm gonna make it just like the Lego movie and
the Piece of Resistance. That sounds but just that look.
And if you want to be the baseball Zar, then
have at it. You're over the top of the two commissioners.
But as soon as we start splitting up duties, eventually
someone's got to have the final say and make the
players have well, the players would be happier. I mean,
(26:44):
it's the Homer Simpson analogy. You know, you know it
was fish dick day and only got the little coup
of tarter sauce, and Burn says, fine, here's have more
tartar sauce. Have all the targers on you because he
knows he's getting you on the other end. So always
be it for what you wish for. The guy that's
patting you on the back saying we'll make it all better,
(27:05):
he's leading you the slaughter from the business guy on
the other side. It's all fine. Wait, why do you
have a dump truck full of money? Now, don't worry
about I'm good. I'm good. Just follow me, Follow me.
Everything's gonna be fun. Be sure to catch live editions
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(27:47):
captains of industry in media, sports and more every week
Explorer some amazing facts about human nature and more. Let's
sen to the Fifth Hour with Ben mallow on the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get
your podcast, Fox It's Radio. The Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike Harmon. Hey, I might American League
(28:08):
beats the National League yet again the ninth straight time.
Three two is your final Jim Carlos Stanton, Byron Buxton
back to back home runs. Stanton is your m v P.
And it's been a It's been more than just nine years.
It's been almost a twenty year trend of the American
League beating up on the National League. When when you
(28:30):
and I were kids, it was American League couldn't win
a game. Nationally would win all the time. Uh. This
is more than just like when when Ohio States started
beating Michigan in the early two thousand's, right when it
was in the nineties, it was Michigan would win some
of the big games and win half the time. They
would pull big upsets. But once once you got two
thousands of six, started to win the games pretty big.
(28:51):
Now you got Jim Harba picking other fights. Yeah, Jim
Harbas Yeah, because this is this is what he should.
Let's get in the middle of this fight before football
season starts. Uh uh. And it became more than a
blippin recruiting, and Ohio State was just the more dominant program.
And they've been the more dominant program. Michigan wins a
game last year, but still for twenty years, Ohio States
(29:13):
gotten the much better of the play against and Michigan
and the two the two programs are on different levels.
But now you know, maybe Michigan comes back a little bit.
Why suddenly is is the National League losing all of
these games when when clearly you are seeing talent level
you know in theory dispersed evenly throughout the league's do
(29:34):
you have the designated hitter in the All Star Game?
It's not that the National League is coming from a
position of of weakness where well, we have to have
the picture it and you guys have the designated Internet.
But we talked to John Paul Morossi earlier in the
show and and he gave a pretty good insight when
he told us that the Stars tend to navigate and
and gravitate towards the American League because for a long
(29:57):
time there were always options for the sluggers. And this
is where I can take that point that that John
Paul made and kind of parsing out a little bit more,
is that if you are a big slugger like your
Albert pool Holes. Right, let's say your Albert pool Holes
and you're coming up your contracts coming up with the
Cardinals and you just had ten great years there, uh,
and you get a couple of big contract offers. Well,
(30:19):
for a long time it was, well, I'm a big slugger.
If I play here, how much longer can I play
first base? But if I go to the American League,
I can play first base, I can designate hit. And
that was a big part of the pendulum that swung
stars to the American League. It wasn't always I have
(30:40):
to go play and how long can I play the
field in this position. I can go here and I
can save the wear and tear by d ching a
little bit, or I can eventually just be a designated
hitter and I have to worry about playing the field.
So the big sluggers, if you're given a choice between
the National League and the American Lead, everything is equal,
you're gonna get more people choosing the American League. Now
it's gonna come act to the end a little bit,
(31:00):
because now that we have the designated hitter and it's
universal as well, I can go play for the Dodgers
and I can play the field, and I can also
guard against the fact my glove may let me down
and I can d h a little bit here. Now
that you're seeing that universal d H, you're gonna start
seeing it in All Star Games and start coming back
to the National League a little bit more. But that's
a that's a big that's a big sea change when
(31:22):
you're talking about just here's a couple of players here,
a couple of stars here and there heading over to
the National the American League, because there's more options for
me when I can play and I can continue my
big run, and I can play longer and have a
longer career than if I'm in the National League where suddenly, hey,
I can't field anymore. They can't put me in the field,
and my I'm not playing as much and I'm not happy.
(31:44):
It's a little bit easier to do that in the age.
I'm gonna give you a big research project and oh boy, okay,
well I just gave you Albert Pools huge stamp. I
gave you albertole Off right away. If right, then, But
it's it's a good theory because the other thing you
would go to is looking at payrolls. Well, if you
(32:05):
look at the top ten, it's five and five. So
in theory and and that's all decisions and how you
want to build your team right to get them on,
get him over and get him in Big Bopper's pay
for pitching, whatever the case may be, where you're allocating
your resources just like anything else. But I do know this.
It's it's a decade of dominance, including one that counted,
(32:28):
and your Mets lost in the World Series. Do you
blame the All Star Game for that? Oh? No, No,
I blame I blame the Mets not being able to
feel the ball. That's no. I blame that home run
in the in the ninth inning of Game one. I
blame lots of things. I blame Dannie Murphy. I blame
lots of things. That's okay, We're gonna win the World
Series this year. We're gonna get back. We're get back
(32:49):
at everybody count. We're gonna beat the Dodgers in the
in the NLCS, so we're gonna beat the Yankees in
the World Series. And I'm gonna buy every bit of
Mets World Series gear possible, every single bit of gear.
Gonna say one thing on behalf of the show. Really
disappointed by the no show of Walter. Yeah, I texted
him pretty weak. Yeah, I texted my dad when in
(33:12):
theory he would have been driving home from the game,
which is a quarter after nine. Okay, So even if
he doesn't, you know, do something illegal like looking at
and texting back on his phone, he would eventually get
back to the house. Can we put a curse on
your dad? You think you haven't already? You have one ready? Okay,
go ahead? Are not winning the World Series this year?
(33:33):
And it's because of Walter? How about Dad? Walter? See
what happens when you try to see what happens? Well,
this is what happens. What happens if you don't call
into your son show. I couldn't even book my dad
on the show, Like, what does that say about me?
I'll never give me crap again? What does that say
about me as a host? I couldn't even book my
(33:55):
dad to come on. And I thought, well, no, that
was n P at ESPN. Wasn't about that. That's guest booking.
That's being a booker. That's not what I did. That's
not what I do. Just say, you were a booker,
booker and I was not a booker. I was not
a book I said booker, b booker. Drop my pants
(34:16):
right here. But what what does that have to do
with anything? What what? I couldn't even book my dad
on the show. Didn't get my dad. Yeah, I'm gonna say, hey, Dad,
what happened last night? I've signed to get your text?
So I got home and then I was I didn't
I got and yeah. Now that that's how that's how
(34:36):
he's That's how he explains things. Dad, how many times
did you watch this Antonian blast? You know? I didn't
know He's gonna he's gonna say, you know, I had
my phone down and by the time I got home
and died and I put it on the charger, and
then I saw your text this morning. He's gonna absolutely
tell me tomorrow. I didn't see your text until this morning, guarantee. Meanwhile,
(34:57):
there's no way, because my dad is not going to
drive home from Dodger Stadium without any kind of nation.
There's no way. He's gonna no way, and he's gonna
come over with it and he'll have he'll have something
for Zoe from the All Star Game. Nothing for me,
but he'll have something for Zoa from the All Star Game.
That laugh he may he my dad may bring. He
(35:21):
may bring like the the empty nacho helmet that the
Dodgers served like I may get that is it one
that he would have bought. Oh no, he would have
found it on the way out completely. Would have found
it on the way out completely. Thanks. Thanks are done.
I couldn't book my dad on this show tonight, No boy,
But that's okay. The Knicks are gonna get uh Donovan Mitchell.
(35:42):
It's gonna be fine. They're gonna trade six assets to
get him. Six six is the magic number for him.
Ben Mallow's coming up next, as is Fox. Thanks Dad, Okay,
can you guys hear me
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to eleven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every night
on the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R.
(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio The
Jason Smith Show with My bas friend Mike Harmon. Oh
americanly meets the National League three to two All Star
Game at Chevez Ravine here in Los Angeles, where Dodger
fans were serenading one Soto its future Dodger chance during
(00:44):
the game. Now that was a good look, He responded
with a nice anywhere but here? Anywhere but here? Now, Look,
if you made me pick a trade, right, I've told
you I don't believe Juan Sotos getting dealt anytime soon.
The prospect hall plus the pressure potentially paying him, it's
(01:07):
gonna be a lot. Are you gonna really is a
contender going to just completely break up what they have
going on right now to get Juan Soto? Maybe it's
a it's a case of in a year, a few months,
but right now by the deadline, I can't see it happening.
We talked about it last night. A team like the Padres,
(01:28):
if they underachieve again this year with all the young
talent they have, could they send a boatload of prospects
to the Nationals in exchange for Juan Soto. Yeah? I
can see that. But if you said, what's the most
likely thing that's going to happen, you said, you gotta
pick one. You gotta pick one destination for Juan Soto.
I would go back to the team that for the
(01:50):
past eight years has always been able to make a
trade when they've had to, because they've had the players
in the farm system that they could deal out. They've
been able to maneuver around money to be able to
pay who they want to pay, let go who they
want to let go. If you made me say one deal,
I would say, could I see the Dodgers replacing Cody
(02:12):
Bellinger who hasn't been good in three years but still
former m v P. But how much longer can you
stick with Cody Bellinger? Could I see the Dodgers replacing
Bellinger in some kind of two or three team trade
where Bellinger goes someplace and the Nationals get prospects and
Soto and maybe another player that is do some money
go to the Dodgers. Yeah, that's the one. If you
(02:33):
if you made me pick one that could happen, I
would say the Dodgers replace Cody Bellinger with Juan Soto
and it's one of those trades where players wind up
moving around and and the Nationals get who they want
to get in another team is potentially involved in that deal.
I could see that one. That's the one I could see. Yeah,
I mean the Bellinger component is is problematic because we've
(02:54):
been doing this a lot with the NBA silly season,
and every time I see the proposed trades and well,
maybe this could happen, it's like you've all been watching basketball.
You realize this guy's got a really big contract, that
he's not good or not reliable or whatever the case
(03:15):
may be. And for Cody Bellinger, there's been a couple
of little streaks of power, but they're they're not anything
that he's been able to maintain over any length of time.
So to suddenly think if the Dodgers don't have people
in house that have been able to help him adjust
(03:35):
mentally and physically. I don't know who else is thinking
they're suddenly gonna fix it, right. We always joked about
an NFL coaches of I'm gonna fix this guy's problems.
But the Dodgers as an organization, hell yeah, I mean
we we talked about it all the time, regardless of
sport organizational stability and if you've got the ability to
(03:56):
build a farm system, implement a plan and process by
which you draft players and develop players, and you don't
keep changing that up every two to three years, then yeah,
you're setting yourself up for long term success. And obviously
the Dodgers have a giant vault behind them, so they
(04:17):
do have the ability when they want to to buy
their way out of any problem, so that that is
certainly a luxury most teams do not have. They also
draw what four million plus fans to Dodger Stadium every year.
The amount of revenue that the team generates is staggering.
Those Dodgers team stores sell a lot of pretty cool
(04:40):
merch and they sell a lot of expensive Dodgers merch,
so they're doing just fine. So being able to say, Okay,
we're going to bring this guy on and sign him
to a massive deal. Yeah. Absolutely, It's one of the
few teams that could. The Google Times will just sell
a painting to get one, so I don't even think.
And they could sell a fraction of a painting, they
(05:02):
could still maintain ownership. Here's a simonette. Yeah, well say
how much is that worth? This is worth like five
million dollars. That's the one. That's the one, that's the
one right there now, and and and and the other.
The other angle on this is just throw this out there.
If I said to you, not knowing anything about the player,
(05:23):
you can have the number one player in the Orioles
farm system, the number one player in the White Sox
farm system, the number one player in the Mariners farm system.
I mean, it's not call nick in the number one
player in the Cardinals farm system, or the number one
player in the Dodgers farm system. You would say Dodgers, Dodgers, Dodgers, Dodgers,
(05:45):
just Dodgers and Yankees. Prospects just mean more and teams
jump more when they hear that. Doesn't mean that the
number one prospect the Dodgers is better than the other prospects,
but they're valued more so. The Dodgers can say, hey,
well we'll give you two of our top three, two
of our top five prospects in our in our system,
and and and the naturals go yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(06:07):
that's great. Yeah, okay, we'll give you one Soto. So
that's one of the big advantages that the Dodgers have
is because their prospects are always rated higher than than others.
That's just a that's just a reality of major League
Baseball the last few years. So when it, like like
I said, when it comes down to it, who can
really do it? Who can swing that deal for Juan
(06:28):
Soto knowing that everything that goes along with it, you're
giving up the prospects you might want. You got to
have a lot of money ready because depending how this
deal goes, you don't want to let him just walk
and not give anything up. Because if you trade prospects
away who are great and then Juan Soto play, then
you can't let them go, right because you traded away
prospects who turned out to be superstars. Superstar Right when
(06:50):
the Rams traded for Jalen Ramsey, like, well, you have
to resign him now, don't. You can't just let it go.
Give it what you gave up for him. But yeah,
I think with any deal for want so if it's
going to happen imminently, which I I have great skepticism,
Like the Dodgers aren't gonna make this trade now. They're
not gonna make this trade right now. They're not gonna
(07:10):
trade for prospects. And no, this is a trade that
would happen at the end of the year when teams know, Okay, Sotos,
Sotos on the on the block. Who are we comfortable
giving up? How can we reshape the team in free
agency to go around the losses we're going to take,
because there's teams right now that are big time contenders,
are going Do we really want to upset everything we
(07:31):
have going on and trade guys away for Juan Soto?
Do we really? Is that really gonna help us? There's
gonna need time. This this is a big time player.
This is not hey player. X is gonna be a
free agent the end of the season. Okay, well we
can give up, but we can have this guy or
this guy and we can we can get someone. No,
this is you have to do a lot. You have
to you have to you know, cross your dear tees
and dot your eyes in a in a large way.
(07:53):
So this is when you get to the off season.
All right, now we have two more years of one Soto.
If we go get this guy, we got two more years.
Who are we comfortable giving up? Who can we replace
him with? Who can we go out and get, who
wants to come here? Who are we talking to? And
that's when a trade would happen. But now to make it,
to make it go so fast like now, I can't
see it. I can't see it. By the deadlines, it's
not enough time for the teams that are going to
(08:15):
be the very few teams who are going to be
out to want to make this Trads'm just gonna be
way less than you think, oh, ten twelve. Every team
would want want Soto, but what can you get up
for him? Not many can do well. But that's the
point is that you know, you see these reports about
Soto and would be suitors like, yeah, everybody would love him, right,
(08:36):
no question, But who can legitimately go get him? Now
there may be one or two teams that decide, all right,
we haven't gone all in and cash we're kind of
hanging around. Let's go all in and even if we
only have them for the two years. Okay, fine, he's
at a very reasonable rate for those two years, and
we do our best to try to resign and don't.
(08:57):
Now the nationals are interesting, be does you talk about
the sale being imminent and all that. You don't you
want a top notch asset like leading. It's like, what
what can we sell to local advertising? I don't know
we had We couldn't sign him. This guy is supposed
to be good, alright, right, I mean here, here's all
the stars that left, and now you you lose Juan
(09:20):
Soto as well, and just throwing that four forty tag.
It's just it fails for me because again the average
yearly value of it with the rest of the economy.
Oh and the price for top notch players hitting their
new deals keeps going up. So why would Soto sign
that kind of deal and limit the short term and
(09:45):
long term earning? He said, well, he's gonna get that
money till he's forty. It doesn't matter. He's missing out
on tens of millions of dollars in the short term
that could be compounding interest, uh and building him little
fiefdoms all over the globe. But how many teams could
really make an offer that that is substantive and are
(10:06):
willing to spend that have a farm system that's got
a ton of guys, because I guess that's where the
Nationals would end up going, all right, we need one
face guy. So it looks we've got a major league
ready player and here's a bunch of a top series
of prospects from an organization. Oh and we'd like to
(10:27):
negotiate a long term deal might be part of it
as well. We'd like to start kicking the can. Uh,
because if we're gonna give you a bunch of assets
again going back to the Rudy Gobert analogy, uh that
we were talking about earlier with the NBA, of here's
all the draft capital and all the players, then you
want to make sure that on the back end, the
(10:50):
guy you're trading for stays right. And it's not a
roll of the dice, like, all right, we're gonna do
all this and he's gonna resign with us a two years. No,
you're gonna have the conversations with Scott Boris and that
team as well as Soto, even though he defers to
Scott Borris. But you're gonna have those conversations long before
(11:10):
you know any trade is consummate. This is why it's
so important. Starling Marte was his hype man last night
for the for the home run derby. I mean, now
the Mets are jumping to Hey, hey Marte, they've been
friends for a while. Right here in every home run
you hit one, I'm right next to. But legitimately one
of the teams that could jump up, just because they
do have the cash reserves. Now, what does a trade
look like? I have no idea. No, That's why I
(11:33):
would probably be a It would probably be a three
team trade because a team giving up all of that
would want to get something extra back, like the Dodgers.
Do they want to give a trade, make a trade
where Juan Soto is going and like four good players
are going, maybe a couple of guys, like maybe it's
Gavin lux who gets traded or somebody else, and maybe
(11:53):
two guys from the team now and then it's two prospects.
Do they want to make that four for one type
deal or do they want to make a trade that
involves a third team where hey we don't want to
pay this guy this kind of money. Hey we'll take it.
On and we'll pay them this year and sow the
Dodgers get two good players. Maybe not well obviously it's
not gonna be one Sotos type, but they another player,
kind of like the Scherzer tray Turner deal where when
(12:16):
they made the trade they knew trade Turner and Max
sus Okay, we want to keep both of them, but
we know we gotta keep one because Corey seekers coming
up as a free agent. Maybe we can't keep him,
so Trey Turner would take over there. Hopefully we can
keep sure it was close between him and the medicine.
That's give him forty three million dollars in hey happy here.
So that's the kind of that's the kind of situation
where you want to kind of head your bets and go, well,
(12:38):
we did get too good play. We got one Soto
end So I I don't know that that's gonna be
a a straight one for you know, two team type
trade where you're gonna see somebody else wind up getting
involved in there. In there in a way, I just
like the chaos has come to Ajor League Baseball, right
we thought it was just the NBA no no, no,
hold my beer order to catch live editions of The
(13:01):
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. Is this that song where the person
counts from to fifty? Do you want to hear that again? Oh?
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
(13:23):
friend Mike Harmon. American League wins the All Star Game
three to two, and Rob Manfred still hates baseball players.
There's kind of your big headlines from today. I can't
say this headline is a shocker because it's completely on
brand for Rob Manfred. But today the Commissioner of Major
League Baseball was asked his opinion of the salaries that
(13:43):
minor league baseball players are getting. And this is a
big subplot to the Major League Baseball All Star Game
because for the past few months the money that minor
league baseball players make has been at issue, and minor
league baseball players need to make more money. The average
salary for a minor league player is fourteen thousand dollars
a year. Right, this is this is not the player
(14:06):
who gets taken number one overall and here's Matt Holliday's
kid who gets eight million. Now this is the average
minor league player who was trying to make his way
up into the major leagues. The average salary is fourteen
grand a year. Some players make as little as four
thousand dollars a year, and this is only the money
they are making while they are playing. So when they
(14:27):
are done playing and the season is over, they have
to go get other jobs that they need in addition
to trying to get better at baseball and move up
and be able to take time off to say, Okay,
I'm quitting now because I'm going to spring training and
I'm gonna be playing here. Uh, it's below the poverty line.
What's being made, it's below the poverty line. Rob Manfred
(14:47):
was asked today about the wages that the minor league
baseball players are making, and he said, quote, I reject
the premise that minor league players are not paid a
living age. Quote I kind of reject the premise of
the question that minor league players are not paid a
living wage. We've made real strides in the last few
years in terms of what minor league players are paid.
(15:10):
And then in a follow up reiterated, I reject the
premise that they're not paid a living wage. This is
beyond look and and to to say, boy, the guys
out of touch, the guy's tone death. Yeah, you can
say all those things about Rob Manfred, but I know
Rob Manfred and I have seen him have so way
too many anti player stances to know. This is just
(15:31):
another example of why he hates hate paids baseball players.
He hates them. He hates them. Everything, every bit of
labor that's an issue is anti player. He never talks
about the players and how great the players are and
you want to be able to push the next generation
of the game. No, it's always about the owners and
it's about money, and he never makes the players feel
(15:54):
like they are valued at all. And the players see
through this, right, you see you see guys responding Rob
manfren social idea when with eyes rolling emojis, you get
you get some players who don't care, and they say,
this guy's bad for the game. Rob Manfred, he's bad
for the game. He's not a baseball fan. And that's
and that's the biggest thing, is it. This is someone
who is the commissioner of the sport. And you can
(16:14):
tell there's a large facet of this game, the players
who make up the game that he doesn't care for
the players are necessary evils for him in Major League baseball.
This is a guy who's a lawyer, he's a business
guy's on the business side of baseball his whole career.
He has absolutely no feel for how to how to
adjudicate situations like this. And yes, he is anti player,
(16:35):
and I can't believe we have a commissioner of a
major sport that is so anti player, like Rob Manfred. Well,
the foolishness of it all is that you need that
feeder system to make this business work right and assuming
that your next big blood of players is gonna come
ready made out of college, even though the college game
(16:58):
is improving, is full heart party or that you know
when we talk about the international players and coming in,
there's all sorts of talks about drafts and changing the
way that structure is done. I mean, there was what
a eighty five million dollar lawsuit. We'll see how that
gets passed out. We've seen this in sports a number
(17:18):
of times, like there's this giant verdict. Okay, what does
it mean and who gets what? And how slow is
the appeals processed before any money actually changes hands? But
you go down into the big push there was at
least this is the spin in the pr of all right,
we'll look between thirty eight and sev increase in wages. Okay,
(17:42):
that's effectively four to five thousand dollars based on the
wage scale, and that's for five months, and say, okay,
well they go work the other six months. Now they're
still trying to work out, train and move up the
chain to where potentially they can lay in one of
those highly coveted spots on a forty man roster just
(18:04):
so they can get the money that comes with that.
So it's it's a broken system, right, because if you
don't have the low minor leagues building fundamentals and building
players to come to the major leagues, you start having
really bad product. And you can argue across Major League
(18:26):
Baseball right now, there's an awful lot of bad product. Overall.
The game is healthy, right, a lot of excitement, a
lot of stars, but there's a lot of bad teams
and there always are. But now you you go and
you watch, and the devil's in the details of the
fundamentals that are really not there. And part of it
(18:47):
is these guys are stressed having to do other things
where they're trying to be in the minor leagues and
they get called up as you know, as necessary by
some of these squads, perhaps earlier than they need to.
We play all these game aims with arbitration dates and
and you know, call ups and all the service time
and all this other stuff that you know, Manford, these
(19:09):
comments are just deplorable, you know, and and out of
touch with how his game is structured. Someone needs to
go back and just give him a quick chart, see
here's how this works. See. But that's the thing is
that I don't know that that's what it is with him.
It's past the point of hey, you're out of touch
or do you understand your game? Now? I think he
knows exactly what he's saying, and he's having the owners
(19:31):
backs because it's hey, could the owners pay uh their
minor leagues a living wage? No, no, no, I reject
that notion entirely. Now he's got the owners backs on
this because he wants them to not have to pay
any more money because these are the guys to pay
his salary, his seventeen million dollar a year salary. I
think he knows exactly what he's saying and what he's doing.
He just doesn't care. I'm a commissioner, I have the
(19:52):
backing of all the teams, and I'm not a big
fan of the players. So and I'm I'm gonna and
I'm gonna find no no turn where I can't say this.
So you know, in bargaining positions, I am. I am
at the strength, right, I am always at the strength.
You are never gonna be equal at the bargaining table
with me. This is my game. So whenever I get
a chance where I can let people know, hey, you
(20:14):
know what, I'm the commissioner and you're just a player.
Here's another example of it. I reject the notion what
you say, if you're a human, is you say, hey,
we're working. We're saying just to say what they've been doing. Hey,
we're making strides. We're doing some things. We have a
housing situation that we've made it better for players that
some players can stay and I have to worry about
(20:34):
paying for housing during the season. We're taking money away
from signing bonuses and putting it in in in s
grow for them or in certain accounts for them. We're
doing things to help, even though it's it's very minimal.
That's how you would normally answer that question because you
don't want the the narrative of oh, hey, here's major
league baseball in these cheap owners that won't pay minor
league Papa, but Rob May doesn't care. No, I reject
(20:56):
the notion of the question. Wait, but they're all making
under the pop a line. Nope, I reject that completely. No,
he's showing you where his where his all of his
loyalties lie, and he's he loses no chance to say,
I'm the commissioner, the owners have my back. You're just
the players, and you will do exactly what I want
you to do, and that's how it's gonna go, Which
is funny in Major League Baseball because I guess that's
(21:18):
the disconnect because it's major league and minor league, so
it's kind of the let me step down on you
a little bit because you're not too our league just yet.
He hates those pay He hates some major league players too,
but the union is powerful so they can at least
fight him a bit. But Major League Baseball they cut
forty two affiliates last year, and the stated idea was, well,
(21:43):
we'll be able to improve the conditions and increase the pay. Okay,
I guess she did that slightly, except for those hundreds
of guys that no longer are in camps trying to
get better, some of whom might have been able to develop,
but had to go make a tough choice of whether
to continue, you know, to play for fourteen thousand dollars
(22:04):
a year, or go begin to support their families, their
lives and move on into something else. Because I mean,
it's one thing for the stress of am I good
enough to hit, throw whatever, my my role is on
a team, you know, from a straight competitive and athletic standpoint.
(22:24):
The other is the giant weight of man I gotta
send money home, man I gotta do this, all of that.
It's crushing and under this system, this is just foolhardy.
You know. Obviously Manford's the mouthpiece for the owners. Well,
there are a bunch of dopes too. Dope, no, but
to put it in its basis terms, because they're they're
(22:47):
failing to recognize that they're they're killing their base of
their game, and it may not show up immediately. But
we always bemoan the lack of baseball diamonds you see
in in municipalities, and when one gets opened, it's met
and with such great reverence and an applause. It's it's amazing.
(23:11):
See I would be at this point seeing how leagues
are and what I would say where commissioners now lean
fully right, they always lean towards the owners. They paid
their salary. But you are seeing now in sports and
overt obvious impact of the commissioner is gonna do what
(23:33):
the owners want, right. You see that in Major League Baseball,
you see it in the National Football League, and you
see Adam Silver is a little bit difficult. He just
does what anybody else wants, and what anybody else wants.
I'm gonna I'm gonna do that because I don't want
I don't want, right, or if Mark Cuban, I'll do
what Mark Cuban wants, I'll do I'll do it. No, no no, no,
but I'll have anybody find him so I keep balance
(23:55):
with him. I almost feel like I'd like to see
professional sports each have two commissioners. You have one because
I'm thinking about this, thinking about Bud Sealing right where
when Bud Sealing was a commissioner Major League based ball,
me he was, he was a guy we talked about
all the time on the radio. Think about that, you
know how many commissioners do we talk about a lot
on the radio, Like Roger Goodell was a big, big
topic of conversation, still becomes one once in a while.
(24:17):
Finance silver, but Bud Sealing. Bud Sealing was a big deal.
Bud Sealing was someone who was so good for Major
League Baseball from the revenue perspective, right came up with
a new wild card revenue and everybody got rich. But humanly,
and and and and for dealing with the players, he struggled.
(24:37):
He struggled with all the the the human decisions that
he couldn't make, and there's a litany of them that
he had trouble with, and but the business wise he
was fine. So I would almost like to see each
board have two commissioners, where one is a commissioner that
does the business and deals with that's and and the
other one that deals with the outreach and players and
(25:00):
and players happiness and and and things like this, where
you can keep everybody moving forward under the same umbrella
and everybody is happy and they at least believe in
one of the guys they have being commissioners, and the
commissioners split that power. I would like to see that
because I don't feel like we're ever going back to
a to a time where the players are gonna be
(25:20):
evenly represented. When a commissioner takes over, the next commissioner
who comes in after Rob Manford, the next commission who
comes in after Roger Goodell, are completely gonna be on
owners sides for everything, and it's never gonna go back
the other way, right. Gone is the golden era of Hey,
we have to Yes, I the I work for the owners,
but we have to make sure the players are taking
care that that. That's not coming back. It's completely always
(25:41):
gonna be on business and let's make more money. And
if we have to cut the players in on the money,
we will, however, bear grudgingly. So that's kind of what
I'd like to see is to see each sport have
two commissioners, one take care of the business and one
take care of the other stuff. And at least then
you can control the image, you can control the attitude
of the players. You will have happier players, You will
(26:02):
have happier owners because they have someone looking out for them.
The players have someone looking out for them, And I
think it works, Yeah, but who's got final veto? Because
the players to get happier. They need money, which means
President Business has to come back over the top. No,
I do you tell me, and I make I make
the call. I make the final call on that you
didn't like the way I made it about the Lego.
(26:23):
I'm gonna make it just like the Lego movie and
the Piece of Resistance. That sounds but just that look.
And if you want to be the baseball Zar, then
have at it. You're over the top of the two commissioners.
But as soon as we start splitting up duties, eventually
someone's got to have the final say and make the
players have well, the players would be happier. I mean,
(26:44):
it's the Homer Simpson analogy. You know, you know it
was fish dick day and only got the little coup
of tarter sauce, and Burn says, fine, here's have more
tartar sauce. Have all the targers on you because he
knows he's getting you on the other end. So always
be it for what you wish for. The guy that's
patting you on the back saying we'll make it all better,
(27:05):
he's leading you the slaughter from the business guy on
the other side. It's all fine. Wait, why do you
have a dump truck full of money? Now, don't worry
about I'm good. I'm good. Just follow me, Follow me.
Everything's gonna be fun. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
(27:25):
and the I Heart Radio app. Hey, it's Ben, host
of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallory, along with my
trustees sidekick David Gascon. Would meet a lot to have
you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You ask
one in God's name is the Fifth Hour, I'll tell
you It's a spin off of the Ben Maller Show.
Cold Hit overnights on fs ARE Why should you listen?
Picture if you will a world will? We chat with
(27:47):
captains of industry in media, sports and more every week
Explorer some amazing facts about human nature and more. Let's
sen to the Fifth Hour with Ben mallow on the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get
your podcast, Fox It's Radio. The Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike Harmon. Hey, I might American League
(28:08):
beats the National League yet again the ninth straight time.
Three two is your final Jim Carlos Stanton, Byron Buxton
back to back home runs. Stanton is your m v P.
And it's been a It's been more than just nine years.
It's been almost a twenty year trend of the American
League beating up on the National League. When when you
(28:30):
and I were kids, it was American League couldn't win
a game. Nationally would win all the time. Uh. This
is more than just like when when Ohio States started
beating Michigan in the early two thousand's, right when it
was in the nineties, it was Michigan would win some
of the big games and win half the time. They
would pull big upsets. But once once you got two
thousands of six, started to win the games pretty big.
(28:51):
Now you got Jim Harba picking other fights. Yeah, Jim
Harbas Yeah, because this is this is what he should.
Let's get in the middle of this fight before football
season starts. Uh uh. And it became more than a
blippin recruiting, and Ohio State was just the more dominant program.
And they've been the more dominant program. Michigan wins a
game last year, but still for twenty years, Ohio States
(29:13):
gotten the much better of the play against and Michigan
and the two the two programs are on different levels.
But now you know, maybe Michigan comes back a little bit.
Why suddenly is is the National League losing all of
these games when when clearly you are seeing talent level
you know in theory dispersed evenly throughout the league's do
(29:34):
you have the designated hitter in the All Star Game?
It's not that the National League is coming from a
position of of weakness where well, we have to have
the picture it and you guys have the designated Internet.
But we talked to John Paul Morossi earlier in the
show and and he gave a pretty good insight when
he told us that the Stars tend to navigate and
and gravitate towards the American League because for a long
(29:57):
time there were always options for the sluggers. And this
is where I can take that point that that John
Paul made and kind of parsing out a little bit more,
is that if you are a big slugger like your
Albert pool Holes. Right, let's say your Albert pool Holes
and you're coming up your contracts coming up with the
Cardinals and you just had ten great years there, uh,
and you get a couple of big contract offers. Well,
(30:19):
for a long time it was, well, I'm a big slugger.
If I play here, how much longer can I play
first base? But if I go to the American League,
I can play first base, I can designate hit. And
that was a big part of the pendulum that swung
stars to the American League. It wasn't always I have
(30:40):
to go play and how long can I play the
field in this position. I can go here and I
can save the wear and tear by d ching a
little bit, or I can eventually just be a designated
hitter and I have to worry about playing the field.
So the big sluggers, if you're given a choice between
the National League and the American Lead, everything is equal,
you're gonna get more people choosing the American League. Now
it's gonna come act to the end a little bit,
(31:00):
because now that we have the designated hitter and it's
universal as well, I can go play for the Dodgers
and I can play the field, and I can also
guard against the fact my glove may let me down
and I can d h a little bit here. Now
that you're seeing that universal d H, you're gonna start
seeing it in All Star Games and start coming back
to the National League a little bit more. But that's
a that's a big that's a big sea change when
(31:22):
you're talking about just here's a couple of players here,
a couple of stars here and there heading over to
the National the American League, because there's more options for
me when I can play and I can continue my
big run, and I can play longer and have a
longer career than if I'm in the National League where suddenly, hey,
I can't field anymore. They can't put me in the field,
and my I'm not playing as much and I'm not happy.
(31:44):
It's a little bit easier to do that in the age.
I'm gonna give you a big research project and oh boy, okay,
well I just gave you Albert Pools huge stamp. I
gave you albertole Off right away. If right, then, But
it's it's a good theory because the other thing you
would go to is looking at payrolls. Well, if you
(32:05):
look at the top ten, it's five and five. So
in theory and and that's all decisions and how you
want to build your team right to get them on,
get him over and get him in Big Bopper's pay
for pitching, whatever the case may be, where you're allocating
your resources just like anything else. But I do know this.
It's it's a decade of dominance, including one that counted,
(32:28):
and your Mets lost in the World Series. Do you
blame the All Star Game for that? Oh? No, No,
I blame I blame the Mets not being able to
feel the ball. That's no. I blame that home run
in the in the ninth inning of Game one. I
blame lots of things. I blame Dannie Murphy. I blame
lots of things. That's okay, We're gonna win the World
Series this year. We're gonna get back. We're get back
(32:49):
at everybody count. We're gonna beat the Dodgers in the
in the NLCS, so we're gonna beat the Yankees in
the World Series. And I'm gonna buy every bit of
Mets World Series gear possible, every single bit of gear.
Gonna say one thing on behalf of the show. Really
disappointed by the no show of Walter. Yeah, I texted
him pretty weak. Yeah, I texted my dad when in
(33:12):
theory he would have been driving home from the game,
which is a quarter after nine. Okay, So even if
he doesn't, you know, do something illegal like looking at
and texting back on his phone, he would eventually get
back to the house. Can we put a curse on
your dad? You think you haven't already? You have one ready? Okay,
go ahead? Are not winning the World Series this year?
(33:33):
And it's because of Walter? How about Dad? Walter? See
what happens when you try to see what happens? Well,
this is what happens. What happens if you don't call
into your son show. I couldn't even book my dad
on the show, Like, what does that say about me?
I'll never give me crap again? What does that say
about me as a host? I couldn't even book my
(33:55):
dad to come on. And I thought, well, no, that
was n P at ESPN. Wasn't about that. That's guest booking.
That's being a booker. That's not what I did. That's
not what I do. Just say, you were a booker,
booker and I was not a booker. I was not
a book I said booker, b booker. Drop my pants
(34:16):
right here. But what what does that have to do
with anything? What what? I couldn't even book my dad
on the show. Didn't get my dad. Yeah, I'm gonna say, hey, Dad,
what happened last night? I've signed to get your text?
So I got home and then I was I didn't
I got and yeah. Now that that's how that's how
(34:36):
he's That's how he explains things. Dad, how many times
did you watch this Antonian blast? You know? I didn't
know He's gonna he's gonna say, you know, I had
my phone down and by the time I got home
and died and I put it on the charger, and
then I saw your text this morning. He's gonna absolutely
tell me tomorrow. I didn't see your text until this morning, guarantee. Meanwhile,
(34:57):
there's no way, because my dad is not going to
drive home from Dodger Stadium without any kind of nation.
There's no way. He's gonna no way, and he's gonna
come over with it and he'll have he'll have something
for Zoe from the All Star Game. Nothing for me,
but he'll have something for Zoa from the All Star Game.
That laugh he may he my dad may bring. He
(35:21):
may bring like the the empty nacho helmet that the
Dodgers served like I may get that is it one
that he would have bought. Oh no, he would have
found it on the way out completely. Would have found
it on the way out completely. Thanks. Thanks are done.
I couldn't book my dad on this show tonight, No boy,
But that's okay. The Knicks are gonna get uh Donovan Mitchell.
(35:42):
It's gonna be fine. They're gonna trade six assets to
get him. Six six is the magic number for him.
Ben Mallow's coming up next, as is Fox. Thanks Dad, Okay,
can you guys hear me
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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