Transcript of Drug Lords, Sheep Detectives, and Baseball | Hour 3 (feat. Jessica Smetana and David Samson) New

This is the Dan Levatorre Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Pitch clock is coming up later this hour and I am going to delay what it is that I just promised you on late night television. I'm sure everybody can't believe that I'm going to delay it because they want to hear again what I have to say about late night television until the postgame show. But Jess is here. Check out her weekly Notre Dame podcast, The Echoes. With Mike Golick Jr. And this is not, not, not an echo chamber. Zazz, do you have any updates for her? I know you and her have been connecting over Euphoria.

Oh yeah, yeah. Jess, have you watched the most recent episode of Euphoria?

No, just clips on Twitter.

Neither have I. I've never seen the show before. Can you believe what's going on with Rue right now? She is like, she's, she's a, she's an FBI informant now.

Jess, the last time I saw, she was buried up to her neck in dirt and Some guy was riding a horse, and I said, what is the show even about? I don't even know anymore.

That's Alamo.

I thought they were in high school, Zazz. I thought they were in high school.

No, that was years ago. That's seasons 1 and 2. Again, I've never seen the show, but that's seasons 1 and 2. That was Alamo who buried her up to her neck, and he was threatening to like, you know, hit her with a polo stick. He's a drug lord. That's who she's running drugs for, but he doesn't know yet she's now an FBI informant because she got arrested, okay? So Rue is in very big trouble, and then you got her whole relationship with Jules, who she's still like trying to get with, even though that didn't really work in high school. And that's a very complicated relationship, Rue and Jules. And then you got Nate, who still owes that guy all the money. He had his toe cut off, his pinky toe, and now, Dan, they cut off his finger, all right? Because he hasn't paid yet, and that's what happens if you don't pay people. So he doesn't have a finger now, but he's suddenly very supportive, even though his wife Cassie has moved out to pursue her OnlyFans career Nate is very per— he's very supportive because he's kind of manipulating her to make all the money doing the OnlyFans and sex work stuff and then send him the money so he can get out of debt.

You know, he's manipulating her. It's not working.

Going from pinky toe to finger, kind of an aggressive escalation. At least go to fourth toe or other pinky toe. Jess, I mean, we're really—

Jess, he owes a million dollars. He owes a million dollars. He's lucky the guy hasn't killed him yet. All right. But Cassie's out there. Doing her thing with Maddy. I think she's stabbing Maddy in the back, kind of like the old high school days. Again, high school is seasons 1 and 2. I've never seen an episode, but they're not— shit's popping off in Euphoria these days, Jess.

It's definitely popping up. I had Lucy came over the other day and told me everything that's happening, and the toe thing, I don't like it.

Oh, so Lucy has seen Euphoria?

Lucy actually watches it. She says she hates pressing play on it every Sunday.

I've never seen it.

She, yeah, sometimes she'll come over, she'll just tell me like the whole plot of Despicable Me 3 for like an hour and then she'll leave. That's what our hangs are like. It's fun.

Do you like, or did you like DTF St. Louis? Because I really thought that was a great dark funny show. And basically at this point, anything Jason Bateman is choosing to attach himself to is something I wanna watch.

I did like it, Dan, we talked about it very briefly when you were gone a few weeks ago. Very dark, very weird. I'm not sure if I loved how it ended, and I also had a slight issue with how they ignored Jason Bateman's wife for the entire season and tried to make him like a— you know, he was a sympathetic character, I would say, but I also felt kind of bad for his family. Um, but it was different, and I like different, so I enjoyed it. I would— I don't know if they can do a season 2 because that would be weird, but if they did, I would watch it.

Well, one of the things that they did that was so funny, and I had just never considered the funny in an idea of how the umpire, how not sensual the giant umpiring equipment is. Like, what, what an incredible turnoff the giant chest protector is. What, Tony, what are you shaking your head?

What is this supposed to be?

Like, I don't understand.

Like, so Linda Cardellini is married to David Harbor, and Jason Bateman is a local weatherman who becomes friends with David Harbor. And part of the premise is that David Harbor no longer finds Linda Cardellini attractive, which in my head I was like, bullshit. That's impossible. She's one of the hottest women ever. But then they have this running bit where she decides to become an umpire to make some cash on the side. And so they show these like montages of her in her umpire outfit. And that is— that was when I started realizing, oh, I think I— this sense of humor fits with what I— what I like. That is a very funny bit.

There are a few shows like that that are really testing boundaries between dark and funny. Widow's Bay. I just started this on Apple.

Oh my God.

4 episodes in and it's both dark and Funny.

I haven't watched it yet. I was told I will love it. It has Matthew Rhys in it, who was in The Americans, and I love him, Dan. I love him. So that's my plan for Memorial Day weekend.

Zaz, what do you know about DTF St. Louis?

Nothing. I've never seen it.

Well, you know what else I saw this past weekend?

Hmm.

What do you know about Sheep Detectives?

Oh, I think I want to see that. That looks funny, right?

It was funny. It was also a tearjerker. I cried. I, again, Lucy, AMC A-lister, took me to the movies. We were in like— hold on a second.

Hold on a second.

Yeah.

Okay. What does that encompass? AMC A-lister?

No idea. It encompasses— she got all the tickets and the popcorn.

Like, does she get to go? Okay, Dan, I don't know when's the last time you went to the movies. Okay. But at AMC, there's like, you have the snack line and snack line kind of, you know, wraps around like a maze. And then if you're like in their membership express lane.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You get to like skip all the way over here and go first. Like, is that, is that part of the A-list? Like, does Lucy get to do that?

So we were in the children's section of the theater where there's a separate concessions line. And she was telling me while we were in line, because there was a line. So I guess, no, there's not a separate line. She's like, they gave me an upgrade on popcorn with my AMC A-list membership. So she like went up and she's like, I'll get the medium popcorn, but it comes with an upgrade to large. And I'm like, this This girl, she knows what she's doing. So, um, we did get an upgrade on the popcorn, and that might be it. I think you get discounted tickets. I imagine that would be the whole premise of it, is the discounted tickets. But, um, yeah, Sheep Detective. If you have to— if you are bored this weekend, the weather is stinky, you get— you have an extra day off work and you need a movie that is family-friendly but also funny for adults, highly recommend The Sheep Detective because It was— first of all, it's a murder mystery, which I obviously— Dan, you know, as a Columbo stan, a Poirot stan, a Murder, She Wrote stan— like, this is right up my alley.

It's a murder mystery, and this is not a spoiler, but Hugh Jackman is a shepherd in a small village in England.

Are they real sheep?

No, they're all CGI sheep, but they actually don't look ridiculous.

Human being you are. Well, I mean, no, no, no, that was for Zazz, just how he communicates.

I know, I know it was for Zazz, but I don't think they're real sheep. I think it was a fair question. I think it was a fair question. Um, the delivery, yeah, the delivery is always going to be special with him. But, um, the sheep do talk, which I thought would be a turn.

It's so not real.

Correct. They did it well enough where the talking sheep actually don't look terrible. So it's a murder mystery. Hugh Jackman, he's a very nice shepherd, also super hot. I'm like, okay, sure, buddy. He's living in this village in England and he gets murdered, and the sheep are like, oh my God, we have to figure out what happened here. And Nicholas Braun, who's Cousin Greg in Succession, plays a bumbling British police officer in the small town, so he has to solve the crime. It's very cute, very twee.

I was sad.

I cried.

I was super excited for this film. I take my daughter to movies all the time, and this trailer caught our attention. She wanted to see the sheep movie, so we went for an 11 AM Saturday morning showing. Oh, and, uh, we were the only ones in the theater. No, we were the only ones in the theater. I was bummed. I've been— I'm a big Sheeps Detectives guy. I cracked the case about 35 minutes in.

I knew it.

Oh, same. Yeah, it was not the most difficult mystery to solve, but Mike, did Juliet like it? Was it—

She did, but she had never been in an empty theater before. It was just us two. So she spent most of the movie not really following the case, but climbing on every individual seat. Got it. That was available in the theater.

Have to.

But it was actually pretty great. It was actually pretty great to watch a whodunit that way because we were just by ourselves, so we were shouting back and forth at one another the latest developments in the case and how we think that that might play into our working theory. We got there together, which was a beautiful thing.

Well, I was, I was worried about this with Young Lucy, but like, were any of the themes too heavy for your for your daughter, because it was— There were times in the movie where there was quite some depressing things happening on screen.

Young Lucy, you think, is the same as Mike's—

Was she running around the theater as well?

Daughter?

No, I'm just kidding. But we did turn to each other at the end and we both had— I had a fat tear rolling down my cheek. We looked at each other and we were like, "Oh, God." Mike does a lot of things to just amuse himself.

You can put that back on the screen again. You'll see here that he had a hat made to celebrate how Tony pronounces "con." funds. You saw that—

That's Kane's connection to you, Dan. Look at my shirt. I don't have NMLS.

I have Kane's written on it.

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Dan Lebatard.

I don't like smelly either.

Stugatz.

Women stay home in the kitchen where they belong.

This is the Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz.

Jessica, what are your thoughts on the 24-team college football playoff debate?

Speaking of the Canes, I hate it, Dan. I hate that there is so much support for it right now. The only thing standing in its way are ESPN and the SEC, who are not cool with it. They don't want 24 teams. They want to either stay with 12 or do 14 or 16. Um, if you've seen any of the mock brackets that have been out there for what the, uh, 24-team playoff would have looked like this past football season, you may notice that most of the first-round games are not that good, but the second-round games look like they're all awesome, which is why I'm like, okay, the 16-team playoff, if you have like 5 auto bids and 11 at-large teams. I, I can kind of see what we're doing here, but I just find it quite absurd in its totality for so many reasons. But one of the main reasons that I don't think is discussed enough is that, um, we've, we've changed the postseason already, like, multiple times in the last decade, and we're going to do it again with, like, such a limited sample size for what this actually has done for the sport in the postseason.

It makes absolutely no sense to me. Why not? I mean, I know why, but hypothetically, if I didn't know, why not just wait and see how this looks in like 5 years before we make a major change again?

Money. Just more games, right?

I mean, that's why more games. But like, I don't even think ESPN wants the games. Like, I think that they're concerned, which is, I think, a very legit concern that the regular season ratings that they have, especially their SEC ratings in the regular season, are so good right now. You might fuck that up if you— like, they SEC certainly does not want to get rid of their conference championship game. They have like the most, uh, revenue generated from their conference championship game. This would get rid of conference championship games. But if you have teams going into the season who can lose 3, maybe even 4 games and still make a playoff, then your, you know, Week 6 or Week 7 Alabama-Tennessee regular season game doesn't matter as much. Or, you know, like all of these games matter slightly less, and I don't think you can really effectively convinced me that that would not be the case. So if the regular season ratings, which are really good right now, are going to go down in hopes that maybe you make it up on the back end with playoffs that are now going head to head, possibly with the NFL in the, you know, December, January part of the year where the NFL doesn't have to abide by the Sports Broadcasting Act, where they, you know, can't do Friday, Saturday games or whatever.

Like, I feel like this would be a pretty big mistake if I'm the other conferences and if I'm Notre Dame.

I hold the line as long as possible because Only so many more years of Alabama traveling to Tallahassee and losing to FSU. Can you keep doing this SEC-Big Ten bullshit that has been happening for the last few years while other teams from other conferences are making it all to the title game? I don't know if you saw the quotes from Iowa State's athletic director yesterday, but I'm kind of down with this attitude. Quote on the Big Ten and SEC: Let them break away. We should let them break away. Let them go, but they have to go all in on all their sports. See how fun it is to play baseball, softball, and track when it's just 20 of you. That's what I'm thinking we should do. But I'm one person, so that's probably a little bit more draconian. But that's how I feel about it. Like, let's quit talking. Go ahead, do it. Quit threatening.

Yeah, why not? I mean, there's dozens of us, right, Mike? Like, there's so many college football fans and college— just sports fans in general outside of the Big Ten and the SEC that would be like, okay, cool, I guess, well, you guys can keep playing your Michigan State-Purdue games and stuff, but like, we're— our teams are still playing over here, so have fun with that. We're gonna keep doing our thing. I don't know, I think the whole thing is depressing. I guess maybe like the argument for the 24-team playoff is that it delays the inevitable Super League, but yeah, I don't, I don't think the Super League is a very appealing thing for me either as a fan.

Are they real sheep? It's a legit question.

Can you play that again?

Are they real sheep?

It had to be asked.

Was there like a grid of death punishment that I missed? Like, why no hat?

Oh geez.

Oh no.

Oh no.

Are they real sheep?

She thinks it's a punishment to take away your hat.

I've never seen him without a hat on.

He looks like something between a billiards ball and the movie Powder.

I don't know what you're laughing so hard about, Jeremy.

Yeah, go after me for what?

Someone in the YouTube comments said earlier that he looks like a glow stick that won't turn off.

God, that's mean. You're the one who said it. I did not say glow stick that won't turn off.

We've got pitch clock in a couple of minutes and we're going to play topic roulette with Jessica. Would you prefer to talk about robots. Uh, Caitlin Clark or Stephen Colbert?

Oh, Stephen Colbert. Wait, do we have to spin the wheel?

No.

Okay, Chris spun it before.

Yeah, I landed on Stephen Colbert. Damn. I'll start. I love Stephen Colbert because he's the biggest Lord of the Rings nerd ever. And while I'm sad that his show is going away, he apparently is helping write a new Lord of the Rings movie based off of a chapter in The Fellowship of the Fog on the Barrow-downs, which is when the Hobbits are kidnapped by Barrow-wights. And they— Barrow-wights are like these kind of undead evil spirit things. And this— none of this showed up in the movies. There was no Tom Bombadil in the movies. He was in the Amazon series, which was a fairly controversial decision. But this movie would be one of, I think, one of readers' favorite chapters of The Lord of the Rings that never made it into Peter Jackson's original trilogy. And so I'm really excited that he's gonna have time to work on this now. And if we get more Tolkien content by someone like Stephen Colbert, who is a genuine fan and who loves it, and I think will be a great steward of J.R.R. Tolkien's original intent in his work, then I'm happy he'll have that extra time on his hands.

And I'm really excited to see this movie. And I think, I think a lot of Lord of the Rings fans feel the same way.

Dan, what an unusual decision for him to make on what his next move is. It's the only thing he's announced that he's gonna actually do next.

Uh, but I'm excited to finally watch a Lord of the Rings movie because Barry White— are you kidding me? I'm a huge Barry White guy.

So you're right. Uh, thank you, Jessica. Appreciate the time.

Salute.

Pitchcock.

I don't know why I saluted.

Next.

Damn it.

Dan Lebatard. Can I tell you something? I don't know, maybe like a month ago, and I decided to watch Pitch Clock, and I told Jeremy Stugatz, this is a good show you're doing. This is the Dan Lebatard Show with Stugatz.

So nobody on the show told people that we wouldn't have a Pitch Clock last week?

We didn't have one.

No. What? Welcome to the Pitch Clock. Here's the pitch: a two-part baseball segment combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game and an interview with an expert. This is the Pitch Clock. We're back.

Have a—

Pitch Clock's back. Sorry we missed you last week. I was on a chartered flight and staying in first-class hotels. It was awesome. Anyway, it's— I just had to brag. It's time for our trivia game before David Sampson joins us on this episode. We'll dive into a bunch of fun stuff. But Ethan, what is our trivia game today?

So guys, I've obviously been watching a lot of the hockey and this week the Montreal Canadiens advance.

I don't like where this is going.

Oh boy, guys, we all remember the Montreal Expos, right? Don't we miss them? Don't you miss those uniforms, the logo? I was so young when they moved to Washington, but yeah, I just, I'm still nostalgic for that.

Vlad throwing the ball on a string from right field all the way to the catcher.

Larry Walker. The Montreal Expos had some great players. Like, you don't realize how many great players they had. Gary Carter. So anyway, inside your folder, if you'll open— I will actually on one on the side that you'll open to, you see a Marlins logo, right?

I do see a Marlins logo.

So famously, the Marlins played in the last game in Stadio Olympique. I believe that's what it's called in Montreal. I just know that means Olympic Stadium in French.

I'm cooking already here.

Yeah. So the Marlins played in the last game on September 29th, 2004, in Montreal's ballpark.

Do you know who that right fielder is? I do.

So on the other side of the sheet, this is a double-sided sheet, you will see a roster of Expos.

Oh boy.

These are their all-time leaders in hits, like, that position. There are some players that were the leaders at multiple positions. I took, put them in their primary position, and then for their secondary position, I took second place. The pitcher in this lineup is the all-time leader in wins for the Montreal Expos.

So, man, it would help if I knew how long the Expos were around?

1969 to 2004.

Oh boy.

We're going to do 3 strikes and you're out. Chris Cody, you were the winner of Pitch Clock Jeopardy last time out 2 weeks ago. You have the board.

Luis Castillo, number 1, of course. Second base.

Who else would that be?

All right, well, I'll go ahead. Uh, Juan Pierre, number 9, center field for the Marlins. Yep.

Off to a fast start.

Alex Gonzalez, shortstop.

Yep, correct.

Mike Lowell, third base.

Of course.

Jeff Conine, first base.

Yep.

We could do this all day, boys.

Uh, Miguel Cabrera, left field. Yes.

You ready for this? I'm afraid I don't want to do it. I'm so scared. Carl Pavano, pitcher. Correct.

Nice.

I know who right field is. I'm like 80% sure. I'm afraid to say.

So I'm afraid—

what about behind the plate?

I'm afraid on catcher.

Number 14.

I'm afraid you know where my head's at. I know where you're at. You do.

Shut your mouth, Ethan.

No, because we've— no, here's what it is.

Just shut your mouth.

There's a guy that they trade. We've talked about him recently as a trade.

And he wore either that number or 16.

Or another number. Ah, you knew the other number I was thinking. I'm going with it. Paul LaDuca.

That is correct.

Oh, thank God.

What was the other name you were thinking of?

I'm curious.

No, he's I was just, I wasn't sure if it was 14 or 16.

I think he wore 14 and then he switched to 16 this year.

Really?

Because on MVP Baseball 2005, he wears 16.

This guy knows everything about MVP Baseball.

Now I totally could be wrong on this, but I know this guy wore number 3 for us.

Yeah.

Chris Aguila.

That's the one. I wasn't sure if you guys were going to get it.

I wasn't sure if you guys were going to get it.

Oh, all right. Well, we're done with the Marlins.

So we went perfect on the Marlins.

Wow.

And now back with us as our 2026 MLB expert is David Sampson of Nothing Personal with David Sampson. David, very excited to have you back here on the Pitch Clock. And I want to dive right into this with you because it's been kind of a strange season so far. When you look at the American League and the National League in the American League, as we sit here during this recording, there are only 4 teams that are at.500 or better. And yet in the National League, there are 10 teams that are.500 or better. You see some of the, the different things in the standings, like the NL Central, where there are 2 teams that are about 10 back in their own division. That would basically be a wildcard team in the American League. It's unbelievable to watch. What do you make of this disparity between the American League and the National League right now?

There is no exact reason other than some years the Western Conference in the NBA is stronger than the Eastern Conference. Some years the Eastern Conference is stronger. Generally, we've seen what I would call league parity, where you had generally at the end of the season X number of teams below.500, X number of teams above.500, but mostly within what we call the 4-6 collar, the 4-6 collar in a front office. When we talk about that, generally teams are going to be 600 winning percentage or lower and 400 winning percentage or better. And if you're lower than that, you're definitely— you're going to lose over 100 games. And if you're higher than that, you're clearly going to win the division to be a favorite to win the World Series. And so when I look at that collar, which is how I examine the standings, and you look to see Tampa at 674, but sort of in the, in the 4 to 6 collar, the only teams in baseball are the Astros and the Angels and the Rockies.

Wow.

There's 3 teams below that collar and there's no teams really playing. You know, you've got Atlanta higher than.650 and you've got, of course, the Tampa Bay Rays higher than.650. And what I'm enjoying thinking about that is what it means for the rest of the season, because baseball is at its best when interleague is a part of life. It's part of the math. But the dog days of summer are manageable when you've got enough teams that can actually play competitively against each other. Yeah. And to do that, you have to have as few crappy teams as possible.

Yeah, there are a lot of really solid teams right now that are sitting near the bottom of their division, but only a few games back of one another because there are teams that got off to bad starts that have been good. There are teams that got off to good starts that have been bad. And I actually want to go through a couple of those with you because ever since the Phillies fired Rob Thompson and hired Don Mattingly, they have literally been the best team in baseball. They're 15-4 at the time of this recording since hiring Don Mattingly. Kyle Schwarber's on pace for what feels like like 90 home runs all of a sudden. He's, he's totally turned it around. And what's so funny, David, is you and I sat on this podcast about a week into the season and we're both maybe even a little bit enjoying, but watching the Phillies and going, oh my God, they're old, they're done, it's over. And now they've been playing out of their minds. What do you see in their turnaround?

Well, think about our Marlins from '03. We fired Jeff Torborg and we were 10 games under.500. That's where the Phillies were at 9-19. We brought in Jack McKean and we were the best team in baseball. Yeah, starting in May. And that lasted all the way through October. And the irony is we were not supposed to be underdogs against the Giants or the Cubs or the Yankees, but we were gambling underdogs. But in terms of who the better team was, it was always our team. And when you look at what Philly's done, is Don Mattingly so different than Rob Thompson? I will tell you that Jack McKean was different than Jeff Torborg. There's no question about it. But I'll also tell you that we had good players and those good players were put in a position to be good, which many teams do. But then we actually won games. So it's so much more random than people think in terms of we now have a narrative. We pin this to Donnie, and I love Don Mattingly. Yeah, it's just outstanding that he's the manager of that team. But are you telling me that up and down that Philadelphia lineup that all of a sudden he did something to switch something.

Don Mattingly wanted Rob Thompson to succeed. If Don Mattingly saw something, he was on the staff. But the timing that we talked about on this show, when you fire a guy going into a soft part of the schedule, that's the hope that you can play well, which they did. And then that can all of a sudden give you confidence, carry you forward. And we're seeing it. Last thing on this, Jeremy. It's still early.

Yep.

We're still in May. In order for the Phillies to complete this quote unquote turnaround, they have to sustain it for June, July, August, September. And that's two-thirds of the year. Do I think they can? They certainly have the talent. Do I think they will? You know, wait to see.

And now I'm screwed.

Okay.

I know two of these.

Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and go with right field Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Vlad.

Actually, I guess the scenario I drew earlier.

Vladimir Guerrero Senior.

He said Junior.

No, we're not gonna do that.

It's not gonna happen.

You heard him.

I refuse. I refuse.

All right, I'll give you Vlad.

Yeah, of course.

Give me Vlad.

I got—

you said his son. Relax.

Jose Vidro. Third base. I mean, second base.

Pull.

Relax.

Nice.

I said third base.

That is unbelievable. Yeah, that is a great pull.

Uh-oh.

Yeah, we're screwed. Um, but Jeremy's gonna go first. So if we both go strike, strike, strike, strike, strike, then he loses first.

Correct.

Uh, okay, I guess I'll just try it there. Uh, number 8, catcher Gary Carter.

That is correct.

Okay, well, we're back and I'm screwed again.

So this is the leader in hits all time at each position for the Expos.

And, uh, Jose Vidro is a really good pull.

That was great.

Pedro Martinez, pitcher.

He is not the all-time—

because isn't he—

he played for them, right?

He did.

And he's number 5.

Yeah, so Chris Cody.

I just was like, that is that.

I just, so you can see, just so that you know, I also have Pedro.

Yeah, I mean, I was like, who else?

I don't know who else it could be.

So I have one strike.

Correct.

This is a weird and random guess that's probably wrong.

Mm-hmm.

Is 30 in left field Cliff Floyd? That is incorrect as well.

Okay.

That's fine. As long as we both keep getting one strike each. I can't even think.

There are names on here that you should be able to get.

Yeah, I'm sure there are.

Did this guy wear number 30? Larry Walker.

Larry Walker did play for the Expos, but that was not him. He is not on this list.

I have another random thought, but I'm not even—

I don't—

I'm just gonna give it. Did Devon White play center field and lead them in hits?

That is incorrect.

Devon White also came to mind. All right.

Sure.

All right, so we're down at 2 strikes. I really thought you guys would do a little bit better here, but this is very difficult. This is difficult.

I want to now turn to another team that got off to a great start at the end of April. The Reds had the 4th best record in baseball. They're 4-13 since, and they were such a good feel-good story, but now they've really struggled. So sort of the same question, when you see what's happening with the Reds, What are your thoughts there?

What I would be saying to the Reds is you have to not believe that you're 4-13. You have to actually believe that you're 24-24. It doesn't matter how we got there. So now that we've hit.500, what do we do to win series, to start creeping a game above and then 2 games above and then 3 games above? And for them, the key, like with all teams, is going to be their pitching and whether or not Eli De La Cruz can continue to outsmart the adjustments. And what that means, Jeremy, is that with these players, it happens and you see it with young players when they come up and have great success, then all of a sudden there's scouting reports. All of a sudden the pitchers have a plan and then it gets super hard again and then the hitters have to adjust. Can Eli De La Cruz continue to evolve as a player, which I think he can because he's that good, but the league and the pitching will catch up to him. So then I look to their pitching staff. I wouldn't call it deep. I would call it interesting. I would call them roughly a 79 to 83 win team, which is roughly where they are.

And how you get there matters less.

Absolutely. It's funny, I was just having this conversation not to do the baseball bona fide, bona fides thing, but when I was on the road trip with the Marlins, I was talking to Jacob Marcy and Connor Norby right before the game on Saturday where they ended up scoring 8 runs in the, in the 10th inning in this crazy game. But right before that game, I was talking with them. You know, they were a few games under and they were like, it's been such a struggle over the last few weeks. And since they started 6-0, it felt so good. Then it felt so bad. And they were like, we have to remember, like, if we had been at this point in the schedule and we're sitting right around.500, that's all right. We need to just get going. And they were talking about the guys that haven't gotten going. Some of the guys who have, and I'll actually mention before we wrap this up, but I do want to get to our Golden Era Stars of the Week and have you pick one here. And I just went with the guys who were right at the top of Major League Baseball in ERA because the names would never have been predicted.

You might have had Cam Schlittler at the top. He's a great young pitcher for the New York Yankees. You never would have had Davis Martin, of the Chicago White Sox, or Nick Martinez of the Rays, who's a Miami boy who at 35 years old has totally reinvented himself and just moves around the mound the entire time he's pitching. It's pretty amazing to watch Nick Martinez and what he's doing right now. But David, of these 3 pitchers, who do you want to highlight as our Golden Era Star of the Week?

I want to highlight Nick Martinez, and I'll tell you why. Uh, go take a look at how much he's being paid, and I believe that he's being paid $13 million by the Tampa Bay Rays. And I would tell you, given my experience with the Rays front office, when they choose to pay a pitcher $13 million, I believe that they know something that I got wrong or my guys didn't see. And that is— that's not an investment that they throw away. Like, hey, we need innings, let's sign him and give him $13 million. They don't engage in that sort of behavior because they can't. And so they had an expectation for him and he came in and I'm going to draw the comparison to the Marlins in a second. Yeah, but look what he's done as a $13 million pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays. He is leading that staff and leading that team as we sit today to be the best team in the American League in a division that was supposed to be all about everybody but them.

It's amazing. Like Nick Martinez, the way they have this pitching factory in Tampa where they just find this way to see the one thing that they can change in a pitcher's game that can unlock something else. And they've done that here with Nick Martinez and his changeup in particular.

And it's important to think about that because what happens is that people get hired from that organization. They go to other organizations. You try to find people with connectivity to the organization. And then you realize when they're on their own, like, oh, was it more of a team effort? Like, and I'm not saying that Peter Benicks is doing a bad job with the Marlins, but the Marlins want to be the Rays and they're not the Rays. I'm sorry to say that, but nobody's the Rays. We tried for years to be the Rays. You just can't be. And I don't know what the secret sauce is. I've spent a lot of time with people in that front office, people who had been in that front office. Every time we play them on the road, I'd go to the games trying to, by osmosis, figure out. And it is a mystery. And I would just say that emulation is really common in baseball, but it's really hard to put into practice.

Yeah, it takes the right guys to figure it out. And it actually leads into those guys I wanted to mention with the Marlins, because like you mentioned, Pete Fairbanks has not quite lived up to that $13 million contract. Chris Paddock was a tough one for that matter. Christopher Morel. As a major league signing has not quite been there. But the guys they took the dart throws on where you're looking to find the diamonds in the rough— Liam Hicks, who was a Rule 5 pick who had never played higher than AA in his second season, is now leading Major League Baseball in RBIs, which is just bonkers. Otto Lopez, a guy who was DFA'd playing shortstop for the Marlins, to me should end up being an All-Star. He's leading the league in hitting. Those are a couple of great finds they've had. And that pitching staff with all the guys from Driveline have really helped Max Meyer take a step. The only qualified starter in Major League Baseball without a loss thus far this season. So a few bright spots for the Marlins that I had no choice. I'm contractually obligated to make sure that I mention.

I love watching those guys play. I also love having you here, David. Thank you for joining me on this episode of The Pitch Clock. I'm really struggling.

This is just no way this is right.

I'm not gonna lie to you, 18 is staring me in the face in a way that is like—

uncomfortable to you?

I know I'm supposed to know who that is.

Number 10 in center field is kind of just like annoying me a little bit.

Uh-huh. I know, so while you contemplate, for the audio audience, um, the numbers left for us are number 14 at first base, number 18 at shortstop, number 29 at third, number 45 on the mound. That's where we're looking for wins. Number 30 in left field and number 10 in center field.

Wait a minute, did I unlock— I just thought of a guy, but I thought he didn't wear any of these numbers.

Like, I can't even—

I just thought of an Expos legend.

I can't think of, ah, Expo right now.

I'm just gonna say an Expo, an Expos legend just popped in the lineup.

But you got to say the position.

Uh, okay.

Yeah, you can't just say the name, you got to say who he is.

Okay, I know he didn't wear number 30 and I know he's an outfielder, so I'll just say 10 in center field. But I don't think he wore 10, he wore number 8, and his name is Hawk. Andre Dawson.

That is correct.

What?

Well, I can't believe I pulled that out of my fart.

I just thought of Legend.

Like, that's kind of—

yeah, I feel like an idiot.

Yeah, I'm so—

I can't believe you're gonna win.

That's cool, only because Olivia's in here.

It's really—

I'm like sick of it now. I've lost track of our record.

It ain't good when Olivia's in here.

Give me the first Expo.

I'm just gonna say he didn't even play. Know he didn't play for them. Omar Vizquel.

Omar Vizquel is not the answer. The answer at shortstop is—

it's over.

No, it's over. That was Jeremy's third strike.

I guess who I thought it was going to be. Orlando Cabrera.

Orlando Cabrera was the answer. Is that the answer?

That's the answer. So let's fill out the rest of the lineup here. So Orlando Cabrera was at short.

This is a stupid game.

Tim Wallach was at third base, former Marlins hitting or infield coach. And Tim Raines was in left field.

That's the one you guys should have got.

The Rock. Hall of Famer, I believe. Do you think of him as an Expo though, or a White Sox?

I think of him as a White Sox.

Who's the pitcher? Steve Rogers was the pitcher. Not sure you guys would have known that one. Isn't that Captain America?

Yes.

And Andrés Galarraga was the first baseman.

Oh, the Big Cat.

See, I think of him as a Rocky, right? In the Blake Street Bombers.

Ah, the Big Cat.

I'm going to be honest with you. If the answer is Tim Wallach and it's an all-time leader, we should never have done this. This is garbage.

Your franchise stunk.

This sucks.

So Dawson was actually the leader in center field and in right field, but I didn't want to put him twice.

Yeah.

So I put Vlad.

That, that was what I talked about earlier. I put Vlad first. Was second.

I hate to see it, Jeremy.

But hey, at least Chris got the dub.

At least you get to talk to David Sampson.

I'll be back next week with vengeance, Jack.