REShow: David Samson - Hour 2

This is the Rich Eisen Show. Don't make me angry.

You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. I think conference championship Saturdays stink. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. There's no pageantry that feels like a college campus or the game. It just feels like a total complete money grab.

College football does not care that it takes four hours long. Earlier on the show, senior writer for the MMQB, Albert Breer. Coming up, host of Nothing Personal Podcast, David Sampson, senior NBA writer for The Athletic, Sam Amick. And now it's Rich Eisen.

Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. We're about to talk Otani folks because Otani is in play. We might hear if he's staying put here in Southern California, either staying put with the Angels or the Dodgers. Could there be any other teams that have the inside track for him? I know we're in the throes of football conversation. The NBA in-season tournament and baseball might be out of the minds of many of you, but not for us here. We adore the sport of baseball and Otani is as big as it comes.

And he is in play and that announcement could potentially come at any moment. You see this Bob Nightingale latest? Dave Sampson's going to join us shortly.

What's the Bob Nightingale latest? Bob Nightingale's latest Cubs hopes of landing Otani have, quote, significantly waned. Looks like Dodgers, Blue Jays, Angels, Giants, the likely finalists.

No Yankees, Red Sox, man. That means he doesn't want any part. I remember, who knows? But all I know is you remember I was saying to you and everyone here that he might not want any piece of the Northeast Corridor.

Zero. He wants no piece of like everybody's there to watch him take batting practice. Toronto kind of like. Well, Toronto is. I guess that's kind of the East. I know that, but you're you're in, I mean, with the ultimate of respect, you're in, I mean, sleepy Toronto.

That is not a disrespect, but I mean, Kawhi was like a perfect guy for Toronto where he could go walking around and have dinner. Remember, remember there were these signs that, you know, he can eat for free in places. You're right, yeah.

I mean, try and go walking around New York, Boston, Philadelphia. No chance. Yeah. Even Ballmer, you know, like, come on. There's no anonymity there, man.

So I don't know that that would make sense to me if he really wants to do that. Obviously, playing designated hitter in the American League as they're used to. I mean, it's it's everywhere now. But, you know, breaking news as well, you know, as soon as I'm done here, we were recording the Susie and Amy Pod.

What the football? I'll be the guest guys. The six words you want to hear on a Tuesday with Susie and Amy coming in because, you know, Susie and I, we share the same Postmates account.

Susie stopped at the bakery. It's close. Tasty Donuts is preparing your order. I showed up on my phone. We share the same account. Yeah, he's told us.

That's how he always knows. Popped up on my phone and alert during during the break. Tasty Donuts is preparing your order. So there you have it. Wow. Yeah.

So that's on the way to the studio right now. So we got that going for us, which is nice, which is nice. Oh, another update is Trevor Lawrence has a high ankle sprain. So that is official coming straight from the head coach's mouth. Well, that's good.

And well, I mean, it's good in the fact that there's nothing broken. That's not season ending. And I guess we're now on ankle watch again, like last year with Mahomes. Right. And we saw, you know, he won a Super Bowl on half an ankle. So we'll see what happens from here on out.

But this is what Doug Peterson had to say just moments ago. So starting with Trevor, obviously, it's just a right high ankle sprain. Everything's stable.

Everything looks good. And we'll see where he is here in a couple of days. There you go. So stable means he said later in his address that he does not believe tightrope surgery is required, which is what Kenny Pickett just had on his ankle to make sure that he's not out for the dreaded four to six. Right. And gets back sooner, which means if it's stable enough that you don't have to have that surgery, maybe just maybe.

Who knows? So that's good news. The bad news is, I mean, on the first play of the game, blown coverage on the Cincinnati secondary, Christian Kirk is wide open and he backs up to catch the ball and he doesn't get up there. And he suffered apparent, according to Doug Peterson, a core muscle injury that will require surgery.

Oh, that sounds so bad means normally the normal rate of recovery for that is two months. So you could do the math here, like if the Jaguars mouth, you have to go on a deep playoff run their number one wide receiver, which is what he has been with, you know, even Calvin Ridley being there or in Christian Kirk has been dynamite. So that is the long term injury that it appears the Jaguars are going to have to deal with, at least not their quarterback.

But that's significant. You could tell when he went down, he grabbed near the groin area. So you could tell it was like he pulled something inside the there. Oh man, he was obviously in pain.

Well, I know. I mean, what a tough loss for Jacksonville against the Bengals being, you know, a shadow of themselves. And then an ATM was banged up last night. And then Jake Browning shows up like Joe Barrow. I mean, honestly, those numbers, if you, if you, if we had said to you prior to the season, Cincinnati will win in overtime on Monday night football against Jacksonville and their quarterback will have 32.

We go 32 for 37 over 300 yards, throw one in the air and have a running and, and, and passing, including in the passing touchdown is 70 yards to Jamar chase on the road. And you'd go, oh man, that's, that's, that's Burrow being burrow. No, it's Jake Browning being Jake Browning.

Maybe dude can't make it up. So that's the latest in Jacksonville in a weird year, man. Well, rich, technically, you know, I got the script here. Get out of here. Get out of here.

I told you to throw that out. Well, I've just been, there's some interesting stuff coming up. Just get ready.

I wanted to see Rogers in New York, getting ready for a playoff, you know, type w game against, you know, Houston building their resume instead of seeing him and she chairs with Pat New York with a Tom Brady picture over his shoulder. That's that's ESPN studios. Yeah. All right.

What you got? So it's Tuesday and it's still time to overreact to stuff. Oh, we have moved our weekly overreaction Monday segment to Tuesdays because overreaction Monday, the podcast we're posting it on Mondays and you can go get it on our YouTube page or wherever you get your podcasts to listen to. Now it is time for overreaction Monday on Tuesday.

That's tremendous. Wasn't expecting that. Hey, guys, what's up? Everybody good?

Sorry about that. Last segment, rich. We just got so heated at each second. We're taking the bangles to the playoffs.

I wish I could sit here and say, this is not an overreaction. Did you see that last night? I know, I know I'm talking about it. I know.

And later on, I'm going to give you my top five teams that can crash the playoff party and we'll see if he makes on that list. He was spectacular. Chase was amazing. And T Higgins looked like T Higgins and Tyler Boyd from throwing and we're in good shape. Chase guy, the other running back, dude, never heard of chase Brown. He was from, he's from Illinois. I know. And, and he's gonna, he he's been hurt.

I love the white uniforms. Hey, listen, their issue is what's happened already this season. They are winless in division.

Those are the first tie breaks that you can, you're normally have going against you. The good news for them is two of the losses, the ones that they've already lost the tie break to completely is Baltimore. And they're not winning this division.

So that's gone. However, outside of having lost Pittsburgh and Cleveland already, their issue is their record in conference. They're two and six in conference. And those are the tie breaks that might cost them. One thing that they have at least is they've got one over the bills. Another one is they could get one over Indianapolis next week if they beat the Colts.

Right. And then if the Texans come on strong, the problem is they've lost to the Texans already. But if the Texans knock out Pittsburgh and Cleveland, they could get some spots. And if Denver starts tripping up, they could, they could make a run, but the numbers do not support that. But Jake Browning playing like that shows that the Bengals still have the stuff to beat some teams and have have a run. So at the moment, I'll call this an overreaction, but I appreciate you trying to hook me in off the start there.

What else? Oh, felt right. It did.

And it does kind of. But I just the numbers, the tie break numbers are bleak for Cincinnati right now. Tyree kills the MVP through 13 weeks. No, the dude's going to get 2000 yards. I know he's top seed right now in the AFC.

He's going to do it now. I mean, he's offensive player of the year. He needs what? 500 yards in five games. He's offensive player of the year. Why, why can't he be MVP? Brock birdie plays on a super team.

Okay. So, and he has two other MVP candidates on his roster. So he kind of gets dinged a little bit for that. And then who else? Christian McCaffrey is an offensive rookie of the year candidate who is a difference maker for, for San Francisco. They're pretty split votes.

Why can't, why can't it be Tyree kill? I think we need to talk about this more. Okay.

And I'm, I'm, I'm there for you. I let's put it this way. That's not an overreaction.

That's a legitimate argument. Triple team every time it still has one 50 at a touchdown. I hear you, but against the chiefs, they lost. I, again, you can't say that. And then also say, Hey, who have they really beaten?

Which I know is a drum you've kind of beaten for Miami too. You know, we've got Mike McDaniel on tomorrow's program. Maybe I should ask him who was your MVP. I wonder who he would say. He wouldn't say that.

That's what we call a trap question. He's a heck. He's a coach.

He loves all his children. His response would probably be amusing. Should I have the crystal ball with me here? Mike, I'm looking into the right.

I'll call. I'll say that's not an overreaction, but you know, a wide receiver winning that award would truly be unbelievable. What is Jerry rice? The only one who's ever done that. Right.

I don't even think he actually asked me the next one. I'll look it up. Go ahead. The NFC speaking of Jerry rice, the NFC is the 49ers conference to lose. Uh, I agree. Uh, and you know, this is a nice reverse of what, um, you know, of what you said on our overreaction Monday podcast is that they are, they are, um, the, the going to be the one seed.

So it's the same way of, of saying it. I'll repeat again, what I said here, by the way, Jerry rice won a Superbowl MVP. Um, so yeah, it's damn there. Damn right. Their conference to lose because the two teams that can take the one seed from them, they've already beaten in Philadelphia and Dallas. And I don't think Detroit is going to have a better record than San Francisco at the end of the year, they're playing way too inconsistently. Well, San Francisco is suddenly now playing consistently great.

So damn straight. It's their conference to lose. You know, they should win every game with the exception, potentially the Ravens coming in their house to finish off Christmas night. Um, that said it's their conference to lose. Yes, sir. That is not an overreaction. What else you got? I've been pushing for this team to be the one seat in the AFC thought there was a path.

Didn't get it done. Now, Trevor Lawrence is possibly out for a while. Because of that, the Texans are going to win the AFC South. I counsel against that, sir. I'll say that's an overreaction at present. That is what I will say.

Yes, sir. That's an overreaction. We know how important quarterbacks are. CJ, CJ Beathard looked okay. But if he's got to play multiple games, I'm worried about Jacksonville winning that division.

I get it. Uh, I, I think they could beat Cleveland with CJ Beathard, you know? Um, and then the issue is, is that Houston, let's see what their schedule is at the Jets at Tennessee home for Cleveland, Tennessee at Indianapolis. They, they could, they could win a lot of those games, but they're still so young. You know what I'm saying? Like they, they, they still, they still are kind of like a puppy, you know, who, who, who may, may grow up into a grown dog very shortly.

They already are a team with bite. Um, I'm just not going to sit here and say that Lawrence going out means they're eliminated from the playoffs. I haven't said playoffs. Oh, the division.

I'm sorry. I was just, it was the college football playoff committee thing in my head. Um, but I'm not going to say that they're not going to the playoffs as a home team. I can't sit there and say that yet. I mean, when I, when I say that the Texans are a puppy, can you ascribe to them? They should win every game that they're supposed to win like this weekend. They should, but you know what I'm saying? Right.

So I, I can't sit there and say that. And Jacksonville has a very stout team as well. And CJ Beathard should perform well enough to maybe make this an overreaction.

What else, Chris? I love the way he played on Sunday night football, rich Jordan love. It's going to be a top five quarterback the rest of the year. And when a playoff game, I don't think that's an overreaction at all. I mean, we've seen it and the giants are going to blitz him coming off the bus. We'll see what he has to do about that.

And I think he will handle that very well. And then green Bay's rushing attack, uh, should only get better when Aaron Jones hopefully gets healthy soon. And their pass rush is terrific.

So you got to, when you talk about, you know, winning a playoff game, it's not just the quarterback. They have the stuff to do that. They have the stuff to go into Detroit and surprise them. They have the stuff to maybe go into Philadelphia, uh, San Francisco would be a tall order, but, um, I'm assuming there'll be a six or a seven seed. Right. Cause right. Um, five ain't happening.

I mean, they absolutely have that. And he has been a top five quarterback for three weeks already. So why shouldn't he continue doing it? He's been a top five quarterback for three weeks. He outperformed Justin Herbert, obviously had Justin Herbert gotten some passes caught. That would have been helpful. He outperformed Jared Goff and he outperformed my homes facts back.

So I don't think that's an overreaction at all. All right. Last one. And TJ, you know, you got to manifest, you got to speak things into existence, right? You got to do it. God, I got to see it to believe it.

Got to speak it to believe it. The Panthers are going to win another game this year. They had a lead against Tampa.

You could see it. Bryce Young is getting coached up now. We got a new staff. Mingo is coming on.

Chuba Chuba is doing his thing. They're going to win another game. I'm going to respond to your overreaction Monday topic with a what's more likely for you, TJ Jefferson.

What's more likely? I'm not like Chris Brockman is saying this about the Panthers because he's a keen observer of the game. He watches his all 22 film on a tape. He sees exactly how the Panthers just in one game improved and how Bryce Young is showing before our very eyes using his football acumen to make it an accurate assessment of the Panthers possibility of winning. No doubt.

No doubt. Or he's saying this because he wants the Patriots to get Caleb Williams and have the first overall. Did you see the memo about this? So I would say that I have the memo about this right here.

I actually had Chris Brockman from in a tank LLC. You have the memo to the Patriots, Panthers and Cardinals telling them that at the very end, cut the crap. He wants the Panthers to win at least one, if not two more games, the Patriots to lose out and the Cardinals to keep chopping wood. That's what the memo says, just to shorten it for everyone. So what's more likely? What's more likely? Not the former, the latter. Thank you, sir. Well done.

He just wants to get that first. That's my answer. Chopping up all 20. Well done. Well done. Way to way to co-opt your rare overreaction Monday real estate to push your memorandum. Just what I'm seeing.

That's his agenda. Panthers are going to do it. I mean, win another game.

We can't have suddenly hashtag keep pounding. You should come in. We should get you your, your Panthers gear. I can feel it. I'm your number one fan. Let's take a break. David Sampson is going to join us. Let's talk.

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11. Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum, wherever you listen. All right, back here on our program, we'll get to David Sampson in a moment. Sampson, Sampson. So it's Otani. It's Otani.

I mean, what would that be equivalent of? Yamamoto. It's all these guys. Yeah, right. Yes. Well, I mean, it's Juan Soto. And Juan Soto is on the market. Listen, you told me the other day is that the Yankees and the Padres, and they're discussing, the Yankees and the Padres in their discussions of Juan Soto have now reached the process of exchanging names. Yeah.

Names of players. And it's just like, hi, I'm old players. Not like, hi, I'm Brian. Yeah, no, no, no, no. That's not the exchange of names.

And your name is? And then I, and then I heard one of the Yankees purposely didn't issue a number 18 this year because they're reserving it for Yamamoto because he wears 18 in Japan. Unless they're, I don't know. I have no idea if this was his number, but unless they're trying to save it for Randy Velarde Day. Did Johnny Damon wear 18? I don't think, was he 18? Who was, I mean.

Did Johnny Damon wear 18? Hold on, let me look it up right here. Hold on, hold on. I got this.

I got this. I know exactly where to find it. The old, the old pro baseball reference.

One of the greatest sites on earth. Stone Street told me a friend of his got a zero on the Immaculate grid for baseball. What? A zero.

And he sent me, he texted me. How? How? I don't know.

A zero. Could have had a hard day that day. Johnny Damon did wear, Johnny Damon did wear 18 for the Yankees. Did he really? Yeah. He's not getting the day.

Yeah, that ain't happening. I mean, it's like the SATs. You get, you get points for getting your name right.

Like there's usually one or two that are just. Dude, zero. Super easy. He got zero.

Zero point. Yeah, I don't know. I can find it right here. But at any rate, Randy Velarde Day are words that I've always wanted to say into a microphone. Hold on, I'm gonna do today's Immaculate grid. We're on the air. What are you doing? Oh, sorry. I mean, you mentioned I do stuff like that. You don't do that. Yes, exactly.

We had a 30 stolen base season for the Angels. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. He is the host of the Nothing Personal podcast and the former president of the Marlins organization. Joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show is David Sampson. How are you, sir? I am doing well.

It's hard to be bad. We're in the middle of a great off-season with the greatest free agent in history. It is that.

Ready to sign. It is that, right? I mean, he is. Would you say, I mean, obviously, what do you, Reggie Jackson didn't pitch, right? Back in the 70s. And that was, that was the first big monster free agent after George got catfish, I guess, you know, back in the day. A-Rod. A-Rod.

Okay. But you're not wrong. You're not wrong.

So, we're, we're, we're, what's your sense of what's going on with Otani as you and I are conversing, David? So, everything was going swimmingly until he hurt his pitching elbow and he's not going to be able to pitch next year. So, he was going to be the first top of the rotation and middle of the order bat all in one body to be a free agent.

Right. And now he's just a middle of the order bat and you have to wait on him to be a top of the order rotation guy. But all of these teams are jumping all over each other to pay him as though he's both. And so, the contract that he gets is going to be fascinating because were I to be negotiating with him other than just giving in and adding years and adding money, I'd have it very highly incentivized and pay him a lot of money if he does actually come back and pitch which is not guaranteed. So, what, what's the, what's the idea of his ability to pitch? What's the general sense? Are they sharing x-rays, MRIs and stuff like that or just say trust us, he's going to be good?

What do you think? Well, trust us is not good. Even with a one million dollar free agent, there's very rarely trust. Once you have a letter of agreement that is signed by both parties, it's always pending a physical. And the physical for a free agent like Shohei is going to be extensive. Not only are you going to get old MRIs and you're going to get the old reports from the surgery that he had, but you're also going to start over and have him re-examined and re-looked at.

But you have to have protections in there in my opinion. If you're going to make a 500 million dollar investment in anything, you're going to want belt and suspenders and that's why I can't wait to see what the final terms of the deal are. So then the question is David, the I guess 600 million dollar question, is what does Otani want other than being paid as if he is both despite the fact that he won't be able to be both for a while and we'll just have to see if he can be both at the same ability that we have seen. So what does he want outside of that David? So this is the biggest question and in my experience with free agents, very big free agents, and also with Ichiro when we were negotiating with Ichiro when he was a free agent, there's a lot that is not talked about and that's called comfort. Normally players are not interested. They say they look at the school system or they look at the minor league system and it's all eyewash.

They're looking for the most guaranteed money possible. But I, when I was negotiating with Ichiro, he was very interested in everything surrounding spring training, everything surrounding our ballpark, how he would get to the ballpark, where his locker would be, what the colors of our uniform were, all things that meant something to him. And I didn't understand it when I first started dealing with Ichiro and having known him for so many years, it's only built my respect for him. And there's a good chance that Shohei is like that as well, which is why nobody is saying the Angels have a chance to retain him. And I said on Nothing Personal a year ago that I thought the Angels would actually re-sign him and I'm not willing to change my mind just yet.

They are one of the four finalists, so we're hearing in the media, but we're going to find out here shortly. Well, I mean, so that's why the Yankees and the Red Sox are out because it'd be terrible traffic for him to get to the stadium? I mean, that's what I mean, like what does he want? Because clearly when you're talking about the Angels or Toronto, there's not a lot of long-time listeners, first-time callers, there's not like a media crush of a hundred, you know, scribes and cameras and what have you before the game. You know, you and I have talked in previous conversations on this show, Angels don't ask him to do too much and he's just kind of like right around the corner from the stadium. So that's what I ask about what does he want?

Because obviously I'm biased being from the Northeast. I mean, what a festival it would be in Yankee Stadium or, you know, Fenway Park for his batting practice. Does he not want that? I'm not sure that many players when they're figuring out where they want to be as free agents are focused on that. When I say comfort, I'm talking about routine. I'm talking about what it's like to be in Los Angeles versus New York and not from a tax standpoint, from a life standpoint.

He has scribes as you call them, whether he's signed with the Marlins or the Dodgers or the Yankees, there's a traveling group of people who are covering his every move from Japan and they would just go to whatever city he's in, wherever he signs. So in his mind, that's not a big difference maker because it's going to be the same anywhere. So then you go a level deeper, which is the creature comforts of the devil you know versus the devil you don't. And he's claimed he wants to win and the Angels haven't won. But at the end of the day, my friend Giancarlo Stanton went to the Yankees thinking he'd get a World Series.

And here he is multi years later. It's not so easy. So I'm not sure that going to a different team is the panacea that so many people think it is.

And I think Shohei knows that. So then what's your opinion of what we're hearing are the final four for him? So we just got word moments ago that now interest in the Cubs has waned when we were after a big free agent and we didn't think we were going to get him. We would leak to the press that we're no longer involved and we've gone a different direction because we wanted to make sure that our fans were not built up in this anticipation and then we'd let them down.

Right. So if you're told by the player that it's not going to work or you won't go to the years and dollars that are required, then you leak out the way the Cubs just did. The Giants, Dodgers, Angels and Blue Jays apparently are the finalists.

And yesterday, Rich, this is a great one. The rumor was out that he was in Dunedin touring the spring training facility. And that made me smile because in all 18 years, I never had one player asked to tour the spring training facility.

That was not high on their list. I am not exactly sure that that will be a difference maker for the Blue Jays, but I would expect him to stay in LA. To me, it's either Dodgers or Angels. And I think from a respect standpoint, Rich, and people aren't talking about this enough, it's a very big blow to Angels when you lose a player to Dodgers. It's like going Mets-Yankees or Yankees-Mets. And I'm not sure that Shohei wants to do that to the faithful fans of the Angels. No kidding. But the Dodgers would put his cologne up on the big screen, right?

I mean, I just love going to the Angels games the last couple of years. You're just seeing all of Otani's stuff up on the screen and a ton of... Like even, what is that? That Japanese cat food?

The cat treats, the favorite number one cat treats of Japan. I mean, everyone would do that. So after all this, you think it's entirely possible that he just stays put. Well, I want to bring you back to when Shohei first entered Major League Baseball and was signed by the Angels. You may recall that it was a jump ball or so we all thought because we all only had international slot money to sign Otani. We made a trade with the Yankees as a Marlin to give them extra international slot money because we knew we weren't going to get Otani and the Yankees thought they had a chance to. When he signed with the Angels, we got a memo from the commissioner's office saying, whichever team signs Shohei Otani, you are only signing him for this current contract with this amount of money. Any promise for any future money will be a violation and you will get in trouble.

That was the concept. My view has been as well as many others in the industry when he signed with the Angels originally, that there may have been some understanding that upon free agency, he would have a contract. Is that coming to pass? I have a small feeling that Artie Moreno is going to get a right to match where Otani goes out and gets an offer, goes back to Moreno and says, here's what the number is. You match this number and I will respect our deal and I'll stay an angel.

That's always been in the back of my head and so many other executives with whom I worked and still speak. And it's going to be fascinating to see how it plays out. All right, now the question is timing because if I'm not mistaken, the entirety of the winter meetings and everything else is grinding to a screeching halt until this gets decided, David, right? Well, you're getting some stuff on the perimeter, which is really important. We don't care about the perimeter, David. Who cares about the perimeter?

You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. Major League Baseball has an entire press room at the winter meetings where big announcements can be made and you can call them and say, we have this signing.

We want use of the full room. And baseball, the commissioner's office wants big signings now because you can take the news away from NBA and NFL. The problem is players and agents and teams don't really care so much about that, about winning the news of the week. So no one's going to rush into a deal with Otani or rush the physical.

The physical is a two to three day issue. So he has to come to an agreement, then have the physical, then get the results, then get himself to Nashville and then do a huge media appearance, which he doesn't like anyway. So I don't think it will be announced in Nashville at the winter meetings because that's not his style. He didn't even do an interview when he won MVP.

Do you remember that? He said there were technical issues. So everybody in the media, and certainly in baseball media, should stake out MRI tubes in Southern California, San Francisco, and Toronto, is what you're saying, to see if he walks into a place to get checked on, David.

So here's another nugget for you. He's not going to telehealth his physical, is he, David? It depends where he is. We let Ichiro do his physical in Japan.

Okay. So it is not completely out of the question that there could be a physical in Japan. I don't know where Shohei is, other than Dunedin. I do not believe that I would get in the way of him wanting to do a physical in a place where he is versus where we want him to be.

I just need to make sure that my doctors were a part of the results and got to see it. And if they had a question or a problem and wanted to put hands on him, that would be a good thing to do. I don't know where he is. That would be a condition precedent to the deal being completed. So at some point, he's going to have to go to the city in which he signs.

And that's why I also think Nashville is not exactly on his itinerary. David Sampson, former Marlins president, nothing personal podcast host. Who is, for my listeners and viewers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and why should they care about him, David? Well, the hope is I'm going to bring back a name that maybe you haven't talked about much. Remember Dice K?

Of course. Dice K with the ghost fork. And I went to his first spring training game. I believe his first appearance was at Roger Dean against the Marlins. And we were looking at his different pitches and there were about a hundred media credentials. He got signed to that huge deal. He was going to be Kofax. And it turned out he was fine. He was just fine.

Now, Yamamoto, on the other hand, people are jumping all over themselves. I don't know if you know this, he already won the Cy Young next year in Major League Baseball. It's finished. He's got it. He's the best pitcher ever. 300 million dollars for a guy who's never pitched an inning in big league baseball.

I don't understand how that's possible. This is not me being grumpy old executive. This is me saying there are myriad examples of players where it doesn't translate. Now, could he be the exception?

For sure. Am I going to give him the biggest contract ever to a pitcher in years and money on the hope that that's the case? I'd rather stick with Velarde. Is that a Yankee reference because the Yankees are supposedly being the team that's just gonna, I guess, cash in all their star insurance and throw it at Yamamoto?

David, is that what you're telling me? It's a dream come true for Yamamoto. If you've got the Yankees and Mets involved and this is Steve Cohen, the owner of the Mets who needs pitching, who's not rebuilding no matter what he says, they clearly are not satisfied with their rotation.

He'd be a great ad. Senga's already on the team. But the Yankees also have a real problem having not won the World Series since 09 and bringing back Boone and Cashman and hoping to get better. They need pitching. So can you imagine when both the Yankees and Mets want you, your price just keeps going up and that's what we're seeing happen. Eventually someone's gonna blink and then he'll be left with one team and that's the team you will sign with. I still think it's going to be the Mets, not the Yankees. You do think it's the Mets, right? Because Steven A is going to just, Cohen is going to go, right, I needed to finish that, is going to is going to just cough it up. You know, all the ax capital money. If he's willing to give 40 plus million dollars to Scherzer per year and to Verlander per year and recognize that Yamamoto is likely a better investment at least in the short term and Steven Cohen is willing to spend the amount of money that he spends.

He hasn't won and remember when he took over he said World Series in the first three to five years. My math may be off but I think he's running out of time in that window. Yes.

So he's got to do something and Yamamoto seems to be a good fit to me. Yeah, the Will Pons not walking through that door for Cashman to win this one, huh David? Is that what you're saying? Pretty much, you know. I believe that if you ask the Will Pons secretly what they really want for the Mets to do.

Yes. They would like the Mets to win but not win that much because they still own a piece. So they they're very invested in the team financially doing well. To the extent they can get rid of the chop shops, that may be nice.

For the network to have better ratings they still own part of the network but I do not believe that they sit there and watch games saying please Steve win more. How about them apples? And then just last one for me here is do you know Hal at all? I mean because he doesn't have any of George in him, you know, Steinbrenner. Do you know Hal at all?

Of course. Because the bottom line is he just it's kind of crazy like I wonder if he has a pulse because you know what what's happening with the team and the moves that have made you know that Montgomery out, Bader in, now Bader's gone, Montgomery's winning World Series rings, you know, and it's wild man. That George would have had this this thing you know in his briefcase by the end of the day and here we are entering 2024 running it back like what's your assessment of that with the Yankees? I would say that Hal with all due respect to Hal has daddy issues just like the rest of us and George was so quick to get rid of managers and general managers. He's never done that. Hal's never done anything in season. This past season they got rid of their hitting coach.

It was the first in-season move. It's like the Steelers. They never do stuff and they did it this year because the cologne of desperation ends up stinking at one point or another but he doesn't want to be like George, the impestuous and sort of crazy guy that George was. So Hal is overcompensating. Who of us doesn't overcompensate to try to not be our parents and I think that's what Hal's doing but for me I gotta tell you this has to be the final year. If they have another bad year I don't know how you continue with booming cash.

Yeah I mean I don't know because a lot of Yankee fans would like I guess send them to therapy to get through it. Thank you. Well as you know that takes years. I know that.

And a lot of money. David I appreciate the time and a great conversation again and I also appreciate you giving me my baseball fantasy team name for next year cologne of desperation. That's in. I got it. I love it.

That is the name of my team cologne of desperation. I'll have my lawyers call your lawyers. Thank you David. Appreciate it. Take it easy on me. Nothing. Personal podcast host David Sampson.

Check it out where you get all your podcasts and follow him on social media. He's got daddy issues. Tough to argue. What's the follow-up to that? Again lifetime contract. I hope they both stay forever.

Dude. I don't even know how Met fans feel about an owner who has just got a bottomless pit of money and um and so the Yankees are going to lose out on Yamamoto and Otani. That's that's a tough and and how do you not if you're would George ever stand for that? Oh no.

Ever stand for that? He'd offer Yamamoto double just to have him. He'd be the one getting the 600 mil.

I mean I don't even know what to say but everybody thinks Otani's popping this week and he's saying that's a two to three day um physical. Right. Otani's not gonna fly to Nashville to do a press conference.

Yeah I totally forgot that he just didn't do an MVP one. I mean he should do karaoke there. I did. Go to Santa's pub.

Yeah. Otani and Santa's pub. Otani and Santa's pub. No cursing.

Del Tufo broke that rule. Geez Mike. Great Santa's pub in Nashville. One of the best karaoke bars ever. I'm sorry. Sign right there. Walked out smelling like an ashtray and embarrassed that Mike Del Tufo in front of the sign that says no cursing.

It looked like any other rule in that place was in violet except you know that was the only one you couldn't break. Immediately gets up and everything else goes. All right. And it wasn't like he did it once. He dropped like the hardest curse words. Oh no he never talks that way. You know I did killers at the end.

I did kill it with the song. Otani go to Santa's pub. I mean could you imagine Otani at Santa's pub?

No but that's why it would be amazing. What song does he pick? And you and I thought. That's Amoreth. And all three of us in this room thought okay we got a shot. Mets, Yankees, Red Sox we have a shot. Who wants no part of it?

No shot. Wants no part of it. It's three west coast teams and a place in Canada. I told Brockman this the other day about Toronto and he laughed at it.

Don't laugh at it. Serious about winning? Toronto is Toronto. Think about who's in it every year. Toronto's in it more than you are. Your team and mine the last couple years pal.

Flat junior. I mean wake up. Toronto's in the play.

Smell the coffee. We won a world series recently. But it's Boston bro. Like you know.

Toronto has a better chance to win now than either one of our teams right now. Well that's true. Okay and you add Otani and plus again Otani could be like it's like the Kawhi of baseball isn't he?

That's right. That's a kind of a pretty good analogy. You know where he's incredible. You don't hear anything about him. He doesn't put himself out there. You also don't know anything about him. You don't know anything about him.

He doesn't want to talk and you know and just he just wants to be. Just wants to what eat apples right? Allegedly.

I think that was disproven. All right we'll take a break. 844-204. Flat junior Bo Bashet and Otani. Stacking Benjamins with Joe and his good friend OG not only has great financial insight it's laid back with humor too. Joe Talks with Stacking Deeds co-host Crystal Hammond. I've always been a fan of nosy neighbors. I want nosy neighbors.

They can tell you what's going on 10 times faster than you would know. Again what's she talking about Doug? We're repairing neighborhoods but then we're into nosy neighbors and I built a career off of that.

Find out more by searching the Stacking Benjamins podcast wherever you listen. In this day and age though I've had a conversation with fellow hall of famer John Smoltz a couple weeks ago Reggie that that kids don't mind of striking out as much these days. Did you have did you have an all or nothing mentality? Obviously you're we all know how many strikeouts you had in your career but did that matter at all to you?

Because there's a lot of hand wringing over it today these days. Well I think I struck out too much and I averaged somewhere 2521 years is 125 a year so but that's too many and I think for 162 games if I would have played them I'd have averaged 140 something. That's too many strikeouts you can get by with it. This is wow hold on let me take this call from Al Steinberg I'll call him right back. Okay you go. Al I'll call you right back it's Reggie.

Okay thank you. Reg I mean seriously you could take that I mean you could put me on hold for the boss that's okay. I got I wouldn't want I can't have you here what I'm saying. Now hold on a second Reggie. Okay now hold on real quick though I would not be doing my job if I didn't ask this question. If that was George back in the day would you have been able to tell him? No no.

What you just told his son. No no I hung up on you I might not even have told you. I might not even I just acted like I was I just acted like I wasn't on the phone. I hung up.

Oh man. Now if that was Hank I'd have probably got off the phone because because he'd had some choice words for me too. Ah the great Reggie Jackson and Housetimer and Reggie doesn't talk very much now anymore I don't know I don't know. Back here on our show 844-204 Rich number to dial um let's go to Jeff in Los Angeles been waiting for a bit what's up Jeff? What's going on Rich how you doing? What's going on?

Hey I was calling to talk to you and have your back on Michigan's reaction but I had to tell you why me as a Southern Californian is a Yankee fan. Okay. Because I never thought I would hear the name Randy Belardi on your show. Just wait next hour is brought to you by Andy Stankiewicz Jeff so stay tuned we'll keep going down the list. I love it. Oh yes. Growing up my best friend. Next week is Alvaro Espinoza week on the Rich Eisen show I'll keep going down the light hitting short stops although Velardi had some pop but what's on your mind? So growing up my best friend his uncle was Randy Velardi. Oh look at us. Andy used to take us when they would come out and play the angels take us down to the dugout I'd just meet everybody had me meet my childhood favorite player then Donnie baseball uh which obviously then turned into Jeter but uh yeah that's how I became a lifelong Yankee fan was Randy Velardi and I always feel bad that he got which we thought was going to be that game clinching hit against the Mariners in that ALB. Oh right and then Blackjack McDowell gave up uh came in in relief oh god that was that was before but that was that was that was before Tori that was BT um what what what what were you going to say about Michigan Jeff? So Rich I have your back 100% on the Michigan reaction and I think the entire thing is ridiculous I think they were just reacting to how everybody else that was watching the show yeah reacted what the heck just happened in a state of shock so to say they were scared of Alabama and don't want to play Alabama that's the implication myself personally thinks Michigan is the best team and has been the best team in basketball all year well we'll find out Jeff and thanks for the call and thanks for your support and uh friendship through Velardi um um you know again that's the implication and we may find out you know Alabama wins it all so we'll see we'll see um hey last week the Philadelphia Eagles were the first team to have a playoff clinching scenario oh in the NFL and uh couldn't do it as we saw not understood in their way in fact or ran past them if you're Deebo Samuel I still can't believe that so they still have one this week and this week it is a little bit simpler as well there's on the screen right there if they win and get any of the following that's up there Seahawks loss at San Francisco Rams loss at Baltimore you think those are uh feasible if they win in Dallas and either of those other results come in they punch a ticket there's some other ones on the screen that's a little bit more involved involving multiple teams I think all those are possible yeah they just have to win yeah in Dallas um and the team that beat them last week they've got company in playoff clinching scenarios hit it the San Francisco 49ers there you go all they got to do is beat Seattle have the Packers lose at the Giants or the Vikings lose at Vegas and then there's a tie uh those are the results might not happen Vegas might beat the Vikings yeah I'm gonna pick Vegas this week I think yeah okay yeah and then there's one more your Dallas Cowboys uh-oh the Dallas Cowboys have nice playoff clinching scenarios let's go uh these are a little involved uh-oh because all they got to do is win and have six other results happen in this case there is an either or either the Rams or Saints lose if they beat the Eagles and the Vikings Packers Seahawks Buccaneers all lose and the Lions win and either the Rams or Saints lose that's the old partridge in a pear tree and then there's another one there's another one um with a ton of losses and ties and all that other stuff it's six more results different for Dallas yeah okay so just those three teams okay nobody in the AFC huh no one in the AFC it's too it's too close yeah you know it's too close there you have it what's the craziest uh scenario that you could think of what do you mean that would possibly happen nobody in the AFC has a scenario right no and so like what if the Raiders somehow are the three seed well here's the thing I mean like what's the craziest thing you could think of uh I've got a top five list coming up the top of the next hour Chris oh yeah yep top of the next hour I've got a top five list of the top five teams too that can crash the playoff party there you go and my glasses were on um so I saw uh in the distance a blurry figure hold up a large box of donuts and drop it down on the uh oh goodness that counter over there so I believe that's I thought we were having an earthquake yeah I thought that felt like I believe I saw a human drop a large box I believe Susie is here they say hi or something huh Susie would normally come around the corner and say what up um I don't know but she will next hour like the Patriots aren't officially eliminated yeah that's right right um that I don't know the only two the Panthers got eliminated yeah yeah so technically you know the Pats could go excuse me five in a row and make the playoffs which would pain me dearly you sir are are right now verbally violating your own memorandum come on sorry I'll rephrase you're supposed to speak things into existence did you see the memo sorry I'll rephrase the Cardinals could win out and suddenly be nine and you know seven and ten and make the playoffs that's not out of the realm of the Cardinals um looked really good last week well that looked really good last week they should probably just fire Tomlin because they lost to the card oh my god what's the matter with people in Pittsburgh what does the matter into that conversation earlier but then I started reading some of the comments under under the video of what people are like really making the case that Tomlin should be fired I'm not kidding you when I said before to Breard that's kid this is more intense than ever they're really making the case guys for years about this they're really like well look he hasn't won a playoff game in seven years I kind of want Marvin Harrison equals Mike Tomlin except I kind of want those people to get what they want in a way because if they don't if they don't want Tomlin that's what I'm saying you shouldn't stay there this is my favorite one then just you watch then just you wait into the Carolina Panthers this is my favorite one playoff wins against Matt Moore AJ McCarran and Alex Smith blown out versus Baker Mayfield embarrassed by Bortles and Tebow just lost to the two and ten Cardinals at home whatever for the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments it's something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson too 1995 when WCW announces they're going to be live and head to head with Monday Night Raw feels like this would have been something Vince would have kind of laughed off no we did not like them moving to Monday nights there were a lot of hotels they all carried CNN TBS and TNT Vince was convinced that Ted Turner had deviously done this deal to get in the hotels and keep us out something to wrestle wherever you listen