Keith Law: Paul Skenes Has Changed A Lot

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Full terms at mintmobile.com. I'm living my best life. Yeah, yeah. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here's the other surprising part. With guest host, Brian Weber.

Yeah, big shoes to fill. Eisen's a legend. Live from the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. The Rich Eisen Show. Do you know who I am? I'm a guy on television.

I have my own show. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. It's another hour of the program and it's so good to have you with us. Always an honor to be in for Rich and the fellas. And remember, not only am I keeping the chair warm for the face of NFL network, their original hire, Rich has a phenomenal ensemble. So theoretically, I have to come close to being nearly as entertaining and compelling as the Fab Four Brockman, TJ Jefferson, my guy Del Tufo. There's a lot of stress being thrown my direction. I will do my best not to destroy the brand that Rich has worked so hard as an entrepreneur to build.

Meaning, I'm happy to chat with you at 844-204-7424. Candidly, your best way to get involved is on the X platform, BW Weber. Weber with two B's.

Coming up in 40 minutes, we'll say hello to our first of two guests today. Keith Law has been covering baseball for many years. Very thoughtful analyst. You probably have read and seen his work at ESPN. He has taken his talents to the athletics. So we'll talk about what's wrong with the Yankees, what has been working for the Mets beyond Grimace, the most annoying of the McDonaldlands character, and why can't anybody hit anymore in Major League Baseball? And that is not hyperbole. That is factual.

I realize that the audience is always changing, especially when it's a fill-in hack like yours truly in the chair. Mentioned in passing in the last hour of the program, baseball's entire motivation with the rule changes last year had two goals in mind. Speed the game up, mission accomplished with the pitch clock. Try to get the ball in play more because analytics has made it all about home runs and strikeouts. Well the shift was designed to give hitters a chance, a better opportunity of getting the ball through back to the standard alignment as opposed to overloaded on most likely the right side of the infield, and it hasn't worked at all. Now maybe this is just a momentary cycle where pitchers are far more dominant than hitters, but Keith is real thoughtful and he knows history. Feels like something a lot bigger is going on and maybe baseball is going to have to make even more tweaks to keep the game relevant.

That is coming up. Speaking of hyperbole, as we talked no NBA for the first hour, I'm going to give myself a self high five after we had a long NBA week together if you've been with me since Monday. Justifiably so, it was the biggest news cycle going on during a holiday week.

The head coach of Serbia, because if you're not paying attention, and I don't blame you, the Olympics in my view do not have the same luster as they used to for a couple reasons. For example, if you love gymnastics, did I mention I've called gymnastics? I think I'm going to for Big Ten Network.

I'm feeling very good about myself. If you love gymnastics, and by the way gymnastics generates monster ratings because women watch primarily. Last time I checked more than half of the population are women. I know a couple women. I have a mother and I have a sister.

Now it sounds like I'm running for political office. If you love gymnastics, you can watch it now year round. SEC Network and the now defunct Pac-12 Network. My point is when I was a kid, and I know it's a million years ago, the only time we saw sports like gymnastics was the Olympics, and they would roll around every four years, and then you would get your Mary Lou Retton moment, and then we would turn our attention back to football and basketball for four years because we have saturation coverage of everything. The Olympics are not as unique, but it's still a phenomenal platform to see the world's best come together, especially in hoops. Head coach of Serbia says Steve Kurz, Team USA, that's going to gather tomorrow in Las Vegas. The Olympics get underway at the end of the month. Basketball starts play on July 28, so it's coming up in addition to the official return of football, which I'm talking in less than 60 seconds with training camps. Ricky's reporting in roughly 15 days. Head coach of Serbia says Steve Kurz team led by LeBron and the Olympic debut of Steph Curry and Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid. Four MVPs right there.

Serbian head coach claims this team is better than the dream team. Now that is a hot take, and we'll put it in context coming up. So we spent a good portion of the first program, much to the consternation of Cowboy Nation, and if you miss what I said, I'm not going to repeat it because I try to give you three distinct monologues. I know novel concept, fresh content, when you have a great opportunity to have the ability to keep the chair warm for Rich, but if you missed anything from the first hour reminder, you can listen to any portion of any program anytime you want.

Our terrific digital team will push out the podcast just after the end of today's show. But I open with thoughts on the Cowboys using the non-story of Dak Prescott being photographed, because remember, we're all now citizen journalists. Dak's on vacation in Cabo. He's getting ready to get on a boat to go deep sea fishing. And I am not an angler while I have called, water polo, horse jumping on TV, many years of tennis that you don't care about, arm wrestling.

I got a crew cut for another 500 bucks when I was working for Fox Sports Net. I have never done fishing. I'm not saying I wouldn't because I'm a broadcast curtison, but I don't know anything about the physical challenges of reeling in a big one. Dak puts on a walking boot as he tells reporters afterwards, because when he puts too much pressure on his foot when he's fishing, either standing or I guess bracing himself trying to reel one in, because I've seen enough competitive fishing because I have no life, he wears the boot as a preventative device because occasionally he has some pain after an ankle injury that was significant in 2020. That was the headline that Dak knocked down within 30 seconds. But I use that as a pivot point to talk about an absolutely atrocious offseason so far put together by the Dallas Cowboys. And again, we're not venturing into lava-filled hot takes.

It's just factual. Tell me what they did to improve. Nothing. The significant offseason move was bringing back Ezekiel Elliott after he did nothing for the Patriots last year, because the Cowboys are stuck in, say, 1996. Unfortunately, Cowboy fans, the triplets ain't coming through that door. The other problem for Dallas is the division other than the broken Giants, and we'll address that coming up. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen.

844-204-7424 is the number, or X me, BW Weber. Weber with two Bs talking Steve Kerr's Olympic basketball team compared to the dream team coming up in just over 15 minutes. Washington will be better. And it's also, I think, a negative towards Dallas because while I have a lot of respect for Mike Zimmer based on my time in the NFL Network ranks and covering the Vikings and talking to Mike in owner's meetings, I don't just make this stuff up.

Also, I watched the games. Minnesota's defense was not the problem during his tenure. I think they found out, as we saw, by their unwillingness to give Kirk Cousins what he wanted, that Kirk has a ceiling.

And while he is dependable and his numbers are largely in the top 15, show me the big games that Kirk Cousins has won, and I don't even have to go back to his horrendous record in prime time games. Mike Zimmer takes over the Dallas defense. I thought Dan Quinn did a very good job coaching up that side of the ball, especially with all the talent he has to utilize led by Micah Parsons. Still, there's going to be a transition with Dan now getting another shot at being a head coach in Washington. They've made some good free agent moves. Remember, they were not terrible last year. I realize because that is as dysfunctional a franchise as Dallas, at least let's say past tense, with Dan Snyder's reign of terror in our nation's capital. But if you watch Washington, they were a quarterback away, as Ron Rivera said. Remember, when he destroyed Carson Wentz's confidence even further, when somebody asked him the difference between his team and the rest of the teams in the NFC East, he answered without a pause, quarterback. Remember that?

And had to clean it up. That's how bad it's been in recent years. And now at least you have hope, because I think Jayden Daniels, when he gets the opportunity to play, and it should be week one, because nobody waits anymore in the NFL other than, say, Drake May, who should wait because he's got to work on fundamentals like his footwork, because it's a very different challenge getting the ball out, college football versus the NFL, and he's just going to have to speed things up. Got the big arm. I got no problems with the Patriots, who aren't going anywhere, going back to Jacoby Brissett as the bridge quarterback to get Drake May on the field. But you got a lot of upside in Jayden Daniels.

If you watched him win the Heisman at LSU, he's an electrifying talent, so Washington will be better. Philadelphia, while they gave us many reasons to bash them because they were wildly erratic last year, is going to be much improved, if for no other reason, based on one addition, picking up Saquon Barkley and damaging the Broken Giants in the process. So if you haven't seen the show I'm alluding to, and I'm not even fully aware of the motivation beyond the obvious financial component, why do we need an offseason addition of hard knocks? Now, if you're a football fan, you're going to tell me, hey, radio man, I'll take as much NFL as I can get, and I cannot counter that observation.

I just don't know the point of the show, and I don't get why the Giants would put themselves under that kind of microscope understanding they have editorial control so they could edit out what they felt were really damaging scenes. Still, they took us through their thought process, and it was clear that the decision had already been arrived at, but they're aware the cameras are there, so they're freestyling the pros and cons of whether to lock Saquon Barkley up to a long-term deal. And ultimately, for reasons including that he's 27 years old and now, apparently, according to Joe Shane, the GM of the Giants, 27 now is the Logan's run number.

That's a contemporary reference. Used to be you get to 30, the league thought you were washed as a running back. Now they've dropped it down to 27 because nobody cares about running backs in this league other than, say, Christian McCaffrey. That's apparently the list, and I think Saquon Barkley to a different extent because he's the perfect addition for what the Eagles do because, remember, as we discussed with Trevor Sikkema Pro Football Focus yesterday, if you were with us before the fireworks started, Philadelphia last few years has had anonymous 1,000-yard rushers because of their stellar offensive line and because Jalen Hurts is a threat to run as well. It comes down to the overall team offensive philosophy.

Barkley, I realize he's dealt with injuries, went healthy, a top three running back, and Philadelphia still made the playoffs last year. Now, it was a massive drop-off. It was the rare pushback on the old Parcells principle.

You are what your record says you are. Philadelphia, when they got to 10 wins early on, was not anything close, obviously, to the team that made the run to the Super Bowl. I think in large measure because they lost both coordinators.

There were also reports of friction within the locker room. I don't pretend to be an NFL insider. Give them Saquon Barkley, and I think they go back to, so long as the defense can also flex their muscle, get back to sacking quarterbacks, the kind of rate they did two years ago when they made it to the Super Bowl, Philadelphia back in the hunt on the short list of teams with a legitimate chance to win it all. And I think Saquon's going to be a part of that because now you have a go-to reliable running back that can be another focal point in the offense the defenses have to game plan for and take away. So Saquon was a big part of the coverage of the kickoff edition of the off-season version of Hard Knocks, and it got AJ Brown thinking he went to social media. I'm not of the mindset that AJ watched the whole show. He already saw something that led him to believe the Giants were quote-unquote dissing Saquon, and the fact that they even let him get to the market tells you that they didn't want to be in business with him anymore.

Here's what AJ Brown posted on social media, and then he deleted, but remember everything on the internet is written in pen. He vowed he's going to quote, do everything in my power to make sure you get yours fam, referring to his new teammate Saquon Barkley. I'm not sure what he's talking about because Saquon got his. He got paid in a major way. Maybe he's talking about sticking it directly to the Giants when they go head to head twice this year as a divisional opponent, but if you know anything about high-level athletes, they're always looking for motivation, and one more negative consequence of the Giants' willingness to go on this show. Evidently they just gave the Eagles, or at least a couple of them, and very important playmakers on offense, even more fuel than Saquon Barkley and AJ Brown. I'm Ryan Weber in for Rich Eisen.

844-204-7424 is our phone number, or you can X me. That's BWWeber, Weber with two B's. Coming up in 25 minutes, we'll talk some baseball with Keith Wall of The Athletic. I promised some thoughts on Tom Brady. I am not going to break down his mechanics, playing touch football on the beach yesterday in the Hamptons, living his best life with Odell Beckham Jr. Lamar Hamlin came up with the Pixics. CJ Stroud is there, all at the white party that Michael Rubin, the billionaire owner of Fanatics, puts together, but Brady said something interesting on a podcast. You might have heard of this new audio development.

I think every member of this country now has one, other than yours truly. The Pivot Podcast is very well done with Ryan Clark as the lead host. Brady went on it and talked about what his mindset was like in the second half of his career, as opposed to, say, the approach that we see from Patrick Mahomes. And Brady mentioned that when he reflects on his unparalleled career, interestingly, he has some regrets and he says that he wished in the second half of his career, he could have played with the same kind of joy that he sees from Mahomes and Brady claims he had early on, as opposed to being so one-dimensional, so dialed in, and Brady being self-effacing said he looks back and he wonders why he was so serious. Now, the answer would be because he had to be, because the difference between Mahomes and Brady is raw talent. Mahomes, beyond everything that he has with a football IQ, is a once-in-a-generation kind of thrower.

Tell me somebody else who can make those kind of unbelievable plays on the move, improving the way Mahomes has done, building his Hall of Fame resume. But I thought it was interesting because it feels like, to me, as Brady ramps up to become the face, not his old face, his new face, but the face of the NFL again, this time as a broadcaster, he is trying to humanize himself. What other motivation could he have had to have that roast?

And when in doubt, say money. Ding, ding, ding, according to reports, I'm here in Southern California, so obviously I am a Hollywood insider. Somebody in my cleaners told me, no, a better source than that, Brady walked away with $25 million. Don't quote me on that, that's just what people I know here in Los Angeles are saying, but whatever the number was, it was large because if you watch the credits after what felt like a nine-hour show, Brady, in addition to getting roasted, was the executive producer.

So that's another way of monetizing things. Why else would he go on that show? I'm waiting, I'm waiting. He got absolutely annihilated, and I know they were jokes from friends, but man, you're a father, you are going through the fallout from a divorce? That had a sting on some level, and I don't think it was just jocularity, hey, that's locker room talk.

That had to leave a mark emotionally. So why was Brady there? I think because he's such a shrewd person, and that's beyond his physical skill set. That's why he's the goat with all those rings, because of his maniacal focus and his unparalleled work ethic. Brady went all in when he realized, okay, now I have this opportunity, I've won these initial Super Bowls as a high-end game manager, what can I do to my body?

And what can I do with my quest to be the greatest to take it to new heights? And we saw it. Whatever you view the techniques as, who knows what the TB12 was all about? From a distance, it feels like snake oil, but it worked for Brady. And I think he's taking that same precise approach to broadcasting. He's trying to humanize himself.

So he sat on that dais and got pummeled by his buddies at a bunch of comedians who were biting and spot on because he wants to come across as, hey, do not view me as somebody on Mount Olympus. I may have a fake new hairstyle, I may have had a lot of work done to my face, I got all these rings, but I'm just like you, I want to watch the football game with you together that I'm going to broadcast. And talking about having fun, I think he's going to continue to emphasize that heading into the booth because he knows, as anybody in that high-profile role better know, every word he says is going to be scrutinized. Now, my only thought about Brady and whatever he wants to do he's going to do well at because of that work ethic, I just never heard him say anything particularly interesting.

But the bar has changed. I don't enjoy Tony Romo at all. In fact, and I know a lot of you think I talk too much, here's my counter, it's a talk show.

I guess you're saying dead air would be more interesting. Romo just never shuts the hell up. It is mindless blather and it's clear he doesn't prepare as much. He didn't know the overtime rule at the Super Bowl. It was chaos in that booth.

But the public isn't wrong. Many of you find him endearing. So I think Brady, as he prepares for the next chapter, is trying to connect to the mass audience to make him seem more human because he knows there's going to be some bumps in the first few games. Is he going to be Joe Montana? No one was bad as Joe. Joe said he realized during a middle of an NBC studio segment he did not want to be on that set.

That thought hit him in the head saying, what am I doing? I want to be anywhere but here, and he quit at the end of the season. He's not going to be as bad as Emmitt Smith. He's not going to be as bad as Jason Witten. But I don't know what he's going to be because other than in recent months Tom Brady never revealed himself to us. He became this statue of a man, literally. Take a look at his pictures from year two in the league to what he looks like now.

There's been a remarkable transformation. But knowing his quest for greatness, I think because he's going to be so committed to it, by the end of the season we're going to be talking about Brady being a breakout star. But he also knows you only get that first shot in game one to make a strong impression. And I think walking in the booth he's trying to say to all of us, hey ma'am I realize I come across as this dude in the film vault and effectively I ruined my marriage to play another year with the Buccaneers. I'm human like you. Give me a chance to learn on the job. And I think he's going to pull it off. And obviously I am an expert at all things broadcasting because I'm in for Rich Eisen.

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If I was part of that family, if I could have lost the B as a kid, I would have been smart enough to choose another profession. But enough about my histrionics. Coming up, less than 20 minutes. We're talking baseball in entertaining fashion with Keith Law of the Athletic. What is wrong with the Yankees? Straight ahead, I mentioned we're getting closer to the Olympics. In fact, Team USA in basketball starts their preparations tomorrow in Las Vegas. Then they have an exhibition against Canada next week.

So, is it fair in any way to compare Steve Kerr's collection of talent to the singular skill set we saw from the dream team? That is coming up. All part of a very busy Friday edition of the program. Weber and Verizon, this is the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts people. You love their jingle. You're going to love their friendly, helpful service even better because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road. And the parts knowledge they have, it's all you need for your maintenance and repairs.

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So, stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today or visit us at OReillyAuto.com slash eisen that's OReillyAuto.com slash E-I-S-E-N-O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. Hey everybody, this just in, it's summertime. It's time to go and do all those summer things like going to a baseball game during the summer.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. Ryan Weber with you and I'm proudly 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 clickrainger.com or just stop by. Keep the momentum going on the X platform.

Hit me up there. That's B.W. Weber.

Weber with two B's. I have fallen into the habit of emptying the bucket at the top of the hour. So given clock management skills like the great Rich Kotite used to display, watching those terrible jet teams of my youth, we're going to go with Brevity here to make sure we have ample time for a long form baseball conversation with Keith Law of The Athletic.

Should we just write it down in Sharpie? Phillies versus the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series and we'll round the bases going round the bigs with Keith coming up. We have made history this week. Well, as a fill-in host, what kind of milestones can you really achieve?

Today, as we are now 90 minutes in, halfway mark has been achieved. I have not talked more than 90 seconds of NBA in this program prior to here, and technically I'm not talking NBA. Now it's NBA players, but I'm jumping into the greatness of international basketball where they have a trapezoid lane.

Offensive goaltending is legal. When the ball's on the rim, you can knock it down in the Olympics and now you know the rest of the story. If you're jonesing for the NBA, even though they completely destroyed the drama of what used to be a great week of content with NBA free agency, all with this ridiculous new CBA to give billionaire owners cover for doing nothing, the NBA is back on the floor tomorrow. Not the good version, if there is a good version of the summer league, but the California classic tipping off in Sacramento, the Lakers playing, that means breathless analysis of Bronny James, which I cannot do.

But coming up in 30 minutes, because the audience is always sliding in and sliding out, we're going to take one final pass at a summation. Of all the moves this week, fundamentally did anything change at the top of the balance of power, but as I mentioned, no disrespect to Buddy Heald. In fact, I call everyone Buddy, so I should really appreciate Buddy. And I know he's a poor man's Klay Thompson.

They're just looking for a cheaper version, a bootleg bougie version of the Splash Brothers. Buddy next to Steph. When we got to Buddy Heald winding up at Golden State yesterday, that's when I tapped out. But I will give you my final assessment of NBA free agency. I am not going to watch one minute of the summer league. I watched last year begrudgingly, not only because it's my occupation, but I was fascinated to see what one would do because I only seen clips on YouTube and everything we saw in those very small nuggets foreshadowed what was a sensational rookie year.

This guy's a unicorn. If you look at what he did per minute, I know it's getting a little bit nerdy, but you can't just look at the raw stats. Per minute tells you the context of what he did when he was on the floor as good an array of rookie stats as we've seen since Michael Jordan.

He was that profound. I'm not paying any attention to what happens in this cycle because I'm not an NBA blogger nor an NBA podcaster. I will be watching Olympic basketball because I love that tournament. In fact, in 1984, USA, USA, I attended a ticker tape parade in Manhattan in New York City celebrating our 84 Olympians led by America's sweetheart, Mary Lou Retton, and I got Leon Wood. That is an obscure name. In fact, he went on to be an NBA ref. Leon Wood signed some ticker tape that I piled up because I couldn't get anybody who was good on that 84 team. That 84 team was loaded. Jordan didn't even play that much, but if we're thinking about transcendent Olympic basketball teams, it's open and shut. 92 dream team changed everything.

Also, as a byproduct, the game became far more global. Just process what we saw at the NBA draft, and we don't know most of these Euros, but it's another reflection of the globalization of hoops. How about the current league? Let's just go through the MVPs. Joker and Embiid and Doncic is going to win one.

The game has become second only soccer as the most international sport of them all. Dream team largely responsible for that. However, when I heard the comments from the Serbian head coach, and I'm sure he's just spinning somehow to get some more pressure on Steve Kerr's team that is going to start their workouts tomorrow in Vegas and then have an exhibition against Canada in Nevada on Wednesday. When the Serbian head coach said that this team led by LeBron and Steph making his Olympic debut and Joel and Durant is better than the dream team, I thought this guy is auditioning to fill in for Rich next summer because that is a monumental hot take.

Now, maybe the way to frame it would be like this. This is the best collection of talent we've had since the dream team. That's fair, and in fact, given the depth of the team, there are early reports that LeBron is going to come off the bench for long stretches of play, and I think Bron is cool with that. He's already won a gold, and it's not like he's going to the moon for these Olympics. These guys are going to Paris, so yes, patriotism and the reward of playing for your nation are on the line, but you're also going to the city of light. It's not like the Olympics are in Toledo. No disrespect to my friends in Ohio. So, as you get ready to watch these games, and it's not slam dunk, we're going to win because the world is caught up, and Serbia is a power, and France is going to be spectacular.

Think about how passionate those crowds are going to be. Just appreciate what you're going to see because while no team in any sport will ever touch the dream team, and I don't have to go through the whole roster, if we're going to go position by position, that's just lame and tedious, but this roster led by Steve Kerr has 12 All-Stars and four MVPs, and put it this way, if the United States doesn't win gold with this group, we're now getting lapped by the rest of the world, and I say we because even though a Canadian and Dr. James Naismith invented the sport right here in American soil and Springfield, Mass. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen.

Hit me up on the X. That's B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's has promised we make the move to baseball coming up. Will we see more magic from Pirates rookie Steve Kerr? From Pirates rookie phenom Paul Skeans tonight as he matches up against the Mets, and after banning the shift, why are pitchers still so dominant?

We'll find out when we check in with Keith Law of The Athletic. That is straight ahead right here on The Rich Eisen Show. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down.

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Full terms at mintmobile.com. It's kickoff time and believe podcasts are here to get you ready for the season. He wanted to change the culture and he wanted me to be a part of that. With Believe, you get immediate reactions, game previews, and expert analysis from all 32 teams plus all of your favorite college teams. He's just rare in just about everything he does.

Sideline to sideline, end zone to end zone. This was good for everybody. Just search Believe that's B-L-E-A-V podcast wherever you listen. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. This is the Rich Eisen show.

844-204-7424 or you can communicate with me on the X platform. That's B-W Weber. Weber with two B's. Always a pleasure to talk baseball with Keith Law.

Check out his outstanding work at the athletic. Keith, thanks so much for taking the time during this holiday week. How are you? I'm good.

How about you? I'm doing really well and I'm really glad that the schedule aligned to chat with you today because Paul Skeans is on the mound and you spent so much time devoting your energies towards player evaluation and development. I'm someone who loves college baseball so I was aware of Skeans at LSU. No surprise he was the number one overall pick and he's been brilliant since making his major league debut for the Pirates. 4-0 ERA less than 2.1. Keith has he even surpassed your expectations so far?

Well he has because he's changed. You know for folks who haven't followed him much when he was at LSU he was primarily a two-pitch guy, four-seamer slider and he's probably best known for the four-seamer because he would sit routinely sit 99 to 100. Hit 102 the game I saw him against Alabama last spring. I think he was 96 to 102 and he is huge. He's 6-6. He's listed at 230.

That's a lie. He is he looks the part of a workhorse starter but you could argue too. Fastball was kind of straight. He didn't really have a third pitch for lefties. We went out and added a pitch he calls the sprinker which is a two-seamer but gripped like a splitter and it's actually been his most effective pitch this year. He's throwing in almost a third of the time by statcast data. It is by far his best pitch. Hitters are having a really hard time with it. It's really effective against righties and lefties so he is kind of a different guy. Not that he didn't deserve to be the first overall pick but I think it's really incredible for a guy who's 21-22 years old to be the first pick go out in the offseason and say yeah you can add another pitch and then show up the next spring and it's the best thing in his arsenal. Keith I don't want to fall into the habit of lazy analysis with the comp game but because you follow this so closely are there parts of his game that reminds you of other marquee pitchers we've seen? Well I think the obvious one because there's some physical resemblance to particularly their build is Clemons. Now it's not exactly the same delivery and obviously Clemons there's a lot other baggage we don't have to get into on that one but when Clemons was kind of Pete Clemons too he was working a lot fast ball splitter and you know to me that is kind of schemes it's what things is probably going to be with a little more use of the slider he's kind of deprecated the slider a lot this year because that splinker has been so effective for him and they both have that sort of thick strong lower half that they can generate a lot of velocity from that you know part of and I emphasize part of how Clemons stayed healthy was that he had kind of those tree trunk legs the Nolan Ryan build that everyone wants to say well Nolan Ryan pitched forever yeah Nolan Ryan was standing on a couple of redwoods they don't all look like that but he schemes kind of does and readers were asking me what do you think he's going to blow out is he going to need Tommy Johnson I can't predict that if I could I'd probably make a lot more money but if I were going to bet on a really hard thrower to stay healthy it would be guys who look like schemes and pitch like schemes getting that energy from their legs. Talking baseball with Keith Law terrific content available on the athletic Keith you mentioned schemes touching 102 we're now seeing mile per hour readings of 104 somewhere in there to me all of this is almost mind-boggling I'm in my mid-50s and these numbers just seem to be going up and up are we getting to a place like it was Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile and since then we keep knocking that number down are we can get to a time in our lifetime the guys are going to touch 106 maybe 110 miles per hour my gut says no um it's probably a better question for people who study kinesiology and know what the body's capable of and I also should admit when I first heard that uh guys like Chapman were throwing 104 105 it was a little skeptical because we've never seen it before your immediate reaction is is that even possible I think we're probably seeing something around the peak now I think the record for Statcast is a touch over 105 maybe somebody gets up to 106 we might see these gradual improvements I'd be really surprised if somebody came along who could throw 110 and do it enough that he can last right it's not that nobody could throw a single pitch at that velocity at some point some unicorn shows up and can do that but can they do it often enough to be just a professional pitcher without getting hurt there's just so much stress on the arm from throwing at your maximum velocity we know anything about what leads to Tommy John's that seems to be it the guys who are constantly throwing at their peak velocity well somebody who has 110 that's their peak velocity and if they if that person even exists I feel like there's a pretty good chance they're just going to get hurt before they can do anything with it in pro ball we thought it was Sid Finch and then we all got played there was a hoax years ago in the 1980s well since we're talking about the dominance of pitching that gets me to another topic I wanted to cover with you the whole point of limiting the shift was supposed to help offensive numbers get the ball in play more frequently but you know and I'm just pointing out the casual fans right now the league-wide batting average is on pace to be the worst since the year of the pitcher 1967 and Bob Gibson is not currently playing so we understand things run in cycles do you expect a correction at some point or is pitching just that dominant well you're right pitching is just that dominant and I think we're going to have to see some kind of exogenous change somebody has to come in from outside and change something to get back into better balance and I think the most likely way to see that is some kind of introduction of the automated strike zone that could just be a challenge system we've seen we've seen that in the fall league we've seen that AAA where hitters or catchers and pitchers can challenge individual pitches but they're not all called by machine I'm okay with that I do think eventually we are going to see a full automated strike system that's going to take time even if say next year they introduce the challenge system that's going to force a lot of pitchers to work within the strike zone more which means they're going to have to take a little something off right you can't throw at your maximum velocity and have your maximum command so that would mean pitchers aren't throwing as hard or not with as much spin or as much movement trying to throw more strikes that should lead to more offense because ultimately I think pitchers right now they're too good and there's too much of an advantage and the strike zone is probably too big especially those pitches off the edges of the strike zone the hardest ones to hit and put in play for hits when those get called strikes hitters just have too much of a disadvantage all logical I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen we are spotlighting MLB with Keith Ball of the Athletic Keith not too long ago the Yankees were playing 700 baseball and that's not really sustainable but since then and I realize we can put things into segments and chunks smaller sample size over the last five weeks or so they have the worst record in all of baseball so if you had to isolate a few issues that have been slowing the Yankees down what would they be it seems like uh they're they came out pitching way better than I think anyone expected and that's you know they didn't have Garret Cole for the most of the season to date and they had a couple of guys pitching just way better than expectations I don't want to say above their heads because they're pretty talented Luis Hill for example you know comes out with a change up to the Yankees say he's always had but he really didn't use it much and they just emphasized to him very heavily hey you got to use this pitch this is a good pitch it's going to make you a better pitcher and again and I do think he can be that guy again going forward but as he scuffled as Garret Cole hasn't pitched like Garret Cole from last year as they haven't gotten the production expected from Carlos Rodon at least he's healthy so I can't complain too much but it's turned out he's been very homer prone they miss Clark Schmidt he's on the injured list and probably going to be on the injured list for a long time here I don't want to say that that wasn't the pitching they had wasn't sustainable I agree with you seven playing 700 balls obviously not sustainable but they came out just preventing runs at a much better pace than anyone expected that has tapered off and I think that's not the only problem but certainly a big part of why they have scuffled the last couple of weeks Keith outstanding analysis as always I am a subscriber to the athletic I always learn something when I read your content and I greatly appreciate you taking the time to join us today on the Rich Eisen Show my pleasure Keith Law check out all of his outstanding work it's the athletic they have combined with the New York Times so you can read Keith in print now you're probably saying wait a minute print let me take you back depending generationally and I now get side eye at the gym yes I go to the gym thankfully we're not on the simulcast and the great Roku channel because I bring a couple newspapers because I'm going to put the time in on that elliptical right I'm just trying to distract myself but I have a running battle this is more minutiae than you need but I'm gonna make a point here with it's always the same people because we all fall into rhythms and I don't have a nine to five so I go middle of the day when it's empty I like one machine by the window which I like to raise the blind so I get a little more light because my eyes are going but I'm too vain to get glasses and same time I go the same dude shows up and he's watching reruns of Dexter or something on his phone and he's and he's claiming the glare now is interfering with him enjoying the show so we have this back and forth that is among the dumbest fights I have ever been in and I am petty believe me I've gotten into some stupid arguments and held my ground just to say I was right but Keith with that kind of analysis is even more hard-hitting when he has a chance to stretch out in print I'm not telling you how to spend your money but if you want quality content other than this which of course is absolutely free thanks to the generosity of Rich Eisen keep in mind that you have options out there and I'd recommend the athletic and if you were paying attention when I asked Keith about comps for Paul Skeans and he was talking about the longevity of Roger Clemens and he said it wasn't just his lower core that was a PED reference and at some point there's going to be a reckoning for the hall of fame I don't know when it's going to be I think it's generational we're going to have more and more if we still have young writers and that's a whole separate conversation but as the rank and file of the baseball writers association gets younger I think they're going to have a different view of performance enhancing drugs I'm not justifying it and I'm in that sweet spot where I was so lucky to be a young broadcaster following my baseball dream I was 23 and hosting the Oakland A's co-hosting the Oakland A's pregame show now I was not Woodward and Bernstein I was not walking around the Oakland Alameda Coliseum looking for syringes evidently they were there because on that team you had Conseco and Maguire I'm not justifying what occurred I do think context matters and the problem is not everybody was using so how do you now go back and discern Barry Bonds pre-usage versus post-usage plus they're all still lying and denying it so baseball's got a huge complicated way of dealing with things moving forward but yes if you're asking me is Barry Bonds a Hall of Famer of course he is because he was a Hall of Famer before he arrived in San Francisco and he didn't bulk up until after he saw Sosa Maguire getting all the adulation and said I want that kind of love and here I am representing the problems of baseball we're trying to focus on today with a star in the making like Paul Skeans and knee-jerk reaction takes me back to 1998 I'm Brian Weber I'm going to be more current I pledge that coming up one more pass at NBA free agency after all the moves and all the analysis did anything really change atop the hierarchy of the association that's coming up on the Rich Eisen Show because I kept waiting to see how it was going to keep going and then how they would somehow settle it binge seasons one through four of talk bill before season five begins wherever you listen