Transcript of Hour 3: Zaslow's Interactive Movie Proposal (feat. Bobby Wagner) New

This is the Dan Levatorre Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Just for the record, Kalen DeBoer's new contract, $12.5 million a year with a whole lot of perks. One of the top 5 college football coaches in terms of salary. It's Signetti, it's Kirby Smart, it's Lane Kiffin, it's Ryan Day. And you explain why.

Why?

Who else?

Why? I will keep asking why. Someone explain it to me. It's a simple question. Somebody give me a— give me an answer.

Because there's nobody better and they're afraid of losing him and somebody worse coming in.

Agents rule the world.

How many perks a day does he get?

Yeah, but like, the agents rule the world part would have made more sense if we— this happened 2 months ago.

$16,800 annual automobile allowance. Oh, that's— skybox parking passes, 18 or 15 general admission tickets, road game tickets, free travel for spouse house and dependents, country club membership, uh, cell phone stipend.

So that's why it took 2 months.

Cell phone stipend?

Yeah, that's stuff that they usually get.

I—

it's ugly when you parse through the contract, but it's par for the course.

What thing doesn't fit there though?

How much could the cell phone be compared to the others?

What package do you think he's allowed? Like, it's whatever package this is.

This is—

I don't know, like, these public institutions have to release all this stuff. And so there was like, there was something that was filed like Bowling Green's athletic department used private jets like in the top 10. You're like, what? Why?

He's the state's highest paid employee by miles, correct? And so it's why we got a draft party tonight and draft watch. Love for you to be a part of it. We don't know when it's going to end, but we are going to enjoy ourselves the entirety of what we're doing. Mike is very excited about just a couple of things that I have seen in, uh, entertainment that are coming, and it's the Tom Cruise level of excitement, which is the highest level of excitement. Okay, uh, he cannot stop talking about whatever's gonna happen with the remake of Heat and the Miami Vice, uh, this Miami Vice project that is going to, uh— I don't know why this has you so excited.

Well, can you tell I'm a Michael Mann guy? Because Miami Vice, Michael Mann's thing, and Heat, obviously Michael Mann's thing. Miami Vice, we saw Michael Mann try to tackle it, and he actually said, the only way I can get this cop movie that I always wanted made was to call it Miami Vice. He kind of wanted to get away from that. But this, this is a franchise that, if done right, has legs. And we've seen the casting news. First off, the director that's attached to it is a hugely successful one, brought back the Top Gun franchise with Top Gun: Maverick alongside Tom Cruise.

What a movie.

Saved cinema. And so he's doing this Miami Vice picture. Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler are attached.

Are they crocking in tubs?

They are crocking in tubs. Yesterday we got a title for this movie and it made me so excited. The title for Miami Vice is not just Miami Vice. It's Miami Vice '85. Ooh, folks, this is going to be a period piece. We are going to get this incredible team of creatives to recreate 1980s Miami. This is how we want to see Miami Vice. We don't want to see modern haircuts and modern fashion. And although it was a banger, non-point doing In the Air Tonight. We want In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins. We want the music, the style, Max Club Deuce. We want it all. We— the Viceroy, we want you to recreate Miami as it was in the '80s because that's the only way that Miami Vice is cool. And by the way, rewatch it. Miami Vice somehow is still cool.

I will, I will, if I only have, you know, I want to watch 4 minutes, go back to my childhood of 22 minutes of chewing. It's not a great show, but stylistically it's a great show.

Super stylistic. Yes, hugely influential. And there are certain shots in that film when Crockett and Tubbs are in the car getting ready for like the perhaps their last job together, uh, when when Sonny goes and, and tries to get some arms deal and he blows up— his car gets blown up. The dude dying in a highline match. Iconic moments. Liam Neeson being one of the great villains in that show.

Ed O'Neill was a cocaine dealer.

That's right. Yes, it was super '80s. It was super influential. And the soundtrack adjacent to it, I mean, we still talk about it to this day. I am so pumped that it gets to be Miami Vice in 1985.

Yeah, but Zazz, you can be into it. And what's been happening here, Zazz, I don't know if this happening to the rest of you. He was into that Michael movie, the Michael Jackson movie, and then public opinion ends up making it so he'll never see that movie. And I wonder how much that's happening. Is that happening to everybody now? Like, you talk about your enthusiasm for this, and I don't believe the audience at large has got the enthusiasm that we in Miami would have for 1985 Miami being brought back to life. But Michael, uh, I, I saw here locally a a Broadway and Off-Broadway type of show celebrating Michael Jackson.

I went too!

And it was great!

Great!

And it was great because the people— well, because the character playing Michael Jackson was believable is why it was great, but also the story of Michael Jackson is an interesting one. But what happened? It's getting panned? It's getting— because I would imagine everybody would want to see a Michael Jackson movie.

So this movie Michael is coming to theaters this week. Yeah, this weekend it's coming out. And it's, it's just, it's getting panned. It's getting destroyed. Right now on Rotten Tomatoes, it's at— there's no audience score yet, which means there have been no early showings. That's never really a good sign. Uh, the media score is 38%, so that's obviously very low. But I've seen, like, I read Roger Ebert's review. It's really, really bad. Uh, yeah.

How do you find time to do that?

You know what, I, I— that's my mistake. I know what you're gonna say.

Yeah, he's been— he's been dead for quite some time. He has a website though, still, by the way.

That's where I saw it then.

Yeah, but it wasn't his. That'd be something.

Alright, but that's not a fine then.

Crazy.

If I saw it on RogerEbert.com, which is his site, like, that's okay, right?

He died in 2013.

Alright, but he's still pumping out reviews.

You said you saw— I think this is a fine.

Long enough ago where you could forget.

Is it a $50 fine? He's not killing somebody.

We've never brought somebody back.

Should he get $50?

Dan, he's still pumping out reviews!

I know, RogerEbert.com is still a thing.

You're—

I— I don't—

I didn't say Roger Ebert's alive.

Well, no, but you did say— you said Roger Ebert panned it.

It was implied.

I saw Roger Ebert's review and it was panned.

No, you didn't.

He's got a website, this is a play on.

He saw it on the website.

But he was claiming that Roger Ebert from the beyond was raising hell on the Michael documentary 10 years late because everybody knows he's dead.

Right, we're getting bogged down. Just take $25 out of your wallet.

Man, alright, fine. So, so here's the thing, I like— I'm afraid—

All right, fine, it's a fine. You got to take the money.

Do you want me to leave the room and get my wallet? I don't have it right now.

I think we actually owe my boy Zazz $20 for resuscitating my boy back to life.

That's what I'm saying.

It—

we, we don't have a template for this. I guess you're right there, Juju.

I mean, did everyone know even though he passed away that there's a RogerEbert.com? Do a movie review. Sounds like I just did the guy a solid.

Yep.

Right.

Well, Pluckski.

So a lot like documentaries, Dan, you can't really get the rights to the music if the family doesn't approve. We saw this with the Prince documentary. We saw this with the Queen film that, you know, didn't really get into the stuff that you wanted them to get into. Even Elvis's estate had to approve this script. And how do you tell Michael Jackson's story without the King of Pop's music? And, you know, I don't know if you know this about Michael Jackson, but there's some off-field concerns here that should be addressed.

Wait a minute, they don't have the music?

You can't— no, no, no, the estate controls the music.

But like, the movie exists. No, Chris, they have the music. In exchange for that, they're not talking about any of the pedophilia stuff.

Okay, yeah, apparently most of the movie is the music, but they don't address a lot of the, uh, scandal. Janet Jackson apparently is not even— doesn't even exist.

Exist in this world. If you start hearing the, uh, the, the musician's music in the trailer, already apply some scrutiny that this is probably not going to be a super honest look at this individual, because to clear the music, you have to run it through the estate, and the estate is going to want something favorable.

What about the Pepsi commercial where he burns his hair? You think that's in there?

I'm pretty sure it's in there. I think the most disappointing part of this It's not the movie that's getting the reviews. It's not the, the actual facts in the movie that's getting the bad reviews. It's the surface level stuff that people are complaining about. The makeup, the lighting, the extras. And that's what's embarrassing about Michael being bad.

When I like that song.

Yeah, that was a good one.

Wesley Snipes, good dismount. Sports fans, all the sports are coming together. It's a great time to just sit on your couch, text your friend, Hey, come over, let's watch the games. And when I do that to my friends, guess what they text me back? I got the Miller Lite. That's right, they pick up Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer and they come over to my place. We take that first sip and we realize, man, we just made a regular old-fashioned night into a special night. Thank you, Miller Lite. And shortly thereafter, we got multiple screens on, everybody's dialed into something different, and the whole night just keeps building. And building and building. That's why I reach for Miller Lite. It can take an ordinary night and take it to an extraordinary place. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients, just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs. The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting different. Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlite.com/dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Man, for me, you already know, man. I stay at the post office shipping something out. Whether it's Levitar merch, my merch, it don't matter. When that stuff starts going, it can get messy fast. That's why I rock with ShipStation. You got to know. ShipStation's intelligence-driven platform brings order management, rate shopping, inventory and returns, warehouse systems, and analytics all into one place, saving me up to 15 hours a week on fulfillment. Bruh, who can't use 15 hours of spare time a week? I know I can. With ShipStation, everything I need to manage getting orders to customers is in one place. It compares rates across USPS, UPS, and FedEx. And the automation, come on, man. It picks the carrier, finds the best rate, prints labels in bulk, and sends tracking updates.

Done.

Now I get that time back to just grow my business, man. That's all I want anyway. Over 1 million businesses trust ShipStation, including our show. Try ShipStation for free for 60 days with full access to all features No credit card needed. Go to ShipStation.com and use code DAN for 60 days for free. 60 days gives you plenty of time to see exactly how much time and money you are saving on every shipment. That's ShipStation.com, code DAN. ShipStation.com, code D-A-N.

Bow.

Folks, listen up. Quick break in the action. Are you counting down the days until payday? Instacash from Moneyline can help you access up to $500 of your hard-earned pay early. There's no interest, no credit check, and no monthly fees. So you can manage those in-between expenses with less stress. Download the Money Lion app and link your qualifying bank account to see what you qualify for. Money Lion, make money easy. Instacash is subject to terms and eligibility requirements. Expedited delivery requires a turbo fee. See moneylion.com.

Don Libertad.

You got to know I'm a big Columbo guy. Salute to that boy.

Okay, I don't think that's proof. I don't think that's proof. I think that's a lie. I don't think that's— I don't think that is evidence Salute to that boy. It suggests camouflage. It suggests that Juju has no idea what we're talking about and now is just Googling it.

Stugatz.

I'm not Googling it. My grandmama stayed in the country. I watched the Braves. I watched Columbo. I watched Matlock. I watched Andy Griffin. Yeah, you said that. You go to the penalty box, Dan. You tell Dan, take your ass to the penalty box.

Call me a liar.

You tell Juju.

Back to you, Stu.

This is the Don Levitar Show with the Stugatz.

The idea though that Mike just is glossing over— I'm, I'm curious whether anybody cares about what I'm about to say. Uh, so Ezra Edelman does the O.J. Simpson documentary. It is, uh, you know, one of the best things in the history of documentaries. It wins an Oscar. His next work, chosen very carefully, was to do the same sort of deep dive on Prince. There's no way that the estate was going to end up approving that documentary, which was going to have just honest facts that were going to probably ruin the reputation of Prince in some way.

Well, you say no way. There was one way: capitulate and tell a dishonest version of the Prince story, or one that goes against the story you wanted to tell.

So, but you guys get bogged down. You guys tell me that I, I'm— I stir too much in the muck of you got to trade access for truth. That's the trade we're headed everywhere in media and content into that.

That's what I was saying earlier.

That is correct. You were correct back then, and you are correct again. But as it relates to what I'm saying, as I'm saying this to the audience, and I say the Prince is the subject matter, can I get a broad appeal here on would anybody be interested in a 10-part Prince documentary told by the documentarian who did the whatever 7-part O.J. documentary. Everyone listening to this is gonna say, "I will watch that." That it's not gonna get made.

No, I would say depends. Is Little Red Corvette included?

Mmm.

The point is the movie has been made and will never see the light of day because you need the music, and that's the trade. You good with that?

No, no, but it's the way that things go. And look, that's— you can still make a movie that is good and interesting and has great performances in it Uh, we, we saw for the Queen film, Best Actor award was handed out. For Elvis, Best Actor award was, uh, handed out. You can still tell compelling stories, and you gotta kind of treat these like jukebox musicals. Like, all right, look, I just like Queen, just, just play Queen songs and I'm good, and have some kind of story. But it's not totally honest. And with Michael Jackson, where his exploits are so well known When you, when you, when you dance around that topic, you're already fighting a losing battle, no matter how great the music is, no matter how cool of a big long music video it looks like.

But when you guys say though that you're excited about— uh, we have different tastes, everyone has different tastes, but you were excited about Michael, or he is excited about Miami Vice '85. There's not a lot you can put in front of me in terms of entertainment that you will say this director Ezra Edelman on this subject, Prince, is something I would want to see more. And it's made, and I'm never going to get to see it. You're never going to get to see it. How do you feel about that in general when I tell you this thing that would be really exciting is made, but it needs an approval of the estate that it's never going to get, and the estate is too powerful? I don't know how much I can put for in front of you guys. I don't know, uh, The Lost Wu-Tang album, album that was bought by a pharma bro that no one gets to hear. Like, what can I put in front of you guys that I'm like, look at this thing over here, it's made, but it's forbidden.

Like, are you asking, would I rather them take some of the truth out of it so that I could watch the movie?

I don't know what that trade is. I'm just telling you, this director on this subject matter, the movie's made, and I really would want to see it, and so would you. Like, everyone listening to this, all of you would want to see this.

What if— what if he gives you the movie— what if he releases the movie but he gives you time codes when you should play certain songs of Prince and you like play it on your phone while you're watching the movie?

As you are on fire today, my boy, right? Yes, sir.

That's a good idea. Make it an interactive movie experience. That would probably be something the estate would also have problems with.

You can tell a Michael Jackson story that's completely unauthorized that, you know, focuses on the crisis management of all the allegations, and that's a different film. And I think there would be an audience for that film, but you would need certain likeness approvals. It's, it's a complicated thing. And unfortunately, these movies do huge numbers. I understand the— it's getting critically panned, He's the King of Pop. He's a global sensation, especially worldwide. These things do numbers. And you don't actually— if you're the estate, you don't actually have to tell the truth. You're plenty rewarded for not.

Is this the most interesting thing the Suns are going to do in the playoffs this season?

James was terrible tonight through and through.

Will there be anything more interesting than that in this series from the Phoenix Suns?

No.

Dylan Brooks and, and Devin Booker were going to be a thing. That was a one seed like that. Not Dylan Brooks, but Devin Booker was on the ascent in the league. Everything that happened there happened pretty quickly where you are looking at the difference between those teams. And also, OKC has all the future draft picks. That kind of stinks, right? Like, I mean, Ishbia got in the game, one of these fancy billionaires. I'm going to buy my way in. I'm going to win everything. I got Devin Booker. Get me Kevin Durant. And he's what, a million miles away?

How, how are we all going to feel if on May 10th, while the Oklahoma City Thunder are still active in the playoffs, they draw the number 1 overall pick in the draft?

I think it should start being asked, is Sam Presti the greatest general manager in the history of that sport? 100%. He nails the draft picks. And keep in mind how he rebuilt when everyone said you should tank right then. No, I'll get Paul George. Like, he found ways to be aggressive. Oh, Why has this kind of side deal with Paul George? Okay, let me turn that into picks. While there were some lean years over there, he had competitive teams and you knew he could build a championship contender. And now not only are they running the sport, but they are built for future success. I don't know who's better at it than him.

Multiple MVPs in KD and Westbrook. Now he's got Jared McCain over here feeling free and looks like he found his people.

Dude, bruh, I know it sounds hyperbolic and there have been all-time great GMs, you need to have that conversation right now that he might be the greatest.

I think there's an argument, but I think it's still in terms of talent evaluation and greatest of all time at that, it's got to be Jerry West.

That is bold. How dare you?

This is the company—

I mean, Mike just came for Jerry West's titles.

This is the company that he keeps, and you need to talk to him, talk about him like that.

Should Presti be the logo? That is the future of basketball. Let's have him with whatever it is signifies an accountant or like, let's, let's Change the logo. Put it on the poll at Le Batard Show. Should Sam Presti replace the logo? Jerry West through and through. James was terrible. Jeremy is still lurking around the proceedings after being banished. Do your baseball things, baseball boy. Alone or with others. Pitch clock. Baseball boy. Pitch clock is next. Uh, play the Cowherds.

I saw Michael Jordan play at 40 years old. LeBron is 34 years old. He will never be as good as Michael Jordan was at 40. LeBron James at 40 will not be in an NBA game 6 years from now and we're all going, wow, LeBron against Milwaukee, he's easily the best player on the floor. But I'll tell you one thing, LeBron will never be as good as Jordan at 40. The NBA playoffs are here and DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, is boosting every game day all postseason long. And when the lights get brighter, the best players in the world show you exactly who they are. Playoff stars turn it up round by round and DraftKings turns it up too with profit boosts available every game day from the first round through the finals. New Sportsbook customers bet just $5 and if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code DAN so you're ready for the moment. That's code DAN.

Turn $5 into $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins.

In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. New York, call 877-8-HOPE-N-Y or text HOPE-N-Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets, which expire in 7 days. Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com/protection. Promos. Limited time offer.

Dan Lebatard.

Can I tell you something? I don't know, it was 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. I'm not losing today.

Yeah, you are.

I'm not.

You're gonna be a loser. No, I feel like, um, last week was the aberration. My goal this season is every 4-game series. So every month I'm taking 3 of 4. I'm not splitting.

I know what aberration means, but Ethan doesn't, so explain it for him.

Welcome to The Pitch Clock. Here's the pitch: a 2-part baseball segment combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game and an interview with an expert. This is The Pitch Clock. It's a brand new episode of The Pitch Clock. Hi, everybody. I'm here. Chris Cody is here. Ethan Budowski is here. We're going to have Bobby Wagner with us. Not what the former Seahawks linebacker, but the host of the Tipping Pitches podcast and a gigantic Mets fan. We're just going to let him crash out a little bit.

I don't hate the idea of you just interviewing random NFL linebackers about baseball.

Brian Cushing, Clay Matthews, Bobby Wagner. Anyway, we're going to go ahead and get to our game right here with Ethan, because Ethan, I feel like we're heading back to something special that the fans have always really enjoyed.

Yeah, this is a favorite of the horn section. As I go to my Blues Brothers reference.

Yeah, we all really want Blues Brothers references.

That's a great movie.

You know what? Anyone who really likes baseball, probably the Venn diagram there, probably pretty good. All right.

So we're going to go. Back in the Wayback Machine. We're going to go back to 5.01 trivia. So for a refresher for those at home, what we're going to do is I'm going to give Jeremy and Chris a category.

Okay.

And we are going to, they're going to name players off. They're going to try and get down to zero, past zero from 5.01. And the closest to per, uh, closest person to zero once they get on the other side of it is going to win. We're going to play 2 out of 3 here. I'm not sure that was greatest description, but follow along.

No, it's good.

Start at 5:01.

All right.

We go off a stat. We have to get past zero. Whoever's closest to zero wins. We're playing best 2 out of 3.

You guys won't be surprised. What's our favorite baseball year on this podcast? 2005. 2005. We're going to do 2005.

Nice.

Awesome.

And we're going to do walks in 2005.

Okay.

As a hitter.

As a hitter. Okay.

And Chris Cody won, so he gets to go first. Yeah.

And you know what that means. Are we ready? Barry Bonds.

Damn it, Chris Cody.

Damn it, you're gonna really hate this. Uh-oh, Barry Bonds was injured in 2005.

You're a piece of shit for picking—

you, you did—

you know what you did, picking this, that stat.

I actually didn't know what I did because when I looked up the walks leaders in 2005, I was like, where the hell is Barry Bonds? Barry Bonds played 14 games in 2005.

So he probably walked 78 times.

Barry Bonds had 9.

So Barry Bonds had 9 walks.

Yeah.

Uh, Albert Pujols.

He had 97 walks.

Kevin Youkilis.

Fun.

God of walks.

I love that.

It's like fun.

I like that.

I do.

I like that. That's a fun name to pull.

That was his second year in the league. He played 44 games. He had 14 walks.

All right, not a great start for me.

Oh my, okay. Um, my next pick is going to be in 2005, Alex Rodriguez.

Alex Rodriguez was 12th in the league with 91 walks.

All right, inching my way there.

It's all right. So I get what you're doing here. Good players.

Yeah, good players normally walk more.

I was just thinking of good eyes, like guys that I think of from that era that were like—

I've got one in my head to go next. You were about to say Nick.

I'm going to say Nick Johnson.

I like that. I'm just going to stick with my strategy here and I'll go to like better players in the '70s. You're doing a more fun thing, which is— some players, guys who fun games, also could win.

Good eyes.

Yeah.

Guys who were thought of having a good eye.

No, I like it.

Yeah. Nick Johnson was in the '03 World Series, so he should have been playing full time at this point. He's probably with the Nationals at this point. Maybe still with the Yankees.

Nick Johnson drew 80 walks.

Okay.

80.

We're in the game.

Our latest 2026 MLB expert is here. It's Bobby Wagner of Patreon and of the baseball podcast Tipping Pitches. Very happy to have him here with me for a variety of reasons. One, good guy, good opinions, good baseball knowledge. Two, he's a Mets fan who's not wearing a Mets shirt right now. Because he is crashing out over what's happening with the Mets. At the time of this recording, the Mets have lost 11 straight games. Maybe that's different by today, Thursday. But Bobby, the Mets go—

I'm going to go back to 2022. So 2022, the Mets have an incredible year. Nobody really saw it coming. Buck Showalter pressing all the right buttons. Francisco Lindor feeling like the prince who was promised my whole life. Okay, things were going well. They obviously— the wheels fell off at the end of the year after that season, after that historic collapse where all they had to do was win 1 of 3 in Atlanta to win the division and avoid the wildcard game and playing the Padres, who then bounced them in a game that Max Scherzer just was terrible in. Game 1 that I was at freezing my butt off. After this, I had a long, hard look in the mirror at myself. I was like, okay, I'm 26 years old. I'm going to be 27, be 30 in a few years. I need to not invest so much emotion into this team. I need to not let them dictate my mood year over year. 2023, they were terrible. 2024 was very fun, obviously, but I made that call for myself. So this year, first couple weeks roll around, they look bad. They look really bad. And I'm trying to be Mr. Patient, who remembers when I looked at myself in the mirror for an hour after the 2022 season ended and I said, you gotta stop doing this.

So I'm responding to them. I'm saying it's going to be fine. Still early. Here's this reason why it's going to be okay. Here's these things that look okay. Starting pitching was pretty good. Bullpen looks okay so far. Guys, bats are slow. They'll wake up, shake off the rust. Now I'm like full on, this is the worst team in baseball. They've lost 11 straight. They might as well lose 20. They might as well lose 30. It doesn't even matter. This is just going to free up more time for me to be a normal human being who doesn't lose his mind every night. About a baseball team that doesn't know I exist.

It's perfect. And I will just say, and I apologize for cashing in on your misery, first of all, but also as—

please do.

I love to play the clown. I love to play the circus clown.

And that's what we like around here. Let's move past the Mets. Let's get to some of the other topics we have around baseball, because there is a really kind of fascinating thing that happened over the last weekend, which is two franchises that that in many ways couldn't be in more opposite places headed into this year, which is the Dodgers, the back-to-back World Series champion, and the Rockies, who have been dreadful for many, many years. And they play over the weekend. And after a game in which the Rockies score a bunch of runs and beat the Dodgers, Dalton Rushing, the catcher of the Dodgers, essentially accuses the Rockies of cheating. He says that it's fishy that they swing and make good contact off the first pitch as often as they do. I found it very strange. And then, of course, the really fun part is that then the next day the Rockies score even more and they're doing like a reel-in celebration every time they get to the bases. They're tweeting out things about the first pitch. It's awesome. What did you make of this entire situation as it was going on?

You know, like a couple of weeks ago, I think Gerrit Crochet got, got blown up for like 10 runs or something. And when a guy that good gets hit around like that. Yeah, maybe he was tipping his pitches. And were the Dodgers tipping against the Rockies? Potentially. It doesn't mean it was cheating, as you know, because you've been playing baseball for a long time. You've been around the baseball world your whole life. This happened before we were stealing signs illegally. It will happen. It happened during when we were stealing signs illegally. Not all of that was illegal, and it will continue to happen after. Hopefully we are in the after phase. You never really know. That is right.

The—

like, the Rockies can have a good night. They're a bumbling franchise, but they can have a good night at the plate, certainly in cores, you know.

Absolutely. Look, their— look, their offense has not been so terrible. Now, did they get swept in the first series of the year here in Miami and look slightly incompetent at times? Yes, they're going to have those moments throughout the year. But I do love that it's like the Dodgers lose one game to a team that they're not supposed to, and it's like, oh, they must be cheating. They must be cheating for us to be able to give up that many runs to the Rockies. I'm going to go Jason Giambi.

Giambi was 4th in the league with 108 walks.

Of course he was.

So that'll get us down to 205, I believe.

Yep.

If I do the right— the math correctly. Cody.

Manny Ramirez.

There we are.

We're going to good players now. Manny Ramirez. 80 walks as well. So 2—

wow, Nick Johnson and Manny Ramirez had the same amount of walks.

That should be a point for me.

Cody, you're at 318.

Okay.

All right. Well, I'm gonna go Poppy.

Damn. That's a good one.

Poppy, 6th with 102.

It's always good when I take the guy.

I am down to 103. 103, but see, so he was 6th. You just said. Yes, correct.

Okay.

Whatever, I'll just keep going. I'll just guess his name. I'll keep thinking Jeter.

Nah, it's not gonna be Jeter. Mm-hmm.

Hit a good eye.

Jeter, 26th with 77.

You know what? Better than I thought that was gonna be.

Cody, you're at 241 after Jeter.

All right, so I'm at 103 and you said Giambi. Oh, Olivia just walked in. We said at the end of last episode that Olivia was gonna be here every time. Let's see if Chris's luck changes after this. Olivia just walked in here. All right. So you said Giambi was 6th at 102. So I'm going for the best I can get. I'm going to go— I think this was the year, like his career year. Derek Lee. But I don't know.

This was Derek Lee's, like, career year. I'm pretty sure. Oh, it was either '04 or '05. He had 85 walks this year. So you're really close now, Jer Bear.

Yeah, but see, I'm not so sure I want that. All right, I'm at 18.

You're at 18. Oh yeah, the board is yours.

Carlos Delgado.

That was, that was one of the two other names I was thinking.

Just kind of popped in my head.

That's a great one. Has to be really good.

72 walks.

Ooh, I'm gonna start playing a game here. I'm nervous to go with the strategy that I'm thinking of.

Chris Cody, after Carlos Delgado, you're at 169, and Jeremy is at 18.

All right, this is—

you have a lot of leeway here, dude.

Ah, Dontrelle Willis probably had like 3. So that was the year he should have won the Cy Young over Chris Carpenter.

Did somebody say 3 walks? He drew 3 walks.

All right, down to 15. Wasn't my best idea.

Come on, Chris.

Oh, I've got a name that might work here.

I got one.

I just thought of a random name. This guy had to be good. He was one of the best hitters on his team. Ryan Zimmerman.

That's the first year of the Washington Nationals.

Is he like a rookie?

This makes me nervous.

'05, this is his rookie year.

Damn.

Oh, he had 3 walks.

Wow, the same.

Tontreau Willis and Ryan Zimmerman had the same amount of walks.

He only played 20 games.

That's great, but whoa, so did Dontrell.

I want to go now with you over to, uh, the other side of town when it comes to LA, because the Angels have a starter in José Soriano who started this season with a 5-0 record, a 0.28 ERA, and every single metric shows the level of dominance. Like, if you go look at his Baseball Savant page— and again, we are recording this on Tuesday, he starts on Tuesday night against the Blue maybe some of these things have changed in terms of the numbers. It won't change the fact that this guy has been by far the best pitcher in baseball to start this year. Is this real? Like, where did— where did José Soriano become this person in the offseason?

It certainly is hard to make the case that it's not real. Through 30 innings, it's not like he's dinking and dunking his way to this. Now he suddenly is striking guys out, which up until this point. So the Angels have gotten to this, like, they've somewhat leaned into this archetype of like, we just draft guys who throw hard. Like, we don't really know that much about pitching or hitting or how to build a—

or about how generally baseball—

how to keep the greatest baseball player of all time on our team or healthy when he is on our team, in the case of Mike Trout. Like, we don't really know that much about these sorts of things, but we do know, we look at college pitchers, and when that radar gun says close to 100, we like that guy, we draft that guy, and then we see what happens. And that was the case with José Soriano. I don't know. He was just not striking anyone out. I mean, guys, you throw sinkers. There's a reason that for a long time the Pirates were the only franchise that was still telling people to just throw their sinker primarily. But now we've kind of like shifted back because the combination of like the sinker splitter guy being able to sort of trick guys into swinging over the top of that splitter, you're now seeing a little bit more— you're seeing more guys miss bats through with that kind of profile rather than just needing to throw the turbo sinker and have people mash it into the ground all of the time, such as Jose Soriano was doing before and then giving up sort of like hits that way.

All of the numbers are like, yes, this guy is good. xFIP, FIP, xERA, ERA, you know, K/9, whiff rate. Like it is all good. And 30 innings, which is a small sample, but like not that small.

It's enough innings that we can all look at those numbers and say, okay, this guy is a certified very, very, very good pitcher and will it be an undefeated season with an ERA under 1? Absolutely not. Let's go ahead and— Soriano needed his own moment, but I want to get to our— what we refer to as our Golden Era Star of the Week, because there are constantly stars all around Major League Baseball thriving. And right now, I just want to touch on a few of the guys who are right at the top of the league that we haven't mentioned yet thus far this season. On the pitch clock, and that includes 3 guys who are near the top of the league in OPS. In particular, you have Andy Páez, you have Jordan Álvarez, who also is, I believe, leading Major League Baseball in home runs with 10 at the time of this recording. And you have Sal Stewart, who's helping to lead the Reds, by the way, who are in first place. And he's been red hot all season long. I'll give you your choice here. Let's highlight one of those 3 players.

Páez is a really interesting character to me because he's the exact kind of archetype of a player where, like, you see the raw tools, you see the pop, the power, you watch him swing and you're like, I— he has the makeup of a guy who could have that power. But he also, you know, but like struggled a little bit in those first couple of years at the plate and his defense and his ability to play that fourth outfielder for a team that struggles with injuries, that has maybe their resources allocated into a different place, kept him in the organization. And then now over time, he's really just putting it all together and you're seeing all of those tools all at once. Like, his arm is crazy. Like, his arm in the outfield is just magic to watch. His average throw this year is at 94 miles per hour from the outfield on a close play. 94 from it for an outfielder. He's not throwing off of a mound. He's not a pitcher. And now suddenly he's just the best hitter in the league. You know, this will not hold most likely, but he's the best hitter in the league, hitting 7th for the Dodgers.

It's almost like that catch he made in the World Series just unlocked everything for him. He was having just a dreadful postseason, a dreadful World Series, makes one catch, and now his entire career is different. Thank you for being with us. He's the host of the Tipping Pitches podcast. You can also find his work on Patreon.

Thanks for having me, Jeremy. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Let's get back to the trivia game. I just thought of a name. Lenny Harris.

Oh, the pinch hit god, dude.

Oh, because you only need 15 walks.

I need 15. I'm trying to stay close to zero. So I'm thinking a guy who's a pinch hitter.

That's actually really good.

Thank you. I hope so. It's the strategy of it.

A pinch hitter type would have around 15 walks in a season.

I hope so.

He had 7.

Okay.

This is good shit.

A couple guys just popped into my head.

And you're down to what? I'm sorry.

166.

Right now I know this one, this guy that just popped into my head. I know he struck out a lot, but he seems like he was also like a power hitter on a team, so I could see him being pitched around at times. Adam Dunn.

Oh, he walked.

Adam Dunn walked a ton.

He might have been—

he was the first 3 true come— 3 true outcomes guy.

He might have been at the top of this list.

He is not at the top, he is third. Okay, 114.

Okay.

Oh, all right. For now. For now I'm going—

not for now, but for always.

No, I know. I think I'm just going to stick with, with, with National League pitchers.

Don't go with American League.

Give me a name.

Chris Carpenter.

Chris Carpenter had 5 walks.

Oh, he did?

5.

How do you walk a pitcher 5 times?

Oh, good Lord.

So you're at 3, Jeremy. So you need to get on the other side of 0.

Okay, Boston Red Sox. Mm-hmm. Jason Varitek.

Varitek had 62 walks. So Cody is over at -10. So Jeremy, all right, you need—

no, I'm just gonna—

less than 30.

Um, okay, Roy Oswald.

It'll be hilarious if he—

but if he doesn't get to 0, right?

But then I go again.

Roy Oswald in 2005 had 2 walks.

You've got to be shit.

Don't try to be cool with it now. Like, all right, I'll just say—

No, I'm just trying to think of National League teams.

I'll say Matt Cain.

That's probably too early for him. 2005, Matt Clement.

Wow.

Jeremy Taché.

I lose.

You have gotten down. To exactly zero. Matt Clement drew one walk in 2005 for the Boston Red Sox. That is an all-time grind it out, chip away, like that was like Panthers winning 2-1 dirty right there, dude. That was impressive. That was 2-1 dirty for the Florida Panthers.

Remember, remember how I said at the beginning of the game, I'm not gonna lose, and then I did it perfectly?

Yeah, I blame Olivia. For not coming in the room sooner.

Yeah, that's true. You would have won.

Sports fans, all the sports are coming together. It's a great time to just sit on your couch, text your friend, hey, come over, let's watch the games. And when I do that to my friends, guess what they text me back? I got the Miller Lite. That's right. They pick up Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer and they come over to my place We take that first sip and we realize, man, we just made a regular old-fashioned night into a special night. Thank you, Miller Lite. And shortly thereafter, we got multiple screens on. Everybody's dialed into something different, and the whole night just keeps building and building and building. That's why I reach for Miller Lite. It can take an ordinary night and take it to an extraordinary place. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients. Just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs. The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting different. Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to MillerLite.com/Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time.

Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.