September 20, 2023 • 42 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon tell you what is next for Shohei Ohtani’s future after today’s surgery. Jason compares Colorado football to Ronda Rousey, the loser of the Patriots/Jets will see their season begin to spiral out of control, and the guy's debate who the two best teams are in the NFL right now.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from ten pm to two am Eastern
seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Greetings and welcome inside The Jason Smith Show with my
bes friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well dressed Tobo.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Live from the ti rack dot com studios. Tyrack dot
com will help you get there, an unmatched selection, fast
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recommended installers. Tirack dot com. The way tire buying should be. Well,
it is a happy Tuesday. But I mean not if
you're show Hey Tani, because you're looking for a lot
(00:56):
of money, Not if you are mel Tucker, not if
you are a few So we are going to try
to fill you with some positivity here on a Tuesday,
because boy, there's a couple of tough stories tonight. Mike
harmon a couple of real tough ones.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well, I mean, look the show, Hey Tani, it's no surprise, right,
We've been talking about this for weeks, so I guess
you just checked the box, add a couple of dates,
and you move on. The bidding war is gonna be
the bidding war, and maybe it gives the Angels a
snowball's chance and hell to retain him. I would say
the water bottle being in the trash can from the
(01:28):
other day and the reticence to get in front of
a microphone doesn't speak. Well, we knew that story, gone
me talker. That one's just the hard part of trying
to figure out timelines and filling in the spaces. What's consensual,
(01:48):
what was Tucker interpreting things? And then we get into
what was the investigation that goes back to the Northwestern thing.
Obviously different set of circumstance, but to the same thing
of all right, we were working about this behind the scenes,
yet then it wasn't so what are we subscribing to?
(02:10):
But yeah, more more Michigan State misery and another black
eye on the schools of the Big Ten and all
of that. But it's you know, two more days till
we start Week three of the NFL season. Can I
get back to positivity.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
We're almost said, look, and I'm still trying to get
Otani to the Mets. So I mean I'm still and
it could happen. Look, this is look, this is what's
going on with Otani. Let's start here. We'll get the
football coming up.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
In a bit. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, the big story today show otani elbow surgery. His
doctor said he expects Otani to be able to hit
for opening Day next year and return to the mount
as a pitcher in twenty twenty five. I remember Otani
tore the UCL the Ulder collateral ligament in his right
elbow a couple of weeks ago, continued hitting up until September,
(02:58):
end of the first week of September, and then he decided, Hey,
I'm done. My locker is emptied out. We did that
story on Friday night.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
We saw the the O Bleak injury, and suddenly that
became a multi week season ending injury just from what
will look to be a day to day all of
a sudden, operations shut down. Derek Bell's style.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, just like when you had to go, hey we've
broken up and I'm not going to be home, go
to go to my place, leave the key at the end,
and take your stuff. It's like, that's what Otani's people did.
Let's go, we lift some jerseys. We left a couple
of T shirts. You left a bag water bottles in
the trash. Here's my key. You're never going to see
me again. But the good news is we're gonna get
Otani back for next year. And there's two big things
(03:41):
to know, actually three big things to know off of this.
Number one is Dodgers head team physician doctor Neil Ela
Trosh performed the operation on Otani just a few days
after repairing Aaron Rodgers' achilles. I mean real, he is
the goat. He's a doctor. You like, Oh, dude, you
could never. I mean when you're talking, could never.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Hundred billion is Shotani and Rogers was what I mean?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
You can never. You can't, you can't. Yeah, man, he
put Brady back together in eight he put Rogers back together.
He performed uh a Tommy John surgery on Otani back
in twenty eighteen. I mean, this is it. He's the
guy it used to be. Frank Job was the guy
right for the longest time. Well, you gotta go see
doctor job. Now it's you gotta go see doctor Latrosh
because you can't spell attached without or you can't spell
(04:29):
elatrosh without attach, and he should make t shirts that
say that. And I'm tom that I biffed that line
right there. I said the wrong way front, but you
get what I'm saying. You can't spell elatrosh without attach.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
No, that's right, you'll get another opportunity. But I think
you would enjoy trying to go to work on me
because I'm like the damn wacky doctors game operation. There's
so many blinking lights and clicks as I walk up
and downstairs or try to throw a ball or whatever else.
I think he would be up for the physical challenge.
I don't know that surgery, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, but what what do I get if I repair harmon?
I don't know. You probably can't pay, and you know
I don't know. Yeah, you know, I'm gonna hold out.
I'm gonna hold out. I'm gonna hold out for the net, like.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Like a lawyer doing some pro bono work. I'm gonna
take this on just because it's interesting and kind of
challenge challenging to put old Humpty dumpty back together again.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I don't know, I don't know how motivated.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I mean, we are on a national I don't know,
man show. I mean, yeah, I can speak forever. Yeah
is brilliant.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, but you could speak with you know, you could
speak and do the show without getting anything repaired. Right, right,
But like Rogers, you got to see Rodgers on the field.
You gotta Seeani pitching again.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
No, that's great, Yeah, and that's gonna be you know,
great testaments to his work there. But I mean I
can evangelize day after day just saying, look, I was
able to get my ass to work because this guy
fixed me the goat the goat battery. Could just say,
forget about the time, I'll just buy you a scooter.
Yeah you have to.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, if you hit the lottery and you won the
lottery and you're a billionaire, then I think, yeah, okay,
then you can get doctor Latrosha on the phone. Yeah, yeah,
this is yead. I don't know if you get him
on the phone. I don't think you I don't think
you even get to I don't think you can get
to his office. I think he has an office six
that answer from him. He's got an office that answers
the phone that decides that that phone call can actually
get to doctor ne La Trosh's.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Allfo you think he likes a nice pork shoulder?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
You really think he's Rogers Brady Otani?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Can this guy brings me? I bet you I have
a better brisket than they do.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, because you know, because he can't afford the most
expensive dinner he would ever want to go to?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Love?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, is Mike Harman a chef, well, kind of an
amateur chef. What if I had like a full time
real chef, Like, what if I had Guy Fieri? Uh?
Making me? Well, yeah, you probably want Guy Fieri.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Then they tried too hard.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
They tried. There's your hot take of the night Food
Network chefs. They try too hard. Give me the guy's
not as good out?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
How much are they cooking Forget.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
You and Antonio La Faso and everybody else? You guy
guys can't do it, Brooke Williamson, you can't do anything.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Spot in the neighborhood for a long time.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So while doctor elatroshe, I remember you can't spell latrosh
without attach pat and pending, pat and pending.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Now what is next for Otani? Okay? So now that
we know this is where he's at, he's gonna hit
this spring and then he's going to pitch probably a
year from now. Otani is not going to get paid
to be a pitcher. He's not. No team is going
to pay him. Not after two elbow surgeries in five years.
No one's going to Even if he proves he can pitch,
(07:41):
it's still really difficult for a team to say, yes,
here's seven hundred million dollars for the next few years.
But if he wants to do it, if he wants
to break that bank, he wants to be that that guy,
then what he does is he signed somewhere for a
year and he hits, and then if he likes it,
he stays, works out of contract ext I can pitch again,
or then I open it up again in free agency,
(08:04):
because clearly he's gone from the Angels, right, you don't
go and clear your stuff out in the middle of
the season, in the middle of the night, or you
don't have your people do it if you're if you're
coming back, so you know he's gone, so he can
go somewhere anywhere, really, And that's that's the other best
part of this is that this opens us up to
a lot of teams for a year. You want to
go someplace for a year. See if you like San Francisco.
(08:25):
See if you like Seattle, See if you like Queens
you know, I mean, I don't you know? See if
you like Flushing, See if it doesn't matter. You can
go anywhere now because it's for a year. You want
to try the Yankees for a year, because one of
those teams will give you fifty million dollars for next year.
Any one of those teams, Oh Otani, we get him
for a year, one year, fifty million, Yes, let's do it.
Any of those teams would give Otani that kind of money.
(08:46):
So if he wants to pitch, the best thing to
do is to say, one year, I'm gonna hit because
he's gonna get me. Still gonna be a guy that's
gonna get forty five home runs and knocking over one
hundred runs and still be that guy. And maybe you
win him over with with your with the culture, the
clubhouse and what it's like, and hey, you like living
here and it's it's a great place. Really enjoy your
life off the field, and that you spend all next
(09:07):
year doing. But in the end, if he leaves, well,
you had Otani for a year and hopefully you took
advantage of it. But for everybody, that's the best solution
because if he goes, he goes somewhere for a year,
he shows I'm good, Hey, look at me, I can throw.
He'll have to do times for scouts. He'll have to throw,
He'll have to show that he can throw. He'll have
to show what he can do. I mean, honestly, it
might have to be two years before the guy comes
(09:29):
back say hey, you know, now I got to show
you I can get through a season before I'm pitching.
But that's you're talking about two years downline. At least
for next year. One year you go hit, and then
you figure out where where things sit at in the
off season next year. Maybe all you need is one team.
You like to say, oh no, no, we see your back,
we see you're healthy. We know you're gonna come back.
We got we got great reports from from the from
(09:50):
the doctors. We talked to doctor Neil Eltrosh and he's
he was great. And yes, so you can't spell attached
with that. I get it. I like that, and and
we're good. We'll give you that seven hundred million dollar contract.
But the best thing if you he wants that deal.
He wants that deal to pitch one year fifty million somewhere,
and then he hits free agency again next year and
sees if anything is different. It's not guaranteed, but he
(10:10):
sees if maybe something is different, because again, he may
be two years out of being able to get paid
to pitch, but at least one year. I know for
certain that's not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
See, I like your theory. I do the go and
just sample someplace for a year. It's the quest. We're
always trying to get into the mind of Otani of
what his main ambitions are. Obviously wants to win the
World Baseball Classic. He saw what that meant, not only
national pride, but just coming out victorious and playing meaningful
(10:39):
baseball and making a lot of money, trading cards being sold,
him striking out my trout, all those things. But when
we get down to it, it's the do you want
to start bouncing around potentially right, because if the year experience,
let's just say, for sake of argument, to go to
(11:00):
the Mets.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Sure that I like that, God God, he goes.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
We'll put him on the Met, and it's an abject
failure of a season. They spend a lot of money,
they spend it poor.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
He's gotta be an abject failure.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Well, but that's part of the example.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
How about this?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
How about his work?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
How about how about this? How about the Mets are
good until the Jets get to training camp and then
they fall apart. At least give me a couple of
months of things are okay and then it falls apart.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Okay, but the idea being that the season is not successful.
Year's rumblings that there's I'm still unrest in the clubhouse
may or may not be you know him, his camp,
whatever else, but that it's just not the fit that
he likes, maybe doesn't want to play in New York.
Now that's a year of his career that sure he's
put up numbers, whatever, but now it's wasted time, and
(11:46):
you could insert any other place in there. I got
to imagine you're doing your due diligence and running through
potential options. Obviously, you know, if you were just looking
at the hitter side of things, as we've talked about
for weeks. Yeah, the potential is there that maybe there's
some other suitors because the price of poker is a
little bit lower, But it's still trying to figure out
(12:07):
exactly what he wants in the grand scheme? Is it
West Coast? Is it you know, Seattle, San Francisco, Los
Angeles and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim? And those
are your opportunities? And Padres have already spent all their money.
They're stuck. But it's the Are those the only teams
with the shot? Are the Cubs a wild card in
(12:30):
the Midwest? Do we go back to the East Coast
to where the Red Sox, Yankees and your Mets can
suddenly play in this game? It's all trying to understand
the psychology of what he wants. And I just don't
know that going to some place for a year as
a trial is from what we know or think we
(12:51):
know of him, is where he is. Certainly for the teams, Hey,
you know, come in for a year. We'll we'll take
the bank that the Angels lose on all the Japanese advertising.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, but you gotta go play somewhere. Though, you gotta
go somewhere. You gotta go somewhere.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
But my point is that you wouldn't do it for
a year. Is that he would be a guy that
would look at an organization and be like, I'm there
for some level, whether it's three years, five years, whatever,
it doesn't have to be the long term I'm here
and waded to you for life kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, but if you want that contract that's gonna pay
you in a pitch, you have to wait because no, yeah,
we love we love you here. We're gonna give you
a contract that's five years and two hundred million dollars
or well, wait a minute, but I'm a pitcher. Well
we don't know that you're a pitcher. No, but I'm
a pitcher. Well, we're not gonna give you that kind
of money. So, I mean, no one's gonna do that.
I mean that that's a that's a ridiculously bad investment
to make. So if you got to go somewhere for
(13:42):
a year, have an adventure, go somewhere for a year,
figure it out, go somewhere for a year.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Jason, have you not watched maybe.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
You watched your owner this past year, you watched the
after this guy you're coming up with no.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Money for any guy that winks at him.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
No one's gonna come on, No one's gonna pay him
seven one hundred and fifty million dollars, not knowing.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Your guy would which again, know your guy would know
he would.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
He caned Erlander and Suser because they weren't pitching well
and their team was going into the toilet. Yeah, and
you got Otani who is not going to pitch at all,
and you're hoping he can pitch again.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
But yeah, but you can, but you can actually monetize him.
The other two guys, you weren't drawn extra asses in
seats or jerseys sold or whatever else. Minimal compared to what.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Many five million dollars a year to hit. Oh okay, boy,
that's a lot of money for one guy. They don't
want to re sign Piede, Alonzo and ped A. Lonzo's
gonna get less money than that. I just I don't
see as crazy as people are with the money, as
crazy as teams are, this is this is funny, silly
money that is going to be that. No team is
gonna say, yeah, they would want to get in, but
(14:49):
you gotta you gotta show you can pitch. You just
watch all these guys this year get hurt. It's gonna
be tough. Man, that's a tough sell. But if you
were an owner of a team. Hey, all right, I
didn't call you in a second. You give him that money?
You all cage?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Oh, I don't want to pay anybody you know that.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Well coming up in twenty minutes, we got John Palm
Morosi stopping by MLB Network Insider. What is next for show?
Hey O Tani was revealed today he had an elbow procedure.
According to Atani and his agent, he's going to hit
in twenty twenty four and pitch a get in twenty
twenty five. What does mean for his future his contract?
(15:31):
We got JP coming up in a few minutes with that,
But it's time to tackle this Meltucker story. After today,
and after Meltucker responded to the decision to oust him
and fire him for cause, Michigan State finally making that
decision a couple of days ago. Meltucker had been suspended
from the school for the last week or so after
(15:55):
in response to the notification in the wake of appending
sexual misconduct case brought by Bread to Tracy, a sexual
assault awareness speaker. Now, some of the background of this
story is Brenda Tracy and mel Tucker knew each other.
She was invited to speak on campus a couple of times,
and some kind of relationship, according to mel Tucker started
(16:16):
and he says, this is you know, I'm this is ridiculous.
There are other motives of play. There's a bias against me.
This is what he said today. Meanwhile, Brenda Tracy said
that there were unwanted sexual advances towards me. It was
a complaint that was filed and investigated months ago by
Michigan State. And part of what came about of this
and part of her in the investigation against this, as
(16:36):
Brenda Tracy said unwantedly, Meltucker self gratified himself on a
phone conversation. That's become the big wow, what happened in
this in this whole story, and that was actually something
that was admitted to by mel Tucker. Meltucker says they
were in a relationship and none of what happened was untoward.
(16:57):
So Michigan State says, we're going to fire for cause.
They played their first game with Harlan Barnett as their
head coach last weekend Michigan State did. And now it
gets really ugly. And now that there's eighty million dollars
left on Meltucker's contract because they signed up for a
very large amount of money a couple of years ago.
But now that this has come out and we've seen
both sides, We've we've seen Brenda Tracy and this and
(17:20):
this lawsuit that has come out and what is being investigated.
We've seen Michigan State's decision, and now we have seen
Meltucker's response. There's there's a couple of big things that
you can that you can take away without getting too
deep into what really happened in their relationship, right, because
now this literally is a he said, she said, She said,
(17:42):
this happened and it was unwarranted and unwanted. He said
it was consensual. And now we're going to go through
the process as Meltucker tries to keep his money, Michigan
State wants to get rid of him again. He says
there's bias, there's other motives at play against him. So
the first thing I want to say is this is
that for mel Tucker, and this is there's a say
(18:05):
that you have to know where you work, right and
you have to know where you're going to every day.
You have to know that certain things you say or
do out a place. Sometimes all right, you can, it's okay,
and sometimes no you can't. Right, we talk about I
talk about a lot, like the differences between working at
Fox at ESPN when you're going in like how you
can you know and not in any way compared to this.
(18:25):
What I mean is that, Hey, ESPN likes to program
one way when you talking for a talent, and Fox
likes to program another way.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
And it's all about scale. Yes, it's a circumstance or whatever.
That's all right. You have to know the example of
what we do on a night to night basis versus
what you might have at another outfit.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
It's Pat mcaffeine now challenging those rules by ESPN. So
we'll see what happens there. But just in general, right,
there's the rules of engagement wherever you work and the
people that you're around.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, you have to know where you work. You have
to know when you say something politically, how that could
bounce back against you. That's kind of what I'm getting.
You have to know where you work. Is that here's
Mel Tucker who gets involved in this whatever kind of
relationship it was at Michigan State, Dude, Larry Nasser, this
is something that no one has forgotten about. Just a
couple of years ago. The guy went to prison two
(19:15):
hundred and sixty five counts of of of what he
did to women when he was there at Michigan State.
Michigan State never really owned it. They wanted to move
past it. And this is a really big deal.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
In this school settled lawsuits filed by master victims for
one half billion with a d B one half billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I mean, this is this is the last place that
is something like something like this can happen where you
get involved with someone who is a sexual assault awareness speaker,
right like this is you have to you have to
get it, okay, all right, no matter what goes on here,
no matter what my relationship is. And yes you can
say things are private and a private relationship, but things
got out, right It's I'm sorry, but it got out.
(19:58):
And it's the same philosoph for you of if you
have a sign and you have you have af And
I think back to the to the uh, the the
situation with Donald Sterling and the clippers, and hey, he
had a private conversation, but it was made public. And
I think back to the comparison that you can have
a dog in your backyard and have a sign saying
keep away from dog. Dog is dangerous, keep out. You
(20:20):
can have the dog chained up, you can have a
lock on the gate, but if the dog gets out
and bite somebody, I'm sorry, it's on you. The dog
got out and bit somebody. Now this story gets out
and all this gets out and it gets investigated, and
it's dude, it's Michigan State. I mean, this is the
first thing I want to think of is, yeah, of
course they're gonna fire you because this is Michigan. There's
still reeling from what went on there. So now that
(20:41):
this is out, Yeah, at another school, would this be
a really bad story and embarrassing and be invested, Yeah,
of course. But Michigan State the one place, like, dude,
this is Michigan State. Man, They're still they're still trying
to deal with the fallout from Larry Nasser. So yeah,
I kind of from that standpoint, I get Michigan State saying, yes,
we need to move on from Meltuck. You're not going
to be the head coach here. Anymore.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah, when you get down to it now, it's the
details of the process, the investigation, what should have been
privately investigated, disgust, you know, through whatever means the school
has set up and whatever law enforcement needed to be included.
(21:22):
And that's where he's calling it a quote, miscarriage of justice,
and that her improper public disclosure of the twelve hundred
page investigation file regarding her baseless complaint. So yeah, they
have seventy nine million dollars left on his deal, so
you know, whatever you want to do. They underachieved a
(21:45):
year ago. They're two to zero this year. You know,
there's always contractually, we always win. There's a big deal.
So we talked about it a lot last night with
Deshaun Watson, you know, said tie them together. Only for
the monetary side of it is that if the performance
isn't what you expected, then yes, there's going to be
(22:05):
some rumblings about the money spent. And that when you
add this type of scenario that comes into play with
a woman who's well known and has gone through the
circuit and has spoken on many campuses. In this case,
they developed a friendship, talked about you know, multiple calls, whatever,
(22:25):
and then it went to this level to where you know,
he's contending that the call was thirty six minutes I
think was the number he gave, and that she never mentioned,
never hung up, all of those things, et cetera. So
now it's all right, what can you try to prove
in a court of law? Does it? You know, to
(22:46):
exonerate yourself right in this process, But certainly when you
have Michigan State associated and the lengthy history, it's going
to rise to to a level of all right, we're
getting to a decision fairly quickly. Right, there's an investigation,
(23:07):
Everything gets to a point where the intent is to fire,
and now you wait for whatever other details are going
to be to be put out. Will they be made public,
Will there be a settlement where he walks away with
some of his money and that's the end of it.
I don't know, but you know, to your point you're at,
(23:28):
you're at Michigan State, there's a heightened sensitivity on campus
to anything of this ilk and so to have another
coach in a position of power and a position authority
and a face of your university, which is the big
part of this from the university side, your football coach
is the face of your university generally now here obviously
(23:49):
you've got Tom Izzo. But when we look at it
football and just watch what we've been talking about with
Colorado and everything else, it's it's all about the coaches
and far more more than any of the players. Right
we're talking about Alabama. It's not about the quarterbacks that
they have. It's has Nick Saban lost his ability to
bring a guy in, you know, that kind of thing.
(24:10):
It's about it's put on the coach. So for mel Tucker, yeah,
the spotlight and what that means in the university, your
boosters and everybody that supports you know, they want answers
and they want them fast, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
And you get into the other part of it that
if you question mel Tucker keeping his job losing his
job is let's just say this and and just this
is regardless of of the of which way it turns
out to be aware. It goes whether it's Meltucker, whether
it is Brenda Tracy. Is that you have a high
(24:43):
profile job and it gets out that you on a
phone call with someone you are self gratifying yourself, and
your job is working with young men who are between
the ages of eighteen and twenty two. How long are
you going to keep your job for? I mean really,
how long are you going to keep that job for?
You're not And it's not just from the standpoint of
of of the the school saying, boy, we can't have
(25:05):
him and this is completely embarrassing. We can't we I mean,
we can't have him. Then we can't hit him around
young men when when this has gotten out there, even
if it's something that if even if it turns out
to be something that was consensual, this is this is embarrassing.
I mean this, this is embarrassing for this is not
protecting the shield of the school. So yeah, so it's
not just the stampoint of the school going we we
can't keep him around for this. Think about the other
(25:27):
side of it. Are kids gonna want to go play
for him? Why do the kids feel about him now?
Going dude, coaches, Wow, that's that's kind of wacky, man,
I don't know about that. How are you get a fundraise?
How are you gonna get how are you gonna tell boosters,
yeah we need more money? Whoa you still got mel
Tucker's our coaching all because all you're gonna think of
when you see, mel Tucker, is that part of the story.
That's all. So I don't know how he stays now
(25:48):
that that's gotten out, because nobody would stay it would
be listened. We have to we have to move on.
And then this is gonna get into the money and
how much they wind up paying him. But for him
to I mean when that gets out, how do you
stay on his coach after that? Because that becomes all
anybody sees of you. That becomes trying to go forward
and trying to win football games and trying to keep
your your your school in a positive frame of reference.
(26:11):
That's impossible to do, so that I don't see how
he thought, well, this is something that this is a
completely I'm surprised by this, and there's a bias against me.
The other motives of play. He's only had one down year.
He's had one down year, so okay, you've had one
down year, so this is not going to be you've
lost three four years in a row, so we got
to get rid of you. I don't know if that's
(26:32):
the other motives of play. Yeah, they want to get
out of the contract the money they're paying to them
because they know they can't go forward. With him as
the head coach. So they're trying to save as much
of that eighty million or all of it as they can.
But yeah, but the whole thing is, you know, strip
away both sides of it. I get why they wanted
to fire Meltucker, and I get why he can't coach
there anymore. Now the rest of it, that's the stuff
(26:53):
that's up for debate, and that's what we ever find.
But the bottom line is those two things kind of
have to happen. There's no way this can go on
the way those things and you can keep your job.
The rest of it, Like I said, we're going to
see how that gets shaken out over the course of
the next few weeks. Is gets investigated and more stories
get out of it. But there's no way he can
stay and there's no way the school can keep him
(27:14):
there for all those things we talked about, it's too hard.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Well joining us now on the Hotline to break down
the breaking story in sports. The show, Hey O, Tani
Saga and what is next? MLB Network Insider extraordinairey. He's
on Twitter at John Morosi. It is longtime front of
the show, John Paul Morosi, fresh off coaching Michigan do
a three to zero record during Jim harbaugh suspension, he
(27:46):
will now turn the reins over to Jim Harbaugh and
get back to being a baseball insider. JP. Nice job,
way to do that, way to help Michigan for the
last few weeks.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
I appreciate it very much, my friends, and I hereby
retire from not only coaching Michigan, but making any predictions
about the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Oh yeah, I was one to know.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
I predicted Lions twenty four, Chiefs twenty one. I was
almost exactly to the point correct, feeling really good, and
then I said Seahawks Week two. I liked the Lions defense,
I wasn't sure about the Seahawks offense. That was when
I predicted it. I believe on this show at twenty
four to thirteen triumph for the Lions, which was nowhere
(28:32):
close to what happened. It was a high scoring, overtime
loss for the Lions. So I'm going to retire. I'm
out of the business of predicting football. I'm going to
retire with a respectable one on one record, and I'm
done for the year.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
No, no, no, no, no, no no, give us a Falcons
Lion score. Come on, you got to have one more
chance to redeem yourself. You were so good on one,
you missed on the other. People want to know what's
the real John Paul Morosi, So Lions found without knowing anything,
because I know you know nothing about the Falcons. Without
knowing anything, you got to give us a score.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
Is Jeff George still the quarterback there?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yes? Nice Jeff George and Andre Risen, Yes, very dangerous offense.
Deaul Anderson at running back, yes, very very dangerous.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
Yes, yes, very very good offense there. I think they
still play at Fulden County Stadium. I believe I've got
I've got the Lions with all my up to day
knowledge on the Falcons, I've got the Lions twenty seven
and the Falcons seventeen.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Twenty seven twenty.
Speaker 5 (29:31):
Seven Atlanta seventeen. Is that a common score in the
NFL these days?
Speaker 1 (29:37):
No, that's a good score. No, that's a good score.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Well, I was kind of hoping he'd picked twenty four again.
And then we try to figure out why he picks
it up every twenty four.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
The lines won every game by scoring twenty four points
right right, twenty four points by the way, by the.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Way, this, I gotta tell you quick paranthetical and this
is gonna this like blew my mind. Last weekend, I
got an Instagram message, which I rarely receive from one
of my former high school football teammates. It's just from
like months ago. That tells you how rarely I ever
checked the thing. And he found on a website called
(30:12):
YouTube dot com. He found he found a full recording,
true story of the first game of our senior year
in high school football. He gets there the entire first game,
and so I said, all right, I got to watch
a series. So I watched a series, and darned if
I completed my first passes. It good, so solid run
(30:35):
out to the left through on the run nights first down,
like fifteen yard out, love it. Great job. And then
I actually ran for a first down, which I never did.
I felt pretty good about that too. And then there
was a procedure penalty third and fifteen. I threw into
legit triple coverage interception and I just like, morowsie, what
were you thinking? I just like this fund the table.
(30:58):
So anyways, so it's there. So my throwing a triple
coverage is now a matter of public record thanks to
my teammate Jared Kernstock sent that to me and I
appreciate it very much.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
That's Zack Wilson working behind the sticks.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, yeah, Jp, That's what the kids would call a
heat check. Throw by you. Let's see, am I really hot?
Speaker 3 (31:16):
How hot?
Speaker 5 (31:17):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
That triple coverage?
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Stro triple triple coverage to all the kids out there,
triple coverage. Not a good idea, Not a good idea?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
All right? So what's the idea now? For show Hayo Tani?
We know, according to his representatives, he went through the
elbow procedure. He is going to be ready to hit
by spring training and pitch in twenty twenty five. Is
it a one year deal for Otani? Is it a
long term deal? Does someone pay him to pitch, which
I can't believe is going to happen? How do you
think this is going to go for show Hao Tani?
Speaker 5 (31:47):
It's a great question. The logical okay, the logical deal,
if teams were going to protect their downside risk would
be we'll give you a two year deal with a
vesting option that basically says, if you pitch a sufficient
number of games in twenty five, then it becomes guaranteed
(32:08):
beyond twenty five. So it's two guaranteed years that can
become a longer term deal based on activating the option.
That would be logical. As we know, free agency is
rarely logical, and so do I think that a team
is going to give him still a seven, eight, nine,
(32:29):
ten year deal at forty or fifty million dollars a
year that has opt outs for show A which protects
him and puts all the risk on the team. Sure.
I Basically, based on the way the teams that operate
in free agency, I expect that one team will step
out and do that, which almost makes no sense. However, however,
(32:54):
that that option being available to show A and show
A accepting it is not the same thing, because we
have to remember how his entire major league career began.
He went against the grain. And I think that he
is going to sign with the team, and it may
well be the Dodgers that he believes present the best
(33:15):
chance to win and also the best in class rehabilitation process.
And let's be honest, I realize team physicians certainly can
do procedures for a lot of different players, and that's
the normal cause of the way that medicine works at
the major league level. But it was the Dodgers team physician,
(33:37):
doctor Neil al Latrosh, who performed the procedure on show
A today, So that if you were a Dodger fan
looking for a sign that show A trusts your team
above all others, that would not be a bad place
to start. And I still think where this began a
(33:58):
year ago was there's probably a good chance that Showy
winds up a Dodger. And here we are in the
last days of September, it's probably still pretty good chance
he winds up a Dodger, even with all that has
happened in the last six months, in the last six weeks.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
JP, even like with the surgery, you know what kind
of pool of teams are we looking at because we're
trying to read the psychology of Otani during this entire process,
and we're all buying for that water bottle I got
discarded because if we can clone now we're talking about
being billionaires JP.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
Right, right, no, right, you're right, Mike, And this is
really and I'm glad that you presented it that way,
because this is not just the team that presents the
most money in the snazziest portfolio virtual reality experience to
woo him is going to win. I don't see it
that way at all. I think he wants to go
(34:48):
to a place where he can make history. He wants
to go to a place where he knows that he
can win. Is a Is it a new executive with
the Red Sox that finds a way to make to
make the right and bring him to Boston. I think
that's certainly possible. I think the Mariners are possible, and
I think the Dodgers are the most possible of all.
(35:08):
But the point is the teams that are still in
transition right now, and I'm sorry, Jason, that includes the Mets,
that also includes the Podres, any number of teams that
even the Yankees to an extent that we're a little
disappointing this year. He has so been there and done
that with teams that keep coming up short that I
just don't I don't see him going to a team
(35:31):
that's still a work in progress. Does he go to
the Braves? They're the best team in baseball right now?
It's that like, there's a much higher chance that show
A goes to a team like the Braves than that
he goes to either of the New York teams. In
my opinion, he wants to win. He wants to win
in a very sustainable, stable place that has a minimal
(35:56):
amount of drama. And the Braves are that, the Dodgers
are that, the Mariners are building a really strong culture.
The Red Sox team in transition, but I think they
would present some very positive things for him. What about
the Phillies if there's a team that he's talked before
about how much he admires Bryce Harper. I think the
(36:19):
teams that have proven that they can win have a
much better chance than teams that are just hoping, like
the Padres, the Mets, or even the Angels. I just
I don't see him going back there at this point
in time. I think it's going to be a new
place where he can win, in a place that he
trusts to rehab him and get him back on the
mounds so we can keep doing things that no human
(36:39):
has ever done before.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
JP The Angels open the door to saying if Mike
Trout wants out, we'll look to see what he wants
to do this offseason. Does he follow Otani out?
Speaker 5 (36:49):
It's very possible. The tricky part, though, is just he
hasn't played a lot and he's doing a ton of money,
and that combination makes a trade really complicated. This, to me,
would would be the play that a team makes if
they're either desperate to bring in some star power or
(37:10):
dramatically change their culture. I think that the Yankees are
one possibility because of where they're at and where they've been.
The Phillies are a fun story. We'll see how this
season wraps up and what happens for them in free agency. Obviously,
it's his hometown team, big Eagles fan, we know that.
I know that about him. So but when you do
(37:33):
that amount of money, it's obviously tens of millions of
dollars a year for the better part of the rest
of this decade. I just for a player that's been
hurt a lot, the Angels are gonna have to kick
in a bunch of money to move them. And so
then if the Angels say, wait a minute, we're gonna
lose Otani to free agency, collect like a second round pick,
and then pay a bunch of money to send Mike
(37:56):
Trout away. That's not exactly you know, I don't know
a whole lot about but what I just said there
is not Is that really an awesome thing to put
on the season ticket brochure? Okay, we just lost Otani
and we paid half of Trout's salary to make him
go away. That doesn't really sell a ton of tickets.
And that's where exactly where the Angels would be. So
I think you're right, they're going to have to consider it.
(38:18):
But sadly for them, whatever they get back for Trout
is going to be a fraction of what they could
have gotten for Otani if they had moved him a
year ago, which is probably, guys, what they should have done.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Yeah, they still get to fight with Anthony Rendon next year,
so you still got that going for you. Can anybody
come up and take the MVP from him since you
didn't play the last month?
Speaker 5 (38:40):
You know, Corey Seeker's name has been mentioned there. Obviously
the Rangers have had some struggles here to regain some
traction in the American League West. I think it's the
award is still his to lose. You'd have to have
somebody that completely turns a Pennant race on its ear
and is far and away the best player in the
(39:01):
division and just basically steals it from him. And I
just we're pretty late in the game. We got a
week and a half left. I just don't see that
happening with this amount of time to go at this juncture.
I could be surprised on this, but I think that
the debate remains somewhat closed. I mean, he basically he
(39:23):
achieved at the highest of heights in two disciplines for
five months. So do you call that ten months of
regular performance? I don't know that. It's just seems so unique,
and I tend to think that he gets the MVP
this year, even though even though it did not end
the way that he and the Angels hopes, and he
(39:46):
kept them in it for longer than they probably would
have or certainly longer they would have otherwise. So I
think from the competitiveness standpoint, he checked that box. I
just I think it's show a unless something extraordinary happens
in the next week and a half.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
JP. Leave us with this, Yeah, your Lions Falcons prediction,
But leave us with this. You said a week and
a half left waiting to see the wild card races
are coming down to the very bitter end and with
a couple of teams, give me a surprise, give me something.
If I said, JP, you wouldn't be surprised if what
happened between now and the end of the season, Well,
give me a surprise for the last week and a
(40:21):
half of the season that might not be a surprise
to you. Something's okay, botch up.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
Here we go. We've got the Marlins making the playoffs.
They have played pretty well. I still think that as
well as they've played, there's still somewhat off the radar
for a lot of fans who don't follow the National
League all that carefully and really realize how good they've
been for a long time. They've they've won six out
of ten. I've got the Marlins playing very very good baseball.
(40:46):
And here's a team that I like for October and
we'll get more into them later on. And again, I'm
really I'm really on our prediction role here lines over
the AUX and everything else, but the Minnesota Twins. It's
like we've forgotten about the entire American League Central and
we focus so much on the East and the West,
and for obvious reasons, but the Twins have pitched exceptionally well.
(41:12):
Sonny Gray, Pablo Lopez, Kentamida Bailey over is really good.
They've got a good bull fen with Deroan back there.
I like this team and I think they don't get
nearly the credit that they deserve, and they're going to
be a tough out for for whoever they end up
meeting there. Obviously in the first round of them beyond,
I think that the Twins, as abysmal as they've been
(41:33):
in the playoffs in the last couple of decades, they are due,
my friends. So I'm all in on Minny and Paul,
the Twin Cities. I think they've got a chance to
make it, at least to the Alcs.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Well, I'll tell you our boss, Scott Shapiro is going
to love you, JP. You're gonna get a huge rays
and all kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
I love good the Twins.
Speaker 5 (41:53):
I'm all about it. Scott might be seeing some playoff
ball in the beautiful Twins. Citi's What a great ballpark
that is target Field, a little chili of course, open air,
but I love it and mark it down. Twins. They'll
make some noise in October.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Follow on Twitter at John Morosi, that is at John
Morosi MLB Network Insider JP. Thanks a bunch as always, buddy,
we'll talk to you next week. And hey, if you
get this lion's prediction right, you may not retire. Master
another one next week.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
Fire Detroit Lions twenty seven, The Falcon seventeen
Speaker 3 (42:27):
JP
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 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 Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Greetings and welcome inside The Jason Smith Show with my
bes friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well dressed Tobo.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Live from the ti rack dot com studios. Tyrack dot
com will help you get there, an unmatched selection, fast
free shipping, free road has protection, and over ten thousand
recommended installers. Tirack dot com. The way tire buying should be. Well,
it is a happy Tuesday. But I mean not if
you're show Hey Tani, because you're looking for a lot
(00:56):
of money, Not if you are mel Tucker, not if
you are a few So we are going to try
to fill you with some positivity here on a Tuesday,
because boy, there's a couple of tough stories tonight. Mike
harmon a couple of real tough ones.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well, I mean, look the show, Hey Tani, it's no surprise, right,
We've been talking about this for weeks, so I guess
you just checked the box, add a couple of dates,
and you move on. The bidding war is gonna be
the bidding war, and maybe it gives the Angels a
snowball's chance and hell to retain him. I would say
the water bottle being in the trash can from the
(01:28):
other day and the reticence to get in front of
a microphone doesn't speak. Well, we knew that story, gone
me talker. That one's just the hard part of trying
to figure out timelines and filling in the spaces. What's consensual,
(01:48):
what was Tucker interpreting things? And then we get into
what was the investigation that goes back to the Northwestern thing.
Obviously different set of circumstance, but to the same thing
of all right, we were working about this behind the scenes,
yet then it wasn't so what are we subscribing to?
(02:10):
But yeah, more more Michigan State misery and another black
eye on the schools of the Big Ten and all
of that. But it's you know, two more days till
we start Week three of the NFL season. Can I
get back to positivity.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
We're almost said, look, and I'm still trying to get
Otani to the Mets. So I mean I'm still and
it could happen. Look, this is look, this is what's
going on with Otani. Let's start here. We'll get the
football coming up.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
In a bit. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, the big story today show otani elbow surgery. His
doctor said he expects Otani to be able to hit
for opening Day next year and return to the mount
as a pitcher in twenty twenty five. I remember Otani
tore the UCL the Ulder collateral ligament in his right
elbow a couple of weeks ago, continued hitting up until September,
(02:58):
end of the first week of September, and then he decided, Hey,
I'm done. My locker is emptied out. We did that
story on Friday night.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
We saw the the O Bleak injury, and suddenly that
became a multi week season ending injury just from what
will look to be a day to day all of
a sudden, operations shut down. Derek Bell's style.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, just like when you had to go, hey we've
broken up and I'm not going to be home, go
to go to my place, leave the key at the end,
and take your stuff. It's like, that's what Otani's people did.
Let's go, we lift some jerseys. We left a couple
of T shirts. You left a bag water bottles in
the trash. Here's my key. You're never going to see
me again. But the good news is we're gonna get
Otani back for next year. And there's two big things
(03:41):
to know, actually three big things to know off of this.
Number one is Dodgers head team physician doctor Neil Ela
Trosh performed the operation on Otani just a few days
after repairing Aaron Rodgers' achilles. I mean real, he is
the goat. He's a doctor. You like, Oh, dude, you
could never. I mean when you're talking, could never.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Hundred billion is Shotani and Rogers was what I mean?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
You can never. You can't, you can't. Yeah, man, he
put Brady back together in eight he put Rogers back together.
He performed uh a Tommy John surgery on Otani back
in twenty eighteen. I mean, this is it. He's the
guy it used to be. Frank Job was the guy
right for the longest time. Well, you gotta go see
doctor job. Now it's you gotta go see doctor Latrosh
because you can't spell attached without or you can't spell
(04:29):
elatrosh without attach, and he should make t shirts that
say that. And I'm tom that I biffed that line
right there. I said the wrong way front, but you
get what I'm saying. You can't spell elatrosh without attach.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
No, that's right, you'll get another opportunity. But I think
you would enjoy trying to go to work on me
because I'm like the damn wacky doctors game operation. There's
so many blinking lights and clicks as I walk up
and downstairs or try to throw a ball or whatever else.
I think he would be up for the physical challenge.
I don't know that surgery, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, but what what do I get if I repair harmon?
I don't know. You probably can't pay, and you know
I don't know. Yeah, you know, I'm gonna hold out.
I'm gonna hold out. I'm gonna hold out for the net, like.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Like a lawyer doing some pro bono work. I'm gonna
take this on just because it's interesting and kind of
challenge challenging to put old Humpty dumpty back together again.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I don't know, I don't know how motivated.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I mean, we are on a national I don't know,
man show. I mean, yeah, I can speak forever. Yeah
is brilliant.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, but you could speak with you know, you could
speak and do the show without getting anything repaired. Right, right,
But like Rogers, you got to see Rodgers on the field.
You gotta Seeani pitching again.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
No, that's great, Yeah, and that's gonna be you know,
great testaments to his work there. But I mean I
can evangelize day after day just saying, look, I was
able to get my ass to work because this guy
fixed me the goat the goat battery. Could just say,
forget about the time, I'll just buy you a scooter.
Yeah you have to.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, if you hit the lottery and you won the
lottery and you're a billionaire, then I think, yeah, okay,
then you can get doctor Latrosha on the phone. Yeah, yeah,
this is yead. I don't know if you get him
on the phone. I don't think you I don't think
you even get to I don't think you can get
to his office. I think he has an office six
that answer from him. He's got an office that answers
the phone that decides that that phone call can actually
get to doctor ne La Trosh's.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Allfo you think he likes a nice pork shoulder?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
You really think he's Rogers Brady Otani?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Can this guy brings me? I bet you I have
a better brisket than they do.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, because you know, because he can't afford the most
expensive dinner he would ever want to go to?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Love?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, is Mike Harman a chef, well, kind of an
amateur chef. What if I had like a full time
real chef, Like, what if I had Guy Fieri? Uh?
Making me? Well, yeah, you probably want Guy Fieri.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Then they tried too hard.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
They tried. There's your hot take of the night Food
Network chefs. They try too hard. Give me the guy's
not as good out?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
How much are they cooking Forget.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
You and Antonio La Faso and everybody else? You guy
guys can't do it, Brooke Williamson, you can't do anything.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Spot in the neighborhood for a long time.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So while doctor elatroshe, I remember you can't spell latrosh
without attach pat and pending, pat and pending.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Now what is next for Otani? Okay? So now that
we know this is where he's at, he's gonna hit
this spring and then he's going to pitch probably a
year from now. Otani is not going to get paid
to be a pitcher. He's not. No team is going
to pay him. Not after two elbow surgeries in five years.
No one's going to Even if he proves he can pitch,
(07:41):
it's still really difficult for a team to say, yes,
here's seven hundred million dollars for the next few years.
But if he wants to do it, if he wants
to break that bank, he wants to be that that guy,
then what he does is he signed somewhere for a
year and he hits, and then if he likes it,
he stays, works out of contract ext I can pitch again,
or then I open it up again in free agency,
(08:04):
because clearly he's gone from the Angels, right, you don't
go and clear your stuff out in the middle of
the season, in the middle of the night, or you
don't have your people do it if you're if you're
coming back, so you know he's gone, so he can
go somewhere anywhere, really, And that's that's the other best
part of this is that this opens us up to
a lot of teams for a year. You want to
go someplace for a year. See if you like San Francisco.
(08:25):
See if you like Seattle, See if you like Queens
you know, I mean, I don't you know? See if
you like Flushing, See if it doesn't matter. You can
go anywhere now because it's for a year. You want
to try the Yankees for a year, because one of
those teams will give you fifty million dollars for next year.
Any one of those teams, Oh Otani, we get him
for a year, one year, fifty million, Yes, let's do it.
Any of those teams would give Otani that kind of money.
(08:46):
So if he wants to pitch, the best thing to
do is to say, one year, I'm gonna hit because
he's gonna get me. Still gonna be a guy that's
gonna get forty five home runs and knocking over one
hundred runs and still be that guy. And maybe you
win him over with with your with the culture, the
clubhouse and what it's like, and hey, you like living
here and it's it's a great place. Really enjoy your
life off the field, and that you spend all next
(09:07):
year doing. But in the end, if he leaves, well,
you had Otani for a year and hopefully you took
advantage of it. But for everybody, that's the best solution
because if he goes, he goes somewhere for a year,
he shows I'm good, Hey, look at me, I can throw.
He'll have to do times for scouts. He'll have to throw,
He'll have to show that he can throw. He'll have
to show what he can do. I mean, honestly, it
might have to be two years before the guy comes
(09:29):
back say hey, you know, now I got to show
you I can get through a season before I'm pitching.
But that's you're talking about two years downline. At least
for next year. One year you go hit, and then
you figure out where where things sit at in the
off season next year. Maybe all you need is one team.
You like to say, oh no, no, we see your back,
we see you're healthy. We know you're gonna come back.
We got we got great reports from from the from
(09:50):
the doctors. We talked to doctor Neil Eltrosh and he's
he was great. And yes, so you can't spell attached
with that. I get it. I like that, and and
we're good. We'll give you that seven hundred million dollar contract.
But the best thing if you he wants that deal.
He wants that deal to pitch one year fifty million somewhere,
and then he hits free agency again next year and
sees if anything is different. It's not guaranteed, but he
(10:10):
sees if maybe something is different, because again, he may
be two years out of being able to get paid
to pitch, but at least one year. I know for
certain that's not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
See, I like your theory. I do the go and
just sample someplace for a year. It's the quest. We're
always trying to get into the mind of Otani of
what his main ambitions are. Obviously wants to win the
World Baseball Classic. He saw what that meant, not only
national pride, but just coming out victorious and playing meaningful
(10:39):
baseball and making a lot of money, trading cards being sold,
him striking out my trout, all those things. But when
we get down to it, it's the do you want
to start bouncing around potentially right, because if the year experience,
let's just say, for sake of argument, to go to
(11:00):
the Mets.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Sure that I like that, God God, he goes.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
We'll put him on the Met, and it's an abject
failure of a season. They spend a lot of money,
they spend it poor.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
He's gotta be an abject failure.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Well, but that's part of the example.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
How about this?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
How about his work?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
How about how about this? How about the Mets are
good until the Jets get to training camp and then
they fall apart. At least give me a couple of
months of things are okay and then it falls apart.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Okay, but the idea being that the season is not successful.
Year's rumblings that there's I'm still unrest in the clubhouse
may or may not be you know him, his camp,
whatever else, but that it's just not the fit that
he likes, maybe doesn't want to play in New York.
Now that's a year of his career that sure he's
put up numbers, whatever, but now it's wasted time, and
(11:46):
you could insert any other place in there. I got
to imagine you're doing your due diligence and running through
potential options. Obviously, you know, if you were just looking
at the hitter side of things, as we've talked about
for weeks. Yeah, the potential is there that maybe there's
some other suitors because the price of poker is a
little bit lower, But it's still trying to figure out
(12:07):
exactly what he wants in the grand scheme? Is it
West Coast? Is it you know, Seattle, San Francisco, Los
Angeles and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim? And those
are your opportunities? And Padres have already spent all their money.
They're stuck. But it's the Are those the only teams
with the shot? Are the Cubs a wild card in
(12:30):
the Midwest? Do we go back to the East Coast
to where the Red Sox, Yankees and your Mets can
suddenly play in this game? It's all trying to understand
the psychology of what he wants. And I just don't
know that going to some place for a year as
a trial is from what we know or think we
(12:51):
know of him, is where he is. Certainly for the teams, Hey,
you know, come in for a year. We'll we'll take
the bank that the Angels lose on all the Japanese advertising.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, but you gotta go play somewhere. Though, you gotta
go somewhere. You gotta go somewhere.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
But my point is that you wouldn't do it for
a year. Is that he would be a guy that
would look at an organization and be like, I'm there
for some level, whether it's three years, five years, whatever,
it doesn't have to be the long term I'm here
and waded to you for life kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, but if you want that contract that's gonna pay
you in a pitch, you have to wait because no, yeah,
we love we love you here. We're gonna give you
a contract that's five years and two hundred million dollars
or well, wait a minute, but I'm a pitcher. Well
we don't know that you're a pitcher. No, but I'm
a pitcher. Well, we're not gonna give you that kind
of money. So, I mean, no one's gonna do that.
I mean that that's a that's a ridiculously bad investment
to make. So if you got to go somewhere for
(13:42):
a year, have an adventure, go somewhere for a year,
figure it out, go somewhere for a year.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Jason, have you not watched maybe.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
You watched your owner this past year, you watched the
after this guy you're coming up with no.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Money for any guy that winks at him.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
No one's gonna come on, No one's gonna pay him
seven one hundred and fifty million dollars, not knowing.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Your guy would which again, know your guy would know
he would.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
He caned Erlander and Suser because they weren't pitching well
and their team was going into the toilet. Yeah, and
you got Otani who is not going to pitch at all,
and you're hoping he can pitch again.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
But yeah, but you can, but you can actually monetize him.
The other two guys, you weren't drawn extra asses in
seats or jerseys sold or whatever else. Minimal compared to what.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Many five million dollars a year to hit. Oh okay, boy,
that's a lot of money for one guy. They don't
want to re sign Piede, Alonzo and ped A. Lonzo's
gonna get less money than that. I just I don't
see as crazy as people are with the money, as
crazy as teams are, this is this is funny, silly
money that is going to be that. No team is
gonna say, yeah, they would want to get in, but
(14:49):
you gotta you gotta show you can pitch. You just
watch all these guys this year get hurt. It's gonna
be tough. Man, that's a tough sell. But if you
were an owner of a team. Hey, all right, I
didn't call you in a second. You give him that money?
You all cage?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Oh, I don't want to pay anybody you know that.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Well coming up in twenty minutes, we got John Palm
Morosi stopping by MLB Network Insider. What is next for show?
Hey O Tani was revealed today he had an elbow procedure.
According to Atani and his agent, he's going to hit
in twenty twenty four and pitch a get in twenty
twenty five. What does mean for his future his contract?
(15:31):
We got JP coming up in a few minutes with that,
But it's time to tackle this Meltucker story. After today,
and after Meltucker responded to the decision to oust him
and fire him for cause, Michigan State finally making that
decision a couple of days ago. Meltucker had been suspended
from the school for the last week or so after
(15:55):
in response to the notification in the wake of appending
sexual misconduct case brought by Bread to Tracy, a sexual
assault awareness speaker. Now, some of the background of this
story is Brenda Tracy and mel Tucker knew each other.
She was invited to speak on campus a couple of times,
and some kind of relationship, according to mel Tucker started
(16:16):
and he says, this is you know, I'm this is ridiculous.
There are other motives of play. There's a bias against me.
This is what he said today. Meanwhile, Brenda Tracy said
that there were unwanted sexual advances towards me. It was
a complaint that was filed and investigated months ago by
Michigan State. And part of what came about of this
and part of her in the investigation against this, as
(16:36):
Brenda Tracy said unwantedly, Meltucker self gratified himself on a
phone conversation. That's become the big wow, what happened in
this in this whole story, and that was actually something
that was admitted to by mel Tucker. Meltucker says they
were in a relationship and none of what happened was untoward.
(16:57):
So Michigan State says, we're going to fire for cause.
They played their first game with Harlan Barnett as their
head coach last weekend Michigan State did. And now it
gets really ugly. And now that there's eighty million dollars
left on Meltucker's contract because they signed up for a
very large amount of money a couple of years ago.
But now that this has come out and we've seen
both sides, We've we've seen Brenda Tracy and this and
(17:20):
this lawsuit that has come out and what is being investigated.
We've seen Michigan State's decision, and now we have seen
Meltucker's response. There's there's a couple of big things that
you can that you can take away without getting too
deep into what really happened in their relationship, right, because
now this literally is a he said, she said, She said,
(17:42):
this happened and it was unwarranted and unwanted. He said
it was consensual. And now we're going to go through
the process as Meltucker tries to keep his money, Michigan
State wants to get rid of him again. He says
there's bias, there's other motives at play against him. So
the first thing I want to say is this is
that for mel Tucker, and this is there's a say
(18:05):
that you have to know where you work, right and
you have to know where you're going to every day.
You have to know that certain things you say or
do out a place. Sometimes all right, you can, it's okay,
and sometimes no you can't. Right, we talk about I
talk about a lot, like the differences between working at
Fox at ESPN when you're going in like how you
can you know and not in any way compared to this.
(18:25):
What I mean is that, Hey, ESPN likes to program
one way when you talking for a talent, and Fox
likes to program another way.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
And it's all about scale. Yes, it's a circumstance or whatever.
That's all right. You have to know the example of
what we do on a night to night basis versus
what you might have at another outfit.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
It's Pat mcaffeine now challenging those rules by ESPN. So
we'll see what happens there. But just in general, right,
there's the rules of engagement wherever you work and the
people that you're around.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, you have to know where you work. You have
to know when you say something politically, how that could
bounce back against you. That's kind of what I'm getting.
You have to know where you work. Is that here's
Mel Tucker who gets involved in this whatever kind of
relationship it was at Michigan State, Dude, Larry Nasser, this
is something that no one has forgotten about. Just a
couple of years ago. The guy went to prison two
(19:15):
hundred and sixty five counts of of of what he
did to women when he was there at Michigan State.
Michigan State never really owned it. They wanted to move
past it. And this is a really big deal.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
In this school settled lawsuits filed by master victims for
one half billion with a d B one half billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I mean, this is this is the last place that
is something like something like this can happen where you
get involved with someone who is a sexual assault awareness speaker,
right like this is you have to you have to
get it, okay, all right, no matter what goes on here,
no matter what my relationship is. And yes you can
say things are private and a private relationship, but things
got out, right It's I'm sorry, but it got out.
(19:58):
And it's the same philosoph for you of if you
have a sign and you have you have af And
I think back to the to the uh, the the
situation with Donald Sterling and the clippers, and hey, he
had a private conversation, but it was made public. And
I think back to the comparison that you can have
a dog in your backyard and have a sign saying
keep away from dog. Dog is dangerous, keep out. You
(20:20):
can have the dog chained up, you can have a
lock on the gate, but if the dog gets out
and bite somebody, I'm sorry, it's on you. The dog
got out and bit somebody. Now this story gets out
and all this gets out and it gets investigated, and
it's dude, it's Michigan State. I mean, this is the
first thing I want to think of is, yeah, of
course they're gonna fire you because this is Michigan. There's
still reeling from what went on there. So now that
(20:41):
this is out, Yeah, at another school, would this be
a really bad story and embarrassing and be invested, Yeah,
of course. But Michigan State the one place, like, dude,
this is Michigan State. Man, They're still they're still trying
to deal with the fallout from Larry Nasser. So yeah,
I kind of from that standpoint, I get Michigan State saying, yes,
we need to move on from Meltuck. You're not going
to be the head coach here. Anymore.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah, when you get down to it now, it's the
details of the process, the investigation, what should have been
privately investigated, disgust, you know, through whatever means the school
has set up and whatever law enforcement needed to be included.
(21:22):
And that's where he's calling it a quote, miscarriage of justice,
and that her improper public disclosure of the twelve hundred
page investigation file regarding her baseless complaint. So yeah, they
have seventy nine million dollars left on his deal, so
you know, whatever you want to do. They underachieved a
(21:45):
year ago. They're two to zero this year. You know,
there's always contractually, we always win. There's a big deal.
So we talked about it a lot last night with
Deshaun Watson, you know, said tie them together. Only for
the monetary side of it is that if the performance
isn't what you expected, then yes, there's going to be
(22:05):
some rumblings about the money spent. And that when you
add this type of scenario that comes into play with
a woman who's well known and has gone through the
circuit and has spoken on many campuses. In this case,
they developed a friendship, talked about you know, multiple calls, whatever,
(22:25):
and then it went to this level to where you know,
he's contending that the call was thirty six minutes I
think was the number he gave, and that she never mentioned,
never hung up, all of those things, et cetera. So
now it's all right, what can you try to prove
in a court of law? Does it? You know, to
(22:46):
exonerate yourself right in this process, But certainly when you
have Michigan State associated and the lengthy history, it's going
to rise to to a level of all right, we're
getting to a decision fairly quickly. Right, there's an investigation,
(23:07):
Everything gets to a point where the intent is to fire,
and now you wait for whatever other details are going
to be to be put out. Will they be made public,
Will there be a settlement where he walks away with
some of his money and that's the end of it.
I don't know, but you know, to your point you're at,
(23:28):
you're at Michigan State, there's a heightened sensitivity on campus
to anything of this ilk and so to have another
coach in a position of power and a position authority
and a face of your university, which is the big
part of this from the university side, your football coach
is the face of your university generally now here obviously
(23:49):
you've got Tom Izzo. But when we look at it
football and just watch what we've been talking about with
Colorado and everything else, it's it's all about the coaches
and far more more than any of the players. Right
we're talking about Alabama. It's not about the quarterbacks that
they have. It's has Nick Saban lost his ability to
bring a guy in, you know, that kind of thing.
(24:10):
It's about it's put on the coach. So for mel Tucker, yeah,
the spotlight and what that means in the university, your
boosters and everybody that supports you know, they want answers
and they want them fast, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
And you get into the other part of it that
if you question mel Tucker keeping his job losing his
job is let's just say this and and just this
is regardless of of the of which way it turns
out to be aware. It goes whether it's Meltucker, whether
it is Brenda Tracy. Is that you have a high
(24:43):
profile job and it gets out that you on a
phone call with someone you are self gratifying yourself, and
your job is working with young men who are between
the ages of eighteen and twenty two. How long are
you going to keep your job for? I mean really,
how long are you going to keep that job for?
You're not And it's not just from the standpoint of
of of the the school saying, boy, we can't have
(25:05):
him and this is completely embarrassing. We can't we I mean,
we can't have him. Then we can't hit him around
young men when when this has gotten out there, even
if it's something that if even if it turns out
to be something that was consensual, this is this is embarrassing.
I mean this, this is embarrassing for this is not
protecting the shield of the school. So yeah, so it's
not just the stampoint of the school going we we
can't keep him around for this. Think about the other
(25:27):
side of it. Are kids gonna want to go play
for him? Why do the kids feel about him now?
Going dude, coaches, Wow, that's that's kind of wacky, man,
I don't know about that. How are you get a fundraise?
How are you gonna get how are you gonna tell boosters,
yeah we need more money? Whoa you still got mel
Tucker's our coaching all because all you're gonna think of
when you see, mel Tucker, is that part of the story.
That's all. So I don't know how he stays now
(25:48):
that that's gotten out, because nobody would stay it would
be listened. We have to we have to move on.
And then this is gonna get into the money and
how much they wind up paying him. But for him
to I mean when that gets out, how do you
stay on his coach after that? Because that becomes all
anybody sees of you. That becomes trying to go forward
and trying to win football games and trying to keep
your your your school in a positive frame of reference.
(26:11):
That's impossible to do, so that I don't see how
he thought, well, this is something that this is a
completely I'm surprised by this, and there's a bias against me.
The other motives of play. He's only had one down year.
He's had one down year, so okay, you've had one
down year, so this is not going to be you've
lost three four years in a row, so we got
to get rid of you. I don't know if that's
(26:32):
the other motives of play. Yeah, they want to get
out of the contract the money they're paying to them
because they know they can't go forward. With him as
the head coach. So they're trying to save as much
of that eighty million or all of it as they can.
But yeah, but the whole thing is, you know, strip
away both sides of it. I get why they wanted
to fire Meltucker, and I get why he can't coach
there anymore. Now the rest of it, that's the stuff
(26:53):
that's up for debate, and that's what we ever find.
But the bottom line is those two things kind of
have to happen. There's no way this can go on
the way those things and you can keep your job.
The rest of it, Like I said, we're going to
see how that gets shaken out over the course of
the next few weeks. Is gets investigated and more stories
get out of it. But there's no way he can
stay and there's no way the school can keep him
(27:14):
there for all those things we talked about, it's too hard.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Well joining us now on the Hotline to break down
the breaking story in sports. The show, Hey O, Tani
Saga and what is next? MLB Network Insider extraordinairey. He's
on Twitter at John Morosi. It is longtime front of
the show, John Paul Morosi, fresh off coaching Michigan do
a three to zero record during Jim harbaugh suspension, he
(27:46):
will now turn the reins over to Jim Harbaugh and
get back to being a baseball insider. JP. Nice job,
way to do that, way to help Michigan for the
last few weeks.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
I appreciate it very much, my friends, and I hereby
retire from not only coaching Michigan, but making any predictions
about the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Oh yeah, I was one to know.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
I predicted Lions twenty four, Chiefs twenty one. I was
almost exactly to the point correct, feeling really good, and
then I said Seahawks Week two. I liked the Lions defense,
I wasn't sure about the Seahawks offense. That was when
I predicted it. I believe on this show at twenty
four to thirteen triumph for the Lions, which was nowhere
(28:32):
close to what happened. It was a high scoring, overtime
loss for the Lions. So I'm going to retire. I'm
out of the business of predicting football. I'm going to
retire with a respectable one on one record, and I'm
done for the year.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
No, no, no, no, no, no no, give us a Falcons
Lion score. Come on, you got to have one more
chance to redeem yourself. You were so good on one,
you missed on the other. People want to know what's
the real John Paul Morosi, So Lions found without knowing anything,
because I know you know nothing about the Falcons. Without
knowing anything, you got to give us a score.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
Is Jeff George still the quarterback there?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yes? Nice Jeff George and Andre Risen, Yes, very dangerous offense.
Deaul Anderson at running back, yes, very very dangerous.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
Yes, yes, very very good offense there. I think they
still play at Fulden County Stadium. I believe I've got
I've got the Lions with all my up to day
knowledge on the Falcons, I've got the Lions twenty seven
and the Falcons seventeen.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Twenty seven twenty.
Speaker 5 (29:31):
Seven Atlanta seventeen. Is that a common score in the
NFL these days?
Speaker 1 (29:37):
No, that's a good score. No, that's a good score.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Well, I was kind of hoping he'd picked twenty four again.
And then we try to figure out why he picks
it up every twenty four.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
The lines won every game by scoring twenty four points
right right, twenty four points by the way, by the.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Way, this, I gotta tell you quick paranthetical and this
is gonna this like blew my mind. Last weekend, I
got an Instagram message, which I rarely receive from one
of my former high school football teammates. It's just from
like months ago. That tells you how rarely I ever
checked the thing. And he found on a website called
(30:12):
YouTube dot com. He found he found a full recording,
true story of the first game of our senior year
in high school football. He gets there the entire first game,
and so I said, all right, I got to watch
a series. So I watched a series, and darned if
I completed my first passes. It good, so solid run
(30:35):
out to the left through on the run nights first down,
like fifteen yard out, love it. Great job. And then
I actually ran for a first down, which I never did.
I felt pretty good about that too. And then there
was a procedure penalty third and fifteen. I threw into
legit triple coverage interception and I just like, morowsie, what
were you thinking? I just like this fund the table.
(30:58):
So anyways, so it's there. So my throwing a triple
coverage is now a matter of public record thanks to
my teammate Jared Kernstock sent that to me and I
appreciate it very much.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
That's Zack Wilson working behind the sticks.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, yeah, Jp, That's what the kids would call a
heat check. Throw by you. Let's see, am I really hot?
Speaker 3 (31:16):
How hot?
Speaker 5 (31:17):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
That triple coverage?
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Stro triple triple coverage to all the kids out there,
triple coverage. Not a good idea, Not a good idea?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
All right? So what's the idea now? For show Hayo Tani?
We know, according to his representatives, he went through the
elbow procedure. He is going to be ready to hit
by spring training and pitch in twenty twenty five. Is
it a one year deal for Otani? Is it a
long term deal? Does someone pay him to pitch, which
I can't believe is going to happen? How do you
think this is going to go for show Hao Tani?
Speaker 5 (31:47):
It's a great question. The logical okay, the logical deal,
if teams were going to protect their downside risk would
be we'll give you a two year deal with a
vesting option that basically says, if you pitch a sufficient
number of games in twenty five, then it becomes guaranteed
(32:08):
beyond twenty five. So it's two guaranteed years that can
become a longer term deal based on activating the option.
That would be logical. As we know, free agency is
rarely logical, and so do I think that a team
is going to give him still a seven, eight, nine,
(32:29):
ten year deal at forty or fifty million dollars a
year that has opt outs for show A which protects
him and puts all the risk on the team. Sure.
I Basically, based on the way the teams that operate
in free agency, I expect that one team will step
out and do that, which almost makes no sense. However, however,
(32:54):
that that option being available to show A and show
A accepting it is not the same thing, because we
have to remember how his entire major league career began.
He went against the grain. And I think that he
is going to sign with the team, and it may
well be the Dodgers that he believes present the best
(33:15):
chance to win and also the best in class rehabilitation process.
And let's be honest, I realize team physicians certainly can
do procedures for a lot of different players, and that's
the normal cause of the way that medicine works at
the major league level. But it was the Dodgers team physician,
(33:37):
doctor Neil al Latrosh, who performed the procedure on show
A today, So that if you were a Dodger fan
looking for a sign that show A trusts your team
above all others, that would not be a bad place
to start. And I still think where this began a
(33:58):
year ago was there's probably a good chance that Showy
winds up a Dodger. And here we are in the
last days of September, it's probably still pretty good chance
he winds up a Dodger, even with all that has
happened in the last six months, in the last six weeks.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
JP, even like with the surgery, you know what kind
of pool of teams are we looking at because we're
trying to read the psychology of Otani during this entire process,
and we're all buying for that water bottle I got
discarded because if we can clone now we're talking about
being billionaires JP.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
Right, right, no, right, you're right, Mike, And this is
really and I'm glad that you presented it that way,
because this is not just the team that presents the
most money in the snazziest portfolio virtual reality experience to
woo him is going to win. I don't see it
that way at all. I think he wants to go
(34:48):
to a place where he can make history. He wants
to go to a place where he knows that he
can win. Is a Is it a new executive with
the Red Sox that finds a way to make to
make the right and bring him to Boston. I think
that's certainly possible. I think the Mariners are possible, and
I think the Dodgers are the most possible of all.
(35:08):
But the point is the teams that are still in
transition right now, and I'm sorry, Jason, that includes the Mets,
that also includes the Podres, any number of teams that
even the Yankees to an extent that we're a little
disappointing this year. He has so been there and done
that with teams that keep coming up short that I
just don't I don't see him going to a team
(35:31):
that's still a work in progress. Does he go to
the Braves? They're the best team in baseball right now?
It's that like, there's a much higher chance that show
A goes to a team like the Braves than that
he goes to either of the New York teams. In
my opinion, he wants to win. He wants to win
in a very sustainable, stable place that has a minimal
(35:56):
amount of drama. And the Braves are that, the Dodgers
are that, the Mariners are building a really strong culture.
The Red Sox team in transition, but I think they
would present some very positive things for him. What about
the Phillies if there's a team that he's talked before
about how much he admires Bryce Harper. I think the
(36:19):
teams that have proven that they can win have a
much better chance than teams that are just hoping, like
the Padres, the Mets, or even the Angels. I just
I don't see him going back there at this point
in time. I think it's going to be a new
place where he can win, in a place that he
trusts to rehab him and get him back on the
mounds so we can keep doing things that no human
(36:39):
has ever done before.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
JP The Angels open the door to saying if Mike
Trout wants out, we'll look to see what he wants
to do this offseason. Does he follow Otani out?
Speaker 5 (36:49):
It's very possible. The tricky part, though, is just he
hasn't played a lot and he's doing a ton of money,
and that combination makes a trade really complicated. This, to me,
would would be the play that a team makes if
they're either desperate to bring in some star power or
(37:10):
dramatically change their culture. I think that the Yankees are
one possibility because of where they're at and where they've been.
The Phillies are a fun story. We'll see how this
season wraps up and what happens for them in free agency. Obviously,
it's his hometown team, big Eagles fan, we know that.
I know that about him. So but when you do
(37:33):
that amount of money, it's obviously tens of millions of
dollars a year for the better part of the rest
of this decade. I just for a player that's been
hurt a lot, the Angels are gonna have to kick
in a bunch of money to move them. And so
then if the Angels say, wait a minute, we're gonna
lose Otani to free agency, collect like a second round pick,
and then pay a bunch of money to send Mike
(37:56):
Trout away. That's not exactly you know, I don't know
a whole lot about but what I just said there
is not Is that really an awesome thing to put
on the season ticket brochure? Okay, we just lost Otani
and we paid half of Trout's salary to make him
go away. That doesn't really sell a ton of tickets.
And that's where exactly where the Angels would be. So
I think you're right, they're going to have to consider it.
(38:18):
But sadly for them, whatever they get back for Trout
is going to be a fraction of what they could
have gotten for Otani if they had moved him a
year ago, which is probably, guys, what they should have done.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Yeah, they still get to fight with Anthony Rendon next year,
so you still got that going for you. Can anybody
come up and take the MVP from him since you
didn't play the last month?
Speaker 5 (38:40):
You know, Corey Seeker's name has been mentioned there. Obviously
the Rangers have had some struggles here to regain some
traction in the American League West. I think it's the
award is still his to lose. You'd have to have
somebody that completely turns a Pennant race on its ear
and is far and away the best player in the
(39:01):
division and just basically steals it from him. And I
just we're pretty late in the game. We got a
week and a half left. I just don't see that
happening with this amount of time to go at this juncture.
I could be surprised on this, but I think that
the debate remains somewhat closed. I mean, he basically he
(39:23):
achieved at the highest of heights in two disciplines for
five months. So do you call that ten months of
regular performance? I don't know that. It's just seems so unique,
and I tend to think that he gets the MVP
this year, even though even though it did not end
the way that he and the Angels hopes, and he
(39:46):
kept them in it for longer than they probably would
have or certainly longer they would have otherwise. So I
think from the competitiveness standpoint, he checked that box. I
just I think it's show a unless something extraordinary happens
in the next week and a half.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
JP. Leave us with this, Yeah, your Lions Falcons prediction,
But leave us with this. You said a week and
a half left waiting to see the wild card races
are coming down to the very bitter end and with
a couple of teams, give me a surprise, give me something.
If I said, JP, you wouldn't be surprised if what
happened between now and the end of the season, Well,
give me a surprise for the last week and a
(40:21):
half of the season that might not be a surprise
to you. Something's okay, botch up.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
Here we go. We've got the Marlins making the playoffs.
They have played pretty well. I still think that as
well as they've played, there's still somewhat off the radar
for a lot of fans who don't follow the National
League all that carefully and really realize how good they've
been for a long time. They've they've won six out
of ten. I've got the Marlins playing very very good baseball.
(40:46):
And here's a team that I like for October and
we'll get more into them later on. And again, I'm
really I'm really on our prediction role here lines over
the AUX and everything else, but the Minnesota Twins. It's
like we've forgotten about the entire American League Central and
we focus so much on the East and the West,
and for obvious reasons, but the Twins have pitched exceptionally well.
(41:12):
Sonny Gray, Pablo Lopez, Kentamida Bailey over is really good.
They've got a good bull fen with Deroan back there.
I like this team and I think they don't get
nearly the credit that they deserve, and they're going to
be a tough out for for whoever they end up
meeting there. Obviously in the first round of them beyond,
I think that the Twins, as abysmal as they've been
(41:33):
in the playoffs in the last couple of decades, they are due,
my friends. So I'm all in on Minny and Paul,
the Twin Cities. I think they've got a chance to
make it, at least to the Alcs.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Well, I'll tell you our boss, Scott Shapiro is going
to love you, JP. You're gonna get a huge rays
and all kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
I love good the Twins.
Speaker 5 (41:53):
I'm all about it. Scott might be seeing some playoff
ball in the beautiful Twins. Citi's What a great ballpark
that is target Field, a little chili of course, open air,
but I love it and mark it down. Twins. They'll
make some noise in October.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Follow on Twitter at John Morosi, that is at John
Morosi MLB Network Insider JP. Thanks a bunch as always, buddy,
we'll talk to you next week. And hey, if you
get this lion's prediction right, you may not retire. Master
another one next week.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
Fire Detroit Lions twenty seven, The Falcon seventeen
Speaker 3 (42:27):
JP
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Jason Smith
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