It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody for being tuned in and locked in all over North America. I hope you're well. I hope you're amazing.
I hope you are all of the good things. I'll be hanging out with you for the next three hours. The show gets started every weekday, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. We've been hanging out for an hour.
Where? Have you been? We talked about all the injuries that took place today at NFL training camps. Isaiah Likely, Maxwell Hairston, Christian Gonzalez. Kalin Carson, I could go on and on.
Apparently all these guys apparently will be healthy eventually. We got another guy who showed up to work today.
Well, he's going to show up to work tomorrow. I'll tell you who that is in a second. Asked about Eugenio Suarez and Getting popped in the hand yesterday with a fastball. How does this affect him potentially being traded between now and Thursday? I guess it doesn't.
Is MRIS clean? We're going to have a chat with Levi Weaver, who covers all things baseball. He'll be here from the athletic in 20 minutes. And so we got a lot more to get into. I was asked about Luka Donchich.
He's asked about LeBron. One of our callers in the last break brought up gambling. We know Emmanuel Klase. He's. Under investigation for like the next month, he's on leave.
not suspended, But on Leave.
Okay, all right. Where there's smoke, there's fire. We're going to get into some of these gambling issues. In the world of sports. If you missed the last hour, all you got to do is hit rewind on the free Odyssey app.
It is free. Thank you to people listening live or in their local affiliates. People tuned in on SiriusXM channel 375. and people listening on smart speakers ask the speaker to play. The Infinity Sports Network.
What a day, what a day, what a day And then about twenty minutes ago, We learned that Trey Hendrickson. will be reporting to training camp with the Cincinnati Bengals Tomorrow. It's a look long enough, eh? I guess he got tired of getting a $50,000 fine. Every single day.
If you want to be a part of the show, you can. 888. 710-4ISN is the number. That's eight eight eight seven ten 4ISN. You can find me online.
I am everywhere. At J.R. Sport Brief. Yep, as Trey Hendrickson enters into the final year of his contract. He's made it very clear He is not going to play.
on this final year. He wants a new contract. He wants a new deal. He looks at the money that Miles Garrett is getting. He looks at the money that TJ Watt is getting.
He looks at the 40-plus. million dollars that these guys are slated for. And Trey Hendrickson says, What about me? I mean, damn it, he could look at his own team. Trey Hendrickson could look at the money that's been given out to Joe Burrow, 55 mil.
He could look at the money. That's been given to Jamar Chase, 40 mil. He can look at the money and go on to number two. Wide receiver, T. Higgins, about 28, 29, and Trey Hendrickson can go.
What about me? Shamar Stewart, the rookie who's yet to play a snap of regular season football in the NFL, who's yet to play a snap. In a preseason game. He shows up to work. little uh very different of a situation, but This leaves Tray Hendrickson right on the spot.
I mean, over the weekend, Terry McLaurin, who's also looking for a new deal with the Washington Commanders, he showed up to work. And then the new collective bargaining agreement There's no more wiping out. These These punishments, these fines. There used to be a point in time where it's like, oh, you know what? We'll just wipe the slate clean.
Forget about that, uh, you know Two hundred quarter million three hundred thousand dollars in fines that you've accumulated. By not showing up to camp, yeah, we'll just wipe that out, we'll write that off. In your new contract, now that you're here at work, those days are over. That money has to be paid. And so, if you're Terry McLaurin or you're Trey Hendrickson, there comes a point in time where you just have to go.
What's my date? How much money am I willing to give up? How much money am I going to make? Trey Hendrickson has said from day one, he's not trying to be the highest paid. You know, defensive end in the entire league, and he will not be.
He plays for the Bengals. They are not paying this guy out the ass. I'm still surprised, in all honesty. That they kept T. Higgins.
But I guess if you're Joe Burrow and you're the most important guy in the entire locker room. You're gonna keep him happy. Even though Joe Burrow has been and has stated on record, Hey, I'm disappointed that the Bengals haven't gotten these deals done. It's not like money doesn't exist. Trey Hendrickson.
He's slated to make $16 million this upcoming season. Nick Bose is at thirty four. Max Crosby thirty five Daniil Hunter thirty five Miles Garrett forty In TJ Watt forty one. When you have 17 and a half sacks. both of the last two seasons.
You can't knock the guy for wanting to get paid. He's gonna get his cash. He's going to have to settle somewhere between a 35 and forty. Let's see what he has to say tomorrow. Apparently, he's going to show up to work.
But he's not going to practice. He's gonna try to hold out and put some pressure on the Bengals by saying, Hey, here I am, I'm inside the building. This is kinda silly. You gotta pay me. This might actually force the issue.
This might actually force.
Something that happened. Can't wait to hear what Trey Hendrickson has to say. to morrow as he will show up to Bengals' camp. But not practice. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Speaking of practice. I'm not going to say this is a rarity. The Cleveland Browns have larger issues. Like, who's going to be their quarterback?
But these issues in the storyline surrounding the Browns is pretty much, I'd say, started around the draft. where they had an opportunity to early on in the draft. Go ahead and just say, oh, yeah, you know, let's get our quarterback of the future. And they ended up with Dylan Gabriel, Okay. And then they ended up drafting Shador.
And everybody was like, well, why the hell did Andrew Berry decide to come out and do this? And even he sat around after Shador was drafted in the fifth round. He pretty much said, ah, it's hard to not look at the talent and then just take him. that late in the draft.
Well, I like how the owner of the Cleveland Browns, the guy who I stood on a stump For Deshaun Watson, despite the fact that the man was coming off of what, two dozen cases of sexual assault. This time he's kinda wiping his hands clean. When it comes down to Shador Sanders, Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Browns, he spoke to the media today. And one of the things that he wanted to make clear was, I ain't select Shador. That wasn't my pick.
That was on the GM. Ouch. We have good process, okay? And um If you'd have told me See, we picked him on Saturday, right? Friday night driving home, y'all are going to pick Shadur.
I would say that that's not happening, but. We had a conversation early that morning, and then we had a conversation later that day. I think we had the right people involved in the conversation. At the end of the day, that's Andrew Berry's call. Andrew made the call to pick Shadur.
Just like who's going to start or what play we're going to call is Kevin's call. But that's Andrew's call. He made the call. I like how all of a sudden now it it it's very selective. On who makes personnel decisions.
It's very selective. When it comes to Deshaun Watson, oh, yeah, I sat down. I had a whole conversation with Deshaun. Me and my wife, we sat down and we felt that he understood what he did. And then there's more issues came out, and then Deshaun got hurt a million times, and now he's basically a a write-off for the Cleveland Browns, which is why they they got all these damn quarterbacks.
But now when it comes to Shador. Who yeah, he didn't sexually assault anybody. He did go uh a hundred miles per hour in his car a couple of times. You know, the owner of the team.
Now, that's not my guy. That's not my guy. I stood up for the sexual assault guy. I'm not standing up for this guy. How selective of Jimmy Hasle?
And speaking of any issue of assault. Oh, my God He had to address these issues with guys like Quinch on Junkins, who just got into the NFL. hasn't even signed his rookie contract. Just won a national championship with with Ohio State. Comin' out o' old miss.
It got he he has accusations levied upon him. by a woman that he was on vacation with. And so, Jimmy Haslam, always, I guess, someone to stand up or not stand up for what's right or wrong. This is what he had to say about these uh domestic violence issues. Let me say it's extremely frustrating, okay?
Obviously, we're not communicating as well as we should, and we take responsibility for that. We have internal resources, we have external resources, we talk about it continually, and it's something that we need to do a better job on, but it is frustrating. Is that reflective of your team's vetting process? You know, that's the question I ask.
Okay, let's go back and let's look at Kushan, let's look at Deb and let's look at Michael Hall. There was, the best of my knowledge, and we talked about this yesterday with Andrew, there was nothing in any of their backgrounds that showed anything like this. Oh, okay. All right, that's reasonable. Nothing in their back.
You don't have to have a history to all of a sudden, you know, wake up and be an ass that particular day or worse. And issues of domestic violence don't just live in the NFL. They unfortunately live in society all over the damn place. It's horrific. Jimmy Haslam has just so happened to uh have a guy employed who had a ridiculous history.
of a sexual assault and still decided to sign him. Yeah. You know, I just I've never heard of a guy. Who's kind of talked out of both sides of his mouth? He's saying, oh, well, the guys that we signed who have issues of domestic violence, there was no history there, so we have to figure out how to do better.
In a less obviously violent way. He's looking at Shador Sanders and he's just like, oh, yeah, well, you know, Shador wasn't my pick. I was surprised like everybody else. that we drafted the guy. This is the same man.
who sat on interviews with his wife. and defended Bringing in Deshaun Watson.
Well, Deshaun Watson, he certainly had a history. of assault?
So why the hell was that not a problem? But these guys are. Maybe it has more to do with you at the top than anybody else making the selections. It just w I guess when you're a billionaire. You have a prized asset like an NFL team.
You just feel that you can say and do whatever without Reproach. Which I guess is certainly the case. What's the worst that could happen? They take the team away from him. Daniel Snyder is probably one of the worst human beings.
in the public conscious of the the NFL. He was punished. They took the team away from him. And he's probably sitting on a yacht somewhere just being a complete pain in the ass. to everybody surrounding him.
But he got paid a lot of money to go away. And so Jimmy has them. I I just Not that he needs my advice. Not that he he needs a little bit of help. But I think Jimmy Haslam should just.
Just shut up. Because public speaking is not your thing, man. It's not. Talking about the Cleveland Browns is not your thing. It's one of these cases where the more you hear somebody talk, The clearer you are, On their circumstances and their situation and where they might be.
When Jimmy Haslam speaks, when he has opened up his mouth to the public, You kind of go, Oh, yeah, okay, I get it now. I understand why the Browns A sock. I understand why the Browns, why every now and then when it seems like they might have success, I understand why they fall back down. It's the guy at the top. It's Jimmy Haslam.
And it's unfortunate that their personnel decisions. And sometimes it's Not his fault. And sometimes it is. But we know what happens with the fish. The fish rots.
from the head. Uh Jimmy has some here's here's some advice. Don't talk publicly about personnel decisions. If you're going to leave it to Andrew Barry. Leave it to him.
We don't need all these interviews about Deshaun Watts and domestic violence and Shador Sanders. You'd be best served. By not speaking, Into a microphone. As simple as that. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you, coast to coast, on the Infinity Sports Network.
Jimmy Haslam had some words about Arch Manning. I'm to share those with you later on this hour. Arch Manning's certainly garnering a lot of attention. coming off of SEC media days, people expecting him to jump into the NFL. We got teams that might be tanking for Arch that might also include the Cleveland Browns.
And so we'll talk about the comments made by Jimmy Haslam about Arch Manning. Apparently there's a little bit of a connection. Between Haslam and the Manning family.
So we'll get into that. We will get into this gambling situation that is just kind of Sweeping across professional sports all over the board right now. And so we got a lot to get into, but I did mention Eugenio Suarez. This man last night got hit in the arm. Excuse me, the hand?
The trade deadline is upon us. And he looks to be fine. You know, is he going to get moved? Where is he going to get moved? Who are some of these other players across Major League Baseball who might move?
We know a lot of teams need help. Who are the buyers? Who are the sellers? Who do we look out for? We're going to have that chat with Levi Weaver from the Athletic on the other side of the break.
We'll talk all things Major League Baseball trade deadline. I'm not getting traded. I'll be here on the other side of the break. It's the JR Sport Re Show, coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. It is the JR Sport Re Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
We're now two days away from the Major League Baseball trade deadline. We had a big player get hit in the hand. Apparently, he's fine. Where's he going to go? Which teams are buyers who are sellers in this new Major League Baseball playoff format?
Teams are sticking around a little bit longer. What's going on with the reliever market? There's so many questions. It's an avid chap. About everything going on, things that might happen between now and Thursday.
Joining us right now is a staff writer who covers all things Major League Baseball for the Athletic. We're being joined by Levi Weaver. Levi, I appreciate the time, man. Yeah, of course. How are you doing?
I'm very well. I mean, I guess the big news and story is what took place last night. A guy who's cracked 36 home runs. Gets cracked in the hand. Thank God Eugenio Suarez apparently is okay and in the clear.
What is likely to happen with him? We know there's certainly a bunch of teams that are interested in bringing him on. What can we expect between now and Thursday? Yeah, I mean, I think we can expect that he'll be in a different uniform. The Diamondbacks did for a while sort of try to.
Posture that maybe we won't sell. Maybe we can sneak into the NL wild card. They already sort of tipped their hand, you know, by trading Josh and Naylor to the Mariners, so I think it will be a sell-off there.
Sorry, there's not a ton of Big bats, he's a hot item. And so when you've got the guy that's sort of the biggest. The biggest bat on the market. I don't think the Diamondbacks have any reason to rush it. They should wait until the last minute, see what the best offer is, and then take that.
But I think they will send him. I mean, there's, gosh, half a dozen teams that could use a third baseman right now. I think he'll end up one of those places. I think they'll probably also send a starting pitcher out as well. When you think about what the return might be, knowing that he's basically going to be a half season Arental, what can the Diamondbacks expect back in return for whoever brings him in?
I guess honestly, that depends on how desperate the other teams get. Um It's always hard to predict, right?
So In years where there's a lot of hitters on the market, somebody like Suarez may get you some guys that you're Fan base is really not going to recognize this year. Would the return be a little higher? Yeah, I would assume so, because are they going to get? Ryan Hearn, if they don't get Suarez, or are you going to turn your attention to Luis Robert? Like, there's not a whole lot of backup options.
It's hard for me to say that some team's going to really truly overpay. You're not going to get like a top 10 prospect in the game for somebody that's a one-year rental, but I think they should get. I A return that's more valuable to them than just letting the season play out and hoping he'll stick around next year in free agency. Levi Weaver is here with us from the athletic. When you think about the teams that spend real big seemingly every year, we know the Dodgers have now moved past $400 million in payroll.
We got both of the New York teams. The Chicago Cubs are certainly in a good position right now. What do you think that these teams are going to do over the next several days? What can they do? We know the Yankees seemingly need everything.
The Dodgers have been dealing with injuries. What's likely to occur? One of the more interesting things that I've seen over the last couple of days was. I talked from Brian Cashman that And sort of hedging around the at this time of year, you sort of have to read between the lines and then read between those in between margins as well.
Sort of indicating that Maybe this year's Yankees team is really not one that's worth making a huge splash. The bolster. If you think you have the the roster to go win the World Series, then yeah. Flags fly forever. Make a painful trade.
Get rid of some prospects that are going to hurt later to fill a spot that needs to be filled. The Yankees have not been very good. For like almost a month now. They got off to a good start, but Is it going to be worth it to the Yankees to lose prospects to bring in a guy That maybe helps them get into a wildcard spot, maybe doesn't, and then they're out those prospects for the coming year. That is a fascinating one to me that the Yankees, who would have thought it a month ago when they were leading the AL East by so much.
uh maybe wouldn't be big buyers, but that's That is certainly keeping an eye on that one. I do think the doctors will go get.
Some bullpen help, despite the fact that they tried to arrange their roster where they shouldn't have to do that this year. Enough guys got hurt. They're going to have to go get more relievers, more grust for the Dodger's arm mill. And Yeah, and then I think the Cubs, honestly, if you talk about teams that are in contention to go get Suarez, I think it's really interesting that the Cubs and the Brewers are not only. Battling each other for the NL Central lead, but could also be two of the teams.
Making the biggest bids for Suarez.
Well, Levi, when you talk about bats, and there's not a lot of options there to be game changers at the plate. We've seen some pitchers have some off years. Sandy Alcantara hasn't had the best year. Dylan Sease doesn't look like the guy that we're accustomed to seeing. What does the market look like for starting pitchers right now?
Man, I think a lot of it depends on Two things. One, do the twins decide that it's time for a full-on sell? And if so, Joe Ryan would be a great top-of-the-rotation guy for anything that could pry him away from Minnesota. And They could also Lopez is injured, but he's another guy that could be. Yeah, they decide to really tear it down.
Those are two very good starters that could come from Minnesota. Um You know that let me look at my list here. There are I I think on our big board at the athletic.
Okay.
Something like something like four to one or five to one pitchers to hitters. But I think Ryan is the big name for me. That if the twins decide to sell. Man, that could really change the market in a big way. And Alcantra is another one who, you know, we'll see how his start tonight goes.
Had a very good start last time, but just has not been the guy. That we saw when the Cy Young before his Tommy John surgery. And so. Is there a team that's going to be willing to pay for the potential that he could be back? Are the Marlins even going to take a package that's less than that if they could maybe get more this offseason or next year if he does fully come back?
Well, Levi, we know the Marlins typically every year. It doesn't matter if they win, they're selling. If they're bad, they're selling. The Marlins are always. in cell mode Are there any teams that are kind of on that line about do we want to stay in?
Do we want to stay out? Yeah, we've started to see those teams really begin to separate themselves recently, right? Like the Braves for a long time were like, okay, yes, we got off to a bad start, but we're better than this. We're going to have that hot streak. We're going to get back in contention.
They haven't done that. It seems like the Diamondbacks are another one. The Rebubble team, we're starting to see them kind of. lean towards being a seller. And on the flip side, you've got teams Like the Rangers, who got off to a pretty bad start.
Their offense was very bad for the first half of the season. It started to click in July. They've been on kind of a hot streak. It looks like they might be buyers now. It always kind of Comes down to it, you know, the last couple of days before the deadline, and more so now than it used to, because with the expanded playoffs, you've got teams that could be a game or two under 500.
That convince themselves, well, yeah, but you know, we're only a couple games out of a wild card spot here. If we really buckle down, I can, you know, optimistically, we could make it make it into the playoffs. It's kind of the angels every year what they should sell and then they decide, well, you know What if we just don't? What if we just try and go for it? And uh, I don't know, that's the angels.
Artie Moreno operates in his own little way. Yeah, we had Artie Moreno, he was ready to sell the whole damn team, and he changed his mind. Forget the players. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I there's there's no telling. Uh What exactly is going through his mind, I think, a lot of the time. The other wild card, and I don't mean like wild card team, I mean wild card when it comes to trading in recent years is the Rockies, who this year they did finally trade Ryan McMahon to the Yankees, but it's just a number of re years recently where It would totally make sense for them to ship guys out, and instead they just keep them and don't trade them. Execs around the league, we've got a story from Andy McCullough on the athletic today about Who, you know, different personalities of front office executives. And they Yeah.
It suggested that the Rockies is like speaking an entirely different language, trying to pull off a trade with them.
So who knows what they're going to do. Yeah, who knows?
Well, Levi, taking a look at the landscape as it currently is constructed, and granted, things are definitely going to change over the next several days. What team do you think is best situated to go on a championship run? come October. Who's Man. I'm biased because I I really always Hope for some sort of an underdog.
Like coming into the season, I wanted to see the A's and the Rays in the ALCS because I wanted both minor league parks to have to close playoff games.
So, um So yeah, I mean there's the Blue Jays have looked really, really good lately. The Brewers have looked really good lately. Do I think that it's going to be a Brewers versus Blue Jays World Series? Uh, in my dreams, but I don't, you know, the Dodgers are just too. Stacked and too deep and too loaded, and too like when when October comes.
If they're even 80% healthy. They're the prohibited favorites. They have to be. And the AL, you know, the Tigers have been a week and a half ago, I would have felt very good about just sort of casually going, yeah, probably the Tigers. They've been on a cold stretch lately.
So, who even knows? I mean, we'll probably end up with like. Astros, Dodgers, again, and we'll roll our eyes and be like, cool, yeah, that's exactly what we expect. That'd be a massive eye roll. It's like, oh, great, the Astros are back.
What else is new?
Well, that'll be nice to at least get a World Series. We've heard all of these stories, Levi. about the CBA and salary cap and how to get owners to spend more and Rob Manfred and Bryce Harper. Do you ultimately think that we're going to head towards a a work stoppage by the time we get to twenty twenty seven? Yeah, I think we do.
Um I could get You're pretty militant about this. But just objectively speaking like The winds of discontent seem to be there amongst the owners. I do think that they will lock out the players. Are the players willing to give up 162 games worth of a season? stick to their guns and do that and lose an entire season of About income.
I don't know. I mean, it's a multi-billion dollar industry. I think that. A lot of Obviously, a lot of money rides on those decisions. I think a lot of egos ride on those decisions.
And unfortunately, the posturing seems to have begun pretty early. And yeah, it doesn't look like it's going to be smooth sailing for sure.
Well, how can we get to a point where there's more parity in the spending of the league, where we don't have a team with a $400 million payroll? And another one with a payroll of like seventy. Like, how how do we get there? Right. I mean you're right and I think they took Some steps with the luxury tax, which was intended to do this, right?
The luxury tax was intended to make it more expensive to spend that much money. It hasn't really panned out, but the problem isn't that the Dodgers, in my opinion. The problem isn't that the Dodgers are spending $400 million. Is it seems like the pirates And I know they can't afford four hundred million dollars a year, but They can afford more than they are spending. I mean, the A's.
Last offseason, finally started to sign some free agents to multi-year deals. And the reason was they were going to lose their. Uh the money that comes from the the Shared revenue. If they didn't spend more money on their roster. And so the league basically forced them: hey, you have to start spending some of this money that you're getting.
You can't just be pocketing this. This is not for your vacation. This is not yacht money. You need to spend this on the roster.
So those teams with lower incomes. Yeah, start to spend that money. You know, I wish I was smart enough to just walk into a room or be on a radio interview and be like, well, look, it's real simple. You just do this, this, this, and this, and it's solved. It's a complicated issue.
Um I I don't I don't know that I even have an answer that I would tell you is. exactly uh the best solution. But I don't Think that the salary cap is it. And the reason is because. Teams will use that as an excuse not to spend on players, and unfortunately, what happens is that money ends up going.
Back to the back to the owners. It's very easy as a fan to go, oh my gosh, $400 million being paid to players. How on earth? They deserve that much. And listen on a societal scale, sure, I hear you.
Money's there, money's there. The money's there, and if it doesn't go to the players, then it goes back to the owners.
So, who would you rather be getting that money? the players on the field or the owner whose job it is to, you know, be Erdie Marino. Yeah, it's a crazy situation to just think that there's no floor, and that baseball has to force a team to. Go out there and spend money. It the discrepancies, the math doesn't math.
And it seems that ultimately things will come to a head. Like, you got one guy at the end of the team who's making 70 mil a year. You got the other guy. I don't want to say that he's making scraps, but. It seems like there's a a wealth dis uh disparity even amongst the players that's that's not even.
So There's a lot to get into here, and I don't know if the economics are going to work.
So I agree with you. We're likely to have a work stoppage. I think amongst the players, they got beef. I think they obviously have beef with the owners and They ain't making stew, let's just put it that way. Yeah.
Yeah, it's it's not pretty. Um and I have you know privately wondered often like how long does this bubble grow before it Pops. How long can we franchises that were worth even 10 years ago, $400, $500 million? Which holy cow, that's a lot of money, are now worth $1.7, $1.8 billion. the value of these franchises is expanding at such a rate.
That first of all, it's another reason not to feel bad for the owners. If they invested 10 years ago, their money's already doubled. But How much longer can it keep doing this? Yeah. I don't know.
Yeah, that bubble may burst. I know there's interest in the negotiating of the television rights. It's just baseball, it is some real interesting economics, but at least we got some baseball now. And we'll see where some of these guys end up between now and Thursday. That'll keep us busy before we get to 20.
27. Hey, Levi, thank you so much for the time and for the chat. Please tell everybody where they can follow you, the athletic, you're writing, the newsletter, Felix N. Yeah, just uh just Google the the athletic, the wind up, and my name, which is Levi Weaver. Uh easy way to remember that is it's if I'm the one weaving the jeans.
For the, yeah, it's dumb, but you won't forget it. And it's just, yeah, the windup, that's our newsletter. It's free. You don't even have to be a subscriber to the athletic to sign up for the free newsletter.
So, yeah, that's how you find me. Levi, always a pleasure, man. We'll see what bears fruit between now and Thursday. You be well. All right, take care of you two.
No doubt about it. Always great to have Levi on the show. I am. The the economics surrounding baseball are just They're wild. And it is out of all the sports that we have in North America, well, at least the big four here.
They have the wildest economics where you can actually look at them and go.
Well, the bubble just might burst. We'll talk about that more on the other side of the break. 888-710-4ISN. We're also going to get into some of these gambling situations. I told you we're going to get into Arch Manning and some of the comments made by Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Cleveland Browns.
We have a lot to do. It's the JR Sport Bree Show on the Infinity Sports Network. And right now, it is time for a news flash. Here he is, Rich Ackman. It is the JR Sport Bree Show here with you, coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
Hey, thank you so much to Levi Weaver. He came through courtesy of the athletic, As we talked about the Major League Baseball trade deadline. What we can expect to see between now In Thursday If you missed any part of that conversation, go ahead and hit Rewind. on the free Odyssey app. You know, it It always stinks.
Talking about baseball because it always goes back to the economics. And I'd mentioned this earlier on in the show. When you really start thinking about America's pastime and just the dominance of the NFL. The NFL has jumped over Major League Baseball. I would say probably.
Decades ago. And that's just the facts. Baseball seems much more regional and local and. You know, what team do you follow and who do they play? And that's what you keep up with.
There is no national footprint. For Major League Baseball. I I I to be honest, I can't even tell you. Like if we have even a variety show that comes on. Like on Fox, like this day and this week in baseball.
I just. Like those are things that you grew up watching. And you wanted to know about the biggest stars. And outside of knowing Judge and Otani. Like there's there's nobody else in that stratosphere.
Where it used to be like every team had a guy. That you were just like, oh, damn, that guy's cool. That doesn't exist anymore. It's just like, hey, there's a bunch of players, and where's Judge? Where's Otani?
And you could plug in maybe four or five other guys. And outside of that, you just kind of shrug your shoulders. And so wh wh when you have 162 games of inventory. You got 81 games road and away. You've got to open up your stadium 81 days and.
You're filling up seats, you know, places that can hold maybe 40,000, 45,000 people. Yeah, you you'll make money. Got local television revenue. Major League Baseball's trying to figure things out on a national basis. They got deals with every.
streaming company imaginable. They're trying to figure it out. But when you look at the salaries and the money that's coming in and the labor disputes and Even the guys in one locker room, one guy can make you know, less than a mil, and then another guy is over here making seventy mil. The owners wait until the last minute to, you know, squeeze the players in free agency. Guys aren't signing until They actually open up spring training.
It it just doesn't make sense. And I'm with Levi. It it's not so much that you got a team willing to spend. 400 million dollars. But it's the fact that you got teams that aren't willing to spend nothing.
You know, 60 mil, 70 mil. That's That's just not fair. That's not fair for the fan bases. It's fair for the economics and the owners making money and the players making money. But even that disparity is is ridiculous.
I think it's like, what, 20% of the players making 80% of the money? Like, whoa. I don't know. Baseball, I I gotta be honest. I love baseball.
I loved it growing up. Don't love some of the changes that they've made, certainly understand them. But I I don't feel good. about the sport. overall.
I don't Baseball just feels real Slapstick. Like, they don't have an idea of where they're going outside of, oh, we're not going anywhere. Oh, yeah, we're making money. But it it doesn't have the stake in the ground that it It used to have. And I think part of that is the the style of the game and And certainly the pace of the game and it it's a It was called a pastime.
People watched baseball to pass the time.
Well, people don't have attention spans anymore.
So, forget passing time. I'm passing my time. People are on, not me, but people are just going through TikTok and IG and And you still got even older people yelling at each other on Facebook.
Well, people have found ways. It's a past time. That ain't baseball. which makes all the sense in the world as to why they would want to speed things up. But just th things don't add up.
Like, what is the marketplace going to look like for baseball? It's growing and developing. into a niche sport. It's not going anywhere. It's not disappearing.
But when you at one point were the most dominant sport in the entire country, And now you're moving into being a niche. Yeah, you tell me how fast that that money We'll go out there and And and dry up. It may not be right now. But if base baseball starts getting into the streaming space, And the interest isn't there? You're not gonna have Fox In CBS and ESPN to come save you.
the Amazons, the Apples, are going to look at you. The YouTubes are going to look at you and just go, The the numbers aren't aren't math and the math isn't mathing. Why am I paying you millions and billions of dollars for a television contract? When people aren't watching the games in the same way that they're watching the NFL. The MBA is tailor made for the streaming era.
Watch fifteen seconds of a clip. Fifteen seconds of a dunk? the last two minutes of a game. Baseball is not tailored for that. They have to figure it out.
I really do. feel that baseball is is coming to a head, Not just financially, but from a popularity standpoint, a financial standpoint. I love baseball. It ain't never going anywhere. It'll be on T V.
You can sit and watch it. You can pass the time all you want. But some of the decisions that they've made. Is certainly past time. It is.
They are certainly past. of their time. And that part sucks. It really does. The JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. Listen, I I have not forgotten. About Arch Manning. We're going to get into Arch Manning and some of the comments made by Jimmy Haslam.
But when we come back on the other side of the break, I want to talk to you about a larger problem. that I think all sports is dealing with right now. It doesn't matter if you're the NFL. The NBA? Major League Baseball.
The NHL. to some degree They are all dealing with issues related, to gambling. Dammit, we got one of baseball's best closers. Maybe historically good. This guy is out due to an investigation related to gambling.
Not necessarily what you want. Could you imagine waking up one day and Mariana Rivera is busted for I don't know. Y Yankees are winning the World Series and they pop Mariano for for sports betting?
Well, the world is a lot closer and easier than it's ever been before. to having access to uh gambling and casinos and sports books than we ever have. It's a wild world. We're going to get into that on the other side of the break. Talk some more NFL.
Somebody had brought up, you know, Luca and LeBron and their relationship. We'll get into Arch Manning. We got a whole lot more to do as we continue on. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief Show, Coast to Coast, or the Infinity Sports Network.
Okay.
