August 24, 2023 • 37 mins
Find out what LeBron James, Aaron Rodgers, Shohei Ohtani and Lionel Messi all have in common. And the guys react to the Angels announcing Shohei Ohtani has a torn UCL and will not pitch again this season.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Greetings and welcome inside final hour tonight of The Jason
Smith Show with my bass friend Mike Harmon. Page Tiger
Live from the ti rack dot Com studios tirack dot com.
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(00:54):
that this is going to be a Mount Rushmore conversation,
because oh boy, I don't want to have one of those.
But there's four ain't number one. Anytime there's four people
involved in a conversation, it's about Rusmore number two. This
is tonight once again. When we walked on the air tonight,
the biggest story was what did Lionel MESSI do in.
(01:15):
Miami wins tonight in penalties over Cincinnati there in the
final the US Open Cup. Yes, this is what happened.
People are just getting new to hey Messi, So how
do we do it? Yes, there's a lot of tournaments
in season. MLS takes a big break, then they finish
up again. The soccer season's eleven months long. It's like
an adult bowling league. Okay, you start in February and
you end sometime around Thanksgiving. This is how it goes. So, Yes,
(01:39):
another detour for Messi and before his MLS playoff push begins,
but another incredible night for him. He sets up two
of the three goals he scores in penalties. Miami beats Cincinnati. Again.
They're in the final now of the US Open Cup.
This is after they had they'd won the League's Cup
a few days ago. And every night that Messi plays,
(02:04):
he becomes front page news. So now I think you're
kind of coming around to our take from a few
weeks ago, where we said, look, twenty twenty three is
going to go down as the year soccer arrived in
the absolute mainstream of sports in the United States. A
combination of lots of things. The interest level and the
women's team, the men's team national teams were talking about
(02:24):
the continued rise of the MLS, the successive television shows
like ted Lasso and Welcome to Wrexham, and now you
have the cherry on top of the Sunday, but also
the Sunday itself and the whipped cream and the bowl
and the spoon and the bill is Leonel Messi, the
best player in the world who is now here in
the MLS. And every night, every game he plays, he
(02:45):
is front page news. And he's gonna be the guy
that drag soccer up to being one of the top
four major sports alongside baseball and football. Alongside baseball and basketball,
still behind football, but a true fourth major sport in
the next few years. Because you look at night like tonight, Mike,
and it kind of crystallizes itself when you think about
(03:06):
it from our perspective. Right, we're sports talk radio hosts. Right,
what do we talk We talk about what's hot, what's
going on. If there's something big in sports, you want
to know about it. Yeah, there's nights where okay, well
there's a bunch of baseball games, so you know, tonight, tonight,
tonight we're gonna do our top three sleeper teams in
the NFL that could make the playoffs, right, there's nights
(03:26):
where you do stuff like that. But there's certain athletes that,
no matter when they play, you stop what you're doing,
and if they do something big, you have to talk
about it, and we have to talk about it because
they're just that big news. Whenever they do, we stop.
And there's four guys right now in sports, and all
in four different sports. When Lebron does something, when the
(03:48):
Lakers play, doesn't matter whatever else has gone on during
the day, that's big news. Lebron has been that way
for twenty years. Aaron Rodgers when he practices, when he
plays for the Jets, he is front page news. He
was that way with the Packers. It's even more so
now that he changed with the Jets. Whatever Rogers does something,
everything else stops his attention about him. In baseball, when
(04:08):
Otani hits a home run, when Otani pitches a complete game,
when Otani leaves a game with arm soreness, like he
did today, Otani is front page news and we talk
about show hey Otani, and you add Leonel Messi to
that list. There are four people in sports that when
they play, you stop and you talk about it because
people either say, if they're not listening to sports talk radio,
(04:29):
they're tuning in to hear what happened with that, or
if they're listening, they expect to hear that those are
the four guys. When they do something, more so than
anybody else, you expect them to be talked about. You
expect to hear that. It's like it's the old adage
where writers would would would would on the show say,
you know, I could write a thousand words on how
great the Texas Rangers are and why they're at the
(04:51):
top of the first place in the in the Al West,
and I could tell great anecdotes and stories. But if
I write about the Yankees losing their fourth in a row,
that's gonna get twice, a three times, or four times
as many clicks, right, because of the power of the Yankees.
It's that way for these players. When these players are
doing something, there's just that much more level of interest.
And you can see the tangible level of interest in
(05:13):
in Miami and in soccer with MESSI right, what was
what did I see today? The average median price for
an MLS game is forty six dollars. What's the average
median price for a game when Messi is coming to town,
four hundred and thirty six dollars. It's a thousand percent
increase to get tickets to a game when Messi is
coming then versus when he's not. I know, Aaron Rodgers
(05:34):
has sold a lot of jerseys since becoming a New
York Jet. Jets just put out a whole big retro
version of their uniforms. I'm sure people are gobbling them up,
but not three hundred million dollars in jersey sales, like
when Messi came to Inner Miami. It's just certain things
you can't ignore. And Messi is on that very short
list of when he does something, it's absolute front page news, absolutely,
(05:55):
just like those three other guys.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah, I mean a lot of it becomes the all right,
we get to wrap the rest of the world's arms
around this as well, because Messi in his history says,
I mean, here, it's a game on Apple Plus, right.
I have the MLS package. I have no idea how
many of those they've sold for a season, but I'm
a nerd. I'm in and I'm ready to see what
(06:17):
kind of run they're able to make and look live
sporting events is the lifeblood live events for me, as
we've talked about for years on the show. That's the
way it works. The fifth guy, I would have to add,
just because any rumors of him stepping towards.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
A number five parking lot.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
That's right, Chris, you played the Hey it's a tiger drop.
A couple of weeks ago he was seen without a
walking boot, so everybody got excited about what might happen.
Canny come back? Can he get one more? Can he
do it? Canny piece together rounds? Can he get through
around and health or whatever? Right, we still have hope
that Rogers. It'll wear off quickly as soon as he
(06:54):
loses a tu or to No Alabama.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
That guy, that's the thing. If they stink, it's biggest
story because it's Roger's thinking. It's whatever these guys do.
If Messi had come and been a bust and here's
another game where he's not scoring and how is he
not dominating the MLS, that's a huge deal, man, that's
a huge Here's the best player in the world is
coming and he's not dominant certain players. It doesn't If
Lebron stinks it's just as big a deal as if
(07:19):
Lebron is great, if Lebron has a medium game, it's
just as big a deal as Lebron has a good
game of a beg hum. Sometimes it just doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah, well, I mean we're also an outlier because we're
gonna grab the messy story and run with it. A
lot of our brethren are still going to kick that
down the road, right that it's okay, that's cool and
move it. For you and I as immersed as we've
been in soccer and our respective households and with the
game in general, for me going all the way back
to help and build stuff at Yahoo for the World
(07:49):
Cup Korea Japan all those years ago. You know, it's
it's always been part of at least my on the periphery,
if not front and center during during big event. But
you know, your points taken in terms of your mount
rushmore talk here in late.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Augustus just as happens to be four guys, and that
happens to be four guys.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Well, I mean, as we celebrate Steve McMichael going into
the Hall of Fame here as a former member of
the Four Horsemen. See I see how I get that
in as well, celebrating. I don't think they used that
as a as an entrance music. But that's okay, why not.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
All right?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Sorry, not picturing you just bouncing up and down and yeah,
you know, getting all excited there in the in the studio.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Nobody wants the picture that might be theman ride.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Playing air guitar.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I'm exactly playing.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yes, yeah, I know you way too well, but just
to your point, yeah, it's growing. Right. We watched the
the end of League's Cup and the excitement there, and
the numbers have been great. We watched the Women's World Cup,
even after the United States had been eliminated, the numbers
that it was drawing. So people are immersed. People are
in if there's some stakes. And when we talk about
(09:09):
messy and this next iteration we talk about demographics, there's
a lot in the culture at large that that is
a push. But you've got a transcendent individual and every
time he touches the ball, it's lightning. Remember that Simpsons
episode where they had the gang fight and then we
got all this stuff and they're looking out their window
and Homer keeps going, I don't know, I'm watching that
(09:30):
little guy because he's gonna do something spectacular, and Marge
eventually gets home or away from the window, and you
hear a scream and a lot of well thuds and
screams that at ce I told you he was gonna
do something great. That's kind of Messy, kind of circles
around the field of hell. Today, they had one of
those isocams that we always want in the NFL for
(09:51):
coaches and everything else. They had one on Messy. If
you just wanted to watch him and not the match
as a whole, you could watch him kind of shuffling
a little bit side to side. He got double or
triple team seemingly every time the ball came anywhere near him.
Yet he still put off two of the greatest passes
you're going to see for finishers. So you know you're
(10:11):
always gonna get something exciting. It's just the matter of
when it shows up in the game and people are
gravitating to it bit by bit. I can't wait to
see what the MLS numbers are. Right, he's gonna play
his first game this weekend. The hype for that certainly there,
and you know it's the model if it really does work,
and we'll see if they release sales numbers for the
(10:34):
final stretch for the MLS package through Apple TV and
Paramount and everything where it goes through is all right. Now,
you go back to the PAC twelve presidents, you go
back to the commissioner, you go back to all of
these folks that kind of looked at Apple and pushed
it away. Never mind the potential inroad of them just
buying ESPN. But that's a whole other thing for another time.
(10:58):
But showing that the model can work right, that you
can generate the revenue, you can generate the eyeballs and
grow things quickly. Because here it is a product that's
been growing, that has had its sustained path in the MLS.
But now you add a superstar to the mix and
you take it to a whole other level of interest,
(11:19):
intrigue and social media content as well.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Twitter and how about a Fresco Mike at Swollen Dome.
And you know, I didn't know about this until right now.
It's just coming in. We have breaking news coming into
our studio. We mentioned the four guys. When something happens,
we pay attention to everything they're doing. We have big
breaking news involving show Heyo Tani Brian Finley as the
latest for us right now from the studio, but yes.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Breaking news from Fox Sports.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Yeah, Jason to Mike Showotani. Earlier today the Angels played
a double header, came out in the second inning with
what they were calling arm exhaustion, and he ended up
coming back and playing in game two of the doubleheader
only as the DH. But this stems to what is
now being learned according to reports, a tear in his UCL,
(12:12):
meaning that he is not going to pitch the rest
of the season. Show Hey Otani will be there offensively.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Now.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
You might recall that in twenty eighteen in October he
did have Tommy John surgery. But the elbow right now
is an issue and according to the team, it's unclear
whether or not he is going to need surgery with
that tear there in his UCL, but he will not
pitch the rest of the season.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Showy Otani. Oh, thanks a bunch. I appreciate it. Brian Fenley, Yeah.
Jeff Passon the first to report that a few minutes
ago a UCL tear for show Hey Otani, unclear for surgery,
won't pitch the rest of the season. Yes, Tommy John surgery.
October twenty eighteen. According to Jeff Passing quote, the elbow
continues to be the worst and now the future of
(13:00):
Show Heyotani is thrown in complete disarray. We'll have more
on this breaking story coming up next again, Showyotani a
tear in his UCL will break. What does it mean
going forward? Keep it right here, Jason and Mike. You're
listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
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 and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Woo.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Welcome inside Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Carmon live from Thetirack dot Com studios. Huge breaking
news in the last few minutes, Show hey Otani will
not pitch again the rest of the season. He has
a tear in his ulnall collateral ligament the UCL. It's
(13:54):
not known if you will undergo surgery, but his pitching
days for this season are done. Also for the Angels,
they find out Mike Trout is going back on the NFLF.
So yeah, Angels can't have nice things. But this is
such a huge development for Sho Hao Tani. For a
lot of reasons right, as John Paul Morosi would say,
(14:16):
a lot to unpack here. Let's go from beginning to
and let's start from from small to long term, from
short term to long term. For sho Hao Tani, first thing, first,
ucel teir in his elbow. Now, this is the same
tear that brock Purdy had, same injury brock Purdy had
with the forty nine ers, and he came back a
few months later. He did not have surgery. But it's
(14:38):
a different throwing motion. It's not the same thing as
throwing a baseball over and over again. So perty was
able to come back a little bit, was able to
come back over the course of a few months. If
Sho Hao Tani has surgery, the normal time that you
will be out will extend it to somewhere up to
(14:59):
around no months. You were talking about a nine month
recovery before you can come back and play baseball again.
So this is going to be September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May.
You are into the middle of next season before Shoho
Tani will be able to pitch again. This is if
(15:20):
he winds up getting surgery, and so what you hear
about this. It sounds terrible, it's awful. It's already seeing
people on my social media feed. I want to throw up.
I'm this, I'm that. Yes, but the big thing is surgery.
If it's not surgery, it's something that he can rehabilitate,
come back and pitch again somewhat sooner. But if it
is surgery, it's nine months. And with an injury like this,
(15:42):
there's no guarantee that a player comes back the same
UCLA is a ucl injury is really weird. Sometimes players
can come back and pitchers can throw like they did before.
Sometimes they're just not the same. And for someone like Otani,
with the unique skill set that he had and continue
to have, that's gonna be the whole game. The whole
(16:03):
game for him is does he avoid surgery? Is this
that bad of an injury? And I want to hope,
just not being a doctor, but hey, the fact that
he can still swing the bat and he can still play,
he can still hit, He's gonna continue his major league career.
That's not going anywhere. He's gonna continue to still one
of the best hitters in the game. But obviously he
cuts through the unicorn because he can pitch, but that's
(16:23):
the game. That's the game for Otani and potentially his
pitching future. With Tommy John surgery already once and now
at UCL tair, you wonder if he's ever gonna be
the same pitching and if it's a if it's a
if it's a surgery situation. Boy, I don't know that
you can ever count on him being able to pitch again.
You're talking about two really major elbow injuries for a
(16:45):
guy who's gonna be thirty years old. You look at
Jacob de Gram right now, the guy can't pitch more
than throw it eight pitches before he gets knocked out
for a year. Once you start having elbow trouble and
elbow injury, it happens that first time you have it again,
it's really difficult to come back from. If this is
not a rest type situation, I don't know what kind
of pitcher show Heotani's going to be if he does
(17:07):
pitch it all in the rest of his career. Just
because that's that that again, I'm not over selling this
surgery is the thing that that's the whole deal for
Otani and it might be even more for teams looking
to sign him as a free agent. But to deal
with just this part of it right now, if you
hear he's having surgery, boy, I don't know that you
can think he's going to ever pitch again. Well, but
that that's the.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
What three four hundred million dollar difference in what you
sign him for, right if you're a team that was
in the marketplace, and obviously you take in all the
ancillary dollars from from the added fans and the excitement
that he brings. Certainly already Morino has capitalized on that
these last couple of years to great success with the
(17:52):
number of giveaway days and the influx of patrons, particularly
on days where he's pitched, and we've watched it for
what's going on four to six weeks at this point, right,
you've got the free fall of the team as a whole,
but the number of times that he's sat down for
arm fatigue, and we've talked about that from a pitching perspective,
(18:14):
not being able to go deep into into many games.
Then he throws a gem, but for the most part,
been shorter outings of late, been more hittable, et cetera.
That those questions have been there and you and I
have bandied about. It's like, you know, once the Angels
started slumping, should he still have been pitching? Not that
(18:34):
it would come to this end, but just from a
all right, if he's already have an arm fatigue, you know,
I obviously you want to be a competitor, You want
to be at your full strength and show what you
are going into your big bonus round here in terms
of paydays. But now we get this news tonight and
you just your head hangs. You know, his career continues
(18:56):
and he's a great hitter, but it's it's not the same, right,
I mean, it's just not when you're talking about a
guy who's, you know, for most teams either their high
end number two or he's in number one on a
team like the Angels. So huge consequence and really shakes
up that Mount Rushmore conversation we were just having there
(19:20):
and people kept sending me pictures of Steph Curry. By
the way, I'm not I'm not buying it. I'm not
in Guys, you can watch his pregame rituals that that's
all on you. But for Shoe Tani, I mean it's
must see television. It must see highlights. The clip of
him and Elie de la Cruz joking around. You know
of their aptitude and you know how special they each are.
(19:43):
I mean that just transcends, you know, your normal in
game kind of video. And now to have this news
and to have Trout, who you've already signed if you're
the Angels, to that massive four hundred plus million dollar
deal and he can't stay on the field at this point, Yeah,
you just can't have nice things if you're a fan
(20:04):
of the Angels.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And this is where now the conversation gets bigger. Okay,
because I was that surgery is the big deal being
a free agent after this season. Now, for Otani, he
was expecting to cash in on a contract that was
heretofore unbeknownst to mankind. Right, maybe six six, seven hundred
million dollars, maybe the first billion dollar contract, depending on
(20:26):
where he's going to go. Now, even if he comes back,
let's just say best case scenario, the tear doesn't require
surgery and he's able to come back and he can
pitch in a few months, there's no team that is
going to say we're gonna give him the same contract.
There's no too they're gonna get. They'll give him a
(20:47):
big deal because the hitter he is and the player
he is, a yes, yes, they'll give him a big contract,
but that five six, seven hundred million dollar contract comes
down a bit when you can't pitch, and there's no
there's no way, no matter what he does coming out
of this, that teams are going to think, oh, he
can pitch again. Right, you watched what the Rangers did
with Jacob de Grom, and you know, we don't spend
(21:10):
enough time talking about that. What that situation is going
to do for pitchers overall in Major League Baseball, because
here's the crump who, when he's healthy is is the
best pitcher in the game. Right. Nobody can touch him.
But the guy's been hurt a lot. He's been hurt
a ton. The Mets, well, we like you, but we
like a guy. We like guys who are a little
bit more healthy. And what the first team that said,
(21:31):
Oh my god, we're so desperate for a star, We're
the Rangers. We're going to give you all kinds of
a two hudred million dollars. Hey, great, I'm signing that deal.
And now he's not pitching this year, he's not going
to pitch again next year who knows and the guys
in his mid thirties, and you are stuck because you
paid him when you knew that he had a big
time injury history. This is on the Rangers because they
(21:51):
knew this history that Jacob deGrom had and still they
did it. Everybody else in Major League Baseball sees that
and says, you know, no matter how good a guy
is a pitcher, we can't give him some kind of
long term deal if he's coming off of a major injury.
It's it's hard enough to do it for a guy
that's healthy, because starting pitching is too difficult to sustain, right,
I say it all the time. Starting pitching is a
(22:12):
bad investment because you have the possibility of injury, in effectiveness,
many things can happen. It's not a great investment. So
now you're talking about Otani, who Tommy John surgery in
twenty eighteen, now a U seal tear. You're talking about
two major arm injuries in a five year span. No
one's going to give him and say we're gonna give
(22:32):
you that kind of money. It's gonna be a contract
where we're gonna I mean, look, he's gonna be a
really rich guy. I mean, that's not gonna hurt anything.
Like I said, He's still gonna play this year, He's
still gonna hit. He's just not going to pitch anymore.
But that big contract, that's setting the setting the tone
and setting the setting the new trend of what this
is gonna be. And and money that none of us
(22:53):
have ever seen paid out before. That's kind of out
the window now because I don't think any team is
gonna be able to do that, and that that might
put more teams in the race for Otani. If the
if the salary is gonna wind up being a little
bit less, because now you're talking about paying for a slugger,
more teams are gonna wind up being in on that
because it's okay, we can afford three four hundred million,
but seven hundred and fifty million a week. Only a
(23:15):
couple of teams can do that. That's gonna be the
big thing. And I wonder, and I'm just I'm just
throwing this out there because this is new. This is
new news right now. If you're Otani and you really
want to maximize what you can do and what you
can do for a contract, is it is it better
for you to say, hey, I'm gonna sign for one
more year with the Angels. I'm gonna come back if
(23:37):
you don't need surgery, if you're not out for nine months.
I got to show that I can pitch for an
entire season and stay healthy. And I go one year
with the Angels and then I hit free agency a
year from now, because I'm not gonna hurt my value
at all. Someone's said, if someone's gonna give me four
hundred million dollars now to be a slugger, they'll give
me four hundred million dollars after next year, right, because
we see, we see the kind of hitterory is. That's
(23:58):
not gonna go away. But if he wants to try
to make more money that none of us have ever
seen before, you wants to be that kind of I'm
gonna set the table like like we've never been able
to lay our eyes on before. Maybe that's the Maybe
that's the thing for him next year to say one
year at the Angels for whatever many million it's gonna be,
and I'm gonna play. And when I can pitch, I pitch,
(24:19):
and I show that I can stay healthy throughout an
entire year, and that's gonna give a team a little
bit less pause about signing me long term. There's a
lot of things at stake and a lot of things
at play right now for Otani.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Well, I mean, I still think the long term idea
that I'm buying in on a guy with surgery or
not this time around, you know, you're looking at a
short sample size, right he gets through the year unscathed,
then we're still saying, all right, it's two and a
half years, and let's push our chips to the center
at the table. But now you have a second major injury,
(24:51):
surgery or not, and a guy who has had eighty
five career games to this point as a pitcher, right
and hadn't pitched, had his ten games in twenty eighteen,
twenty nineteen, two games in twenty twenty and then back
for twenty three games twenty one, twenty eight last year,
(25:13):
twenty three this year. You know, it's one of those
are with the second injury, I'd still be a little skittish,
you know, adding the extra one hundred million dollars or
whatever we're negotiating his pitching stats are worth. But certainly
you know, from the hitting side, you know, I like
the cut of your jib And you know the other
part is how much does it really expand. It may
(25:34):
expand the number of teams that think they have a chance,
but only he knows and his family and whoever can
crack that code of how many teams legitimately have an
opportunity to come and make their you know, elevator pitch
to even get into consideration. From everything we've heard, it's
supposed to be West coast, right, and you know, that
(25:56):
would rule out the Cubs, rules out the Yankees in
your would be spot and spending spree for them, uh
and everything else that would go on.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Well, the Yikes would move to the West coast to
get Otani. We're not going to play.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Join they joined the pack for Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, we're gonna play it. We're gonna play in one
of the empty football stadiums.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
That's a good idea. I like that. We're now just
doing a complete revision of Major League Baseball so that
we are quote West Coast based. But legitimately, it would
be curious to see, you know, how much it changes
the thinking of teams, but more so in his camp
if he's a hitter, if that changes uh everything. But
(26:40):
it's really a tough one man. This is the Taylor Swift.
This is why we can't have nice things because remember
Anthony Rendon's still getting thirty five million dollars a year
and he playing. Vernon Wells still out there.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Sure they're paying George Hendrick still from nineteen eighty. Nicely
done now, and this is what I'd like to know.
This is you know, this is where you know baseball guy,
We're gonna wind up talking to tomorrow and I'm sure
coming off this is such a huge story. Again, if
you're just tuning in, Shoje Otani has a tear in
his pitching elbow. He's not going to pitch the rest
of this season. He may need surgery, which if that happens,
(27:13):
that could put his timetable at about a nine month recovery.
I would like to do, because this is something that
we've not really gotten into, is that I would want
to ask a medical professional. I want to ask and say,
you know, like a sports doctor and say, okay Otani
is playing every day, He's dhing every day, but he's
still the rigors it is of Major League Baseball of
(27:34):
playing every day and then every fifth day he is
pitching and he's throwing a lot of pitches. He's successful,
not a lot of short outings for Otani, a lot
of addings where he's pitching into the sixth seventh inning
because he's that good. Is there that much more stress?
Is he more predisposed to an injury because he is
pitching every fifth day and playing the other days even
(27:55):
though he's dhing. I just want to just what you're
going through every day, working out, getting ready, playing in
a game. You know, again, they take it easy on
I'm not playing the field as much, but running the
base is all of these things. I just wonder if
he's more if you're more predisposed to injury because you're
working your muscle groups so much, and it's so much
more than any other Major League baseball player has to
(28:18):
go through. Because if you're playing every day, you're playing
every day. But guys have to worry about pitching every day.
If you're a pitcher, you don't have to worry about
playing every day. You play one day. If you're a lever,
you're likely not gonna play the next day. If you're
a starting pitcher, you start, you're not gonna start at
least another five days. I wonder if are you more
predisposed to an injury because of the everyday wear and
tear that Otani is subjected to, because of what the
(28:39):
uniqueness of what he does.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Mental fatigue playing into that, and how you may overcompensate
and whatever else. Yeah, man, there's a lot to it,
the psychology and physiology of sports. I don't have that doctorate.
We try to play that here as well as you know,
legal expert. After all my Law and Order watching, I
don't think quincy Me and Klugman really get me prepared
(29:03):
for this one. But I do subscribe to a degree
of the you know, from the rest and ability to
recover that playing every day, even in a DH and
base running role. Probably there's a little bit there to
it from the fatigue side of things that rolls through.
(29:24):
But again, what percentage do you put on that when
you change, you know, to the other hat and pitch
can't say for sure, but I'm sure we could find
someone that would propose some sort of algorithm to let
us know.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, because you're right, because the mental part of it too,
because you wind up getting into bad habits, or you
wind up cutting corners because you're mentally not as sharp
as you need to be I just want I mean,
I don't know the answer. I don't know the answer.
I mean, maybe a sports doctor is gonna say, oh,
don't know, he can be h and he can pitch
every fifth day. He's fine, Oh okay, great. But I
gotta think that being a professional athlete you worry about
about overdoing it and and working the same muscle groups
(30:03):
all the time, that there's a better chance for you.
I mean, I don't know, I don't know the answer.
I'd have to think so. But that's something. Maybe we
get a sports doctor for the show tomorrow night, or
maybe you you study up or stay at a holiday inn.
We can I can ask you that tomorrow night.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
I got twenty four hours to beef up my knowledge here.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
All right, very good. Coming up next, we have the
play of the night, plus more on this breaking story show.
Hey Otani, a tear in his ucl in his elbow. Uh,
he will not pitch the rest of the season. Surgery
might be an option. It's not known right now if
that's the case. And if that is the case, boy,
(30:38):
he's gonna be out a while. He's not gonna be
able to pitch. He is going to play the rest
of the season. He is gonna be able to hit,
So he's still gonna be hitting those dingers.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Still gonna get rich.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, still still gonna be closing in on fifty home runs.
More on this breaking story coming up next. Keep it
right here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
He's Mike Krman, I'm Dan Byer. We have a brand
new fantasy football podcast called I Want Your Flex. Twice
a week, every Tuesday and Friday, we come up with
new episodes to not only look back at what happened,
what you need to do at that minute, and also
look ahead of what's coming up in the fantasy football world.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
That's right, Dan. Every week we're gonna scour the waiver
wire to find the pickups to turbot boost your fantasy lineup,
sit starts, fantasy football players rankings to get you ready
to dominate the competition.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Listen to I Want Your Flex with Mike Carmon and
meet Dan Byer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen
livenatirack dot Com Studios play the Night Coming your Way
in a couple of minutes. But the big breaking news
about a half hour old show, Hey Otani will not
pitch the rest of this season. A ten in the
ula collateral ligament of his elbow. The UCL not known
(32:06):
yet if surgery is needed. If surgery is needed, that
puts the recovery time around nine months. He may never
be the same player again. Certainly, teams aren't going to
pay him to be a pitcher and hitter. He's still
gonna get paid a ton of dough, but he may
wind up getting it just as a hitter because teams
aren't gonna be able to trust he can come back
from now his second big arm injury in the last
(32:29):
five years. In a half hour, we're now looking back
and saying this three year run by shoe Hey Otani
of doing something we've never seen before may be done.
It's shocking, Mike Carmon, This is like it's an avalanche
of stuff that is hitting us over the course of
the last thirty five forty minutes that this we may
look back and go, hey, this was the era of
(32:49):
the best baseball player we ever saw, and it was
three years because it was too much stress on Otani's arm.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Well, and that becomes the question right going forward, how
he can be utilized, if he will be utilized as bitch?
Does this mean that he's destined to reinvent himself as
a reliever in that so high stress but short bursts?
Is that something physiologically that works as opposed to the
(33:18):
starting regiment is pitching off the table altogether, It's it's
a multi hundreds of million dollars proposition when you get
down to it. And for us as fans and the novelty,
yes we love the forty plus home runs and the
thrills at the plate, but you know, it's so much
(33:39):
man more magnified by the fact that every fifth day
he starts, and even if he's not dominant, the fact
that he's doing it right. It's like I brought up
Tiger Woods in that whole Rushmore or Greats that we
need to stop down and watch. It's the I don't
know what he's gonna do, but he's out there and
there there's something to that same thing here with Shoe
(34:01):
Otani as a pitcher because it's just so unheard of.
We'd always seen guys have to make that choice, or,
let's face it, by level of effectiveness, that choice got
made for them, looking at Jeff Samarga and players that
have come through the last fifteen to twenty years in
Major League Baseball. But yeah, this one's a tough one,
(34:23):
right because I mean we're talking about greatness and for
you and I the business of sports and watching the
wheels turn with Steve Cohen going to back up a
Brings truck to try to get him to come to
New York. I mean, all of these things. The calculus
has now changed.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
And I'll tell you what another big storyline going forward
is going to be, because we're again we're in early
days of this story. We go. We gave you the
angle of what's next for him his contract. There's going
to be a big I don't want to say investigation,
but a lot of scrutiny on Otani continuing to be
allowed to pitch after all the scrapes and bumps and
(35:01):
bruises he's had to go through over the course of
the season because he wasn't near any innings limit. He's
he's at one hundred and thirty two innings and he
threw one hundred and sixty innings last year, so it's
not like he was at the point where he was
going to be overused. It was all look at what happened.
But he's been through a lot, right. They skipped him
in his spot in rotation last week to rest his arm.
He's also had blisters, he's had fatigues, tramps, he's had
(35:26):
stuff going on with his body that has caused him
to leave the lineup for brief amounts of time, not
pitch for a little bit. And the next then that's
going to be the next big investigation is going to be, hey,
did you really need to trot him out there to
pitch every fifth day when you were out of the race,
when he had all kinds of uh, you know, bumps
(35:48):
and bruises already over the course of the past, you know,
a couple of weeks, months, not that. Look, I don't
know that you're gonna say you're gonna find anything, but
that's definitely going to be the next big going forward.
It's here's your big meal ticket that was looking for
a big deal after and you decided to throw them
every fifth day. May maybe because even though you were
out of the playoff race, you wanted to keep throwing
(36:10):
them because you want people to still come to the games,
and you want people still to come out and possibly,
you know, buy more Otani merch and all these different things.
But that's gonna be a big question because he did
have all of those those stops and starts over the
course of the past couple of months.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
No, and we've certainly talked about that every time they've happened,
the raising your hand, especially as they started to fall
out of contention. But it still comes back to the
fact that he is a grown ass man, right, So
so to that end, he had plenty of opportunity to
raise his hand and say it's time to tap out on.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
This time now for the play of the night. Brought
to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive is making things even easier.
They'll help you bundle your home and car insurance together
so you can save on both. Learn more at Progressive
dot com or call one eight hundred Progressive. Well, let's
pay an homage to the best baseball player that any
of us have ever seen and future Dodger Well potentially
(37:06):
maybe because oh, by the way, in between games with
doubleheader today, when O'tani found out he had the torn
ACL or the terrors in the UCL, he still played
in the second game. And what else did Otani do today?
That is the play of the nights.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
There's a looking Flani spectacular say claims may too many
Baseball's home.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
There.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
It is Bally Sports on the call Otani's forty fourth
home run. Right now, the plan is room to still hit. However,
Phil Nevin said he's needs some time to wrap his
head around this. So maybe he's not in the lineup tomorrow.
Maybe it's a couple of days. Again, this breaking story
with sho Hey Otani torn UCL in his pitching elbow.
Ben Maller is gonna have more. He's next right here.
(37:56):
This is Fox Sports Radio.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching fsrles give this if.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Greetings and welcome inside final hour tonight of The Jason
Smith Show with my bass friend Mike Harmon. Page Tiger
Live from the ti rack dot Com studios tirack dot com.
I'll help you get there, an unmatched selection, fast free shipping,
free road has protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers
tirac dot com. The way tire buying should be not
(00:54):
that this is going to be a Mount Rushmore conversation,
because oh boy, I don't want to have one of those.
But there's four ain't number one. Anytime there's four people
involved in a conversation, it's about Rusmore number two. This
is tonight once again. When we walked on the air tonight,
the biggest story was what did Lionel MESSI do in.
(01:15):
Miami wins tonight in penalties over Cincinnati there in the
final the US Open Cup. Yes, this is what happened.
People are just getting new to hey Messi, So how
do we do it? Yes, there's a lot of tournaments
in season. MLS takes a big break, then they finish
up again. The soccer season's eleven months long. It's like
an adult bowling league. Okay, you start in February and
you end sometime around Thanksgiving. This is how it goes. So, Yes,
(01:39):
another detour for Messi and before his MLS playoff push begins,
but another incredible night for him. He sets up two
of the three goals he scores in penalties. Miami beats Cincinnati. Again.
They're in the final now of the US Open Cup.
This is after they had they'd won the League's Cup
a few days ago. And every night that Messi plays,
(02:04):
he becomes front page news. So now I think you're
kind of coming around to our take from a few
weeks ago, where we said, look, twenty twenty three is
going to go down as the year soccer arrived in
the absolute mainstream of sports in the United States. A
combination of lots of things. The interest level and the
women's team, the men's team national teams were talking about
(02:24):
the continued rise of the MLS, the successive television shows
like ted Lasso and Welcome to Wrexham, and now you
have the cherry on top of the Sunday, but also
the Sunday itself and the whipped cream and the bowl
and the spoon and the bill is Leonel Messi, the
best player in the world who is now here in
the MLS. And every night, every game he plays, he
(02:45):
is front page news. And he's gonna be the guy
that drag soccer up to being one of the top
four major sports alongside baseball and football. Alongside baseball and basketball,
still behind football, but a true fourth major sport in
the next few years. Because you look at night like tonight, Mike,
and it kind of crystallizes itself when you think about
(03:06):
it from our perspective. Right, we're sports talk radio hosts. Right,
what do we talk We talk about what's hot, what's
going on. If there's something big in sports, you want
to know about it. Yeah, there's nights where okay, well
there's a bunch of baseball games, so you know, tonight, tonight,
tonight we're gonna do our top three sleeper teams in
the NFL that could make the playoffs, right, there's nights
(03:26):
where you do stuff like that. But there's certain athletes that,
no matter when they play, you stop what you're doing,
and if they do something big, you have to talk
about it, and we have to talk about it because
they're just that big news. Whenever they do, we stop.
And there's four guys right now in sports, and all
in four different sports. When Lebron does something, when the
(03:48):
Lakers play, doesn't matter whatever else has gone on during
the day, that's big news. Lebron has been that way
for twenty years. Aaron Rodgers when he practices, when he
plays for the Jets, he is front page news. He
was that way with the Packers. It's even more so
now that he changed with the Jets. Whatever Rogers does something,
everything else stops his attention about him. In baseball, when
(04:08):
Otani hits a home run, when Otani pitches a complete game,
when Otani leaves a game with arm soreness, like he
did today, Otani is front page news and we talk
about show hey Otani, and you add Leonel Messi to
that list. There are four people in sports that when
they play, you stop and you talk about it because
people either say, if they're not listening to sports talk radio,
(04:29):
they're tuning in to hear what happened with that, or
if they're listening, they expect to hear that those are
the four guys. When they do something, more so than
anybody else, you expect them to be talked about. You
expect to hear that. It's like it's the old adage
where writers would would would would on the show say,
you know, I could write a thousand words on how
great the Texas Rangers are and why they're at the
(04:51):
top of the first place in the in the Al West,
and I could tell great anecdotes and stories. But if
I write about the Yankees losing their fourth in a row,
that's gonna get twice, a three times, or four times
as many clicks, right, because of the power of the Yankees.
It's that way for these players. When these players are
doing something, there's just that much more level of interest.
And you can see the tangible level of interest in
(05:13):
in Miami and in soccer with MESSI right, what was
what did I see today? The average median price for
an MLS game is forty six dollars. What's the average
median price for a game when Messi is coming to town,
four hundred and thirty six dollars. It's a thousand percent
increase to get tickets to a game when Messi is
coming then versus when he's not. I know, Aaron Rodgers
(05:34):
has sold a lot of jerseys since becoming a New
York Jet. Jets just put out a whole big retro
version of their uniforms. I'm sure people are gobbling them up,
but not three hundred million dollars in jersey sales, like
when Messi came to Inner Miami. It's just certain things
you can't ignore. And Messi is on that very short
list of when he does something, it's absolute front page news, absolutely,
(05:55):
just like those three other guys.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah, I mean a lot of it becomes the all right,
we get to wrap the rest of the world's arms
around this as well, because Messi in his history says,
I mean, here, it's a game on Apple Plus, right.
I have the MLS package. I have no idea how
many of those they've sold for a season, but I'm
a nerd. I'm in and I'm ready to see what
(06:17):
kind of run they're able to make and look live
sporting events is the lifeblood live events for me, as
we've talked about for years on the show. That's the
way it works. The fifth guy, I would have to add,
just because any rumors of him stepping towards.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
A number five parking lot.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
That's right, Chris, you played the Hey it's a tiger drop.
A couple of weeks ago he was seen without a
walking boot, so everybody got excited about what might happen.
Canny come back? Can he get one more? Can he
do it? Canny piece together rounds? Can he get through
around and health or whatever? Right, we still have hope
that Rogers. It'll wear off quickly as soon as he
(06:54):
loses a tu or to No Alabama.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
That guy, that's the thing. If they stink, it's biggest
story because it's Roger's thinking. It's whatever these guys do.
If Messi had come and been a bust and here's
another game where he's not scoring and how is he
not dominating the MLS, that's a huge deal, man, that's
a huge Here's the best player in the world is
coming and he's not dominant certain players. It doesn't If
Lebron stinks it's just as big a deal as if
(07:19):
Lebron is great, if Lebron has a medium game, it's
just as big a deal as Lebron has a good
game of a beg hum. Sometimes it just doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah, well, I mean we're also an outlier because we're
gonna grab the messy story and run with it. A
lot of our brethren are still going to kick that
down the road, right that it's okay, that's cool and
move it. For you and I as immersed as we've
been in soccer and our respective households and with the
game in general, for me going all the way back
to help and build stuff at Yahoo for the World
(07:49):
Cup Korea Japan all those years ago. You know, it's
it's always been part of at least my on the periphery,
if not front and center during during big event. But
you know, your points taken in terms of your mount
rushmore talk here in late.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Augustus just as happens to be four guys, and that
happens to be four guys.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Well, I mean, as we celebrate Steve McMichael going into
the Hall of Fame here as a former member of
the Four Horsemen. See I see how I get that
in as well, celebrating. I don't think they used that
as a as an entrance music. But that's okay, why not.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
All right?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Sorry, not picturing you just bouncing up and down and yeah,
you know, getting all excited there in the in the studio.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Nobody wants the picture that might be theman ride.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Playing air guitar.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I'm exactly playing.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yes, yeah, I know you way too well, but just
to your point, yeah, it's growing. Right. We watched the
the end of League's Cup and the excitement there, and
the numbers have been great. We watched the Women's World Cup,
even after the United States had been eliminated, the numbers
that it was drawing. So people are immersed. People are
in if there's some stakes. And when we talk about
(09:09):
messy and this next iteration we talk about demographics, there's
a lot in the culture at large that that is
a push. But you've got a transcendent individual and every
time he touches the ball, it's lightning. Remember that Simpsons
episode where they had the gang fight and then we
got all this stuff and they're looking out their window
and Homer keeps going, I don't know, I'm watching that
(09:30):
little guy because he's gonna do something spectacular, and Marge
eventually gets home or away from the window, and you
hear a scream and a lot of well thuds and
screams that at ce I told you he was gonna
do something great. That's kind of Messy, kind of circles
around the field of hell. Today, they had one of
those isocams that we always want in the NFL for
(09:51):
coaches and everything else. They had one on Messy. If
you just wanted to watch him and not the match
as a whole, you could watch him kind of shuffling
a little bit side to side. He got double or
triple team seemingly every time the ball came anywhere near him.
Yet he still put off two of the greatest passes
you're going to see for finishers. So you know you're
(10:11):
always gonna get something exciting. It's just the matter of
when it shows up in the game and people are
gravitating to it bit by bit. I can't wait to
see what the MLS numbers are. Right, he's gonna play
his first game this weekend. The hype for that certainly there,
and you know it's the model if it really does work,
and we'll see if they release sales numbers for the
(10:34):
final stretch for the MLS package through Apple TV and
Paramount and everything where it goes through is all right. Now,
you go back to the PAC twelve presidents, you go
back to the commissioner, you go back to all of
these folks that kind of looked at Apple and pushed
it away. Never mind the potential inroad of them just
buying ESPN. But that's a whole other thing for another time.
(10:58):
But showing that the model can work right, that you
can generate the revenue, you can generate the eyeballs and
grow things quickly. Because here it is a product that's
been growing, that has had its sustained path in the MLS.
But now you add a superstar to the mix and
you take it to a whole other level of interest,
(11:19):
intrigue and social media content as well.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Twitter and how about a Fresco Mike at Swollen Dome.
And you know, I didn't know about this until right now.
It's just coming in. We have breaking news coming into
our studio. We mentioned the four guys. When something happens,
we pay attention to everything they're doing. We have big
breaking news involving show Heyo Tani Brian Finley as the
latest for us right now from the studio, but yes.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Breaking news from Fox Sports.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Yeah, Jason to Mike Showotani. Earlier today the Angels played
a double header, came out in the second inning with
what they were calling arm exhaustion, and he ended up
coming back and playing in game two of the doubleheader
only as the DH. But this stems to what is
now being learned according to reports, a tear in his UCL,
(12:12):
meaning that he is not going to pitch the rest
of the season. Show Hey Otani will be there offensively.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Now.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
You might recall that in twenty eighteen in October he
did have Tommy John surgery. But the elbow right now
is an issue and according to the team, it's unclear
whether or not he is going to need surgery with
that tear there in his UCL, but he will not
pitch the rest of the season.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Showy Otani. Oh, thanks a bunch. I appreciate it. Brian Fenley, Yeah.
Jeff Passon the first to report that a few minutes
ago a UCL tear for show Hey Otani, unclear for surgery,
won't pitch the rest of the season. Yes, Tommy John surgery.
October twenty eighteen. According to Jeff Passing quote, the elbow
continues to be the worst and now the future of
(13:00):
Show Heyotani is thrown in complete disarray. We'll have more
on this breaking story coming up next again, Showyotani a
tear in his UCL will break. What does it mean
going forward? Keep it right here, Jason and Mike. You're
listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
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 and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Woo.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Welcome inside Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Carmon live from Thetirack dot Com studios. Huge breaking
news in the last few minutes, Show hey Otani will
not pitch again the rest of the season. He has
a tear in his ulnall collateral ligament the UCL. It's
(13:54):
not known if you will undergo surgery, but his pitching
days for this season are done. Also for the Angels,
they find out Mike Trout is going back on the NFLF.
So yeah, Angels can't have nice things. But this is
such a huge development for Sho Hao Tani. For a
lot of reasons right, as John Paul Morosi would say,
(14:16):
a lot to unpack here. Let's go from beginning to
and let's start from from small to long term, from
short term to long term. For sho Hao Tani, first thing, first,
ucel teir in his elbow. Now, this is the same
tear that brock Purdy had, same injury brock Purdy had
with the forty nine ers, and he came back a
few months later. He did not have surgery. But it's
(14:38):
a different throwing motion. It's not the same thing as
throwing a baseball over and over again. So perty was
able to come back a little bit, was able to
come back over the course of a few months. If
Sho Hao Tani has surgery, the normal time that you
will be out will extend it to somewhere up to
(14:59):
around no months. You were talking about a nine month
recovery before you can come back and play baseball again.
So this is going to be September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May.
You are into the middle of next season before Shoho
Tani will be able to pitch again. This is if
(15:20):
he winds up getting surgery, and so what you hear
about this. It sounds terrible, it's awful. It's already seeing
people on my social media feed. I want to throw up.
I'm this, I'm that. Yes, but the big thing is surgery.
If it's not surgery, it's something that he can rehabilitate,
come back and pitch again somewhat sooner. But if it
is surgery, it's nine months. And with an injury like this,
(15:42):
there's no guarantee that a player comes back the same
UCLA is a ucl injury is really weird. Sometimes players
can come back and pitchers can throw like they did before.
Sometimes they're just not the same. And for someone like Otani,
with the unique skill set that he had and continue
to have, that's gonna be the whole game. The whole
(16:03):
game for him is does he avoid surgery? Is this
that bad of an injury? And I want to hope,
just not being a doctor, but hey, the fact that
he can still swing the bat and he can still play,
he can still hit, He's gonna continue his major league career.
That's not going anywhere. He's gonna continue to still one
of the best hitters in the game. But obviously he
cuts through the unicorn because he can pitch, but that's
(16:23):
the game. That's the game for Otani and potentially his
pitching future. With Tommy John surgery already once and now
at UCL tair, you wonder if he's ever gonna be
the same pitching and if it's a if it's a
if it's a surgery situation. Boy, I don't know that
you can ever count on him being able to pitch again.
You're talking about two really major elbow injuries for a
(16:45):
guy who's gonna be thirty years old. You look at
Jacob de Gram right now, the guy can't pitch more
than throw it eight pitches before he gets knocked out
for a year. Once you start having elbow trouble and
elbow injury, it happens that first time you have it again,
it's really difficult to come back from. If this is
not a rest type situation, I don't know what kind
of pitcher show Heotani's going to be if he does
(17:07):
pitch it all in the rest of his career. Just
because that's that that again, I'm not over selling this
surgery is the thing that that's the whole deal for
Otani and it might be even more for teams looking
to sign him as a free agent. But to deal
with just this part of it right now, if you
hear he's having surgery, boy, I don't know that you
can think he's going to ever pitch again. Well, but
that that's the.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
What three four hundred million dollar difference in what you
sign him for, right if you're a team that was
in the marketplace, and obviously you take in all the
ancillary dollars from from the added fans and the excitement
that he brings. Certainly already Morino has capitalized on that
these last couple of years to great success with the
(17:52):
number of giveaway days and the influx of patrons, particularly
on days where he's pitched, and we've watched it for
what's going on four to six weeks at this point, right,
you've got the free fall of the team as a whole,
but the number of times that he's sat down for
arm fatigue, and we've talked about that from a pitching perspective,
(18:14):
not being able to go deep into into many games.
Then he throws a gem, but for the most part,
been shorter outings of late, been more hittable, et cetera.
That those questions have been there and you and I
have bandied about. It's like, you know, once the Angels
started slumping, should he still have been pitching? Not that
(18:34):
it would come to this end, but just from a
all right, if he's already have an arm fatigue, you know,
I obviously you want to be a competitor, You want
to be at your full strength and show what you
are going into your big bonus round here in terms
of paydays. But now we get this news tonight and
you just your head hangs. You know, his career continues
(18:56):
and he's a great hitter, but it's it's not the same, right,
I mean, it's just not when you're talking about a
guy who's, you know, for most teams either their high
end number two or he's in number one on a
team like the Angels. So huge consequence and really shakes
up that Mount Rushmore conversation we were just having there
(19:20):
and people kept sending me pictures of Steph Curry. By
the way, I'm not I'm not buying it. I'm not
in Guys, you can watch his pregame rituals that that's
all on you. But for Shoe Tani, I mean it's
must see television. It must see highlights. The clip of
him and Elie de la Cruz joking around. You know
of their aptitude and you know how special they each are.
(19:43):
I mean that just transcends, you know, your normal in
game kind of video. And now to have this news
and to have Trout, who you've already signed if you're
the Angels, to that massive four hundred plus million dollar
deal and he can't stay on the field at this point, Yeah,
you just can't have nice things if you're a fan
(20:04):
of the Angels.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And this is where now the conversation gets bigger. Okay,
because I was that surgery is the big deal being
a free agent after this season. Now, for Otani, he
was expecting to cash in on a contract that was
heretofore unbeknownst to mankind. Right, maybe six six, seven hundred
million dollars, maybe the first billion dollar contract, depending on
(20:26):
where he's going to go. Now, even if he comes back,
let's just say best case scenario, the tear doesn't require
surgery and he's able to come back and he can
pitch in a few months, there's no team that is
going to say we're gonna give him the same contract.
There's no too they're gonna get. They'll give him a
(20:47):
big deal because the hitter he is and the player
he is, a yes, yes, they'll give him a big contract,
but that five six, seven hundred million dollar contract comes
down a bit when you can't pitch, and there's no
there's no way, no matter what he does coming out
of this, that teams are going to think, oh, he
can pitch again. Right, you watched what the Rangers did
with Jacob de Grom, and you know, we don't spend
(21:10):
enough time talking about that. What that situation is going
to do for pitchers overall in Major League Baseball, because
here's the crump who, when he's healthy is is the
best pitcher in the game. Right. Nobody can touch him.
But the guy's been hurt a lot. He's been hurt
a ton. The Mets, well, we like you, but we
like a guy. We like guys who are a little
bit more healthy. And what the first team that said,
(21:31):
Oh my god, we're so desperate for a star, We're
the Rangers. We're going to give you all kinds of
a two hudred million dollars. Hey, great, I'm signing that deal.
And now he's not pitching this year, he's not going
to pitch again next year who knows and the guys
in his mid thirties, and you are stuck because you
paid him when you knew that he had a big
time injury history. This is on the Rangers because they
(21:51):
knew this history that Jacob deGrom had and still they
did it. Everybody else in Major League Baseball sees that
and says, you know, no matter how good a guy
is a pitcher, we can't give him some kind of
long term deal if he's coming off of a major injury.
It's it's hard enough to do it for a guy
that's healthy, because starting pitching is too difficult to sustain, right,
I say it all the time. Starting pitching is a
(22:12):
bad investment because you have the possibility of injury, in effectiveness,
many things can happen. It's not a great investment. So
now you're talking about Otani, who Tommy John surgery in
twenty eighteen, now a U seal tear. You're talking about
two major arm injuries in a five year span. No
one's going to give him and say we're gonna give
(22:32):
you that kind of money. It's gonna be a contract
where we're gonna I mean, look, he's gonna be a
really rich guy. I mean, that's not gonna hurt anything.
Like I said, He's still gonna play this year, He's
still gonna hit. He's just not going to pitch anymore.
But that big contract, that's setting the setting the tone
and setting the setting the new trend of what this
is gonna be. And and money that none of us
(22:53):
have ever seen paid out before. That's kind of out
the window now because I don't think any team is
gonna be able to do that, and that that might
put more teams in the race for Otani. If the
if the salary is gonna wind up being a little
bit less, because now you're talking about paying for a slugger,
more teams are gonna wind up being in on that
because it's okay, we can afford three four hundred million,
but seven hundred and fifty million a week. Only a
(23:15):
couple of teams can do that. That's gonna be the
big thing. And I wonder, and I'm just I'm just
throwing this out there because this is new. This is
new news right now. If you're Otani and you really
want to maximize what you can do and what you
can do for a contract, is it is it better
for you to say, hey, I'm gonna sign for one
more year with the Angels. I'm gonna come back if
(23:37):
you don't need surgery, if you're not out for nine months.
I got to show that I can pitch for an
entire season and stay healthy. And I go one year
with the Angels and then I hit free agency a
year from now, because I'm not gonna hurt my value
at all. Someone's said, if someone's gonna give me four
hundred million dollars now to be a slugger, they'll give
me four hundred million dollars after next year, right, because
we see, we see the kind of hitterory is. That's
(23:58):
not gonna go away. But if he wants to try
to make more money that none of us have ever
seen before, you wants to be that kind of I'm
gonna set the table like like we've never been able
to lay our eyes on before. Maybe that's the Maybe
that's the thing for him next year to say one
year at the Angels for whatever many million it's gonna be,
and I'm gonna play. And when I can pitch, I pitch,
(24:19):
and I show that I can stay healthy throughout an
entire year, and that's gonna give a team a little
bit less pause about signing me long term. There's a
lot of things at stake and a lot of things
at play right now for Otani.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Well, I mean, I still think the long term idea
that I'm buying in on a guy with surgery or
not this time around, you know, you're looking at a
short sample size, right he gets through the year unscathed,
then we're still saying, all right, it's two and a
half years, and let's push our chips to the center
at the table. But now you have a second major injury,
(24:51):
surgery or not, and a guy who has had eighty
five career games to this point as a pitcher, right
and hadn't pitched, had his ten games in twenty eighteen,
twenty nineteen, two games in twenty twenty and then back
for twenty three games twenty one, twenty eight last year,
(25:13):
twenty three this year. You know, it's one of those
are with the second injury, I'd still be a little skittish,
you know, adding the extra one hundred million dollars or
whatever we're negotiating his pitching stats are worth. But certainly
you know, from the hitting side, you know, I like
the cut of your jib And you know the other
part is how much does it really expand. It may
(25:34):
expand the number of teams that think they have a chance,
but only he knows and his family and whoever can
crack that code of how many teams legitimately have an
opportunity to come and make their you know, elevator pitch
to even get into consideration. From everything we've heard, it's
supposed to be West coast, right, and you know, that
(25:56):
would rule out the Cubs, rules out the Yankees in
your would be spot and spending spree for them, uh
and everything else that would go on.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Well, the Yikes would move to the West coast to
get Otani. We're not going to play.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Join they joined the pack for Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, we're gonna play it. We're gonna play in one
of the empty football stadiums.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
That's a good idea. I like that. We're now just
doing a complete revision of Major League Baseball so that
we are quote West Coast based. But legitimately, it would
be curious to see, you know, how much it changes
the thinking of teams, but more so in his camp
if he's a hitter, if that changes uh everything. But
(26:40):
it's really a tough one man. This is the Taylor Swift.
This is why we can't have nice things because remember
Anthony Rendon's still getting thirty five million dollars a year
and he playing. Vernon Wells still out there.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Sure they're paying George Hendrick still from nineteen eighty. Nicely
done now, and this is what I'd like to know.
This is you know, this is where you know baseball guy,
We're gonna wind up talking to tomorrow and I'm sure
coming off this is such a huge story. Again, if
you're just tuning in, Shoje Otani has a tear in
his pitching elbow. He's not going to pitch the rest
of this season. He may need surgery, which if that happens,
(27:13):
that could put his timetable at about a nine month recovery.
I would like to do, because this is something that
we've not really gotten into, is that I would want
to ask a medical professional. I want to ask and say,
you know, like a sports doctor and say, okay Otani
is playing every day, He's dhing every day, but he's
still the rigors it is of Major League Baseball of
(27:34):
playing every day and then every fifth day he is
pitching and he's throwing a lot of pitches. He's successful,
not a lot of short outings for Otani, a lot
of addings where he's pitching into the sixth seventh inning
because he's that good. Is there that much more stress?
Is he more predisposed to an injury because he is
pitching every fifth day and playing the other days even
(27:55):
though he's dhing. I just want to just what you're
going through every day, working out, getting ready, playing in
a game. You know, again, they take it easy on
I'm not playing the field as much, but running the
base is all of these things. I just wonder if
he's more if you're more predisposed to injury because you're
working your muscle groups so much, and it's so much
more than any other Major League baseball player has to
(28:18):
go through. Because if you're playing every day, you're playing
every day. But guys have to worry about pitching every day.
If you're a pitcher, you don't have to worry about
playing every day. You play one day. If you're a lever,
you're likely not gonna play the next day. If you're
a starting pitcher, you start, you're not gonna start at
least another five days. I wonder if are you more
predisposed to an injury because of the everyday wear and
tear that Otani is subjected to, because of what the
(28:39):
uniqueness of what he does.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Mental fatigue playing into that, and how you may overcompensate
and whatever else. Yeah, man, there's a lot to it,
the psychology and physiology of sports. I don't have that doctorate.
We try to play that here as well as you know,
legal expert. After all my Law and Order watching, I
don't think quincy Me and Klugman really get me prepared
(29:03):
for this one. But I do subscribe to a degree
of the you know, from the rest and ability to
recover that playing every day, even in a DH and
base running role. Probably there's a little bit there to
it from the fatigue side of things that rolls through.
(29:24):
But again, what percentage do you put on that when
you change, you know, to the other hat and pitch
can't say for sure, but I'm sure we could find
someone that would propose some sort of algorithm to let
us know.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, because you're right, because the mental part of it too,
because you wind up getting into bad habits, or you
wind up cutting corners because you're mentally not as sharp
as you need to be I just want I mean,
I don't know the answer. I don't know the answer.
I mean, maybe a sports doctor is gonna say, oh,
don't know, he can be h and he can pitch
every fifth day. He's fine, Oh okay, great. But I
gotta think that being a professional athlete you worry about
about overdoing it and and working the same muscle groups
(30:03):
all the time, that there's a better chance for you.
I mean, I don't know, I don't know the answer.
I'd have to think so. But that's something. Maybe we
get a sports doctor for the show tomorrow night, or
maybe you you study up or stay at a holiday inn.
We can I can ask you that tomorrow night.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
I got twenty four hours to beef up my knowledge here.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
All right, very good. Coming up next, we have the
play of the night, plus more on this breaking story show.
Hey Otani, a tear in his ucl in his elbow. Uh,
he will not pitch the rest of the season. Surgery
might be an option. It's not known right now if
that's the case. And if that is the case, boy,
(30:38):
he's gonna be out a while. He's not gonna be
able to pitch. He is going to play the rest
of the season. He is gonna be able to hit,
So he's still gonna be hitting those dingers.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Still gonna get rich.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, still still gonna be closing in on fifty home runs.
More on this breaking story coming up next. Keep it
right here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
He's Mike Krman, I'm Dan Byer. We have a brand
new fantasy football podcast called I Want Your Flex. Twice
a week, every Tuesday and Friday, we come up with
new episodes to not only look back at what happened,
what you need to do at that minute, and also
look ahead of what's coming up in the fantasy football world.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
That's right, Dan. Every week we're gonna scour the waiver
wire to find the pickups to turbot boost your fantasy lineup,
sit starts, fantasy football players rankings to get you ready
to dominate the competition.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Listen to I Want Your Flex with Mike Carmon and
meet Dan Byer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen
livenatirack dot Com Studios play the Night Coming your Way
in a couple of minutes. But the big breaking news
about a half hour old show, Hey Otani will not
pitch the rest of this season. A ten in the
ula collateral ligament of his elbow. The UCL not known
(32:06):
yet if surgery is needed. If surgery is needed, that
puts the recovery time around nine months. He may never
be the same player again. Certainly, teams aren't going to
pay him to be a pitcher and hitter. He's still
gonna get paid a ton of dough, but he may
wind up getting it just as a hitter because teams
aren't gonna be able to trust he can come back
from now his second big arm injury in the last
(32:29):
five years. In a half hour, we're now looking back
and saying this three year run by shoe Hey Otani
of doing something we've never seen before may be done.
It's shocking, Mike Carmon, This is like it's an avalanche
of stuff that is hitting us over the course of
the last thirty five forty minutes that this we may
look back and go, hey, this was the era of
(32:49):
the best baseball player we ever saw, and it was
three years because it was too much stress on Otani's arm.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Well, and that becomes the question right going forward, how
he can be utilized, if he will be utilized as bitch?
Does this mean that he's destined to reinvent himself as
a reliever in that so high stress but short bursts?
Is that something physiologically that works as opposed to the
(33:18):
starting regiment is pitching off the table altogether, It's it's
a multi hundreds of million dollars proposition when you get
down to it. And for us as fans and the novelty,
yes we love the forty plus home runs and the
thrills at the plate, but you know, it's so much
(33:39):
man more magnified by the fact that every fifth day
he starts, and even if he's not dominant, the fact
that he's doing it right. It's like I brought up
Tiger Woods in that whole Rushmore or Greats that we
need to stop down and watch. It's the I don't
know what he's gonna do, but he's out there and
there there's something to that same thing here with Shoe
(34:01):
Otani as a pitcher because it's just so unheard of.
We'd always seen guys have to make that choice, or,
let's face it, by level of effectiveness, that choice got
made for them, looking at Jeff Samarga and players that
have come through the last fifteen to twenty years in
Major League Baseball. But yeah, this one's a tough one,
(34:23):
right because I mean we're talking about greatness and for
you and I the business of sports and watching the
wheels turn with Steve Cohen going to back up a
Brings truck to try to get him to come to
New York. I mean, all of these things. The calculus
has now changed.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
And I'll tell you what another big storyline going forward
is going to be, because we're again we're in early
days of this story. We go. We gave you the
angle of what's next for him his contract. There's going
to be a big I don't want to say investigation,
but a lot of scrutiny on Otani continuing to be
allowed to pitch after all the scrapes and bumps and
(35:01):
bruises he's had to go through over the course of
the season because he wasn't near any innings limit. He's
he's at one hundred and thirty two innings and he
threw one hundred and sixty innings last year, so it's
not like he was at the point where he was
going to be overused. It was all look at what happened.
But he's been through a lot, right. They skipped him
in his spot in rotation last week to rest his arm.
He's also had blisters, he's had fatigues, tramps, he's had
(35:26):
stuff going on with his body that has caused him
to leave the lineup for brief amounts of time, not
pitch for a little bit. And the next then that's
going to be the next big investigation is going to be, hey,
did you really need to trot him out there to
pitch every fifth day when you were out of the race,
when he had all kinds of uh, you know, bumps
(35:48):
and bruises already over the course of the past, you know,
a couple of weeks, months, not that. Look, I don't
know that you're gonna say you're gonna find anything, but
that's definitely going to be the next big going forward.
It's here's your big meal ticket that was looking for
a big deal after and you decided to throw them
every fifth day. May maybe because even though you were
out of the playoff race, you wanted to keep throwing
(36:10):
them because you want people to still come to the games,
and you want people still to come out and possibly,
you know, buy more Otani merch and all these different things.
But that's gonna be a big question because he did
have all of those those stops and starts over the
course of the past couple of months.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
No, and we've certainly talked about that every time they've happened,
the raising your hand, especially as they started to fall
out of contention. But it still comes back to the
fact that he is a grown ass man, right, So
so to that end, he had plenty of opportunity to
raise his hand and say it's time to tap out on.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
This time now for the play of the night. Brought
to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive is making things even easier.
They'll help you bundle your home and car insurance together
so you can save on both. Learn more at Progressive
dot com or call one eight hundred Progressive. Well, let's
pay an homage to the best baseball player that any
of us have ever seen and future Dodger Well potentially
(37:06):
maybe because oh, by the way, in between games with
doubleheader today, when O'tani found out he had the torn
ACL or the terrors in the UCL, he still played
in the second game. And what else did Otani do today?
That is the play of the nights.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
There's a looking Flani spectacular say claims may too many
Baseball's home.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
There.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
It is Bally Sports on the call Otani's forty fourth
home run. Right now, the plan is room to still hit. However,
Phil Nevin said he's needs some time to wrap his
head around this. So maybe he's not in the lineup tomorrow.
Maybe it's a couple of days. Again, this breaking story
with sho Hey Otani torn UCL in his pitching elbow.
Ben Maller is gonna have more. He's next right here.
(37:56):
This is Fox Sports Radio.
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Mike Harmon
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