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Baseball. All-star game coming up, uh kinda week, what a Next week. Week after it's coming up. We're past the halfway point to the baseball season in terms of Number of games, well past it now. Teams have played 90 plus games at this point.
And the trade deadline continues to garner a lot of interest. And one of the reasons is you have a legit top-of-the-rotation ace. In fact, the guy that's won. Two straight Cy Young awards is gonna be available from all indications. Tarek Skubel is available.
Not even gonna be. Apparently he's available. And here's the thing that really just gets me about all this. This is what bothers me. I understand if you're a small market team and You don't have the revenue and the resources to sign a guy that is going to cost you.
Let's be realistic here. Scoobel's gonna make, what, like, 50 mil a year. Right, he's due for a contract. I think Scott Boris. Is his agent?
He's 29 years old. He won't be 30 years old until, you know, November. Scoobel's come back from this injury, and he's still a heck of a pitcher. You know, he's still. You know, forget win-loss records anymore.
He's got an ERA hovering right at three, striking out more than a batter at an evening. His whip is under one. He's obviously as good as they get, and he's a lefty. I mean, he's been a dominant player. He is legitimately Maybe the best pitcher in baseball right now.
The last two years have been utterly ridiculous, his dominance. He's lost ten games in two years. He's won thirty one games. And It comes down to this more than anything else. Why is he even available?
Like, this is what I don't understand in this whole equation. Why is Scoobel available? When did Detroit become this small market team that can't financially compete? Yeah, Detroit's not New York, it's not LA, it's not Chicago. I get that.
But are they a team that's crying for money that they can't pay its best player? What he's worth? A guy that has been dominant for three straight seasons? Or two and a half, remember in 2023 only really pitched half the season. But over the last two years he has been nothing but dominant?
You can't keep him? In the day and age where more teams are making the postseason because of the wild cards. You're really not out of it, right? Like, Detroit's not out of this. They could go on a run and get that last wildcard slot.
It's not inconceivable. It's actually fairly possible. But why is he available? Because you don't want to pay him. He's going to be a free agent.
He's represented by a guy who goes for every dollar he can get because that's what agents do. But when did Detroit, a team, by the way, that's given Prince Fielder back in the day a big contract? Didn't work out. They offered Juan Gonzalez back in the day a massive contract. He didn't take it because, well, he didn't want to be in Detroit.
By the way, it didn't work out for him. But if you're not willing to spend your money. On a twenty-nine-year-old the two Cy Young awards, who's already in your rotation Came up through your system, you nurtured him, brought him up. If this isn't the guy you hand a big contract to, well, I don't know who you give it to. Like, what's the question mark here that makes you say, I don't want to keep him?
See, that's my dilemma here. He's not old, right? You give him a five, six, seven, eight-year deal. He's not old. In today's baseball, yes, you pay for a back end of a deal where it's probably not going to work out in your favor for the success in the front and slash middle part of a contract.
But if this isn't the guy to give the money to, who are you keeping it for? Because there's nobody better. Like what's the dream here? Shohei Otani is not becoming a free agent where you say, I let Tarek Skubel go because I had a chance to sign the greatest player in the history of baseball. If that's the case, I totally understand it.
Okay, I let Skubel go because I sh I signed Shohei Otani. Makes absolutely perfect sense to me. But how many guys in today's baseball world Are you paying more money than Tarek Scoobel? Like, what are the names? You know, Aaron Judge.
Is older. and potentially breaking down You're not letting a scoobel go for a judge at this point in terms of saving money, and judge ain't available. He's got years left on his Yankee deal. Are they saving money for when McGonagall is going to become available? They're going to have to sign him to a big long-term deal, and he's really good, by the way.
But that's just too forward thinking. Who are you going to give this money to when you let Scoobel walk? Because you're going to trade him because you don't want to pay him this offseason. And I know some people like, well, you know. How about you get rid of him in a trade, you bring in a bunch of prospects, and then you give them the big contract in the offseason?
I don't think that's how it's going to work. I don't think that's. The rationale behind Scoobel here, and I don't think there's some handshake agreement under the table where it's like, Yeah, all right, guys. I'm going to leave. Trade me to a contender so I can try to win this year and then I'll re-sign next in the offseason.
And I get that you have this uncertainty about a potential work stoppage in baseball. I understand that. But every team has to deal with that. This isn't something unique to Detroit. And by the way, I do believe there will be a lockout because everything you read.
coming from the owner's side in terms of what they're offering is mind blowingly bad. Like, if you want to sign a free agent from another team, you can only sign up to a six-year deal. It should be a five-year deal. If he stays with his team, it's going to be a six-year deal. There's going to be a salary cap.
There's an international draft. No high school player. I mean, everything they've thrown out there is leading to the point where they're telling us as baseball fans, we actually want to lock out. We are throwing out just absolutely horrendous. Horrendous terms of a potential CBA That we know the Players Association will never agree to because we actually want a lockout to change the economics of baseball.
That's exactly what's happening here, by the way, because there's no way the owners can believe what they're throwing out there makes any sense, and it's going to actually lead to an agreement. Like, usually, you are somewhat differentiating on certain terms, right? Like, yeah, I want this, you want that. We're kind of close. Let's meet in the middle.
Sounds good. Done. We're nowhere near even close, at least from what has come out publicly, as being tossed around by the owners. And so here's the issue. I think for a Detroit, what they're thinking is, well, If we give Scoobel a ten-year deal.
At forty year you know, forty mil a year. But we wait one year and we potentially lose him. Is other teams, you know, what's the situation? Is it only going to be where he can sign up to a six-year deal or a five-year deal? And why would we have to give more than that?
We don't want to be stuck in a Juan Soto-type contract that the Mets are stuck in for 15 years or a 13-year deal like Bryce Harper has, these ridiculous long-term deals. Those are ridiculous, by the way. But even with the uncertainty, you have to take a shot here, right? You have to show commitment to the fan base. Detroit is a classic baseball city.
It's got unbelievable tradition, unbelievable history. It's a city that is revitalized, right? I mean, Detroit was left for dead, I hate to say, but it was. When the car industry in America collapsed, Detroit collapsed. The population of Detroit was actually at some point over a million people.
It's less now. Places were left abandoned. Beautiful buildings were left abandoned. I went to a final four in Detroit. 15, 16, 17 years ago, I don't even remember when it was, like 17 or 16 years ago, I was in Detroit for a Final Four.
And I'll tell you something. They had us out in Dearborn, Michigan. They bust us in for the games to the arena. They didn't want us staying in Detroit. And as you're driving around downtown Detroit, you're looking up at 35-floor abandoned buildings.
It was bizarre. It was like a futuristic world where things were just. You know, people just weren't there anymore. Like I I haven't been to a major city Where you look up and there's like a thirty-five floor abandoned building. I know LA's got those uh buildings with all the graffiti on it that never were finished.
Here and there, you have a couple of things here and there, but the reality was in Detroit, it was like, wow, how are these buildings abandoned? But that's changed. A lot of that that's changed now. They've really Pumped a lot of money into that downtown. They've revitalized it.
They've put in new industry. It's not just a car place. And it's a different place. Tiger Stadium, as classic and great as it was. They replaced it, they put it in a brand new stadium, it's beautiful.
It's a great place to watch baseball. But when you show no commitment to putting the best product out there because you're literally going to trade away your best player because you don't want to pay him, what message are you sending your fan base? That's what I don't understand. What message are you sending?
Well, we want you to keep buying tickets and spending your money to watch this product. But we're not willing to take that money and put it back into the team. by keeping our best player. When that's the biggest head scratch as to why I don't get it. and why I'd love to get the answer.
Not from the GM. The GM is really just kind of a puppet of ownership, right? For where's the owner to give us a rational reason as to why? You're gonna get rid of a, you know. The last two years, he's the best pitcher in baseball.
There's no question about it. Like, Paul Skeens has a good argument, too. But what we're arguing is one and one A, right? Like, no one's gonna put Tyric Schubel outside their top two or three of best pitchers in baseball between 2024 and 2025. Because if you do, I don't think you really know baseball.
Dominance, absolute dominance. And for what's considered today's game, he's an innings eater. 192, 195 innings. Yeah, it's not quite like the Verlanders. You look at his stats now that he's retiring and he threw 230 innings, a couple of years for Houston and Detroit.
I get it, it's a different time. But anybody today that gives you two hundred innings pitched in a season is considered a workhorse. It's again just mind-blowing, and I would love to understand this, but. That said, Detroit's going to get a lot for him. And this goes one of two ways.
How many times have we seen a trade that just does not work out? It doesn't matter who the prospects are. because they're nothing more than prospects. and sometimes prospects turn out to be great players. And teams may regret having given up a great player for a rental.
Look at the New York Mets, right? Pete Crow Armstrong is one of the most electrifying young players in baseball. He's 24 years old, and he is a heck of a baseball player. Pete Crowe Armstrong is well on his way to being a superstar in this league.
Well the Mets had him. And they traded him for a rental of Javi Baez, okay? Didn't really work out, right? And now they get to watch Pete Crow Armstrong just tear it up with the Cubs. Another time, though, you look at other deals like Christian Yelich, when he got dealt by the Marlins.
To the Brewers. Lewis Brinson was one of the big guys in that trade.
Well, it hasn't worked out. None of the prospects that were brought back in the deal have amounted to anything.
So he gave up Christian Yellich for nothing.
So, either when you trade Tarek Skubel, you are going to get good prospects and maybe young major league players. But you better cross your fingers and hope that it works out in your favor because a lot of times when you trade an established superstar, two times Cy Young Award winner for prospects or young players, the chances are it's not going to work out in your favor. And you're going to receive pennies on the dollar. Because I don't care if he's ranked on ESPN's list as the number four prospect in baseball. Honestly, that's meaningless.
Meaningless.
So, hey, Detroit, you want to get rid of your top player? By all means, do so. It's your right. But you better make sure that in five years from now, whatever return you get for Tarek Skubla at 29 years old. Fans of that team are going to say, you know what?
We got good value for him. And chances are they're not going to be saying that. Maybe there is an answer as to why he is available. We're going to find out. Keith Law, senior writer at the athletic.
Big baseball mind, he is going to join us next. It is a Thursday here. Dan Schwartzmann Info Rich. It's the Rich Eisen Show on ESPN Radio, the SPN app, SiriusXM, Channel 80. Uh The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.
21 past the hour, hour to Dan Schwartzman in for Rich Eisen here on ESPN Radio, the ESPN app, Sirius XM Channel 80. We are powered by Progressive Insurance. And don't forget, hire right the first time with LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Get started by posting a free job at linkedin.com slash Eisen. Baseball talk.
Love it. My favorite sport. I'm not that old, but I do love baseball. Baseball has done. Wonders is here.
Ratings are up, attendance is up, and it's just a great product, and hopefully, it doesn't lead to a lockout. Trade deadline is not coming up immediately, but it's starting to boil a little bit. Names, teams, where could guys go? How they would help. That's coming up.
Baseball draft as well is making some noise. That's right here as well. And uh that's become a little bit bigger every single year in terms of You know, the guys you kinda know a bit more from college baseball, the high school guys becoming bigger names, the White Sox on the clock with that number one pick. Keith Loss, senior writer at the athletic, joining us. And Keith, I've been talking about Tarek Schubel, the biggest name potentially available by the trade deadline.
And the question I maybe hope you can answer is this: He's twenty-nine years old. Clearly over the last couple of years probably the most dominant pitcher in baseball. Detroit's not exactly a small market team that can sit there and cry poverty.
Well, why is he available, then? Rich Eisen here for Gusto. After all these years talking to athletes, coaches, entertainers, and people at the top of what they do, one thing is pretty clear. Success usually depends on getting the details right. For small business owners, that includes payroll, hiring, onboarding, benefits, you know, the work that keeps everything moving, even if it's not the reason you started the business in the first place.
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Fast funds terms apply at sofi.com/slash debt play. Because he well, two things. One, they're Eight games under 500.
Somehow they're in fourth place in that division, which the whole division seems to be upside down at this point. But also, he is a Scott Boris client, has been for a while. I don't know exactly when he signed up with Forrest. Boris almost never does extensions with teams. His philosophy is that players get the highest salaries or highest, largest contracts.
By going to free agency. And also, each player, particularly each star that Forrest takes to free agency, further pulls up. The salaries and contracts for stars in the next class and the next class after that. And so by taking School, multiple Siyung Awards. I agree with you, arguably the best pitcher in baseball when he's healthy to free agency.
He could set new records and that will further raise what the next ace starter who gets to free agency manages to receive. And so that puts Detroit in the top position If they're contending, and heck, if they make if they win their next seven games, suddenly they they could argue they're in the playoff race again. Right.
So do they trade Schoogle now to make sure they get some kind of return while probably giving up on the rest of the season? Or do they keep him, try to make a run for a third straight playoff spot but risk losing him for a draft pick at most when he departs? Keith, I get that. And I understand that Boris wants to take the guy to free agency. It's his right, and he's going to make a lot of money on the market, and there's no guarantee that Detroit can keep him.
But Detroit has money. They aren't the Rays. They aren't the Marlins. They aren't the Pirates, right? A team that has no history of spending money with big contracts.
And you never know what happens. But Don't you have to have a little faith here in the sense of like what you're selling the fan base here? No guy leaves the team that ends up re-signing with them, right? That rarely happens, if ever. And my thing is, okay, you might lose him, but Y'alls can throw a heck of an offer at him in the offseason and try to keep him.
The thought is, you let him go to a big market team because very few teams can afford to get a Tyrek Scubal. Chances are they're going to throw him a boatload of money in this offseason, and you are going to lose him forever, and he's never going to be a Detroit Tiger again.
So, again, my point is: when it comes down to it, and you're Detroit, I get that there's that risk of losing a guy for nothing, and other teams have gone through that as well. The Angels got burned with the Shoe Aotani situation where they probably should have traded him, but most people knew he wasn't going to resign there, they weren't going anywhere. I mean, is there an indication where Scoobel is pretty much saying, or the word is that he wouldn't resign them in Detroit? Is that something that's out there? Because I haven't heard it.
I wouldn't hear it. That's not my sort of department at all.
So I don't know if there's rumors on what does he want to stay, does he not want to stay. I do want to go back to something you said though, that free agents don't free sign with their team. We just saw Kyle Schwarber do it. Aaron Judge went to free agency, he re-signed. I'm sorry, there's plenty of agents.
No, no, I meant getting traded at the trade deadline, then resigning with the team that traded him. Oh, and then going back? Uh, it's rare, it is certainly rare. But no, here's the bottom line for me: free agents go where they get the best offer. That's literally it.
If the tigers Owners say, you know, really, it's ownership at this point. This is no longer a baseball decision when you're talking about a contract of this magnitude. If ownership just says sign School at all costs. I don't care. And that's whether he they trade him or they keep him.
If the victim from The top is Just tasteable whatever it takes. Then the Tigers should get him back. I mean, it is that simple. There is no, oh, he wants to go here, he wants to go there, especially if you're a Boris client. Boris clients do not take less money.
Because that is, if you are, if you choose Scott Boris to be your representative, you are saying, I want the biggest contract, I want the highest salary. And he will do whatever he can to get that for you. There's no hometown discount. There's no preference for this or that. And Scuba went to Seattle University.
Would the Mariners have a leg up potentially? No, he's a Boris claim. I highly, highly doubt there's any discount for Seattle or for any team on the West Coast.
So if Detroit was really determined to bring him back, then they can do so. They just have to be willing to pay more than anybody else. And that could very well be more than they think Schoogle is likely to be worth over the life of the contract. Keith Law, Sr., writer at the Athletic, joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show. Dan Schwartzmann in for Rich on this Thursday.
I love baseball. I'm a baseball purist, and watching the Pirates, Jared Jones, doing something that very few people do, that's on his way to throwing a perfect game potential, perfect game. Six innings, perfect, 77 pitches. He's taken out. Coming off an injury, missed all of last year.
I get why he was taken out. Don't get me wrong, Keith. But as a purist, I hate to see it because you kind of want to see a guy finish that. You've been around baseball a long time, Keith. Your thoughts on how teams are kind of using guys' pitch counts and the fact that when you have a guy throwing a perfect game, 77 pitches through sixth, do you hate to see him getting taken out?
Yuri Perez went seven perfect innings on 92 pitches, and they took him out. I think it was his third or fourth start back from. I stay on the injured list. You didn't have Jones' injury history or recent injury history. But I had more of an issue with Perez coming out six outs away from a perfect game than Jones coming out.
Nine outs away. And I do feel a little bit of a distinction between a perfect game, which has only happened 24 times in history, and a no-hitter, which is still special and super fun, but not as rare, not as historic. Um You know, I am generally a pitch count or I'm a proponent of using pitchers responsibly. Pitch counts are a proxy. They are not a definitive answer.
There's no magical. thing where the pitcher goes his hundred and first pitch and suddenly his UCL snaps.
So they are just a w uh a sort of rough tool that teams have used, particularly for younger pitchers. To try to keep them healthy. And what we've seen is we've really cut down on the sort of catastrophic shoulder injuries that were very common in the 80s and 90s. The flip side is we've got plenty of Tommy John surgeries because everybody throws 100 miles an hour and they're throwing max effort on every pitch. And so I understand The Marlins or the Pirates, two small market teams too, who really need to try to keep their best guys healthy as much as possible.
Super cautious with those guys to say, you know what, they're both coming off injury. We don't want to push them to a level that deeper into games than they're used to going because we don't want to make them fatigued and then they work too hard while fatigued, and that leads to some kind of injury, even if it's short term, even if it just takes them out for a couple more starts. both those teams trying to contend this year. They don't want to lose those guys. For even a couple of turns in the rotation, let alone for the rest of the season.
So I don't like it as a fan. I was more bothered by the Yuri Perez one, but I do understand the thinking behind both of those. Exactly right. I mean, I hate to see it as a lover of the game of baseball. Completely understood it because, as I said, Don Kelly, at some point, is going to have to take him out, right?
77 through 6, averaging about 13 pitches an inning. He's going to be a 90 going into potentially the eighth inning. You're going to have to take him out. You can't let him finish it at 120 pitches. I get it.
I just hate to see it, but I absolutely understand. Keith, the baseball draft has gotten bigger and bigger every year. They're doing a better job of promoting it. A very interesting scenario has arisen for the Chicago White Sox at top the draft this year is. They've narrowed it down to three players, and you're big into this draft, Keith.
Two of the players play the same position. One guy is the best in college, and one guy is the best in high school. How do you reach? And the third option is a catcher. But when you look at the short stops from UCLA and also from high school, How do you kind of differentiate considering once played obviously at a higher level playing college ball against a guy who potentially may be more talented?
But the competition's been different playing high school in those circuits compared to college at UCLA. It's a challenge we have every year in the draft. I think it's a little starker this year because that high school player, Grady Emerson, transferred for his senior year to a small religious school in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.
So the level of competition he faced was really poor, like worse than the typical high school player, especially from a war in West State, where typically Texas, California, Georgia, we think, oh, that's good high school baseball. Yes, it is. But there's also bad high school baseball there too, depending on where you go.
So for me, I I am I'd have ranked Rachalowski, the UCLA shortstop, ahead of Emerson all year. I think Emerson is a perfectly fine prospect. I think he's really going to hit. Everyone I've spoken to thinks he is the best high school prospect, hitter or pitcher in this draft club. But Chalowski has done it for three years.
at a Division I program in a mid major conference, He was a top prospect coming out of high school. His dad is a scout for the Reds. Everybody has known this kid for five years now. We have so many scouting looks.
So much data. And so much information on who he is as a person. And with Emerson, we just don't have anywhere near the track record.
So, I have a much higher level of confidence in Chalowski. And then, on top of that, even if you think both guys are Pretty close to equal, or you think Emerson is a slightly better prospect, Cholowski's going to get some major. minimum of two years sooner. And I think that makes a big difference. especially with your team like the White Sox, who, hey, suddenly they're kind of good.
Doesn't it help to have if Chalowski gets there in two years versus Emerson gets there in four or five years?
Now, if they believe Emerson is a way better prospect, fine, take out absolutely. That'll outweigh it. But these are the kinds of conversations that teams are having right now as they try to line up their boards, and where you're mixing college and high school, position player and pitcher, guys who are really safe. Right.
Maybe don't have huge upsides versus guys who have high ceilings, but bring a ton of risk because they may not work out at all. Does money play a factor here for the White Sox? And baseball has this very strange thing where. You know, slot money and this and that, where teams will maybe draft somebody who'll take slot money in the first round because then they'll use money later on a high school player who drops because their demands might be higher. Is this going to play a role here, or is this going to be straight?
We take the guy, regardless of money and how much it'll take to sign this top guy. We're taking the guy that we think is the best player.
So given these guys, these three guys that the White Sox are on, I don't think there's a huge discount here. It's not that any one of those three, and Von Lackey at Georgia Tech is the catcher, the other guy in this mix. None of those guys is taking a huge haircut against slot at the first pick. My guess is whoever signs will take a million, million in change below slot, which is pretty typical for the guy who goes first. And that will allow the White Sox, who pick again, I think, at forty one.
To get creative and go over slot for a high-quality, probably high-ceiling high school player. At that pick. Jim Tomey's kid, Landon Tomey, who plays at a high school outside Chicago, actually, has come up a few times as somebody at the White Sox might be interested in that pick, and they'd probably have to go over SOT to get him.
So to me, it may come down to if one of those three players is willing to take half a million dollars less. That may tip the scale because, from what I've been able to glean from outside, White Talks like all three of those guys, and none of those guys would be a bad pick.
So, you're looking for fine distinctions to help order them on your board and decide. I mean, it's one, right? They don't have to wait for anything, they get who they want.
So, now it is entirely up to them to decide who they actually want. Oh, oh, oh.
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Alright. Auto ball. Thank you. Rich Eisen here. Running a small business means every hire matters.
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With Hiring Pro, you can hire with confidence and build the team you need. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com/slash Eisen. Terms and conditions apply. Senior writer at the athletic, Keith Law, joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show, Dan Schwartzmann in for Rich.
I do love the draft, Keith, and I love baseball. I watch all the drafts, by the way, pretty much every sport. But the baseball draft in the new CBA conversations, they the owners want to make fundamental changes, massive changes to the process. No high school players. The international players will be what, a draft, I guess, and and less rounds as well.
Keith, you're a big draft guy. What are your thoughts on What's been proposed it's not subtle changes, it's massive changes. And is it in any way good for the game? I don't see where it is, but. Is there any silver lining of anything good that's being proposed by the owners on the draft?
No, I hate it all. I said this is Major League Baseball sees a bunch of golden eggs and goes and finds a goose to kill. It is absolutely insane that they would want to destroy Honestly, the lifeblood of the product.
So many of the best stars in baseball today. We came out of high school. Connor Griffin, who unfortunately just got on the injured list, but one of the best rookies in baseball this year, high school draft. Mike Trout, one of the best players we have ever seen in the history of baseball, high school draft. Why should those guys have to go to college for three years to become eligible again, or even two years, I think, is actually the proposal.
Those guys were in the majors in two years, less than two years. After getting drafted.
So, to push those guys out to college baseball, where they may not develop at all, they may get worse, and in the case of Pitchers, They're reasonably likely to get hurt because of the incentives that college coaches have to just get the most out of the players in the two years while they have them. to me, you are just going to make the Major League product substantially worse. to save a small amount of money. Yes, it is going to serve owners some money in terms of spending less on the draft and also not maybe not giving out the kind of giant long term contracts to young free agents that we have seen in the last five to ten years. But if the sport itself is worse and revenues end up plateauing or even going down, because people are going to notice if the quality of play on the field and the quality of the athletes goes down, been, are you really actually better off in the long run?
I find that very hard to believe. There's just so much competition for the viewer and for the entertainment dollar, other sports popping up, other sports are continually getting better, trying to get better. Why are we trying to make our sport worse? And to try to farm off developing players to the colleges rather than the minor leagues. Is mind-blowing to me as well.
What's the incentive for the colleges to develop players when they're going to be leaving anyway? I agree with you. There's not a single thing, and I try to be a positive person. There's not a single thing positive that I've seen in any of the proposals that the owners are throwing out there. Keith Law, senior writer at the Athletic.
Keith, always appreciate it, man. Enjoy the draft coming up. Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Great stuff is always key for I love talking baseball.
I really do. I love talking baseball. And he's absolutely correct. There's not a single thing. thing in this proposal when it comes to draft that makes any sense in a positive light.
The owners just want to save a couple of bucks here and there. They want to farm off developing players to colleges rather than having to do it themselves in the minor leagues in rookie league and low single A and high single A, double A. They already had limited the number of teams that teams could have in the minor leagues, right? The number of farm teams. It's incredible to me that baseball who is to a point seeing a renaissance here, attendance wise, ratings wise, revenue wise, are going to throw it all away.
With a lockout that is at this point sadly inevitable. It's inevitable. It's disgusting to me. This is what it's come to. And you hope that some of these owners wake up.
See what's going on and the excitement people have. And they say, hey, you know what? Let's try to work this out. Let's not destroy our sport. the way we destroyed it once before and needed steroid laden players to bring us back.
Because that's not happening again. You're not going to have a home run race the way that we've had. It's not happening. There's no Sosa Maguire. There's no bonds.
There's no guys with massive heads and acme on their back. Juicing up left and right. That's going to get people back to a sport that turned its back on its fans in 94 by not even having a World Series at that point? It's not happening. And if they allow this Renaissance to pass by and they lose it, And I'm telling you right now, they're going to lose the fans if they have another lockout.
I don't see why fans would ever come back. But I think teams are preparing for it. The owners want it. Because they have no idea what they're doing, unfortunately. And sure, there's aspects of the game where you say, okay, you got to rein certain things in.
I get it. But come on now, this is not the time for baseball making big inroads. To be throwing away all these positive gains. at all. World Cup back in action.
I had withdrawal yesterday. Thankfully it's back today. France, Morocco. But there's one aspect of what we're watching in the World Cup, as much as I've enjoyed it. Where every time it happens, they go, man, come on, not again.
What is it? I will tell you next. Dan Schwartzman on a Thursday in for Rich, the Rich Eisen Show on ESPN Radio, the ESPN app, SiriusXM, Channel 80. The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast. And Schwartzmann and for Rich Rich Eisen Show on ESPN Radio, powered by Progressive Insurance.
World Cup continues today. We did have a rare off day yesterday. I Had some withdrawal, and I have a four-year-old, and she's really kind of enjoyed this. I'm getting her into sports.
So she'll enjoy sitting down watching a baseball game. I've Had her sit down and watch Jets games with me, which leads my wife, who doesn't know anything about sports, to go, Why are you doing this to her? Why are you letting her watch this? It's a lifetime of misery that you are instilling in her the way that it's been for you. And I'm like, that's a great point, but I'm not watching another team.
So today we do have World Cup. I'm very excited for that, by the way. And I do enjoy soccer. I've gotten to really. like it over the last ten or so years.
More so the last eight years. I took a trip to Europe in 2016. and I was in Barcelona and I toured Camno, the stadium, And this is not the, you know, they just renovated it. They're finishing it up. It looks amazing.
It's, you know, a massive stadium, 100,000 seats, but really kind of not very nice. It's old. The press box area that I toured is not very nice. But I toured the museum. They have Messi's golden boots and his Balon de Ors and all the Champions League trophies.
And based on that, I actually started to really like soccer and I became a fraud Barcelona fan, which I am to this day. I'm a complete fraud. I have no connections to the city of Barcelona. I have no connections to the club, but I become a massive Barcelona fan. My four-year-old has a.
Jersey for Barcelona, we're big fans. And You know, what's interesting to me is as much as I enjoy watching the World Cup, and I really do enjoy it, it's been.
So much fun to watch, and I'm really excited to watch the rest of it. The one thing that really bothers me, it's not the VAR. Snap the offsides. It's the acting, the Academy Award-winning performances. By these players When They get a slight kick, or there's like a you know a tackle, and yes, some of them are violent and rough, and sometimes these injuries are real.
But other times These guys are going down and rolling around as if they've lost their leg. like they've suffered a massive injury. like it's career ending. like it's an amputation type injury. And they're rolling around, grimacing in pain.
They're clenching their face and their teeth. And they look like they need absolute assistance and an ambulance to come out and get them right off the pitch, take him straight to the ER and have surgery on their leg. And then you watch the replay and it's like, man, nothing happened. Can't even touch him. Or when play is continuing and something happens, and they miraculously get up and they just start running as if their leg is somehow healed.
Guys like Neymar are incredible actors. Like, Neymar should be up for an Academy Award for his acting abilities when he goes down. Really, it's very impressive. But talking to my friends who aren't real soccer fans who are just getting this World Cup fever. That's the biggest complaint I get is when guys.
go down and fake being hurt. It's become an epidemic in the sport. Every time a guy perceives that there's gonna be contact or there is minimal contact. Or there's a slight push because soccer is actually more physical than you think. You watch it, you realize it's a little bit more physical than you think.
It's not really as much a finesse sport as some may imagine who've never sat down and watched matches. But when they go down and they try to sell it because they're looking for the free kick or a penalty kick, and I get it if you can fake it. And it works, sure. You could maybe get a goal out of it. Absolutely, why not?
Goals are rare in soccer. I get it. Points aren't exactly a dime a dozen. But come on, to me, it just kind of kills the sport to a point because it slows down the action, right? And when it happens legitimately, it's the boy who cried Wolf syndrome where you're sitting there going, Is he really hurt?
Or is he faking it? Is there really an injury there? Do I have to be concerned as a fan of this team or this country? that their best player's gonna be out. Or is he going to pop right back up because he miraculously healed from whatever injury occurred?
Like, please stop with the acting. Seriously, stop with the acting. If you're legitimately pushed over or you're legitimately tripped.
Okay, I get it. But this whole mentality that has taken over the sport. Where these players just feel like they gotta sell this injury. I think it does turn people off. It does.
I mean, look. The NBA turns me off when officials decide to get involved. And they call a foul every single time somebody drives the lane because they perceive there's going to be contact. Don't blow a whistle because a guy drives the lane and you perceive that there's going to be contact. There, of course, is going to be some level of contact.
But take the whistle out of your mouth, and unless it's really egregious, Don't blow it. That's why playoff hockey is so great because in the NHL postseason, officials understand you let them play a little bit more. And I think for these soccer players, this acting job does upset people, does turn people off. I had a friend tell me today, I said, Have you been watch I haven't seen him in a while. I said, Hey, have you been watching the World Cup?
He said, Yeah, but as soon as they started acting, I turned it off. I get it. I mean, I keep watching. I really enjoy it. But enough is enough.
It's not a good look. Like you are a professional athlete in a sport that frankly is Physical Ryan, I want to bring you on here 'cause you look like you like soccer. You got that build of like a soccer player, all right? I gotta ask you. I mean, look, I don't know if you're a huge soccer fan, but.
I've been surprised at how physical the game truly is, right? You watch guys fighting for a ball that the goalie kicks into the air and is coming down. Guys are jockeying for position. Or when there's a corner kick, guys are really jockeying for position. And there's pushing, there's shoving, there's elbowing.
There's enough contact there. But the acting that happens in soccer, does it turn you off at all? Because it does, to a point, turn me off. It kind of does. Screw up the rhythm of the game.
Soccer's beauty also is the fact that you really have very, you know, very little stoppage of action, it keeps going. You know, the acting to me is a detriment, and I think it does hurt building more of the fan base in this country because we like physical sports, right? We like the NFL, it's number one. And they are legitimately taking punishment while these soccer players are acting as if they'd been, you know, lost a leg. I don't love it.
I do like the There is a bit of an art to it a lot of times. Like, certain players are probably given credit for being able to sell stuff. More than others. And I don't, you know, it's a sport that, like yourself and many other Americans, I watch for the World Cup. Growing up, I watched a good amount of MLS because I grew up near a team, so I'd go to games.
And so there were times where I kinda didn't even notice it anymore. But because I watch it more sparingly, you know, again, every four years or so, it stands out. But it's one of those things where it's a sport that I I wouldn't be able to um Be an expert on it.
So I try not to judge it too much because of the physicality. I watch a lot of hockey. And so when I go from watching that all postseason, like you mentioned, Stanley Cup playoffs, and then I watch a soccer game and a guy looks like he's dead for about a minute on the grass, it is jarring. It is right. And you're right.
Hockey is legit. Guys are out there. They've taken a puck to the face. You know, they're spitting teeth and then coming back in or stitch me up, put me in, right? Those are tough guys.
America's used to tough guys there. NFL players, you know, hiding injuries to get back out there.
Soccer guys falling over. withering in pain, like it's the most painful thing that has ever happened to them, and then they pop up like it's nothing. That does get me a bit. Speaking of the NFL, is there disrespect for Patrick Mahomes? Is there Mahomes' fatigue amongst even other players?
Has it come to the point where he is underappreciated? I'll tell you what I'm talking about next. Our three next, Dan Schwartzmann in for Rich. It's the Rich Eisen Show on ESPN Radio. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.
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