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September 6, 2023 • 38 mins

Jason Smith and Mike Harmon talk with JP Morosi on his advice relating to MLB teams making the postseason and what may play out for the World Series.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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 FSR. Let's give this parties.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Greetings and welcome inside our three of The Jason Smith
Show with my bas friend Mike Harmon. Moving right along
live from the Tirack dot com studios. Tyrec dot com
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tyrack dot com. The way tire buying should be. We
got John Paul Morosi coming up about twenty minutess gonna

(00:51):
talk all the latest MLB, but I gotta say tonight
watching the Astros win the way they did and Jose
Al tuve three home runs in the first three innings
of the game for the Astros on pace hitt nine
home runs today. Yeah, didn't quite reach that, no, but

(01:11):
here are the Astros and they absolutely bludgeon the Rangers.
One of my favorite words, fourteen to one, and in
a in a in a race in the Al West
that we think is going to go down to the
wire because of how well the Mariners have been playing. Look,
the Mariagers have played really well for a long time.
They needed it to get back in the race and

(01:33):
in the playoff race in the end. We talked about
it last week with the National League and this is
not just seeing the Astros, but this is kind of
who they are. If it's not Brave dodging in the NLCS,
something's wrong. That's what John Paul Morosi's told us for
the last few weeks. We said last week, if it's
not the Braves in the World Series, something's wrong. And
I kind of feel that way in the American League.

(01:54):
If it's not the Astros in the World Series, something's wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Something.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Look, you know, I picked the Mariner to go beginning
of the year. But the Astros still clearly are a
team that knows this is when we have to start
putting the hammer down a little bit here. Beginning of September.
Here they come. They've reeled in the Rangers. You know,
the Marriagers had to do everything they could a twenty
eight win month in August just to get close to
first place. But the Astros are still the best team.

(02:19):
They're still the defending champs. And as good as the
American League is, you had a lot of good young
teams coming up. The Orioles are really good. Look, they're
got a great story coming. Yes, their era is coming.
The Raids are still really good. You got these teams
in the Al Western are good. Look, the Central is
Es Central. If it's not the Astros in the World Series,
something's wrong. I am fully expecting Braves Astros World Series

(02:40):
and if it's not Braves Astros, then I'll do something
is wrong.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
Yeah, I still hope for Chaos. I mean selfishly, you
know the amount of hours of chatter that I've done
in Baltimore and watching some really horrible squads there and
talking about them through the years, seeing all the young
talent coming together and still thinking, wow, they're still two
or three top line names position players that are you know,

(03:06):
still a year or two away from joining that squad,
all young under control for a long period of time.
So you love that chaos. Tampa's got the had their
issues at times, and you still have that Wander Franco
thing hanging out there. But eighty four games after that
hot start, I mean, they win ninety games every year,

(03:26):
and they do it with guys you'll have never heard of.
Tonight they win one walk off home run Brandon Lowe
again the Central Someone's got to win it. But do
you think they're contenders?

Speaker 3 (03:38):
No?

Speaker 1 (03:39):
So yeah, guards they signed eleven guys who passed through
waivers and all they did was lose all the time.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
Well, yeah, it's it's insane. Really, it really is insane.
But I mean a terrible division. Good for our guy,
our boss, Scott Shapiro, his his team looks like they're
gonna win the division. What that gets you in the end,
I don't know. Uh, But yeah, Houston Alvarez is healthy,

(04:06):
l two Vas killing the ball like some great stories
in Major League Baseball. Right, So you got his home
run streak, uh and healthy finally once again hitting his
four hundredth home run, fourth fastest to that number. Jean
Carlos stand. Yeah, it doesn't matter. The Yankee stink, but
we love milestones. We love to sell. Four hundred home
runs now four one hundred. He's the fourth fastest to

(04:28):
that number.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
But it's only his second home run with the Yankees,
so that is it is They expect.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
To do that on a per dollars spent basis, although
it's kind of like the amount of words you get
out of Anthony Rendon versus production, uh, and what you're
paying him. So yeah, so you got all that going on.
But still, yeah, that's exactly I mean, Houston Baltimore alcs
would be kind of fun.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
It would be Look, the Orioles in anything in the
playoffs would be awesome, right because I think about my
youth growing up with the Oriels in the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
Every year, I may go back to eighty three where
they bludgeoned my White Sox the one and Ugly squad
and if not cal Ripkens one World Series title.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
But if it's if it's not Astros Braves, something's wrong.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Why you just killed off the Dodgers.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Well, I'm saying, look, Dodgers, Dodge are really good. Braves
are better.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
Coming up in about fifteen minutes, we'll we'll ask Buddy
John Paul Morosi about the the change afoot here in
the final six weeks.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
It's so much going on, man, so.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Great tonight show brought to by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes
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One plays Buddle and Save at Progressive dot Com. Now
to the injury that has everybody running around like that,
Homer Simpson jive. Travis Kelce is hurt. Yes, Travis Kelce

(05:53):
got hurt at practice today for the Kansasity Chiefs. His
status for Thursday night's game against the Lions is up
in the air. The good news he got hurt running
a pattern. He walked off the field under his own power.
Right now. It is a hyper extended knee. The initial reports,
according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, is that as a CL

(06:15):
is intact. They quote believe, believe it's intact.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
We believe his ACL is intact.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
I feel okay with that because you're not reporting the
a CL is fine unless you're pretty sure it's fine.
Oh the al I'm sorry, we said the a CL
is not intact. Sorry, it's how to cook humans, how
to cook for humans, how to cook forty humans, how
to cook for forty humans. We said not intact. So
we believe it's intent. They're not gonna let that out there.
He's not gonna report it.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
Unless purity of my waistband on these shorts, I believe
it is intact.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Hey, not all Excel pants are made the same. But
there's two takeaways. This number one is I find it
hard to believe they're gonna put him out there on
Thursday night. This is hyper extended. The It's gonna be
a little bit of time.

Speaker 5 (07:02):
Now.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Maybe it's a one week thing, maybe it's a one
to two week thing. But you're a team that is
coming off the super Bowl. You want to have your
guys healthy. There's no reason to play him. There's no
reason to push it now. Maybe if you were playing Sunday,
hey we have it a couple extra days for him
to get better. But the fact the game is Thursday.
I'm pretty sure you're not gonna see Travis kelcey on
Thursday night.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
I mean, obviously you're playing for Las Vegas, right, You're
not a team that's trying to figure out what you are. No,
you're the super Bowl favorite. So part of that is
the second favorite behind the Jets. Jets and then the Chiefs.
Right in your mind Jets have an over underwin total
nine and a half nineteen and a half yes nine,

(07:42):
seventeen season, and then three of the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yesterday, nine and a half.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
Ramos is laughing because he's getting that old school Fox
Sports radio reference, the old Pat O'Brien nine.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Tim McCarver nine.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
So why we look at this squad right And this
is where it gets a little curious in the math
of what the division is because Denver can't be as
bad as they were a year ago. The Raiders Chandler
Jones may.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Not jump for work.

Speaker 4 (08:12):
You can't get into workout his muscles of atchet. I
can't even get into the gym.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
I look like direct TV roblow or I looked like
cable roblow again.

Speaker 4 (08:22):
It can't work out and spectrum cable. So it's like
John Cena, you can't see it.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
It makes sense Roblow doesn't do those commercials anymore. You
can't see them. You can't see.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Spect fair enough.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
And then we know the expectations here are sky high
for Kellen Moore leading the Chargers offense and everything. They
drafted a wide receiver, uh you know from tcuh to
try to bolster things for the inevitable games or sequences
that Alan and or Williams are not.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
On the field.

Speaker 4 (08:52):
So you're not walking through the division, but you're also
not playing for September. And if you drop a game here, yeah,
you don't want to lose the opener of the Lions whatever,
but it's just noise. And you've got a locker room
that can put go through noise, right, Andy Reid will
get you through that. You've got coaches that have been
on staff a minute. And you look at Patrick Mahomes.

(09:15):
Other than Max Crosby, he doesn't seem to be too
bothered by a lot of things.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
Sack sack sack sack suck can stop Crosby sack sack.

Speaker 4 (09:24):
Sorry, here go, there's no need to rush because I mean,
you're not winning anything in September.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Right.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
It's cliche, but it's absolutely true. So if we're gonna
talk about the guy who is hands down the best
player at a position and who makes your offense run,
you're not risking him and aggravating whatever this is to
try to win a Thursday night game. The style points
off that are not worth the potential cost risk management.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Baby, let's go now.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
The other thing about Thursday Night and Travis kels his
injury that is even even more interesting and and and
wondering how things are going to play out? Is if
he is out a while? Right, Travis Kelsey has been
someone who for his career has been really healthy, sure
to play the tight end position and be that healthy
for the vast majority of his craziness one game. Yeah,

(10:19):
he's he? I mean, what's he what's his secret to
stay in healthy?

Speaker 4 (10:24):
If he is out away taking friendship bracelets, if he
gets him in a zen mode? Okay, so like he's
able to keep that equilibrium.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
No high low tackles. I have to worry about that.
Okay again, Uh, if he is out a while. If
he is out a while, is Patrick Mahomes still the
same quarterback? Is he still this top shelf best quarterback
in the NFL? Patrick put that out there, Patrick Mahomes elite,
hot tech, hot tech. That that's a big question because

(10:54):
what's the one constant that Mahomes has had throughout his career.
It's been Kelsey? Right, you know, how how's he gonna do?
No Tyreek kill again? Nobody else in wide receiver? Well,
clearly they've moved on. Who have they replaced Tyreek Kill
with twenty five people that play a year or two
and move on. Hey, you want to ring, Okay, now
you're moving on Juju Smith Schuster. Now you're moving on

(11:14):
to Canarius, Tony and maybe Justin Ross and all. Just
keep cycling through, guys. That's been fine. Tyree Kills still
a great receiver. You see him doing everything he's doing
in Miami. But they moved on from him and haven't
missed a beat. He hasn't missed a beat. Kelsey has
been the one constant. Kelsey has missed one game in
the Patrick Mahomes era one game. Is Mahomes still that

(11:35):
guy without Kelsey in the middle of the field because
he's the one guy with ten, eleven, twelve catches every week,
Mahomes staying out of trouble, finding Kelsey on a big
third down, him stretching for those extra yards he goes
in between two pulls that down. Is Mahomes still the
same guy if Kelsey is out on that to me
is the most fascinating storyline already going into Week one,

(11:58):
because if Kelsey misses, Okay, now we don't have to
double anybody double it. Noah Gray, We're not worried about
him in the middle of the field. Is Patrick Mahomes
still the same guy when we could sit back now
not have to worry about dropping players. We could pressure
him with our defensive line. Look at what happened to
the Super Bowl. That's been the big key you saw

(12:19):
with Mahobes. Get pressure on him, let him run around,
but not have to worry about blitzing. If you could
cover his guys and Kelsey's not there, Is he the
same guy that's fascinating?

Speaker 4 (12:29):
Well, to be fair, the five offensive line will be
ready for Week one as opposed to that Super Bowl
when he had to run the length of five football
field side toye the sideline. I will remind you of
this and let me see if you get the reference,
because I mean you're an eighties wrestling fan.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Maybe you'll get this.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
In the twenty twenty one draft, the Chiefs did take
a guy out of the football powerhouse of Duke And
I was watching TV and they called the name of
doctor Noah Dre doctor doctor Noah.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Gray, Doctor Noah Gray, doctor Noah Gray, Doctor Noah Gray.
Is he doctor Noah Gray? Eighties wrestling Noah Great?

Speaker 4 (13:10):
It's It's it's a play on it. It's not undred percent,
but it's right there. Doctor Noah, doctor, doctor Noah Drake. Oh,
Noah Drake, Yeah, yeah, yeah, Noah Gray. I didn't get
that at all.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
Okay, I think.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Show Mouth of the South off the wrestling album. I'm
sitting here going eat your heart out, Rich Springfield doctor
no doctor Noah, doctor Noah, doctor Noah Gray, doctor Noah
great doctor no.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
Girl throated singing it. But I was watching TV. It
was doctor Noah Drake said he's so handsome the wrestling. Yeah,
it was, you know, from the Mouth of the South
singing about Rick Springfield.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Yeah, and gen Oka lived singing rock and roll. Who chi,
that's right because.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
She's the only girl from no rock and roll hero
gonna take her away from me. So yeah, you've got
Noah Gray. Maybe he could be that guy fascinating a
hero comes along? Is mahomes still the same guy?

Speaker 1 (14:04):
I can't. That's really gonna be something watch watch watch.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
Put it out there and instead of what is it,
Elmo in the fire.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
With his arms up, put Smith's head on there.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Elbow doesn't like the fire. Okay, eight seven seven ninety
nine on Fox eight seven seven nine nine six sixty
three six nine. The Jason Smith Show with My best
friend Mike Harmon coming up next. Why is there so
much weirdness going on? With sho hey Otani? The last
couple of days, a big milestone home run and a
bunch of home runs. Keep it right here, all the latest,

(14:36):
John Paul Barrossi, This is Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
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 1 (14:52):
Oh, the Devil's agent Stevie Vai is rolling Ralph Matshow
is gonna lose his soul? Oh? Oh, oh oh, what happened?

Speaker 2 (15:03):
My god?

Speaker 1 (15:03):
It's William Zapka. I don't miss notes like this. I
would argue it was perfect because didn't it bring your
emotions to the front right there? Then you watch them,
you watch Ralph matcho, pretend to play guitar god to
listen to the whole show, Jets Fan, the big Crossroads
reference that we had right there, not the Britney Spears movie.

(15:25):
Now it's a different movie. Different. Joining us now on
the hotline to break down all the latest news in
Major League baseball and to you as a big college
football insider, breaking news story, it is MLB Network insider
John Paul Morosi, who did such a great job calling
plays in the third quarter of Week one for Michigan.

(15:48):
He's going to get to coach Michigan at halftime this
week against UNLV, so there'll be a head coach for
the first half, he'll be the head coach at halftime,
new head coach for the second half. JP, congratulations, my friend.

Speaker 5 (16:00):
Good evening, my friends. And as they often say at
Michigan Stadium, it'll be my responsibility perhaps to say those
helloed words and take the field. And yes, I will
say this while while it was thrilling and all to
coach the local varsity in that game on Saturday, the

(16:25):
by far the best part of last week for me
was hanging out with you guys in studio. That was uesome.
That was a highlight of my year.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Wow, that was a great time for us too. I mean,
like we said last week, we don't start the show
with having your guest. We've done it like three times
now and and you've you did the whole first hour
with us.

Speaker 5 (16:43):
It was great, and that's that's I was just gonna
mention that I felt especially honored that you saw it
fit to include me for multiple segments. Now that that
was awesome. I had a wonderful time hopatality, everybody was
so welcoming, guys, had a wonderful time visiting you guys
in studio, and I realized, for all of our listeners
out there, why you work so well together, it's because

(17:05):
you've got a great team production behind the glass, as
they say, great facility there at Fox Sports Radio. So
it all, it all made sense once I was able
to join you guys in person.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Now, just to be fair, to pull the curtain back
a little bit, now, is that I wanted you to
stay because you know you're you're a great and great guest.
Harmon just said, if we get him to stay an
extra segment, will he think he'll buy food for us?
So I tried, but you didn't buy food for us.
So that's why we said, Okay, thanks for coming, that's awesome,
we'll see you soon. I would have offered him a sandwich,
you know, you said, anythink John Paul bias food? I said,

(17:37):
I don't know. Maybe he will, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
I don't know. Big, big expense account.

Speaker 5 (17:41):
I don't know next time lessons for next time expense account.

Speaker 4 (17:44):
Well, I'm in University of Michigan. They buy cheeseburgers and stuff.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
I think, yeah, I mean.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
That was just extemporanious speaking. I mean that was not
planned or anything.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
That's you gotta do, JP at halftime this week is
give your speech to the team while eating a cheeseburger. Boy,
these cheeseburgers are good. All right, guys, second half morrow?
We did there in the first half? Who there, Bigberg?
Who wants a burger? All right? So there's so there's
many things to get to here. We we'll get to
the astros a night, Hotel Tuva at here. But JP,
the last twenty four hours things have just gotten really

(18:19):
weird with sho Heyo Tani. You had the oblique injury
yesterday during batting practice. He's pulled from the game last night,
he doesn't play in the game tonight. His agent finally
comes out and says and talks for the first time
since Sho Hao Toni's UCL injury, and he gives us
a lot of golden nuggets by saying, hey, he wants
to be a two way player again. Don't know if

(18:40):
it's gonna be next year, he's gonna be hitting for somebody,
and he's going to need a procedure on that elbow
at some point. All of this happening now the last
twenty four hours. What's your big takeaway this stuff with Otani.

Speaker 5 (18:52):
Well, there's just tremendous uncertainty, and that's where it begins.
This is driving home the point that we're we thought
this was all heading for that half a million dollar contract,
at least in the immediate term. I just have a
hard time thinking that that is where this goes. The
industry broadly speaking, I would say has to look at

(19:16):
him as a DH four now with the potential upside
of being a pitcher at some point down the line.
That's and that is a fundamentally different way than saying
he's a two way player at the peak of his powers.
We've never seen anything like him before, and he's going

(19:37):
to change your franchise and you got to pay him
six hundred million dollars to do it. It's just a
very different way to enter free agency. What I wonder,
and I was thinking about this earlier today, just given
how we have seen free agency linger on until February
for example, with the likes of Bryce Harper, Manna Machado

(19:58):
in the past, et cetera. I see a scenario in
which Otani is almost set aside from the normal process
of the offseason and is lingering out there as as
sort of the bonus piece at the very end, but
that you wait on him until February or so, because

(20:19):
by then you'll have a little better idea of how
the surgery and the recovery have gone. You'll have a
little bit of a better idea when he might be
able to get back on the mound, if in fact
they oft for the surgery. Remember Bryce Harper was able
to DH for the Phillies in the first half of
this year after Tommy John, and of course he had
to play an extra month's worth of games beyond what

(20:40):
show is going to do. So I really believe that
it's that it is possible that he has a normal
seeming DH year next season. But the point I want
to drive home here is that he was on track
for an unprecedented free agency in terms of the guarantee
he was going to get that has now changed. Maybe

(21:03):
they go to a shorter term deal with a lever
and an option that kicks it into a longer term deal.
If he's starting games, I could see that happening, But
there is just such tremendous uncertainty right now in what
he is able to do that I have a hard
time thinking that teams are going to rush into this.

(21:24):
I think the longer you can wait, the more information
you get, the better. And it's very difficult to look
at it when you think about obliques and the final
point of makeout it is this. Who knows how serious
the oblique injury is. It would be a real tragedy
from a baseball perspective if this ends up being the

(21:44):
last we see him showing in an Angel's uniform and
there's no real send off or final weekend, depending how
long it could be, because we've seen oblique injuries take
a month to heal. And I'm a little concerned about
where this is heading right now. For showy Otani and
the Angels, well, you.

Speaker 4 (21:59):
Also got to be gared if you do sign him
in the off season. They might send the guy that
was his body double in the team photo.

Speaker 5 (22:05):
You gotta be careful on that one. And I saw that, Yeah,
that was pretty unique. We've now gone I've been around
a lot of team photo days have never seen a
body double. And I think the other point here that
we're going to have to remember is there is such
fascination with him. He has become a celebrity of global sport,

(22:29):
and when you reach that certain level, every flight that
you take, every visit to a physical therapist, there's just
going to be interest in everything that he does. And
so I think that for the teams involved in pursuing him, secrecy,
you know, privacy on some level is going to be
really important with all of the people in the world

(22:51):
wanted to get information. It's going to be we say
it every year. We said it with Aaron Judge a
year ago. It's going to be an off season unlike
any other you've ever covered in Major League Baseball.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
All right, now, I have a new challenge for you JP,
since we're using the term and talking about body doubles.
Your next game is Monday. Next game you're doing is Monday?

Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yes? Yes, Monday?

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Okay? Where are you going Monday? What game?

Speaker 5 (23:12):
He got Finway Park? Yankees, Red Sox?

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Okay? I want you? Would they go down to you
to do a hit on the field. It's not you,
but a body double doing your hit.

Speaker 5 (23:25):
Now, that would be very interesting. Now the question will
be who the body double would be? Who would be
my body double? I'm not really even sure if there
would be an actor that would even be like like
a natural person to play me. Although oh no, I

(23:46):
got it for you.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
It's someone with free time, Jim Harbaugh.

Speaker 5 (23:49):
There you go, there you go, you do it. I
I one of the great honors of my career. I
had a colleague who said, John, have you ever been
compared to a Hollywood actor before? I said no, And
he said, well, I was talking to my dad the

(24:11):
other day and he and he called me and said, hey,
it's Morosi fellow. You know what he looks like. And
my colleagues said, oh, he said Alan Arkin. Now, Alan Arkin,
amazing actor. We lost him earlier this year. So it's
one of the great honors of my of my career

(24:31):
that I was compared to Alan Arkin, one of the
great actors ever. And furthermore, that I was compared to
Alan Arkin not the comparison was not to a young
Alan Arkin. It was just to Alan Arkin full stop,
meaning Alan Arkin then in his eighties. And so I
have I have alreadys in prided myself on being an

(24:55):
old soul and sort of having been born as as
an old guy, and that really affirmed it that one
of the great actors of our time then in his
eighties was sort of my closest analog. So I consider it,
given how much I've admired mister Arkins's work over the years,

(25:16):
that I was compared to him some number of years ago.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
See, this is where we get to do the old
challenge of getting all an arc and line into your broadcast.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
So if you can say, I'll go, oh yeah, let's
go down to John Paul Marosi, are go b like yourself,
Well let's go. Let's keep it here, not go down
to John.

Speaker 4 (25:34):
All right, Yankees, Red Sox so Gian Carlos stan four
hundredth career home.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Run, thirty three years old. He turned to thirty four
in November.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
What's the ceiling here for his career and how would
we define his career thus far?

Speaker 5 (25:48):
It's a huge number, and I really hope that this
gives us some opportunity to reflect on just how great
he still can be when healthy, how great he's been
throughout the sweep of his career. Look at the list
of all the players in the game who have foreigner
home runs. It is a very very short list. And

(26:11):
I think that we need to give John Cardl the
proper respect of what he's done in his career. When
you go back in his prime years there with the Marlins,
he was as dominant of an offensive player as we saw.
I still remember sometime, not right now, especially if you're driving,
but sometime when you're at home later on tonight, queue

(26:32):
up the video footage of the time when he hit
the ball out of Dodger Stadium. I still remember that
home run. I wasn't there that night, but I remember
watching it over and over again, asking myself, did that
actually leave the pavilion? And it did, so he still
has it. Obviously, the injuries have marred his time with

(26:55):
the Yankees, but still an elite player. And listen, I
know the Yankees are probably tired of hearing this or
having people say it, but they need him and they
need them to be healthy next year. And so when
they show up to spring training in a year from now,
the conversation is going to be, Okay, what's a realistic
number of games for John Carlo to play? Because they

(27:16):
can't totally overhaul the entire roster in one off season.
I would highly doubt that he's a legitimate trade candidate
given how much money he's making. So good sign for
the Yankees that he got four hundred, and from their perspective,
may he have many more to come?

Speaker 1 (27:30):
All right, JP, I'm I'm gon go let's go poker
here for a second, because I'm going to see your
comment from a week ago, and I'm gonna raise you.
Are you ready?

Speaker 5 (27:38):
Let's do it?

Speaker 1 (27:38):
All right? We talked about the NLCS and break down
the Braves and the Dodgers. The Braves take three out
of four from the Dodgers, and you know you've said
many times, if it's not the Braves and the Dodgers
and the NLCS, then something's wrong. Now I'm gonna raise
you a comment after seeing not just because of the
way they want tonight jose A l two va three
home runs in the first three innings. If it's not
Astro's Braves in the World Series, then something's wrong.

Speaker 5 (28:02):
Yes or no, that's fair. It really is. Although I
also think, first of all, it's a good point about
the Astros. They move back into first place. It looks
like the Mariners will come back down to Earth and
Houston's experience is now coming to the forefront. Al Twove
is on one of the hot streaks of hot streaks
right now with power hitting, So you're right, especially now

(28:24):
newly fortified rotation with Verlander. All of those reasons, I
would actually argue that the Astros might be And I
have no idea what the odds are on this as
we speak at the moment. You guys both probably have
better access to it than I do, But what the
odds are written large like most likely World Series champ,

(28:44):
I'd still probably say it's the Astros. Right now, looking
at the overall dynamics, the American League looks pretty wide open.
The NL, of course, we talk a lot about the Braves,
but the Dodgers now a lot of concern Kershaw some
command issues in his game to five Walks. We know,
of course, the situation with Urrias, who is away from
the team following an arrest on suspicion of domestic violence.

(29:08):
The Dodgers have a lot of issues all of a
sudden to deal with on the field and certainly more
importantly off the field, And I'm starting to think that
it's the Braves as the clear favorites right now in
the National League. What that means for the MVP race
is going to be really interesting. But I do think
you're right your spot on Braves Astros rematch of twenty

(29:30):
one that appears to be the most likely. Although look
at the National League and look at the teams that
are playing really good baseball right now. The Phillies, of course,
were the NL champs last year. The Brewers are playing
really well. They pitch exceptionally well. The Cubs are playing
really well too, so we still could see a surprise
on the National League side of the bracket.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
He's on Twitter at John Morosi. That is that John Rossi,
MLB Network insider JT is always buddy, appreciate your time
and congratulations on want to know with Michigan good luck
getting to two and o this week.

Speaker 5 (30:04):
Yes, I appreciate it very much. And of course that
showdown with UNLV it would have been an awesome college
basketball game back in the early nineties. Let's let's hope
it's still a pretty good football game on Saturday. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Hey, lucky for you in Michigan, you avoid Duke this year,
so just be you don't play day.

Speaker 5 (30:22):
How about Duke football my goodness. I saw that score
and I had to do a double take. I saw
I think early on they had a maybe a one
field goal leader, a touchdown lead, and I checked the
score again. I said, Wow, something really happened. And by
the way, this is our last conversation previous to the
Lions defeating the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Hot what's your final score?

Speaker 5 (30:46):
Seventeen fourteen Lions wown.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Is fifty five.

Speaker 5 (30:51):
That's way under defensive struggle.

Speaker 6 (30:53):
I love.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
Maybe I need maybe I need to update my my
my information. I understand the Chiefs quarterback is no longer
Dave Craig than it's a young man by the name
of Mahomes. Was pretty good.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
Yeah, they've got jo da.

Speaker 5 (31:06):
Number up little bit.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
Yeah it'll be a little bit, yeah, a little bit more.
But that's okay, JP, that's all. I like it, all right,
see you about it.

Speaker 5 (31:12):
Wait, wait, I'm doing master in my head, which I
always try to avoid doing on on the air. Okay,
what if I went twenty four to twenty one Lions.
It's a little closer to the over under and still
a win for Detroit. How about that?

Speaker 1 (31:22):
It's up to you. I mean, I think the Hotter
take is always the better one.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
I would have said seven to six. Here we go.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
Seven twenty four twenty one Lions. Final answer, There.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
You go, all right, there we go twenty four to
twenty one from a guy who only knows Jared Goff's
name as a member of the current Lions.

Speaker 5 (31:40):
Currently, the only Lion I know is Jared Goff.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
You're the best, JP guy.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Enjoy the games talking. It's JP. He's such a huge
college football fan and knows so much about Michigan, the
Big Ten and the NFL. Yeah, yeah, I know, it's
all I go.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
It throws up random references. This guy who played for
this team for like a year or two in the
mid eighties, you know, and.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
He had some amazing stuff to say about show heo Tonny,
which we'll get to. But first let's find out what's
trending in the wide world of sports with Kevin Wired.
Kay Dubh, thank you very much, Kevin Wired. Coming up next,
we got more baseball, a little bit more on that
great show, hal Tonny, take that John Paul Morosi had
with US plus Lakers are wheeling and dealing. Trade goes
down tonight we got more on that straight ahead. This

(32:25):
is Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
This is Steve.

Speaker 7 (32:35):
Covino and Rich Davis, and together we are Covino and Rich,
Coveno and mich.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Thanks buddy, that's right.

Speaker 6 (32:43):
Cavino on Rich, Fox Sports Radio's newest hit show, heard
weekdays from five to seven Eastern two to four Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 7 (32:52):
Every Coveno in Rich shows available as a podcasts. Just
search Covino and Rich wherever you get your podcasts and
subscribe of such a rockin dude.

Speaker 6 (33:00):
The show features our unique take on sports, injecting with
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or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 5 (33:12):
And Ridge give me a hell yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon live from the tirag dot com studios.
Thanks to John Paul Marosi for stopping by a couple
of minutes ago. Made an unbelievable assessment about shoe Heyotani,
We'll get to the Lakers train coming up in a minute.
But it's been really weird the last twenty four hours

(33:38):
with Otani. His agent finally speaks, says he wants to
be a full time picture again along with a hitter.
Gonna happen at some point. He's gonna have a procedure
at some point. We don't know. There's so much uncertainty.
And then you have JP who comes in and says, look,
I see the scenario in which shoe Heo Tani is

(33:59):
kind of set aside and nobody really goes after him.
And his people say, listen, he's got to have a procedure.
We'll know about everything. And it's late February March before
a team offers him a contract. But does it even
need to be February March? Could it be April or
May or Jude. Because if he proves it he's healthy,
then maybe a team is going to give him a

(34:20):
lot of money. So he might just not play up
until he knows he could pitch again. And let's face it,
it's pretty easy to do that with Otani because what
are you talking about. You're talking about a starting pitcher
at a DH It's not like, well, we're saving shortstop
for a guy, and if we don't get him, we
got this is you have a designated hitter at a
starting pitcher. So if you could it's not only that
it works, it works the positions he plays.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
No, and that's the math on it, right, and decide
what that's worth financially and how many teams stay in
the only downside is, you know, if you're trying to
go into an open market with as many bidders as possible, well,
this shrinks that pool back down.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Towards the original numbers.

Speaker 4 (35:00):
We were talking the math of six hundred or six
fifty or whatever that fictional dollar amount was, where we
would say only two to three, maybe four teams could
get in the mix. Well, the injury and the uncertainty
of his ability to pitch, whether as a starter, middle reliever,
or a closer, would probably expand that marketplace with the

(35:23):
uncertainty of a team saying wait at the price of
pokers four fifty or five, yeah, we can get in
that bidding, right, we could do that. So it again
comes back to the enigmatic side of well, what does
he really want from a winning lifestyle location all of

(35:43):
those things coming together, what does he really want for
his personal life. And then on the baseball side, well,
if he wants to pitch again, it's just a matter
of when, I guess. But do you want to gamble
and throw another one hundred and fifty million dollars in
the coffer?

Speaker 1 (36:00):
So I look, what, why why do I wait? Why
does it have to be February? Why can because you
got right? But why can't? But if you're a team,
if you want to stay in it for Otani, okay,
we're gonna wait. And look, only one team's gonna get ote,
but team's gonna get him.

Speaker 4 (36:13):
But as I was saying, like, I mean, if you
do it that way, then we're really shrinking your pool
back down.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
But if anyway, if you say I really want to pitch,
we're not gonna pay you to pitch. Well, okay, I'm
still gonna wait. I mean you're gonna see teams say, okay,
we gotta go over the the the luxury tax, whatever
it's gonna be. I can see them sitting I'm not
gonna come back until I'm absolutely healthy, and that's what
I'm gonna do it.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
Well, that's how you keep teams in right, because they
got to see the demonstration of it. Right, you can't say, hey,
you know what, I was really good? That start ahead.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Now elsewhere we watch a trade go down, or we
watch a side and go down to the NBA tonight.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
Why a blockbuster trade?

Speaker 1 (36:51):
Rue? Yeah, Yeah, I'm telling you we're getting close to
the trade season in the NBA, and I don't know
that this is gonna kickstart it. But the Lakers side
free agent center Christian Would tonight two year, five and
a half million dollar deal. He had a really good
year for Dallas last year. He was a sixteen and
seven guy, and likely what this means is he will
play center most of the minutes and Anthony Davis will

(37:13):
not have to play a lot of minutes at center.
This is a great depth move for the Lakers. Again,
little bit more than just a depth moving. Again, this
is sixteen and seven guy, But this just goes to
show you the lack of overall interest in the regular
season that teams are going to continue to have. This
is less wear and tear on ad more games he
can miss. All we got to do is get in

(37:33):
the playoffs and make sure our guys are healthy when
we get to Game number eighty three. That's all. That's
all anybody cares about in the NBA. Are we good
enough to make the playoffs? And how healthy are we
for Game eighty three. That's where the Lakers are going
to be next year. They're not going to care where
they are in the standings we're making in the play
and round or not, as long as we're in the
dance and our guys are healthy at the end. And
this is what's telling you that now we have somebody

(37:55):
who can play a lot of minutes when Ad sits out,
which he's going to sit out a ton more that
you're used to. If he plays at fifty five games
in the regular season, I think that's a lot for
him this year, but you're gonna see him said a
lot more because now the Lakers have enough around it
to say, yeah, we can afford to sit you out.
We got a guy with talent that could.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
Play sixteen and seven five point seven million dollars. You
want to talk dollar cost average at that position within
then Anthony Davis pretty good. But you're feeling pretty good
about it there, right, solid move eat up minutes and Ad.
You know you want to take some load management weeks
off and go to the Caribbean.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
How about it.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
That's a pretty solid move for the Lakers.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Man.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
I'll tell you, they have had a very very good offseason.
They haven't able to land that big fish they wanted,
but they've had a really good offseason and they.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
Still have a couple of lines cast out in the water.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Twitter and out about a Fresco Mike gets swallowen dough
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Carbon.
Coming up next, we get back into the biggest story
in football that has dominated the headlines the last thirty
six hours. This is Fox
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