Acuna Jr might be from another planet...

From iHeart Podcast, Supreme the Battle for Roe tells the story of the unlikely champions behind the landmark case Roe v. Wade, starring Maya Hawke as 26-year-old lead attorney Sarah Weddington. We're challenging the Texas abortion laws in federal court. And Academy Award nominee William H. Macy as Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. Time is not the most important factor.

Getting it right is. Listen to the podcast Supreme the Battle for Roe on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I do believe that Ronald Acuna Jr. is from another planet. For people who don't know, Acuna Jr. is likely going to be the MVP of the National League.

If one of his teammates doesn't get in the way, Elliot Johnson, my friend, former big leaguer, former Atlanta Braves. So we're going to start with a trivia question for you, Elliot. Are you cool with a trivia question?

Let's give it a try. All right. In the expanded playoff era, this is not about Ronald Acuna Jr., in the expanded playoff era, although I have another trivia question, how many times have the Yankees, Red Sox and Cardinals all not made the playoffs? In the expanded playoff era, so since 1995, how many years have all those three clubs not been in the postseason? I'm going to guess zero.

That is correct. Very logical answer, but it's about to happen. The Dodgers will be in the playoffs to get the other of the big four franchises in history, but the Dodgers will be, but not the Cardinals, not the Bo Sox and not the Yankees. All right, let's get to, and I think we'll all survive by the way, let's get to Acuna Jr. 39 home runs, he had two last night. He's got 67 stolen bases.

Did you ever think in your life you would see a 40, 70 guy? No, no, I think so. We're seeing a lot of different things, and unfortunately for your listeners, I've got to start with the bases, okay? Not only the bases, but the limited amount of throw overs. The game has changed. You know, now that I'm not playing, I actually, I like the rules.

It has spurred more interest. It is annoying when the pitcher throws over. I was a base stealer.

It's annoying how much they throw over, and it really stalls the flow of the game. I get it, but in fairness to Lou Brock, if we're going to talk about the Cardinals, Ricky Henderson, obviously they were stealing bases in a different era where slide step hadn't really existed, so the game has evolved to control those types of things as much as possible. So the rules are now in place to incentivize different things, and so the sanctity, if you want to use that word, or the reverence we have for those stolen base totals, Vince Coleman and whomever, have changed significantly. But if you combine that with his home run totals, I mean, we're talking about a guy in the steroid testing era of doing things that have never been done before. I hope he gets 40, and it would be wonderful if he does more than that, but 40, 70 is pretty amazing. I mean, we only have four 40, 40 guys in the history of the sport. Can you name them, by the way? This is trivia question central for Elliot Johnson, my friend. Can you name the four 40, 40 players before Ronald Acuna Jr., although he is not there yet.

He's got 11 games to hit number 40. Let's do Conseco. Yeah, one. Do Soriano. Yes.

Let's do A-Rod. Yes. Yes. Come on. You just gave yourself the biggest hint ever before I asked the question. In the steroid era.

Yeah, this is tough, man. The steroid testing era. That's the hint. Oh, come on.

Barry Bonds. Oh, I messed it up. I can't believe that. Oh my gosh.

Elliot Johnson is here. Say again? Three out of four is not bad.

You did great. I mean, I'm just springing these things on you, but I do want to take a little bit of umbrage with this. Like, I know that because of the inability to throw over more than once, and I think the base size is minimal of an impact, but I think the throwing over and the pitch clock, so we all know what's happening, right? I think these things have made it a little bit easier to steal bases, but it ain't like everybody's stealing bases.

There's only one other player in the big leagues. I think a rookie outfielder for the A's who's got more than 60, so it ain't like everybody's stealing bases. The analytics have taken the stolen base out of the sport anyway because if you're not stealing bases at more than an 80% clip, they don't see the value in it, not to mention, I mean, it's super exciting. I love stolen bases, but I mean, I am not diminishing it at all. I think 40-70 is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, man, and I think he and the fact that we're getting more stolen bases is just awesome for the game.

I'm not diminishing it. Well, I think it makes it more exciting. You know, a guy gets on first and the money ball thing is basically take your walks, and then somebody's going to hit a three-run home run, which is great, right? But in the words of Hank Aaron, a triple is actually the most exciting play that can happen in a game, and this is the home run game before Bonds, but he was talking about how it's so much more exciting because, you know, the anticipation and the excitement of the play being at third and then the culmination of the outcome, it's wonderful, it really is, and if we're going to make it even more fun, then we can, you know, potentially add in stealing home. So I think that it's definitely made, you know, the game has changed because there's basically risk tolerance and, you know, you're trying to prevent making outs on the base pass and great reference to 80 percent because they determine that over the course of a season, if you're not successful more than that, you actually hurt the team.

So to make sure that the risk is worth the reward, but it's okay to have some guardrails surrounding it. However, at the detriment to action on the field, and, you know, I don't like giving Manfred any credit for anything, of course, but doing some that are fairly bold that have created more action has been a more exciting product to watch. All right, Elliott Johnson is here.

I got a couple of a bunch more things. We'll see how much time we have. By the way, the Braves as a team, they are close to having nine players with 20 or more home runs in their lineup. They're close. I think they already have four players with 35 or more. They're going to set every home run record. They're already the most, I think, the most prolific first inning team in big league history. Their first inning slash line, 322 batting average, 384 on base percentage, 595 slugging percentage. I mean, how do you?

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Download and subscribe today at WRL sports fan.com or wherever you discover your favorite podcasts. Is that good? I think it's good. I think, you know, it's amazing how the game has changed so much because remember the game we used to watch was, you know, if you have a starting pitcher out there and me personally, when we were with those raised teams that were so good, we had horses that you get the ball and not just horses that like everybody knows, you know, David Price and James Fields, but Jeff Neiman was really, really good and Jeremy Helikson was really good and Cobber's still pitching, but we had guys that would go six, seven and eight and they made it a competition on who could get the most complete games. The game has changed to where now it's about getting guys, you know, hopefully one time through the lineup and then pass the baton to the bullpen as quick as possible because the narrative used to be, let's get in that bullpen guys.

Now it's, hey, let's leave that starter out there as quick as we can. So I think the Braves have figured out a recipe to dominate the starter that they see in any given day and then getting to the bullpen is actually more precarious because obviously velocity has gone up so significantly over the past decade. You mentioned Alex Cobb, by the way, the Giants are still in the race there. I mean, they're at the bottom of this wildcard stack in the National League, but Alex Cobb is the only pitcher on the, I think on the Giants roster who is qualified for the ERA title because you have to have one innings pitched, one inning pitched per team game. Nobody else on the roster has as many as 150 innings except for Alex Cobb. Elliott Johnson is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show.

All right. So Shohei Ohtani had his surgery on his Tommy John surgery or whatever the surgery is. Apparently it was a different type of surgery. Anyway, he's not going to pitch in 24. He can hit in 24.

He will not resume pitching until 25. So the question was, does it diminish his value going into a free agent market that, I mean, obviously there will be interest in Shohei Ohtani. Am I crazy for thinking that it shouldn't diminish his value that if I were any team, I would give him the contract that I would envision him getting if he was both a dominant pitcher and a dominant hitter.

So it does diminish his value. And it hurts me to say that because if you look at the past and I'm going to throw out some names that, you know, here, this is, this is the most prolific one right now is Steven Strasburg. So you can offer World Series win, you know, you perform at a, you know, I think he might've even been World Series MVP that year, Adam. So you build that momentum leading into the off season and it creates a frenzy. You can call it.

You always, you know, the word I always use is helium. So as you have helium leading into that opportunity, that free agency auction, it changes things. People act differently and they throw caution to the wind. So I think in his case, they probably still need to, to your point, however, with his inability to pitch, it's going to be used as a leverage point nonstop by all the teams. And with good reason, he's not going to do, you know, a 10 more next year because the pitching is going to account for whatever 40, 50, 60% of it, how would in any given year, he's still going to be great. And you know, if use Bryce Harper as an example, coming off of TJ and he probably got the brace procedure, you know, it, you know, doesn't really matter. I mean, it's kind of, it's still a very significant elbow injury. So there's an opportunity for him to still hit to DH. That rule is in place where he can go to not just American league, he can go to national league teams. So he's got a robust market. It's going to come down to, you know, the team that's going to, you know, want them the most.

I kind of, I don't like doing this either, Adam. I applaud the angels for going in and trying to show him that they wanted to win to try to retain him. However, it is absolutely just demolished their team and just absolutely crushed their flexibility. They gave away every player that they acquired at the deadline that save a few bucks. They're not going to keep him.

I just don't see how that's going to work because they can't win. And so if you can't win, the man wants, he's going to have more money than he can spend. He wants things that you cannot buy and that's a world series ring.

So he's going, I promise you, he will take less money. Okay. Kind of like Trey Turner for an opportunity to win the world series on a regular basis.

Okay. But it's gotta be a combination of teams that are ready to win right now, have sustainability. There's going to be a handful of those teams.

It may end up being, it's probably not going to be the Braves. I think they built a very successful model on assigning guys for below market, but there is a market that's going to be out there. It's just not going to be as robust because of the elbow surgery, but he's still going to get five, 600 million. I would argue that $45 million a year would be under market value for Shohei Ohtani because he pays for itself. Any team can sign him for whatever number they want, he will pay for himself. In merchandising, in advertising, in attendance, he will pay for himself. Every team can afford him and they could pay whatever they wanted to. And if he comes back and pitches effectively in 25, you get two stars. To me, it's a no brainer. Any team should go for it.

My sense is that he probably wants to stay on the West Coast simply because it's closer to being at home, although how much is it really closer? Elliot Johnson, you are the, I have other theories that we'll get to next time. I promise. I appreciate your time. My friend, I'll talk to you soon.

Pleasure as always, Adam. I didn't even have time to talk about, with Elliot, about how I want the baseball playoffs expanded. I like it.

Just by one team each league. Don't give anybody a buy. Buys are not always good.

They're just not always good. From iHeart Podcasts, Supreme, The Battle for Roe, tells the story of the unlikely champions behind the landmark case, Roe v. Wade, starring Maya Hawk as 26 year old lead attorney, Sarah Weddington. We're challenging the Texas abortion laws in federal court. And Academy Award nominee, William H. Macy, as Supreme Court Justice, Harry Blackmun. Time is not the most important factor.

Getting it right is. Listen to the podcast, Supreme, The Battle for Roe on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.