REShow: Al Leiter - Hour 2

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JALAIworld.com. Monday and Tuesday at 5 pm, Friday at 7 pm. This is the Rich Eisen Show. We have not heard from Tuatunga Vailoa since that awful night on Thursday night. Getting carted off, I don't remember that. Serious business.

And as you know, concussions apparently become easier. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. My heart's going to be in my throat on Sunday night watching this.

That's for damn sure. Earlier on the show, NFL Pro Bowler and MLB All-Star Bo Jackson. Still to come, MLB Network analyst Al Leiter, actor and comedian Kevin Nealon. And now it's Rich Eisen. Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial on the program.

We just hung up with Bo Jackson. And Kevin Nealon is making his way into our studio here on the Roku channel, channel 210 and Sirius XM, Sirius channel 218, XM 202, 992 on the app. The terrestrial radio affiliate helped being brought together by our friends at Westwood One. Check us out every single day right here on Odyssey. And then there's our app, the Sirius XM app, channel 992 there. And then there's our YouTube page, the Roku channel again, channel 210. You can watch us on demand there. You can watch videos on demand there.

There's our YouTube page as well, youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show. The San Diego Padres came from behind yesterday and won eight to five to even their NLCS series with the Phillies at one game apiece. The Phillies now head home and they have the home field advantage and now a best of five series there. Something that the Yankees are hoping to achieve with Luis Severino on the mound tonight.

And look, I looked it up. It's very, very difficult to win a playoff game when you strike out 17 times. I mean, that's the worst of the Yankees where it's either home run walk or striking out. And they struck out 17 times. They did get a couple of home runs to make things interesting, but couldn't get past Justin Verlander and the Houston Astros. And that has been the MO. The Astros are now seven and one at home against the playoff, the Yankees in the playoffs. And if they go eight and one, it'll be a very tough sell and slide, slog for the Yankees to move up from there. Joining us from MLB Network is one of our, my good buddies from way back in the day when I was talking baseball, a heck of a lot more by being with ESPN and MLB Network is ever airing live coverage before and after every LCS game.

Plus MLB Network is exclusively airing the ALCS in Spanish. Our buddy Al Leiter back here on the Mercedes-Benz Vans phone line. How you doing Al?

Hello, Rich. Yeah. Did we ever do like any baseball tonight stuff? I think we did.

Definitely. There's no question about it Al. Where's the time gone? The time has flown, sir. I'm losing my hair.

You've lost your hair. That is correct. Those are all accurate statements. They're accurate statements.

I always say I have a five head, but I think it's a little further than that. Oh well. It's all good. Hey, we just chatted with Bo Jackson. You got any stories about him facing him Al? I don't remember. I remember with the Yankees in Kansas City, but I don't.

Nothing stood out. I was running through my Billy Martin days. That was one of my last starts. Actually, Dallas Green was my manager and I came back after that start and they traded me, but no, I wish I did other than all the stories that I've seen and other people telling me how amazing Bo was. That must have been cool. You're trying to forget your Billy Martin years.

Is that what you're saying? The other day I was at the network and something came up about managers and gut and how old school managers used to go to the horse track before the game. Just like the whole instinctive gut thing. They're in the dugout and do I keep high on in and not? There was such a feel and Billy was a baseball savant genius.

He really was. I just didn't realize that I'm being a young kid and having Billy Martin as my first manager full year in 88. I kind of miss those days of allowing a manager to know his roster, know what's going on at the time, the pulse, etc., and make decisions that way. It's all prescribed now. It's a little bit of a bummer.

I agree with you. Last night I'm sitting there with my 11-year-old watching the game. We've been watching Yankee games all year long together just sitting there hip to hip. Tyone is barely over 60 pitches but it's the third time through the order and with one out a guy reaches base and that's it. End of game.

Over. But you played in it. By there with your son you're saying, oh boy son, third time around the third time around the OPS goes up to 850. That's what they said on the broadcast and he looks at me and he says, do you agree with this dad? And I said absolutely not. I do not.

I do not. I do not agree with this but you heard it on the broadcast last night. I think Brian Anderson said or Ron Darling said the batting average goes up to 300 on the third time through the order.

Your OPS through the roof. Okay but who was it against? Here I can have a high batting average against and a high OPS and slug if you don't allow me to fight through that. Therefore the body of work of third time through the order even through a full season of a healthy season of 30 starts, I might only have been given a chance to face 10 guys, 12 guys, 14 guys. So they're three for 12 or four for 12.

It looks bad. Maybe one guy had a double and scored two runs. I don't know. I think there's an instinctive gut. I think last night was a snapshot and you know Tyon had a good year.

He was one of their guys. 14 and five and you're right in the high threes. I think it is the safe move, right? It's a one-to-one game. You're in the fifth.

It's getting a little squirrely. I haven't bared down enough on the season to find out. I mean Clark Schmidt ended up getting the big double play ball there and then having him go out the next inning. But I think you're looking at even the big payroll clubs that there's really kind of three guys, if you will, that a manager feels very comfortable based on the success of a back-end bullpen. But even the big dogs with big payrolls, it gets dicey even though they have eight guys sitting in the bullpen.

And I don't know whether that's usage or just high leverage. But to go to Clark Schmidt, I don't know. Do you want Clark Schmidt in there to get out of Tyon's mess? Maybe Tyon can go six innings and now it's still one-to-one.

Do I bring in Loizaga and treat it like I'm up a run? So then you end up using Trevino and then Montas hadn't pitched in like a month. And the game was still obviously in hand. It was three to one at the time.

I don't know. No, and I guess it doesn't matter if the offense is going to strike out 17 times. And it is just a frustrating watch.

It's just a frustrating watch in this day and age. The Yankees are the personification of the three outcomes, walk, strike out, home run. And they somehow got past the Guardians who were the antithesis of that. But the Astros appear to be the perfect blend of young veteran and contact hitters and also home run hitters and strong arms relievers, Bulldog starters who are going to the Hall of Fame. And if Presley can throw strikes like he did last night out of the pen, I don't know how you beat the Astros. I don't know how you beat them right now.

Well, you know, this snaps out of what you just described as perfect. 17 strike out Yankees, two strikeouts by the Astros. Prior to that game, game two in Houston going back to New York, you said Altuve, Jordana Alvarez, Bregman and Tucker go Ofer. Would you have taken your chances on that one? I mean, certainly getting the lead first. Bader goes yard first.

You know, they draw first blood too. I'd have signed for that. Right. And you got Chase McCormick. You know, this is where you start digging into like truly the marathon and the depth of rosters. And it's no longer the Beigley roster.

It's 100 percent how you utilized your 40 man. But you have Chas McCormick who went to the baseball powerhouse of Millerville College in Millerville, Pennsylvania. And I don't mean any disrespect to that at all.

I promise you when I say that. But that is a very, very high praise to an organization that develops players. I mean, did they not realize what they had in Jeremy Pena, their shortstop? What a stud this guy is. You know, you don't overpay on Correa because you got a guy like Jeremy Pena behind him. I mean, he's going to be a legit star, this kid. And so on and so on and so on.

Yeah, he already is. So that's what I'm saying. It's just, I'll even throw it open to the Phillies and the Padres. And again, I know the Yankees can hit home runs and maybe put something together over the next, if they do play six more games like they did in the first 80 this year. I don't know. I don't see it, quite frankly. So I just throw it open to you. Who is best equipped to beat the Astros out of the other teams that are still left in this tournament, Al Leiter?

Wow. So, I mean, you got the one-two seed in the American League, as we all thought would have played out that way. I know the Yankees had to go five against the Indians.

You have seed five and six, right? The fifth and sixth seed in the Phillies and the Padres. Nobody predicted this.

Nobody. Maybe outside of Philly, you know, Philadelphia and San Diego. But the Padres, for them to go to the Mets and then the Dodgers, pretty handedly, really. And then the Phillies as well, getting through the Braves after the Cardinals. I like the Philly bullpen, but what Hayter is doing right now, the last eight batters he's faced, he's back to the Milwaukee Brewer, Josh Hayter, that's just so devastating. He struck out the last eight guys he's faced.

I mean, it's like Bugs Bunny stuff. So between what Hayter, if you extend him to the occasional two innings, and I'd like the right hand of Robert Suarez in front of him, as well as Nick Martinez, I think there's guys that Bowmel can use. And then, of course, you have Darvish and Snell up front. I think Musgrove, you got to give him the edge tonight over Ranger Suarez of the Phillies.

But with that said, I don't know, man. I think Philadelphia is going to be rocking crazy. And I also like, I like what's behind their guys. I mean, you got Alvarado, when he's on, I mean, the guy, he's also a 102 guy.

Sir Anthony Dominguez is enough. So I think they're evenly matched. I really do. I really do. We'll see what happens in this game three. But I think probably my gut tells me, because you haven't really seen all cylinders of San Diego with their top of the lineup, certainly with Soto and Bell.

I think there's more there there. So probably the Padres might match up better with, well, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens.

I know. Look, man, like I said, Yanks can win tonight and then all of a sudden things turn around and they go over to the Bronx and we'll see what happens. Could be a total, you know, up in the air. But the Yankees have just got to make contact.

And it just seems they don't care. It's just swing and if you connect, great. And Judge has not been that way all season long. I know that the Guardians got him to strike out quite a bit, but he's been the perfect Yankee, I mean, for that. Power and contact. Sure, he strikes out a lot, but it just seems nobody else just can make consistent enough contact and you're not going to win baseball games. It's just that simple if you can't hit.

I mean, it becomes streaky. So what you're describing is really, really excellent with where the game has gone. And let's see what happens with the shift and the clock and all this other stuff. Maybe we get guys that will actually think more about putting the ball in play. When there's a runner at third base and less than two outs, I don't care if you dribble a little nubber to first base, that's your intention. Not to give an ace swing to get below off the bat and a certain launch angle to hit it really far. I think we've lost that with the three-run homer.

It turns the game around. You can go one for four, but you're last to bat. You hit a two-run jack. You strike out three times. You had a good night. I don't see it as a good night. I like what the Indians are all about.

The Astros, as you just alluded to, they're a good balance of both, of power and also put the ball in play. Derek, that was my question for the last one for you, Al, is how you think it will, in fact, change the pitch clock, moving things along, and the shift, which I've despised it. I really have despised it. And I know that the purists or folks who, like my buddy KO is talking about, the shift's been around since Grover Cleveland, the actual, not the pitcher, but the president.

That's how long it's been around. I have had enough of watching guys who all can throw 100 and their off-speed pitches are now sometimes even approaching 100, right? And so the game's different in that regard. And so you need to, in the same way that the NFL looked and and saw that they needed more offense and backed the defense off of the line of scrimmage five yards, can't hit them within five yards, change the rules, open the game up. I hope that's what happens with baseball. And I hope that the Yankees do see something like the Guardians and say, look what happens. You could find the Bermuda Triangle right behind the third baseman, you know, if you make contact as opposed to just going back to the dugout with a 17th strikeout, you know?

Rich, I hope you're right, but I'm going to tap the brakes on this. For the longest time, I used to argue with guys when I was doing games on the guest network. Hey, look, there's a big hole in the left side. Why don't you just bunch 57 times in a row? I mean, Good Morning America and The Today Show and everybody be talking about you, about this shift of the right side and you bunted past the great Joe DiMaggio 57 times. Like, I don't get it.

I mean, you have you have this opportunity. But the reason why is that it's so that the miter leagues, in order to get to the big leagues, you have to show your ace swing and you have to have high percentage of barrels. They do percentage of barrel barrel balls and then below off the bat. So if you have velocity off the bat, a high average number, you hit it at a certain angle, you're going to hit it a certain distance.

And that's where, you know, I'll talk to miter leaguers. They're like, I had a pretty good game. I was like, yeah, but you're 0 for 4, you struck out twice. Yeah, but two of my outs were, you know, 108 miles an hour, 106 miles an hour. Yeah, but you were 0 for 4 and there was an incident in the fourth inning with second, third, nobody out. And yeah, you hit a hard line drive to the shortstop, but why don't you hit a little grounder to the right side?

Like, it's just, it's a mindset and I hope it gets that way because there's not one rule change that's ever benefited the pitcher, ever, back to 68. So was, were there any analytics when you played with, I'm being honest, Billy Martin, Jim Leland, anybody that you met, like, were there any sort of, that sort of conversation set? Yeah, we did call it analytics. We called it information. We called it statistics that applied to Scouter Report. So, you know, now we've taken it to this, this sophisticated kind of, you know, Ivy League aspect of analytics, but yeah, no, I remember when, when I was with the Marlins, it was after I left the Blue Jays, before I got to the Mets, I had a guy that, that used to furnish me certain statistics leading up to certain scout reports. We had inside edge.

We looked at a lot of hot, hot, cold zones, hot and cold zones. I knew batting average against on certain pitches, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, that a hundred percent was going on, you know, and, and, you know, as well as if you go back to the, to the early nineties, you know, when, when Dick Michaels was, you know, taking the reins with Buck Showalter on the start of that run, like, he was all in on that of, of trying to find low value players that also the Moneyball, you know, idea of on base percentage was important as well as slug, like that, that was, those were conversations that guys, you know, looked at.

Well, Al. We're going to get more stolen bases too, Rich. I'm with you. I'm with you. You know, the bases are going to be bigger. Hopefully that that literally does lead to it. I, I'm, I look forward to seeing it, you know, I don't know about, you know, automated umpires and stuff like that.

That one, I'm not too, you know, I, I need to be sold on that, but the rest of the changes, I, I, I kind of dig. Hey, look, man, I know, you know, you, you pulled back on a lot of your media to go hang out with your, your fam. How, how has it been hanging out, watching your kid throw, Al?

Great. So in a nutshell, right out of Vandy, you know, the Rangers had him, you know, take the summer off in the Cosmo Jerry's. He's back at, he was back at school getting, accumulating his college credit to eventually get his degree, which they, I think the Rangers for allowing them to do that. He started in double a and what Jack learned was 95 to 98 miles an hour with not setting guys up and pitching and all the stuff that we talk about a lot is you got to do it. And, you know, he's facing guys in double a and the Texas league that, you know, that, that made it to the big leagues this year.

So I think he had a rude awakening with being challenged with something that he was always, you know, basically really did a good job, but it was, it was an excellent year as far as for him to know what to expect. So, and it was fun. Yeah. It's fun for me as a dad.

I mean, you're a dad, like just to be with your kid and watch them compete and yeah. I love it. Enjoy it, Al. You're the best brother. Let's do this. Let's do this more. Okay. Yeah.

I hear you. I always, always like talking to you, Rich. Right back at you, Al Lider.

You be well. That's Al Lider. Check him out on the MLB network when he's appearing on it. Just makes you smarter. Man.

I just love talking to him. MLB network again is airing live coverage before and after every LCS game. Plus MLB network is exclusively airing the ALCS in Spanish.

There you go, man. You just heard it from Al like that line from a league of their own. Baseball is hard because if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Hard is what makes it great.

Hard is what makes it great. Also, you do a lot of interviews, Rich, and I think a lot of people like being on, but there was something about Al that just like, it seemed like he was just really having fun. Well, I'll be honest with you.

I'll be honest with you. Al and I have been drinking together in the past. Yeah. Okay.

Al seems like a great hang. A few nights in New York City, where after the stroke of midnight, you know, we're stumbling into a cab, that sort of thing. It's definitely just, it really, I didn't know that, but it just came through. Back in my sports energy days. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. Again, I'll just say it one more time, man. You know, it, I am a, as you know, diehard Yankee fan, and watching this team, you just know when it's one of those nights where they're just not going to make contact. I don't know if it's because they won a playoff game, how to turn, I mean, they flew, they had to bring their, I imagine, their clothes with them to game five. And you take that Rollie to go home, and you take that Rollie to go to Houston. And they took the Rollie to go to Houston, and they rolled into Houston, probably well after midnight, and had to play a game, and that's not easy. It's a tough spot.

Home plate ump was also given an inch or two to Verlander that one thinks that Hall of Famer does not need, but he'll take it. And it's just one of those nights. And you just sit here, and you think like, how, when they're, when Cashman and the rest of that front office is putting their plan together, January, February, right? How do they not know that they've got a team that just is very susceptible to swinging and missing? And you know who takes advantage of it?

Almost all the damn time. Your Red Sox, when they have some pitchers who can hit the strike zone this year, they did not. But, you know, live up, upper part of the zone, just keep pounding it there. They'll eventually chase. And then at some point when they don't swing at that one, throw that slider on the outside corner and let it dive out of the zone, and they'll swing at that. Two feet outside, they'll swing and miss. And it's so incredibly frustrating when you're watching that.

And it's just like, is there no conversation at all? Like maybe, maybe we should get one or two guys who are gonna put the bat on the ball and get on base for the guys who swing for the fences? Can we do that?

What do you think? I think not having Wamehu is kind of a huge thing. Well not, and then we got Ben and Tendi to try and get somebody on too. I understand. So injuries blow up plans. I understand that.

And then, you know, I'll give it voice too. Because I know Yankee fans are thinking this also. Where is the Jeremy Pena of the Yankees?

Where is he? I'm very pleased with Oswaldo Cabrera. Kid has come up and he's acquitted himself very well. He plays a ton of positions. He's got Moxie and he's got Juice. Glaber Torres?

Glaber, they acquired him from somewhere else. I'm talking about... Homegrown? Yeah.

Like let's, and I know I had a great run of it between 95-ish all the way through. Right. Okay, the core four.

You know, like let's get, where is that guy? As opposed to trying to swap, and I know I'm getting deep into Yankee talk, but we'll put it out there. But they had Sanchez, one of their many swing and miss guys.

Okay. And they swapped him out for Isaiah Keiner for Lefa and Josh Donaldson. They have a left side of that infield. And the question is, is why wasn't there, and I guess they got this kid Volpe who's coming up. Where is that kid? Where is he?

Well, we got to go through a season with two vets that we acquire from somebody else. Keiner for Lefa isn't a home run guy, but he hasn't gotten on base nearly enough. And he's not that terrific at short. Donaldson has lost it.

He has absolutely lost it. And he's sitting there behind Stanton. Just a huge strike out hole.

A huge strike out hole. To borrow a phrase that you told me about the Patriots quarterback situation, welcome to the rest of us. Welcome to the rest of us. Welcome to the rest of us.

I know. But you Astros fans, Carlos Correa, thank you for your service. See ya. Take you and your demands for hundreds of million dollars elsewhere. We've got a kid in the system.

See ya. And let him get his feet wet while Altuve and Bregman or Alvarez and Gurriel and the rest of them carry the team. And now, look who's carrying the team. As Altuve still hit lists in the playoffs. Which is what's up with that. Doesn't matter when Peña's hitting frozen ropes for double, double home run. All that's unbelievable.

Every gap Bregman's finding. Kid is unreal. I don't know who's beating the Astros because it sure doesn't look like my Yanks. I hope I'm wrong. 844204rich, number to dial here on the show. We'll take some phone calls. I've got my top five list as Kevin Nealon is making his way to the studio. Top five games of the week seven marquee. Normally I'll do it on a Friday, but we've got such a terrific Friday show as well. I don't know if we're gonna have time for it tomorrow. So we'll do it today as week seven begins tonight between the Cardinals and the Saints right here on Roku.

You can watch that game through Amazon Prime. 844204rich back here on the Roku channel and this Rich Eisen show radio station. This message is sponsored by Discover. Did you know you could reduce the number of unwanted calls and emails with online privacy protection? The latest innovation from Discover. Discover will help regularly remove your personal info like your name and address from 10 popular people search websites that could sell your data and they'll do it for free. Activate in the Discover app. See terms and learn more at discover.com online privacy protection. Influencer.

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Ask your loan officer for details. Navy Federal Credit Union. Our members are the mission. Jeff in Detroit. Let's take Jeffrey's phone call. It's been a while. How you been, Jeff? What's happening, Silas?

I got a little break. It's funny that you were just talking about Coach Prime real quick. A friend of mine named Ardell is with the JSU basketball team and he said homecoming this weekend was nuts.

They were scalping tickets you could not get in the game. It was the hypest thing of the year. On top of that, he did a 60-minute interview and it was probably one of the best things I've seen because I understand how HBCUs work and how they're underfunded in certain areas. By the way, Jeff, it was great to see him on 60 Minutes. He deserves that sort of treatment.

That's exactly what I was getting at. The guy asked me, he said, what's the importance of having Prime in the HBCU? He says, you're here now.

You're here talking to me. Never had a coach, not that I can remember, had been on Prime time 60 Minutes. I agree. And it was just really, really good to see that. Jeff, he used to be the guy that pushed 60 Minutes off except on the West Coast. That's what he used to do. He used to be part of those NFC games that pushed the start of 60 Minutes back, which pissed my parents off.

You talk about a guy being one of the best baseball players and football players. And then I got a chance to talk to him on your show. It just made my day, man. I really appreciated that.

All good, brother. I want to tell you, congratulations to you, Jets. TJ, that Cowboys loss was probably the best thing that could happen to you guys. Born in a week seven, though.

And I've asked a couple of people this question and I get different answers. Born in a week seven, we got villains, we got heroes, we got all of the drama outside of Tua and Dan Schneider's situation. What is the story?

What's your story? Week seven? Yeah, week seven.

What's the story so far? Is it the Jets? Is it the Eagles? I mean, you could go all college stories.

Oh, no. The story of the NFL through the first six weeks of the season is how the Buffalo Bills looked the part that everybody thought that they were going to play this year, which is the Super Bowl champs. They looked the part despite being five and one. And the Eagles at six and O are the surprise of the year to still be undefeated and to be as stout as they are on both sides of the ball as consistently as they have been. And they hit the bye week at six and O.

And we'll see what happens when they come back and they come out. And they got the Giants twice at the end of the year. The Giants have been surprising, but that's the story.

And thanks to call, Jeff, I appreciate it. You know, Jets aren't there yet in terms of story of the year type conversation. I mean, the story of the year right now is the fact that the Bills are five and one. And the fact that they're five and one over six and O Philadelphia and my power rankings is because yes, I chose them first and I still didn't see them it to be the Super Bowl winners. And I didn't see the Eagles coming as a Super Bowl contender. I saw them as a division winner, but the Buffalo Bills are five and one. And you look at their competition through the first six weeks, and it is truly one of the toughest first third of a schedule you could have had. They're the ones who are here, if you will, as the Washington generals to the defending Super Bowl champions, Globetrotters.

That's the way things are set up. You're at a very significant disadvantage in the NFL. When you go into someone else's building and they're going crazy and they're getting rings and they're raising banners and they went in there and shut the Rams house up and closed it up and boarded it up and left town. 21 point winners. And then they went home and they demoralized the Tennessee Titans who haven't lost since.

But that's a nice tie break to have in your back pocket. That's the team that was the one seed last year. They go into Miami, they lose that one despite being completely shorthanded. Miami was at its top. I mean, Miami was at its tip top at that point for the first part of the season.

They're not the same. Like if they face Miami over the last three weeks, they wouldn't have lost that game in Miami. If that game was anywhere between weeks four through six, then they go to Baltimore. They got a huge break on some dreadful roughing the passer penalty. By the way, there was another one of them on Monday night we didn't even talk about.

Absurd. They eviscerate Pittsburgh and then go into Kansas City and win a tight one. Now they're on a bye. That's a hardcore five and one. That is a hardcore five and one. And I proffer to say, with all due respect, Philadelphia Eagles play those six games and they're not undefeated.

And I know I'm tearing somebody down by lifting somebody else up. When you look at Philadelphia's first six games at Detroit, home for Minnesota, at Washington, home for Jacksonville, at Arizona, home for Dallas. I mean, kudos to them for winning them because they could have lost any number of them. Jacksonville came and put 14 on them first and it was a hard rain type of day and Doug Peterson's back in there. Okay, Minnesota just come off of that week one rousing win over Green Bay. Detroit was full of hard knocks life in week one at the top of their offensive you know performance of the year so far. They beat them all off and that's terrific. They beat them back.

That's great. That's why that's why the Bills are one of my power rankings right now. As for the rest of the story for week seven, let's take a break. I'll come back. I got my top five week seven games right for you under the list, under the list just for you.

Kevin Nealon's joining us here on the program. We haven't even talked about what happened in the association last night. That's all good. We had our draft, our Rich Eyes and Show Fantasy draft as well. We did.

We're good. Yeah, I got, I got some issues. You have some issues with that.

I got big time issues. All right, lots to talk about before Kevin Nealon strolls in here in hour three. You can listen to the NFL and the NFL app on the Odyssey app on westwoodonesports.com via Westwood One Station. Streams are by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports sponsored by AutoZone. Let's go back to the phone lines here on the Rich Eyes and Show. Mike in Orlando, Florida. You're here on the program. What's up, Mike? Hey, Rich. How you doing?

What's going on, brother? Thanks. Take my call. I heard you complaining about the Yankees earlier and I, like you, am a diehard fan and quite frankly, it's tough to win a game when you strike out 17 times, isn't it? Of course.

Of course. I just, I got, I got this feeling that this team, as good as they are, over 162 games, is not constructed well for a seven, seven game series. Bill Parcell said it best.

You are what your record says you are. And if you go back and look at the stats of this team in the post season over the last four to five years, same thing always happens when they run into good pitching. And in the post season, good pitching will be good hitting 100 times out of 100.

I don't care who you are. And if you go, I mean, just look at the 2019 Nationals. Scherzer, Strasburg and Corbin got hot. Next thing you know, they win a World Series. And as for the Yankees prospects, yeah, I miss the days of, you know, the core four. And they got this kid, Volope, and they got Oswaldo, Oswaldo Carrera. I'm sorry, not Carrera, Oswaldo Barraza. Right.

He's a great player. But with this front office, it's all about control. It's all about contract control. It's all about delaying arbitration. So they'll bring up a little bit next year after May when they can, you know, extend his arbitration in the next year, regardless of what it does for this year's team.

And it's a shame because they, you know, they should be able to compete in October. But when you can't do situational hitting, when you're, it's, you know, three, you know, when it's the, what is it, the three options, strikeout, home run, or walk, and that's all you can do offensively, you're not going to win in October. So that's all I got. You can. I mean, I can't sit here and say that you can.

And thanks for the call. But, you know, like watching the Padres rally yesterday, hit, hit, you know, walk, make me, you know, pass the baton, pass the baton. You know, it's not what I'm watching with the Yankees.

It's not. I mean, Yanks got two on. They got two on, one out against Verlander in the third inning. And Bader had already homered. And then the Astros score in the bottom of the second. Top three Yankees get two on and one out. And Josh Donaldson steps to the plate and it started a string of six straight Yankees striking out.

Six in a row. They went an inning and a half without putting a single baseball in play. Not even, they didn't put a baseball in play. Six straight batters. And it's just like, hey, I know you might be tired and I know this is tough and I know the ump has given an extra inch to Verlander here. But did you see what the Guardians did? Did you see how Steve Kwan never struck out?

Always put the ball in play and half the time it found grass. That is good. So we'll see what happens tonight. Severino is really good. We'll see if the Astros can be got.

And if they are and they go back and forth, they're going to go back to the Bronx, then we'll see what happens. But it's just four hours of just sitting there and watching strikeouts, strikeouts, strikeouts. Oh, we got a chance in the eighth inning. Maybe this is going to have, oh, there's another strikeout.

Okay. Thanks for playing. Honestly, they got two runners on. Rizzo homered. Stanton singled. Donaldson actually walked. And I'm like, wow, that's two guys and three guys just reached in a row. Like, what is this?

What is this thing called a rally? I don't, I don't, I don't see it. I don't understand. You confuse me with your word. Right.

And then Carper just struck out. This is okay. 844-204, Rich is the number to dial here on the program. Let's go to Will in New Orleans. You're here on the Rich Eisen Show. What's up, Will? Hey, Rich, how are you doing today? How are you?

Doing well. You know, as a New Orleanian and a diehard Saints fan, as you mentioned earlier, a lot of people were expecting the team to come in this year and really demand the South and go far into the playoffs. But that really hasn't happened. So one thing I was curious about from you is your outlook for the team longterm, especially with respect to the quarterback position. I know it's a thing in the league that when you have two quarterbacks, you have none. Right. So who do you think would be the best move going forward for the Saints and what other, whether it be veteran quarterbacks or maybe draft prospects, do you think potentially lead this team in the future?

Let me take a look here. I need to, I need to see what the, what the draft order is. It's a fascinating draft order right now when you take a look at it because the Seahawks currently hold a draft choice right in the middle of the first, right in the middle of the top of the first round because of the Russell Wilson trade. And there it is, New Orleans, your draft choice belongs to Philadelphia.

How about the Eagles are currently fifth on the clock and they're undefeated? Yeah. So, yeah, that's a problem. I mean, so yeah, that's a problem. That's a problem that New Orleans does not have its first round draft choice because I'd be sitting here saying you might have to go into the market for another one, but Jalen Hurts was a second rounder, wasn't he? I don't, I don't think you, the future quarterback of the Saints that's going to take you back to the promised land is currently on the roster. Hate to tell you.

I have to agree. I do have a what's more likely question for Brockman though, if you don't mind. Ah, okay. Do you want the animation? Do you want, do you want the whole setup here? You want the whole setup?

Feel rich. Huh? What'd you say? Let's do it.

Okay. We'll in New Orleans. We need a second. We didn't, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't expect it. We're doing a fire drill here, but we're going to get it for you. We want to make sure that you, you get what you want. I can't have everything. Well, it's not just that. Here we go. Hit it, hit it. What's more likely?

Never say never, but never. Okay. There you go. What do you got?

Well, all right. What is more likely Chris? We have a knockdown drag out shootout of a Thursday night football game tonight. 40 bombs on both sides or Saints make it deep into the playoffs. The Saints are not making the playoffs at all.

So there's no deep possibility there. I'll, I'll take the 40 bombs tonight. Open it up. Let's go. There you go. We all in New Orleans playing what's more like it. I like it. It's starting something new.

Anybody wants to call him with a what's more likely or an overreaction. Let's go. Just give Mike and I a little heads up. Sorry, Mike. That was okay. It's okay.

Scrambled scrambled scrambled scrambled. Mike, you didn't get all those Emmys for nothing, right? Exactly. It's part of the dream. What are you talking about?

26 years later, he's got a drop in a dream. Smidge texted me, Mike, by the way, I was there on Del Tufo's first day. Smidge was definitely part of that. Okay. Look at us together.

He was probably in the back of that photo. Look how far everybody's come. And speaking of NFL draft, rich Houston currently has the fourth and sixth pick. That's right.

Houston's got Cleveland's pick. Yeah. Keep the NFL films music going. Keep it going.

Put it here. All right. Look, I'm an NFL guy. I'm an NFL network guy, and I'm going to do my sport solid. The NFL week seven marquee is kind of bare. I'm not going to lie.

You're looking around. It doesn't help that the Bills and the Vikings both in five and one, the Eagles who are six and O, all on their bye weeks. And the Rams are defending Super Bowl champs on a bye week.

Doesn't help the marquee at all, but there are still games I'm looking forward to. And I got a top five list for you right here. You just made the list. Number five is Seahawks Chargers right here in Los Angeles, California. Let's see if the Chargers at four and two can hold off Geno Smith and the Seahawks. And Pete Carroll said this very week, the Seahawks are quote unquote, just getting started.

Oh yeah. They're just getting there. They got Tariq Willen. J.C. Jackson's getting benched. He's the big cornerback acquisition of the free agency season in Los Angeles. And then the Seahawks go out and do a fifth round draft choice magic. Once again, they find this kid who's locking down receivers and picking off passes for straight games for Tariq Willen with interceptions. Let's see Geno coming in.

Let's see if he can cook in Los Angeles in a manner that in this building, Russell Wilson did not just few days ago. Number four on this list is the only game featuring two teams with winning records in week number seven. Yes, it's the three, two and one Colts against the three and two Tennessee Titans. Oh no, AFC South. Coming off a bye, Derek Henry's got a full week arrest and he's coming downhill to try and sweep the Colts in just the first seven weeks of the season. They could put the AFC South in their columns very significantly.

Take your heart pills and buckle up. It's a big game. Thank you, Coach Vrabel.

Number three. Hey folks, we know Deshaun Watson. We just heard from the commissioner saying that he does believe so far Watson is doing everything in his suspension he needs to do to come back after 11 games. The Browns are six games into these 11 games. This is game seven. If they go to two and five and they're in Baltimore and you know, you know Cleveland fans really want this win and they need it.

They can't go to two and five. And the Ravens already Lamar Jackson says he's pissed about losing. He knows that the fans are pissed. Everybody's pissed and the Ravens are heading to Tom Brady on a short week right after that. All right, the Bengals have Atlanta at home. The Ravens need to keep winning here in the Browns. It's possible they look up on Sunday night after the Pittsburgh Steelers going to Miami potentially. They could be in last place. What? That's a big game.

Number two is Steelers and Dolphins. Okay, Kenny Pickett looks like he's going to come out of concussion protocol just in time to face to it. Everyone's in concussion protocol.

Pat Fryermuth, he's in concussion protocol. Is he coming out for it? Are we going to see a little bit of Trubisky Magic on Sunday night?

As you know Brian Flores is back in the house. Mike Tomlin's bringing the Steelers coming off the win against Tom Brady. Could he do it against another Florida team? And yes sir, number one on this list is the clear marquee game of the weekend. The Chiefs at the 49ers, a rematch of the Super Bowl in South Florida from 2021-2020 calendar year.

Pardon me, that was the year before that in South Florida 2019 season 2020 calendar year. Chiefs at 49ers, 49ers at three and three. They can go to three and four and look up at Seattle?

Is that what can possibly happen? The bi-week Rams can sit back and wind up being in first place at three and three on their bi-week? Can the Chiefs actually fall to four and three? Can they be in second place by the end of the week if the Chargers win? Can my Raiders come off their bi-week and get that much closer? At any rate, that's the big one.

Chiefs and 49ers. So what's that? Is that it?

No, it's not. We do need one more. All right, we'll get one more.

Yeah, we got one more. Jetset Broncos, that's it. Jetset Broncos. I don't know what's going to happen in this game. I know what's going to happen in this game. Sauce is going to do it with the rest of this team. He's going to put a horse's head on his head. Yeah, sure.

Why not? Like he's in, like he's in Louie Waltz's bedroom. Yes, he's going to put the Broncos on four hoofs right into bed.

Kevin Nealon's coming out. Yes, this is what's going to happen. Jets are going up.

The Jets go to five and two. Is that possible? You know what I'm seeing right now? Yeah.

I'm seeing takes everywhere on Twitter that you could make a case. Khartoum. That's what you're saying? Khartoum.

It's beautiful on four hoofs. Khartoum. The Denver Khartoums. That's what the Jets are going to do. People can play offs or what?

Oh, yeah. Hey, do you know what I'm seeing on Twitter? You know what I'm seeing on Twitter? Here's what I'm seeing on Twitter.

I'm seeing on Twitter. You could make a case. Well, I shouldn't go lower register. It's higher register. Jets are a higher register team right now in this regard. You can make a case that the Jets are the third best team in the AFC right now.

That's what I'm seeing. All those takes. Yeah, you got the Bills and you got the Jets. Rich, according to FiveThirtyEight. According to FiveThirtyEight, the Jets have a... Nate Silver.

I beat his ass in fantasy football. What does he know? Thirty... Well, he's really good. Thirty-seven percent chance to make the playoffs.

What is it? Thirty-seven percent of the Jets. There you go. You know what? At some point, the other 63% is getting filled in.

Did I do that math properly? Can't make fun of Nate Silver and blow the math, can I? Okay. The problem with the Jets is, Rich, they have a negative point differential. Oh, you know what?

Just saying. I blame that on Joe Flacco. He won game.

I know he did. That big one in Cleveland, that's part of the reason why they're 4-2. You know what they did to the Elf. Now the Jets are giant killers. First, they stomp on the Elf, then they're putting cheese on their head, and here they come for Broncos country.

Let's cartoon. Hey gents, let's talk Halloween for a second. What is your favorite Halloween memory?

One time I saw Nightmare Before Christmas performed live at the Hollywood Bowl. Walking with your kids. It felt so magical. And after they've got their candy and they walk away.

So pure. The dad inside the house is handing you a beer. My dad, when I get home, he would have me empty out all the candy to make sure that it's safe. And it wasn't until I was about 35 that I realized, what the ****? He was just eating my candy.

Rude. What's your favorite Halloween costume? One year I was Matthew McConaughey's character from Dazed and Confused. One year I was like, I would like to be roadkill. The Halloween costume was a plastic smock and then a really scratchy plastic mask.

I mean, you were styling if you had one of those. Aquaman, the plastic mask cutting into your eyes, and then you get that little hole in the mouth to breathe through all night long. What's your favorite Halloween candy? What's your favorite candy, Mandy?

Oh, that rhymes. Anything Reese's, Snickers bars. It's all the food groups. It's the meal. You've got caramel.

Yes. Candy corn. Me too.

Wait, really? I'm one of the small percent of people who actually really enjoys candy corn. It's a bad rap. Thank you so much, everyone. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween from the Cumulus Podcast Network.

Make sure to subscribe and follow us at youtube.com slash Cumulus Podcast. Candy corn is terrible. It's atrocious. It shouldn't be allowed. It's not a candy. Ooh, happy Halloween.