June 10, 2025 • 20 mins
Jerry Brewer of The Washington Post joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to discuss the NBA Finals between two small market teams and the ratings plus the “star” players involved in the series, plus if Julio Rodrguez has met his expectations and help for him.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for our weekly conversation with award winning Washington
Post columnist Jerry Brewer, brought to you by Northwest Handling Systems.
From forklifts to Pella jacks conveyors to loading dock equipment,
we sell, rent and service all your warehouse he needs.
Request a quote today at NWHS dot com or give
us a call at four two five two five five
(00:22):
zero five hundred. Now with Jerry Brewer, here's Softy and Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
All right, four three on a Tuesday afternoon, are we
the conversation with the legend baby from the Washington Post.
Our friend, former KJR on air talent, former Settled Times columnists,
current Washington Post columnist and all around great guy, Our
friend Jerry Brewer. Jerry, how are you, man?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Man.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
That's awfully kind of you to consider me a former talent.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well did I say former talent? It's a former KJR talent.
I mean you're still talented. You're just a former KJR talent.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, yeah, I mean the KKR talent.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
You know what, how about this? The hell with you?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You're no longer talented?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
How about that?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Ever since you left the radio station. You have no
talent whatsoever. I can't believe the Post even gave you
a second look for crying out.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Jerry, tell there's a softie I know in love. There
you go.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Tell me Game one for Indiana was not in the
high water mark of this series for the Pacers. Please
tell me that.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I can't tell you that. I do have hope that
they'll get another game and put a little more pressure
on on Oklahoma City, but I still can't see this
much going much further than six games.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
If they are going to get another game, it seems
to me like it has to be this one, right,
first game in Indiana.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah, I mean you still have that the fact that
other than Caruso, no one has been the distance for
Oka see, and I think that can still affect them.
I remember twenty fifteen is when the Warriors won their
first of four championships. They got down one, you know,
two to one to Cleveland and won the last three
(02:10):
had to come and rally. I'd love to see, let's
say Indiana turns the tables and wins this game by
like ten points, right, and okay, so he's down to one,
similar to how they they think they had to come
from behind against against the Nuggets, that kind of pressure.
I'd love to see what they're made of.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, Jerry, the ratings are terrible, right, I Mean we
all thought there's a chance with these two small markets
that ratings were not going to be good, But they're
even worse than we thought they were. I mean Game
two of the NBA Finals averaged with like eight and
a half million people, which was down thirty percent from
the Mavericks Celtics Game two of their Finals and lows
(02:53):
since the Bubble and Fall of twenty twenty. They're basically
getting the state of Washington to watch the games because
this state of Washington's got eight million people. That's that's
who's watching the NBA Finals. So do you blame the
NBA for not promoting more than Lebron and obviously the
Lakers and other great teams out there, so they have
(03:16):
promoted these teams more or is this just what happens
when you take the twelfth biggest market and trade it
in for a rattle like Oklahoma City.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, I think it's just inevitable that that matchup was
going to do this. The NFL is still the only
league that can have two small market teams in this
championship game and not have to worry about what it's
ratings are going to be. It's the only one, you know,
everyone else. I keep hearing all this noise about how
(03:51):
market size doesn't mean anything in pro sports anymore, and
I think, like competitively, like the size of the market
is diminishing the most of the LEA, But in terms
of like what's in the best interest of the finances
of these sports, market size still still matters, or at
least like star power and celebrity still matters.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Are you okay that that these small market teams are
able to compete more? Or is it better for the
league if just Philly and New York and Chicago and
LA and Miami were just bulldogs every single year, Because
I mean it almost would seem like that would that's
when the league has been the most successful, is when
(04:35):
those five six teams have been the best.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, I mean, I'd be okay with it, Dick, if
it were like the Utah Jazz instead of the Thunder
against the It's the Pacers. So you know that that
part of it. But just in general, the idea of
two small market teams. I just want the finals to
be compelling, and I'll always been like, I'm a pro
(05:02):
dynasty guy because in my twenty five years now, since
I've graduated college covering pro sports, one thing I've learned
is that none of these owners really really want to win,
and like, the only thing that compels them to try
to win and not just look at how much money
(05:23):
they possibly could make now or down the road when
they sell the team is for there to be a
team that's just embarrassing the hell out of them. And
so there's a place for the Yankees, there's a place
for the Dodgers. There's a place for the Kansas City
Chiefs to build a dynasty, and the balanced NFL. There's
a place for the Warriors and the Lakers and the
Celtics because it pushes everybody to get off their ass
(05:48):
and I think that matters. And you know, I don't
like how the NBA, with its new rules, is trying
to force parody similar to the way has fourth parody,
because football is a different game, our obsession with it
is different, and so I still want the most interesting
(06:10):
teams and the most interesting players to have a chance
to build something special. I don't care who plays in
championship games, I get the competition, like the competition, Let
the competition decide who wins. What I want more than
anything is when I'm done watching, I want to feel
like I saw greatness. And sometimes I see greatness when
(06:30):
some dominant team blows out the field. And sometimes I
see greatness when it's like two evenly matched teams and
they play an epic kind of series, but close and
everybody having a chance does not equal compelling to me.
Not always.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, yeah, No, I think you're right. The King of
the Hill mentality has served the NBA and other sports
very very well when there's one giant target for everyone
to go after. And I also do wonder Jerry Jerry
Brewer again our guest Tuesday at four, courtesy of our
pals at Northwest Handling Systems. If the star power is
is something the NBA is lacking in this final series,
(07:09):
because look, I mean, obviously Michael Jordan, Lebron, James Magic Johnson,
Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant players like that they transcended the
NBA right, Like, if you're a Johnny Coume lately, you're
not a huge NBA fan. You know who those guys
are is Shake Gildess Alexander really that kind of a
name where he is a household name that people that
(07:30):
don't even really follow the NBA religiously know who this
guy is.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Not yet, But I mean, I think a lot of
guys before they win a championship aren't. He's just not
an interesting character, right, Like, I mean, he's got this,
he's got this really, you know, it feels like he's
got a fake deep voice, you know, like the voice
that when you're a teenager you try to make your
voice a little deeper when you're talking to girls.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Like Dave Chappelle doing the All State Guy on SNL
exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
So it's kind of it's kind of a you know,
weird and you know, but I love his game. I
mean when he's not out hunting for files, like there's
there's that part of it around it. But he plays,
He plays both ends of the floor. He's a really
exceptional player. Like there's a lot of juice to his game.
He kind of reminds me Dick of of Penny Hardaway
(08:26):
in some ways. He's more shifty, but like I'm thinking,
like big guard who can just like manipulate the game
in a certain kind of way more of a score
than Penny ever was like the games are different, but
just the prototype is similar. But yeah, like I think
(08:48):
the NBA kind of going back to what we were
talking about earlier, does the league have a marketing problem
or does the league have an ESPN problem? What do
you think the way ESPN talks about sports right now
in this debate culture, and especially the way the ESPN
(09:09):
talks about the NBA, Because it's steven A's bread and butter,
what he came up in to have to turn on
the game, you know, you know, before every game and
then after the game, and here Steven and Kendrick Perkins
and Bob Myers trying to fit in and Malika trying
(09:30):
to quarterback all of these bozos. It's become a real
problem because like I've never heard any conversation about, you know,
what Okay See was doing to swarm Tyree'se Halliburton. It's
just like Tyrouse Halliburton used to step up, and it's like, well,
first of all, Tyre's Halliburton is a past first point
(09:51):
guard and sort of the John Stockton Steve nash Molde,
and he only averages fourteen shots a game for his
care he's taken thirteen a game in these NBA finals.
If you look at OKC, whether it's been Jokich who
had three really uncharacteristic bad games against OKC, or Anthony
(10:13):
Edwards who was like flummoxed a lot of the time,
like on what he was reading on defense, Jared Jackson
Junior and John Morant now Tyrese Halliburton and Pascal Siakam.
Their defense is so confusing to people that it takes
a long time for you to get adjusted to the
way that they play, and that is making stars lesser
(10:33):
stars in a way that we haven't seen in the
NBA in several years. No one has broken down the
why of that to me, and I think that's a
big ESPN problem. So their relationship with ESPN, now that
they've got NBC back on board, now that they're giving
Amazon games and making the package bigger, somebody needs to
(10:57):
talk about basketball way that we talk about football and
helping people really understand the game better and just think
about the general conversation we have and I know, like
we all go in in depth, you know, on the
Seahawks and the rest of the NFL, and it's one
game a week and it's the perfect setup, and so
(11:18):
there's a lot more time in between games to digest things.
But think about the way that we talk about football
versus just how surface level and stupid the basketball conversation is.
And you tell me that that's not affecting the way
that the game is portrayed to the public. Good for you.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
No, it's it's junk food analysis. It's not meat and
potatoes analysis like you get like.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
You in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Jerry Brewer joining us brought to by Northwest Handling Systems.
So I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna make you Jason
kidd here, Jerry, and I'm gonna give you the option
to be the next head coach of the New York Knicks.
Or you get Cooper Flag and just stay where you
are and play with Cooper Flag and Ad and when
Kyrie's healthy, Kyrie, what do you take.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I'd rather stay in Dallas where James Dolan is not
the owner, and I would like to have a shot
at really really activating Cooper Flag. I think he's got
a chance to be a championship caliber, you know, number
one player and a guy you know like I think
Cooper and Dallas and Wimby and the Spurs. Like, if
(12:29):
you tell me who's got the best chance of getting
getting in the way of Oklahoma City becoming a dynasty,
I think I look at the Texas teams, you know,
Houston as well, so he should keep his butt there
instead of like, I mean, the Knicks are better, but
the Knicks are still a mess, and they can turn
into a hot mess with the snap of a finger.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Jerry Brewers with us, Jerry, I don't want to ask
you a leading question. I want to influence your answer whatsoever.
I was gonna ask a flat out you give me
your initial reaction, and I'm just going to read you
the tweet poll question I put out yesterday, and you
give me your answer. Since signing his contract, has Julio
(13:10):
Rodriguez exceeded met or fallen short of your expectations?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
He signed his contract what like at the end of
his first season.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
End of his first August time seven of his first season,
middle middle of his first season, basically up.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
You know, I mean I would say that that he's
fallen short of my initial expectations, you know, like the
guy the guy comes out, you know, as a rookie,
and what is he I mean, I think he was
six six six point two war. He had just a
phenomenal year, you know, and then the next year he
hit thirty home runs thirty two home runs, and then
(13:51):
you know, I mean last year was a was a
down year. This year is interesting because I don't know
if it's like how well he's played on defense, Like
we look at that ops right now, and he's what's
around what he was last year with like seven seven thirty.
But he's on pace, Julio to have his best war
of his career, right, And I think some of that
(14:14):
is that he hasn't missed He's missed one game, right,
I mean, I know he's gone out of games early.
I think he's missed one game. And I mean he's
really really good on the defensive end, and so like
I think he's becoming a better overall baseball player. But yeah,
if you ask me, like this is his age twenty
(14:36):
four season, right, is he has he turned twenty five yet? No?
He hasn't, Like he's a December kid. So yeah, like
this will be if he'll be twenty four all year.
And I thought I saw a projection. Here's my thing.
(14:58):
I saw a projection, like who's going to make the
All Star Team. And I think ESPN or somebody did it,
and they were talking about just how bad the American
League outfielders are this year, the options, and they already
had Julio in as a reserve, and I was like,
he'll know, Julio is not a reserve, right like. And
then I look it up and I'm like, man, like,
the American League outfielders are really terrible, you know, you know,
(15:24):
outside is like like Aaron, George Judge and Corby and
Carroll like that territory. Julio is not functioning like what
I thought he would be, which is a top ten
to fifteen player of significant impact. I don't just blame him, however,
(15:45):
softy like, I look at it and I think part
of it is just having the pieces around him that
are just I mean, they have two hitters in their
lineup that I even think about, right yeah, little you know,
and like half the time Julio doesn't scare you. And
I think a lot of that is just the people
around them. Uh, you need like real, real scary major
(16:09):
league hitters. You need like five of them, and the
Manners have two. They have two and one of them
like doesn't function like that. Well, you have one guy,
one guy that you don't want to pitch to, and
and that's and that's gonna start affecting Cal as the
year goes on. They're not gonna pitch to him at
all at some point this year. And so it comes
(16:33):
back to that same conversation we've been having, like put
pieces around these guys. Julio does not have someone that
he can look to in that lineup and say I
want to be like that guy, Like that guy right
now is better than me. And I just don't know
what team that wants to aspire to win a World
(16:53):
Series like just decides, you know, this kid had a
great rookie year. We're gonna give him this exact a
contract where he's guaranteed two hundred and eleven million dollars
and it could go up to all of this stuff
up to four hundred something with incentives. But then they
don't do anything to make him an a four hundred
million dollar player. They've essentially said, you know what, Uh,
(17:16):
we're okay if he's just like this two hundred million
dollar dude, you know, and like if he gets to
two eleven, like if that's the player, that he is,
and he doesn't access the other stuff in the contract
in terms of value, like he will outperform the value
of that deal. But the great thing about the deal
(17:36):
was that if he became you know, a Griffy level, right,
which like he's got that kind of raw talent, if
he became Griffy level, the money that you were going
to pay him, he was going to far out, far
exceed And so again it's just a matter of like
I just I feel I feel like the Mariners should be,
(17:59):
you know, they should be shooting for the moon, and
instead they're just very happy to be at just sort
of this really interesting competitive, competitive level. And it's not
good for anybody in Seattle. And I do have concerns.
I do have concerns that the way that they structure things,
(18:22):
we're never going to see the best out of Julio
because it's putting it all on him to figure it out,
like and have the maturity to figure it out himself,
instead of the organization being the example that allows him
to like aspire to greater heights. It's too easy for
(18:45):
him to be the best all around player on this
team right now. And that's their fault, not his.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Then why do we have a situation like we have
last night? We have a runner on in second, no
out in the second, sixth, seventh, tenth, and eleventh, and
you don't even care try to move a runner over
and get a guy in old school way because you
point it out, there's nobody to do it.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Yep, I don't know, you know. I mean, I sometimes
sometimes I think they're just like, you know, overwhelmed because
they're just not talented enough. I just, you know, like,
I mean, we're asking, we're asking these guys, some of them,
you know, a lot of them, to play way above
(19:28):
their heads to like meet these expectations that we have.
And I just, I mean, I see another eighty five,
eighty six, eighty seven win baseball team, and like they
have to stretch to get that, and I just I
want it to be easy. You know. Again, something I
always say, how do you build a ninety five win
baseball team? You build a team that you think can
(19:50):
win a hundred games, and like you absorb the fact
that you had a little bit of bad luck. The
Mariners build a team that they think can win ninety
and then when they have a little bad luck, they
went eighty five and we're disappointed, and then we have
to hear about how, oh, well the floor is really high.
Well what about the ceiling, guys, what about the ceiling?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Jerry, great stuff man. Every week you bring it, We
love it, and we'll do it again next Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Man. Thanks Tom. All right, take it easy.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Jerry Brewer with us. We have an update on the
Bryce Miller situation and it's not good. Next on ninety
three three KJRFM
It's time for our weekly conversation with award winning Washington
Post columnist Jerry Brewer, brought to you by Northwest Handling Systems.
From forklifts to Pella jacks conveyors to loading dock equipment,
we sell, rent and service all your warehouse he needs.
Request a quote today at NWHS dot com or give
us a call at four two five two five five
(00:22):
zero five hundred. Now with Jerry Brewer, here's Softy and Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
All right, four three on a Tuesday afternoon, are we
the conversation with the legend baby from the Washington Post.
Our friend, former KJR on air talent, former Settled Times columnists,
current Washington Post columnist and all around great guy, Our
friend Jerry Brewer. Jerry, how are you, man?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Man.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
That's awfully kind of you to consider me a former talent.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well did I say former talent? It's a former KJR talent.
I mean you're still talented. You're just a former KJR talent.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, yeah, I mean the KKR talent.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
You know what, how about this? The hell with you?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You're no longer talented?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
How about that?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Ever since you left the radio station. You have no
talent whatsoever. I can't believe the Post even gave you
a second look for crying out.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Jerry, tell there's a softie I know in love. There
you go.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Tell me Game one for Indiana was not in the
high water mark of this series for the Pacers. Please
tell me that.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I can't tell you that. I do have hope that
they'll get another game and put a little more pressure
on on Oklahoma City, but I still can't see this
much going much further than six games.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
If they are going to get another game, it seems
to me like it has to be this one, right,
first game in Indiana.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah, I mean you still have that the fact that
other than Caruso, no one has been the distance for
Oka see, and I think that can still affect them.
I remember twenty fifteen is when the Warriors won their
first of four championships. They got down one, you know,
two to one to Cleveland and won the last three
(02:10):
had to come and rally. I'd love to see, let's
say Indiana turns the tables and wins this game by
like ten points, right, and okay, so he's down to one,
similar to how they they think they had to come
from behind against against the Nuggets, that kind of pressure.
I'd love to see what they're made of.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, Jerry, the ratings are terrible, right, I Mean we
all thought there's a chance with these two small markets
that ratings were not going to be good, But they're
even worse than we thought they were. I mean Game
two of the NBA Finals averaged with like eight and
a half million people, which was down thirty percent from
the Mavericks Celtics Game two of their Finals and lows
(02:53):
since the Bubble and Fall of twenty twenty. They're basically
getting the state of Washington to watch the games because
this state of Washington's got eight million people. That's that's
who's watching the NBA Finals. So do you blame the
NBA for not promoting more than Lebron and obviously the
Lakers and other great teams out there, so they have
(03:16):
promoted these teams more or is this just what happens
when you take the twelfth biggest market and trade it
in for a rattle like Oklahoma City.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, I think it's just inevitable that that matchup was
going to do this. The NFL is still the only
league that can have two small market teams in this
championship game and not have to worry about what it's
ratings are going to be. It's the only one, you know,
everyone else. I keep hearing all this noise about how
(03:51):
market size doesn't mean anything in pro sports anymore, and
I think, like competitively, like the size of the market
is diminishing the most of the LEA, But in terms
of like what's in the best interest of the finances
of these sports, market size still still matters, or at
least like star power and celebrity still matters.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Are you okay that that these small market teams are
able to compete more? Or is it better for the
league if just Philly and New York and Chicago and
LA and Miami were just bulldogs every single year, Because
I mean it almost would seem like that would that's
when the league has been the most successful, is when
(04:35):
those five six teams have been the best.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, I mean, I'd be okay with it, Dick, if
it were like the Utah Jazz instead of the Thunder
against the It's the Pacers. So you know that that
part of it. But just in general, the idea of
two small market teams. I just want the finals to
be compelling, and I'll always been like, I'm a pro
(05:02):
dynasty guy because in my twenty five years now, since
I've graduated college covering pro sports, one thing I've learned
is that none of these owners really really want to win,
and like, the only thing that compels them to try
to win and not just look at how much money
(05:23):
they possibly could make now or down the road when
they sell the team is for there to be a
team that's just embarrassing the hell out of them. And
so there's a place for the Yankees, there's a place
for the Dodgers. There's a place for the Kansas City
Chiefs to build a dynasty, and the balanced NFL. There's
a place for the Warriors and the Lakers and the
Celtics because it pushes everybody to get off their ass
(05:48):
and I think that matters. And you know, I don't
like how the NBA, with its new rules, is trying
to force parody similar to the way has fourth parody,
because football is a different game, our obsession with it
is different, and so I still want the most interesting
(06:10):
teams and the most interesting players to have a chance
to build something special. I don't care who plays in
championship games, I get the competition, like the competition, Let
the competition decide who wins. What I want more than
anything is when I'm done watching, I want to feel
like I saw greatness. And sometimes I see greatness when
(06:30):
some dominant team blows out the field. And sometimes I
see greatness when it's like two evenly matched teams and
they play an epic kind of series, but close and
everybody having a chance does not equal compelling to me.
Not always.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, yeah, No, I think you're right. The King of
the Hill mentality has served the NBA and other sports
very very well when there's one giant target for everyone
to go after. And I also do wonder Jerry Jerry
Brewer again our guest Tuesday at four, courtesy of our
pals at Northwest Handling Systems. If the star power is
is something the NBA is lacking in this final series,
(07:09):
because look, I mean, obviously Michael Jordan, Lebron, James Magic Johnson,
Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant players like that they transcended the
NBA right, Like, if you're a Johnny Coume lately, you're
not a huge NBA fan. You know who those guys
are is Shake Gildess Alexander really that kind of a
name where he is a household name that people that
(07:30):
don't even really follow the NBA religiously know who this
guy is.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Not yet, But I mean, I think a lot of
guys before they win a championship aren't. He's just not
an interesting character, right, Like, I mean, he's got this,
he's got this really, you know, it feels like he's
got a fake deep voice, you know, like the voice
that when you're a teenager you try to make your
voice a little deeper when you're talking to girls.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Like Dave Chappelle doing the All State Guy on SNL
exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
So it's kind of it's kind of a you know,
weird and you know, but I love his game. I
mean when he's not out hunting for files, like there's
there's that part of it around it. But he plays,
He plays both ends of the floor. He's a really
exceptional player. Like there's a lot of juice to his game.
He kind of reminds me Dick of of Penny Hardaway
(08:26):
in some ways. He's more shifty, but like I'm thinking,
like big guard who can just like manipulate the game
in a certain kind of way more of a score
than Penny ever was like the games are different, but
just the prototype is similar. But yeah, like I think
(08:48):
the NBA kind of going back to what we were
talking about earlier, does the league have a marketing problem
or does the league have an ESPN problem? What do
you think the way ESPN talks about sports right now
in this debate culture, and especially the way the ESPN
(09:09):
talks about the NBA, Because it's steven A's bread and butter,
what he came up in to have to turn on
the game, you know, you know, before every game and
then after the game, and here Steven and Kendrick Perkins
and Bob Myers trying to fit in and Malika trying
(09:30):
to quarterback all of these bozos. It's become a real
problem because like I've never heard any conversation about, you know,
what Okay See was doing to swarm Tyree'se Halliburton. It's
just like Tyrouse Halliburton used to step up, and it's like, well,
first of all, Tyre's Halliburton is a past first point
(09:51):
guard and sort of the John Stockton Steve nash Molde,
and he only averages fourteen shots a game for his
care he's taken thirteen a game in these NBA finals.
If you look at OKC, whether it's been Jokich who
had three really uncharacteristic bad games against OKC, or Anthony
(10:13):
Edwards who was like flummoxed a lot of the time,
like on what he was reading on defense, Jared Jackson
Junior and John Morant now Tyrese Halliburton and Pascal Siakam.
Their defense is so confusing to people that it takes
a long time for you to get adjusted to the
way that they play, and that is making stars lesser
(10:33):
stars in a way that we haven't seen in the
NBA in several years. No one has broken down the
why of that to me, and I think that's a
big ESPN problem. So their relationship with ESPN, now that
they've got NBC back on board, now that they're giving
Amazon games and making the package bigger, somebody needs to
(10:57):
talk about basketball way that we talk about football and
helping people really understand the game better and just think
about the general conversation we have and I know, like
we all go in in depth, you know, on the
Seahawks and the rest of the NFL, and it's one
game a week and it's the perfect setup, and so
(11:18):
there's a lot more time in between games to digest things.
But think about the way that we talk about football
versus just how surface level and stupid the basketball conversation is.
And you tell me that that's not affecting the way
that the game is portrayed to the public. Good for you.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
No, it's it's junk food analysis. It's not meat and
potatoes analysis like you get like.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
You in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Jerry Brewer joining us brought to by Northwest Handling Systems.
So I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna make you Jason
kidd here, Jerry, and I'm gonna give you the option
to be the next head coach of the New York Knicks.
Or you get Cooper Flag and just stay where you
are and play with Cooper Flag and Ad and when
Kyrie's healthy, Kyrie, what do you take.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I'd rather stay in Dallas where James Dolan is not
the owner, and I would like to have a shot
at really really activating Cooper Flag. I think he's got
a chance to be a championship caliber, you know, number
one player and a guy you know like I think
Cooper and Dallas and Wimby and the Spurs. Like, if
(12:29):
you tell me who's got the best chance of getting
getting in the way of Oklahoma City becoming a dynasty,
I think I look at the Texas teams, you know,
Houston as well, so he should keep his butt there
instead of like, I mean, the Knicks are better, but
the Knicks are still a mess, and they can turn
into a hot mess with the snap of a finger.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Jerry Brewers with us, Jerry, I don't want to ask
you a leading question. I want to influence your answer whatsoever.
I was gonna ask a flat out you give me
your initial reaction, and I'm just going to read you
the tweet poll question I put out yesterday, and you
give me your answer. Since signing his contract, has Julio
(13:10):
Rodriguez exceeded met or fallen short of your expectations?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
He signed his contract what like at the end of
his first season.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
End of his first August time seven of his first season,
middle middle of his first season, basically up.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
You know, I mean I would say that that he's
fallen short of my initial expectations, you know, like the
guy the guy comes out, you know, as a rookie,
and what is he I mean, I think he was
six six six point two war. He had just a
phenomenal year, you know, and then the next year he
hit thirty home runs thirty two home runs, and then
(13:51):
you know, I mean last year was a was a
down year. This year is interesting because I don't know
if it's like how well he's played on defense, Like
we look at that ops right now, and he's what's
around what he was last year with like seven seven thirty.
But he's on pace, Julio to have his best war
of his career, right, And I think some of that
(14:14):
is that he hasn't missed He's missed one game, right,
I mean, I know he's gone out of games early.
I think he's missed one game. And I mean he's
really really good on the defensive end, and so like
I think he's becoming a better overall baseball player. But yeah,
if you ask me, like this is his age twenty
(14:36):
four season, right, is he has he turned twenty five yet? No?
He hasn't, Like he's a December kid. So yeah, like
this will be if he'll be twenty four all year.
And I thought I saw a projection. Here's my thing.
(14:58):
I saw a projection, like who's going to make the
All Star Team. And I think ESPN or somebody did it,
and they were talking about just how bad the American
League outfielders are this year, the options, and they already
had Julio in as a reserve, and I was like,
he'll know, Julio is not a reserve, right like. And
then I look it up and I'm like, man, like,
the American League outfielders are really terrible, you know, you know,
(15:24):
outside is like like Aaron, George Judge and Corby and
Carroll like that territory. Julio is not functioning like what
I thought he would be, which is a top ten
to fifteen player of significant impact. I don't just blame him, however,
(15:45):
softy like, I look at it and I think part
of it is just having the pieces around him that
are just I mean, they have two hitters in their
lineup that I even think about, right yeah, little you know,
and like half the time Julio doesn't scare you. And
I think a lot of that is just the people
around them. Uh, you need like real, real scary major
(16:09):
league hitters. You need like five of them, and the
Manners have two. They have two and one of them
like doesn't function like that. Well, you have one guy,
one guy that you don't want to pitch to, and
and that's and that's gonna start affecting Cal as the
year goes on. They're not gonna pitch to him at
all at some point this year. And so it comes
(16:33):
back to that same conversation we've been having, like put
pieces around these guys. Julio does not have someone that
he can look to in that lineup and say I
want to be like that guy, Like that guy right
now is better than me. And I just don't know
what team that wants to aspire to win a World
(16:53):
Series like just decides, you know, this kid had a
great rookie year. We're gonna give him this exact a
contract where he's guaranteed two hundred and eleven million dollars
and it could go up to all of this stuff
up to four hundred something with incentives. But then they
don't do anything to make him an a four hundred
million dollar player. They've essentially said, you know what, Uh,
(17:16):
we're okay if he's just like this two hundred million
dollar dude, you know, and like if he gets to
two eleven, like if that's the player, that he is,
and he doesn't access the other stuff in the contract
in terms of value, like he will outperform the value
of that deal. But the great thing about the deal
(17:36):
was that if he became you know, a Griffy level, right,
which like he's got that kind of raw talent, if
he became Griffy level, the money that you were going
to pay him, he was going to far out, far
exceed And so again it's just a matter of like
I just I feel I feel like the Mariners should be,
(17:59):
you know, they should be shooting for the moon, and
instead they're just very happy to be at just sort
of this really interesting competitive, competitive level. And it's not
good for anybody in Seattle. And I do have concerns.
I do have concerns that the way that they structure things,
(18:22):
we're never going to see the best out of Julio
because it's putting it all on him to figure it out,
like and have the maturity to figure it out himself,
instead of the organization being the example that allows him
to like aspire to greater heights. It's too easy for
(18:45):
him to be the best all around player on this
team right now. And that's their fault, not his.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Then why do we have a situation like we have
last night? We have a runner on in second, no
out in the second, sixth, seventh, tenth, and eleventh, and
you don't even care try to move a runner over
and get a guy in old school way because you
point it out, there's nobody to do it.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Yep, I don't know, you know. I mean, I sometimes
sometimes I think they're just like, you know, overwhelmed because
they're just not talented enough. I just, you know, like,
I mean, we're asking, we're asking these guys, some of them,
you know, a lot of them, to play way above
(19:28):
their heads to like meet these expectations that we have.
And I just, I mean, I see another eighty five,
eighty six, eighty seven win baseball team, and like they
have to stretch to get that, and I just I
want it to be easy. You know. Again, something I
always say, how do you build a ninety five win
baseball team? You build a team that you think can
(19:50):
win a hundred games, and like you absorb the fact
that you had a little bit of bad luck. The
Mariners build a team that they think can win ninety
and then when they have a little bad luck, they
went eighty five and we're disappointed, and then we have
to hear about how, oh, well the floor is really high.
Well what about the ceiling, guys, what about the ceiling?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Jerry, great stuff man. Every week you bring it, We
love it, and we'll do it again next Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Man. Thanks Tom. All right, take it easy.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Jerry Brewer with us. We have an update on the
Bryce Miller situation and it's not good. Next on ninety
three three KJRFM
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