David Samson | Former Marlins Team President; Podcast Host

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For important information, visit principle.com slash disclosures. Let's welcome former Marlins president and baseball analyst and nothing personal with David Sampson, podcast host, very popular podcast. David joining us here this morning. And I'm not asking you this because you're a former Marlins president, but do the Marlins have a beef with baseball, with the Mets over the way this is all played out? I think if I were still president in the Marlins, but I would be down right now in MLB's office in New York on my way to the airport before I went to Pittsburgh for tonight's game camping out, waiting for an answer as to how the Mets could have screwed up so badly the way they did this weekend to the Marlins. It's outrageous.

And Stephen Cohen's Twitter apology is useless. Buck Showalter's comments are exactly what the Mets did with him saying, you know, we've got a game to win here too. No, no, you're eliminated. You have nothing that you are playing for. And you owe it to a team who has an opportunity to make the playoffs the way the Marlins do. You owe it to that team to be best in class for how you operate your ballpark. And they did not do that this weekend. How does that even happen? I mean, just out of curiosity, how much are team officials involved when it comes to stuff like this? Or is it completely ground screw and field and the Mets had nothing to do with it? Well, I had a head of ballpark operations.

Now, to be fair as president of the team, I would take the responsibility for what happened. But when all of the rain was coming and you did your half marathon, congratulations. Thank you.

This weekend. That's amazing. I also did a crazy run during this weekend when it was soaking wet and raining. And, you know, and the weather's bad as opposed to Florida when it just crops up and there's a thunderstorm when there's a tropical storm or a hurricane. It's in the forecast. And the major rule of the tarp and of the field is you can never tarp a wet field ever because it guarantees that the field can't dry and won't dry. So you have to tarp a dry field. And if you miss the opportunity to tarp a dry field, you are in trouble.

And that's what happened with the Mets. A tropical storm. Again, I knew you knew everybody knew Ophelia was parking a rear end off the Atlantic coast.

I'm not sure how they missed putting the tarp down. But before we move on, I saw this on your Twitter. I just did a half marathon. I mean, that was hard enough. It's about all I can manage.

You did 48 miles in 48 hours. Are you insane? I am insane, as you know, actually, since it's live at 5 20 Eastern. But what I'm doing is trying to raise money to cure Parkinson's because my best friend has Parkinson's and he was diagnosed at 38 years old and he's had it for 17 years. And it's a debilitating degenerative disease and there's no cure. And so I've helped him raise a million dollars for research.

Michael J. Fox Foundation. And yes, I am insane, but it's not even close to what people with Parkinson's go through. So I will keep doing crazy things with him as we try to find a cure. I just retweeted the photo so you can go and you can see this picture and you can always reach out to David and ask him how you might be able to be involved or to help to raise money to help.

Obviously need to find a cure for that disease. As you point out, it's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Former Marlins President David Sampson is joining us. Okay, let's talk about what we know. Why are the Braves more poised this season? Why are they more dangerous this season than they were a year ago, David? You're saying that because the Braves lost in four games to the Phillies in the first round after winning their division.

And it's scary. The way the playoffs work now is when you win your division and you're one of the top two seeds in each league, you get five full days off. It used to be only three, but now the wildcard series is three games, not a one game winner take all. And the concern is in baseball, and it's not like this in any other sport, you're in a rhythm. And in baseball, five days off is too many.

We would never want that many days off because the teams that get to play every day are more sharp. And the Braves have clinched, I think they clinched the AL East like six weeks ago or six months ago. Seriously? They've been so good that the worry is that they're going to get upset again in the next round. So they're doing anything they can to stay prepared. And they announced yesterday they're going to have fans come into their ballpark during this next week and have workouts in front of fans to try to simulate a game situation. But guess what? That does not work.

You can't manufacture tension and pressure and game conditions. But they're so good, Amy. So good. This year, Acuna is totally healthy. The MVP, their lineup up and down. There's no break for an opposing pitching staff.

No break whatsoever. They just swept the Cubs. Whether you're down in the ninth inning, seventh inning, first inning, the Braves are good enough to beat you. And they will make it and then win the World Series is my prediction because they're that good from 1 to 26.

Okay. I don't want to belabor this question, but I'm genuinely interested as someone who comes from a background in baseball and a front office. Why is Acuna more valuable than Matt Olson?

Because it's a great question. In the old days, you'd say, oh, when Matt Olson, if you hit 50 plus home runs driving 130 plus people, by definition, you are the MVP. When you look at what the game is now, having people, someone at the top of the lineup like Acuna who is either getting on base or driving in anybody, even if it's just himself to start a game and putting him in that premium defensive position.

He's plus everywhere on the field, meaning he has five tools, all of which work, all of which are plus tools, which means that he's an all star just with his arm or just with his legs or just with his back and put those things together. If I'm starting a team, I'm starting it with Acuna, not with all. Now, all of them together without these together with Ozuna, it's a team that is so great, but he is the best player on that team. And he's the best player in all of baseball with all respect to Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and Matt Olson, every executive at every writer, regardless of war, regardless of all things that certain analytic people will say.

If you ask me who I would start a team with, and that is a big factor, it's Acuna. David Sampson, former Marlins president with us here after hours, CBS Sports Radio. I'll circle back to the playoffs, I promise, but that triggers another question. If you are the president of the Angels right now, what do you do this offseason? Well, as president of the Angels, I go on vacation because the owner does everything anyway. Okay.

All right. If you're the owner of the Angels, David. Artie Moreno has a problem, and the problem he has is that he's had Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, and they can't win 81 games. And it reminds me of me when we had Stanton and Yelich and Ozuna, and we couldn't win 81 games with those players. When you can't win 81 games, it's not like you're coming close to a World Series and you want to keep the band together and you want to run it back.

But Artie Moreno keeps wanting to run it back and still can't win 81 games. So here's what I've got to do. I've got to let Shohei go. Even though I predicted that Shohei would resign with the Angels, I've got to let him go and reallocate the money and start over and hire a baseball person who is really going to do the job versus the baseball people he has there and the president. He has their all of whom do nothing except what Artie Moreno wants. I'm going to ask Mike Trout, are you willing to be traded?

I need to start over because nothing that I'm doing with these players is working. And are you willing to actually do something so aggressive? So what people would say is lunacy and let Shohei go and trade Trout. The true answer is he'll never do that because he doesn't have the strength to do it. If he did, he would have traded Otani at the deadline. But that's what I would do if I were the owner or the president. But in real life, Moreno never will do that. And I think he will try to sign Otani. He will keep Trout and he will say, hey, we've got two of the best players. Let's go out next year and get it done. I don't envy him, though I suppose if you're the owner and it's your money, then you write the checks, you can do what you want.

Do what you want. It's after hours, CBS Sports Radio David Sampson. What impresses you most about the 100-win Baltimore Orioles?

I don't know where to start. They have one of the lowest payrolls in the game. They stuck with their manager, someone I've known forever.

He was with us in Florida, Brandon Hyde. And they made it through unbelievable turmoil in the ownership group. The Angelo Suns were suing each other and they were trying to negotiate to extend the lease at Camden Yards. So many off-field issues going on. Yet, on field, they did a rebuild and they did it well.

They did it right. And they let Mark Elias, the general manager, do it, which is amazing that they stayed out of it. Because they're owners versus baseball people and baseball people know better. And they recognize that this is their time because there's no schedule. When you rebuild the schedule is when you start winning. And the Orioles are really, really good. And they could be really good in the playoffs. But it doesn't mean they're going to win 100 games next year.

It doesn't mean that this window is now open for five years, the way people are saying. Because baseball is really hard. But right now, they are a really, really good team. And I couldn't be happier for the people in Baltimore and for the players and for Brandon Hyde, etc. So it's fun to watch them. And I think people around the country couldn't name three players on the Orioles. And that's why it's exciting that when it comes to playoff time, they're going to watch this team and they're going to say, wow, those are some good players.

Looking forward to it. Love the fresh blood. And also just the turnaround. Two years ago, they lost 110 games. And now they've got 100 wins. So as you say, they stuck with it. And really, a lot of times that's the issue is that there's so much impatience among owners. And GMs are not willing to allow a system and a culture to develop. So it's awesome the way they've done it. But Amy, it's hard because people in the media like us and fans on social media.

And I'm not saying you did this or I did this. But we're the ones who are impatient. We say, my God, this team stinks. This manager stinks. You've got to make a change. You've got to hurry up. You're not good enough. And often owners read this or their PR people tell them about it and they lose patience and they lose the ability to stick with the plan.

The reason why I feel failed as much as I did in 18 years with only one World Series win. If I had to boil it down, Amy, it's that I didn't stick to a plan long enough. I like this. Confession is good for the soul, David. You know that, right? Well, Amy, I always like being on your show. And if I don't say it enough, A, I love that you invite me and I love that you ran your half marathon. Congratulations. But you know what this means, Amy.

Yes, I do. You have to do it. You're going to do it.

You have to do a marathon. Oh my gosh. Okay, let's talk about that another time. The next time we have you on. Oh no, we're running out of time.

60 seconds, though. What's another team, whether it's even at the playoff picture, not complete yet. There could be a sleeper come October. There's no sleeper in the National League wildcard because maybe the Marlins, but their pitching is too hurt. I would say that you should look out in the AL East because it's possible that the Orioles, they're that good. That the Orioles could make it all the way through to the World Series. That's how good they actually are. And you think they're a sleeper with 100 wins?

No one. This is the first time on any show that anybody's asked me about the Orioles. And you're only doing it because they switched the division four hours ago. No, no, no. That is not true. That's BS.

You wouldn't have mentioned it. No, no, that's BS. I have talked about the Orioles for weeks now, and I actually could name more than three players on the roster. But either way, I think they're a great story, and I'm with you. I like Brett and Hyde.

I love the fact that they are battle-tested, too, because it's not been easy. So you're wrong, but it's alright. I didn't say you didn't talk about it. I said no one's asked me on any interviews about the Orioles. Yeah, that's a bummer.

They're missing opportunities. Okay, so you want to find David. First of all, I just tweeted a very handsome photo of the man.

He looks beat because he did 48 miles in 48 hours, but still amazing. So check that out, but also on his Twitter, David P. Sampson. You'll find the link to Nothing Personal. That's his podcast. He says it's nothing personal, but I don't know.

I would take it personal. I'm just kidding. It's a good podcast. He just kind of lets loose, and you'll also see him on CBS Sports HQ and hear him here when we can drag his rear out of bed. Thank you so much for a couple of minutes, David. You're the best. Amy, have a great day.

You too. When you need to know what's happening, it's time to get in the huddle. The big question is Desmond Ritter. The problem that I think a lot of fans are having and looking at Desmond Ritter is they just haven't seen enough. They want to trust him. They want to believe. But I will tell you this, Jason. In the training camp sessions that I had a chance to go check out, the one thing that bothered me was his aggressiveness to throw the football when he needed to. Listen and subscribe to In the Huddle, available on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.