Should Angels Trade Shohei Ohtani? (Hour 1)

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Additional terms apply. Live from the play show you head out over the ostentatious studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Wednesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates Sirius XM channel 158 and that free Odyssey app. 855-212-4 CBS number to jump on in 855-212-4227. You can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Whole lot to do today. Coming up 20 minutes from now. Hit a home run last night. Did defeat the Tampa Bay Rays. Went back to back in the first inning. Corbin Carroll and Christian Walker. Diamondbacks have been a great story. We'll be joined by first baseman big time slugger Christian Walker 20 minutes from now on the Zach Gelb show. Got a whole lot to do today. Bunch going on in the NBA.

We have a bunch of NFL topics as well. But first up producing this extravaganza for the next four hours is no other than hot take Kiki. I don't know about that hot take Kiki. What we saw last night was absolutely ridiculous from Sho Aotani. And every time you watch Sho Aotani play the reaction is just wow, wow, wow. He's doing things that I've never seen done before in Major League Baseball. Last night he strikes out 10 batters. He hits not one but two home runs. And what Otani is doing on the mound is elite.

And what Otani is doing at the dish is elite as well. And when I saw that one stat last night, and I know he's a unicorn. I know he's one of one. But he's the first MLB player to reach base four plus times.

Hit two plus home runs and strike out 10 batters all in the same game since June 10th of 1890. That just kind of puts it into perspective how no one on the planet has ever seen anyone like Sho Aotani. And I know there's some times, right, we get caught up in the moment and we go, oh, this guy's a unicorn or this guy's doing something that we've never seen before or this guy's the goat or this guy's the greatest thing I've ever seen. If you say that about Sho Aotani right now, none of that is far-fetched. Because he is pitching at a ridiculous level and then is at the plate and just hitting bomb after bomb after bomb. It is just remarkable when you see him with the seven and three record, a 302 ERA, 127 strikeouts in 95 and a third of an inning. His 12.0 strikeout rate is the best in the AL, the second best in Major League Baseball.

And yeah, by the way, if I just said that, that's impressive. He's leading Major League Baseball in home runs with 28. RBIs with 64, total bases with 200, and then also OPS. We are seeing something right now that we have truly never seen before. And what gets me excited about this is not only the greatness and not only can we talk about baseball in the regular season right now, something in a positive way. Because it feels like with baseball in the regular season, we only discuss it when there's a big fight.

You have some old man bitching about a bat flip, or maybe someone tested positive for a performance enhancing drug, or you have someone cheating. That's usually the only time we really talk about Major League Baseball in the regular season, but you add into Sho Aotani is someone whenever he is playing. And it's a lot because not only is he a pitcher, but he also does great things at the plate. And you see him on a night in, night out basis. He gives you a reason in a regional sport, in a sport that lacks big names and lacks personality and lacks superstars.

He gives everyone a reason to tune in and to talk about one person. And that's what makes Sho Aotani for me so entertaining. And I know I talked about this last week when Victor Wambunyama got drafted by the San Antonio Spurs, number one overall. I said, I hope Victor Wambunyama has a Sho Aotani type of impact. Where we've heard about Otani for so many years, didn't get to see him play in the US. You've heard about Victor Wambunyama for so many years. We haven't been able to really see him play in the US, now just gets drafted, number one overall in the NBA.

And he's what, 7, 5, 7, 6. And he's supposed to do things and play a game of basketball at his size that we've never seen before. For Otani, it was almost as if, just like Wambunyama, he was this mythological person.

Because even though there were stats to show his greatness and what he was doing in a different country, we didn't get to see it with their own eyes. And the story and the narrative and the hype just grows and grows and grows where you hear someone that's coming over and is gonna play in the NBA or play in the MLB, and you wonder if they could meet the hype. And Otani right now has not only met the hype, he has exceeded the hype. And he has shattered the hype that was at this ridiculously high level, but it was accurate. Because what you always heard about Otani, and I know he had the injury scares early on when he came to America to pitch and also hit for the Los Angeles Angels, was if he stays healthy, he is going to be a great pitcher, and he's going to be one of the best hitters in the game.

And that's what he's been. The only unfortunate part about this story so far is we have not seen the Los Angeles Angels in the playoffs. And I know that it could feel a very similar conversation because you have Mike Trout.

We all know Mike Trout for the last 10 years has been perceived to be the best player in baseball. And Mike Trout only has played in three postseason games where the Angels got sweat. But now the Angels are five games back of the 48 and 31 Texas Rangers for the ALS. If the season was to conclude today, the Angels would be in the playoffs. They're the third playoff spot right now. They have a half game lead over the Blue Jays. So it's not a lock that they're gonna get into the postseason. But think about two things with that being said, if the Angels get into the postseason this year, I don't care who wins the World Series.

I don't care what actually happens. That's a major win for Major League Baseball because that means we get to see the game's biggest star, Shohei Ohtani, in the playoffs for the first time ever. But also when you get into a similar conversation of, will this be the year the Angels finally make the playoffs? Think about the way that we've talked about Mike Trout for the last decade. Mike Trout is no longer the best player on his team.

And that's not a knock or a shot at Mike Trout, but it just speaks to how crazy, how unreal, and how one of one Shohei Ohtani is. And really, as a baseball fan, who my team stinks right now, the Mets are horrible. Hickey still believes that they could go on a run.

I don't have any reason to actually take that comment seriously. If I'm wrong, Hickey, I will gift you something that is very nice because there's no way the Mets, even with an extra playoff spot, are making the playoffs. So really not having a dog in the fight, I want I want to root for one team right now. And that's the Los Angeles Angels. And if I could have one wish for the rest of the Major League Baseball season, it's just that the Los Angeles Angels will be in the playoffs. And I know Ohtani is going to be a free agent at the end of the year. You have a decision to now make if you're the Angels. I know that this is a rarity with the type of player that Shohei Ohtani is. But heading into the season, a lot of the conversation was, by the trade deadline, I know the trade deadline got pushed back a few years ago, you probably trade Shohei Ohtani because you expect the Angels well to Angel.

And that would not be a positive thing, even though it kind of sounds like a positive thing when you talk about Angels. But the Angels have just been awful, God awful, and they've not capitalized with Trout. They haven't capitalized with Ohtani. So the thought was, if Ohtani is going to leave at the end of the year, which we don't know, but if there's a chance that he's going to leave at the end of the year, go get a package of prospects back because you're not going to make the playoffs either way. And the uncalculated part about this is not that the Angels are really good this year, they're 44 and 37. But right now they have a chance, and if the season ended today, they would be in the wild card round. So you had that decision that is still lurking.

What do the Angels do? Do the Los Angeles Angels, do they trade Shohei Ohtani at the deadline or do they keep him? And I don't know if Ohtani would want to resign. He hasn't said yes.

He hasn't said no. No one has any idea what's going on through the mind to Shohei Ohtani with this future in Major League Baseball. I know people have said, oh, maybe the Mets will go get him or maybe the Dodgers will go get him. No one has really said that he's going to stay with the Angels, but it's not a guarantee that he's definitely leaving. So if I'm the Angels, I do think you would get a lucrative contract or lucrative package back for him because people and teams would want to get him in his building and then just hope you run the risk, you throw away the prospects and just hope that you could go retain him and be able to sign them and maybe have some talks before you actually pull the trigger on that deal. But if I'm the Angels, I wouldn't trade him right now because if you think even if it's a slim chance that you could bring him back and he wants to stay and remember, he picked you guys from the start. I don't think this is a situation where any prospects that you're going to get back, no one's going to come close to Otani.

And how many times have we done this before? And this is one problem I have with Major League Baseball. I'm not saying prospects aren't important, but the way we cover prospects is ridiculous. Every Tom, Dick and Harry tries to tell you they're an expert on all these players, all these prospects in the minor leagues that no one has ever really seen play. There is a small fraction of people that have actually seen these prospects play. And I could run through the list of the team that I root for where people guarantee me player X is going to be a star, player Y is going to be a star, player Z is going to be a star.

And they had a cup of coffee in the big leagues and they never amount to anything. So if I'm the Angels, I would continue to roll the dice here. You have a player who's one of one, you have no other starting pitching outside of Shoei Otani.

You have one of the game's best hitter in Shoei Otani as well. And see how far you could take it this year. Because in baseball, I know that this sounds cliche, you truly never know what's going to happen. We've seen years where the Nationals have got off to terrible starts and the Braves have got off to terrible starts.

And then they were hoisting that piece of metal that Rob Manfred talks about, which is the commissioner's trophy, which gets awarded to the team that wins the World Series. Like the Phillies last year after their first half, who would have thought that they would have been in the fall classic playing for a chance to win the World Series. So if I'm the Angels, a Shoei Otani, we've never seen him before, I'm not trading him. Unless he tells you, guys, I'm definitely not going to resign.

And I don't think he's going to communicate that from now until the trade deadline. And even if you get back a team's top prospect and their third prospect and their seventh prospect and their eighth prospect, maybe one of those guys pan out at most. So if I'm the Angels, yeah, it's unexpected that you guys are 44 and 37. It's unexpected that now you guys have a shot to make the postseason.

And Otani puts butts in the seats and he draws people to the television sets until he tells you I want out. I'm not doing anything that pushes him off my roster. And I understand that people say, well, I think there's only a 25% chance he resigns. The odds aren't in our favor.

Go trade for all the prospects. If you feel that way, that's fine. But I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I'm running the Angels and I'm the one that told Otani, you're gone, you're out of here. If he comes to you and he says, I'm not going to resign, different story. But so far, we've had no indication that he's even going to talk about his future. And you could look at that two ways.

One, he's definitely not going to come back or two, he's going to keep it close to the vest because if he does want to come back, why would you say it when the price is only going to go up and up and up? And you could use other teams as leverage because when he hits the free agency market, this is going to be the most sought after free agent that Major League Baseball has ever seen. And that's not hyperbole. And there's been some big names on the free agency market in years past. But what this guy is doing, every single time he steps foot in the baseball diamond is history. And we've never seen it before.

Hickey, I don't know where you're going to go on this one. But if you're running the Angels, and I just laid it out to you how awesome Otani is, and until he tells me he doesn't want to be there, I'm going to operate the free agency market. That we're going to find a way to get the deal done or hope to get a deal done. I'm keeping them on my team. If you're the Angels, do you run that risk of maybe making the playoffs or missing the playoffs? Either way, and Otani doesn't want to restart at the end of the year and you get literally nothing back for Otani if you don't trade him by the deadline. I would keep him, I would run the risk of losing him for nothing because I think your chances if you're the Angels are winning the World Series right now, I would say are greater than a majority of the prospects, depending on how many you get back, panning out and actually being legitimate contributors for your team for the next 10 years. I think the likelihood if you say which percentage is higher, these prospects working out or Otani and your team winning the World Series this year, I would say it's the latter.

Winning the World Series. So I'd run the risk. Sure, you lose it for nothing. You lose arguably maybe the greatest free agent to ever hit the free agent market in baseball.

You lose them for absolutely nothing. It stinks, but I think it's a risk I would take at this point. And really the only team that scares me in Major League Baseball right now that I'm intimidated by are the Atlanta Braves. Outside of that, like yeah, the Reds have been on a great run.

It's awesome to see them good again and Elie De La Cruz has been awesome. You look at the NL West, we're going to talk to Christian Walker in a bit. The Diamondbacks have been a fun story. You have the Giants and the Dodgers in that division. The Padres have been a disappointment.

We'll see if they could turn it around. That's just in the NL, like the Marlins have had a good season. But you look at the AL, I know the Rays are playing great. The Orioles have had a good season. The Yankees have not been as good as some thought they were going to be.

No one in the AL Central intimidates you. The team in first place right now is the Twins. They're two games below.500. And the AL West, the Grom is not going to pitch the rest of the year for the Rangers. The Valdez has been really good. We'll see if the Astros get hot here in the second half. This is wide open.

It really is. And we've seen the Rays been really damn good for a while. And we've seen them get to the World Series. But they haven't been able to lift that trophy yet. So this is wide open.

And I don't know if you agree or disagree with this, Hickey. But the team, even though it doesn't say so from a record standpoint right now, it's pretty damn close, that I think is the best in Major League Baseball or the Atlanta Braves. But the Braves last year won over 100 games and they ended up losing in the division round. And the NLDS, the Philadelphia Phillies. So that could happen in baseball. This is as wide open as it's ever been to go make a run. And I don't think the Angels have enough pitching. But you got Trout, you got Otani.

I would roll the dice and see how far this thing could go, Hickey. I mean, the two post-seasons that are the most quote unquote random unpredictable are hockey and baseball. Because so many times, how many times have the Dodgers led the league in wins or led the NL in wins and they can't even get to the World Series, let alone win one. They have had a tough time. No problem getting in the playoffs.

Once they're in there, they can't win. And we have seen time and time and time again, especially in recent history, the team that's hot in September usually is one that makes a deep run. And if you're the Angels, I think you kind of hold on to that where, hey, if we heat up at the right time, maybe we make one or two moves to the deadline to kind of bolster pitching or getting extra bad.

And all of a sudden now we're a hot team. Again, you can easily convince yourself we can make a real run at this and it's not just a pipe dream. I'd be aggressive at the deadline too. Go get another starting pitcher out there. If you're Los Angeles Angels, that's what I would do. It is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio.

We'll take a time out. Obviously, Otani is the best story in Major League Baseball, but you look at some of the best stories of the year. The Arizona Diamondbacks have been phenomenal. They're 48 and 32 on the season. A year ago, they were 14 games below 500. They've been building for a while. And this Diamondbacks team has some really good young talent. They have a really good veteran too, Christian Walker, who's excelled ever since going to Arizona with the Diamondbacks, I believe in 2017, 2016 is when he first got there.

And he's going to join us when the Zach Gelb show returns in five minutes. Life comes with a lot of decisions, and it can be hard to know the right path sometimes. A therapist can help you map out what you really want, so you trust yourself to make great choices and feel excited about the future. BetterHelp offers convenient professional online therapy on your schedule, however you want it, by phone, chat, or video call. Let therapy be your map with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash positive today to get 10% off your first month.

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Do more with Viator. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Joining us is the first baseman and big time slugger for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Ing Christian Walker. Christian, it's Zach Gelb here in New York City. Appreciate the time as always. How are you? I'm great, Zach. Thanks for having me.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. So some way to start off that game last night, just tremendous energy in that stadium when you and also Corbin go deep back to back. Yeah, that was great. You know, it's cool knowing the Rays are coming in, obviously we understand what they're capable of and what that offense can do.

So, you know, to be able to go out and get off to a good start and jump out to an early lead. Yeah, that was cool. It was exciting. I didn't know if your home run was going to clear the fence or if it was going to get brought back. When you were rounding third, it looked like you had some words or there was some confusion maybe with the third baseman. What happened there when I was watching that replay early this morning? Yeah, just confusion.

I've seen a Rosarena do that before where he ends up catching it and then kind of just sits on the ground there. So I was honestly just trying to figure out if it went out or not or if he had it in his glove. I couldn't tell. And then Diaz was just, he was just letting me know that it went out when I was rounding third. I was trying to look past him to look out into the outfield and we made eye contact and he just gave me the home run sign. So once he said it went out, then I was pretty confident. Yeah, I was wondering if you guys were talking smack there for a second.

No, no, no. That was a good interaction. Christian Walker here with us. So Corbin Carroll has been a huge storyline for you guys. We got to see him a little bit last year. He's been unbelievable this season at the age of 22.

Looks like he's going to win the NL rookie of the year. Just how do you describe what you're seeing out of him day in and day out? Yeah, it's exciting. It's fun to be a part of.

It's fun to watch. He's the real deal, man. He works hard. He's got a great head on his shoulders. He's humble. He's smart. He understands everything's intentional. He doesn't do things without it, having the proper intent. He's a professional.

Everything about him from top to bottom, it's a lot of fun. I'm glad we're getting the chance to be teammates and obviously hitting behind him is awesome as well. You know how it works in this game.

It sometimes takes a while to get going. I know what you just said about him, but at all is it a little bit surprising where the hype was that he's been able to meet it and also exceed it so far? You know, it's not a matter of him being capable enough. It's kind of like you said, it's just like on the stage, you know, at the high level, it's like the game is hard. There's no doubt he was going to figure it out eventually.

But to get off to the start, I mean, it's just a tribute to how much of a rock solid mindset he has. Christian Walker here with Dust. You guys are going to play your 81st game of the season tonight.

You're 48 and 32. It's been a tremendous season for the Arizona Diamondbacks so far. Going back to spring training, there was talk about you guys could be good and your team is young and up and coming.

You have the right mix of veterans, like a player like yourself. What type of team did you think you had before the season started? Yeah, I mean, honestly, this was kind of all part of the plan. It's hard to tell exactly how your team is going to respond in the heat of battle and when you need to run late or when you need to put up the zero. Those are the details that you kind of wait for the season to see how we shake out. To me, that's the team's identity. The resiliency we've shown this year has been great to be able to tack on runs late and our pitching staff has been great, keeping us in a lot of games. But just overall, I would say we're not surprised. This was all part of the plan and I don't feel like we're doing anything outside of ourselves at the moment. We're just playing clean games and we're a really good team.

You know how this is going to work? Right at the halfway point, people are going to ask the question, will they continue the success in the second half or are they going to come back down to earth and maybe not be as good as the way they played through the first 80-81 games of the season? Why is the moment not going to be too big for this team down the stretch in the second half of the season?

Yeah, I think that's a great question. I think when you show up every day and you expect a certain product on the field and you set a standard for ourselves, for each other, and then you go out and you execute. It doesn't feel like we're getting lucky. It doesn't feel like things are just going right or the baseball gods are on our side. Yeah, it takes some fortunate things to win a baseball game. Winning a baseball game is an extremely difficult thing. But that being said, I feel like feeling like we can win even when we're not at our best just gives confidence in those moments. When you need the big game, when you need the big run, I don't think we're going to be trying too hard. We're going to be prepared and we're going to be confident and we're going to be stoic and it's going to fall into place. Do you feel like you guys have all the pieces to go make a run this year and be playing in the Fall Classic in October?

Yeah, I don't see why not. Personally, I've never been on a World Series team. I've never really gone too far into the postseason.

So, being brutally honest, I don't really know what to expect. So, it's hard to say, yeah, for sure we have what it takes. But based on what I've seen so far, I'm really confident in this team. I love my teammates. I love the staff we have around us. It's a lot of fun showing up to the park every day.

And I think when it's truly funny, you enjoy it, I think those are the things you can hang on to to take you late into the season. Well, Christian Walker, off of that, we know Evan Longoria has seen basically everything that the game has to offer and he's 37 years old, hits the home run up against the Rays. We all know what he did in Tampa many years ago. Just what does he bring to this team, bringing in just a solid veteran like that that could still be productive on the field? Yeah, he's great. He's everything. You know, I grew up watching that guy play. So, I'm like, man, I'm looking forward to getting to know this guy and I'm excited to have him as a teammate.

And then you get to know him and everything even gets better. He's a great communicator. He's a professional. He treats everybody the same. And like you said, he's got the experience. So, when we need a veteran voice or when you got a question about something to go to Longo and know that you're going to get like a no judgment answer and it's going to be a really good answer and it's going to be helpful and it's corrective. It's just a great, great guy to have around the clubhouse, for sure.

And on top of that, he's hitting the crap out of baseball. How crazy is this for you? Is it kind of surreal? Because you're 32 years old right now. You're a veteran leader on this team. We all know the college career that you had as a gamecock at South Carolina, winning the two college baseball World Series championships to now be a seasoned veteran where you're on a team that looks like they go make a run.

Is that kind of crazy how quickly life has hit you? Yeah, for sure, man. It's good. It just adds to the perspective. I feel like it's helpful when I look back and, you know, I can appreciate how fortunate I am to be in this situation and to have gotten, you know, the opportunity from the Diamondbacks to, you know, to show what I can do and, you know, it's humbling, man.

It's humbling and it's exciting and motivating and it's all the good things and, you know, hopefully I can do it for a while longer. Give me a little vibe here, Christian Walker, on the importance you could tell Marte to this team because he's reached safely now in 20 straight games. It's the second time he's done that this season. He's been unbelievable. Yeah, he's great. Another guy, like, knows his role.

You know, he's not going to try to go above and beyond. He's going to be rock solid for you in the moment when you need it. His defense has been great. His offense, obviously, is there. Yeah, he's a guy who doesn't say much. He's, you know, he kind of lingers in the shadows a little bit and I think it's intentional.

He's a private guy. He's a great teammate. You know, he doesn't take the game too seriously.

Very light-hearted, but, you know, a great teammate as well. Christian Walker, sometimes the team's just ready to go take that next step. Last year, you guys were 14 games under.500 when the season was over. Right now at the halfway mark, you're 16 games over.500. For you, what's the biggest difference when you look at this team having a good understanding of the locker room, the biggest difference from last year to this season? You know, I would say just, you know, confidence, overall confidence. You know, I think when you're winning games and you can prove to yourself that you're a good team, you know, the outside noise doesn't matter. You don't care about people's opinions or you don't care about the latest story or the latest drama around the league. It's about you and your brothers in the moment and going to battle every night and having each other's backs.

And, you know, when I think about this team, it's a close-knit group and we have a lot of fun and it's very light-hearted, but when the bell rings, you know, we'll be there. Last thing I'll ask you, Christian Walker, just want to bring up Shoy Otani. Last night hits two home runs and 10 strikeouts.

You're playing right now in a game where Otani's doing things that we've never seen before. As someone that's a student of the game and being able to watch this and following it, and I'm sure guys in the clubhouse are talking about what Otani's doing out there with the Angels, just how do you kind of process this greatness that we're seeing right now in the sport? Yeah, it's amazing. You know, as a hitter, it's so impressive to watch what he's doing, the consistency, the power, the average, the play discipline. And then on top of that, you know, he's an ace. So it's like, it's kind of hard to like wrap my head around sometimes just to witness what he's doing.

But yeah, I mean, he deserves all the credit he's getting and all the attention. He's an amazing, amazing player and looking forward to competing against him here in a few days. He's Christian Walker, has 16 home runs on the year, 54 RBIs.

Arizona Diamondbacks right now sitting on top of the NL West and having a tremendous first half of the season. Christian, appreciate you doing this. Good luck the rest of the way. Thank you. I appreciate it. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show.

Hickey, I think you've taken the next step in your broadcasting journey, by the way. You have any reason why that is? Not at all. Well, it's never good if everyone likes you and it's never good if everyone hates you. I always say in this job, if there's 100 people, you want 50 people to like you that listen to you and 50 people that can't stand your guts. It's good to be polarizing and be right down the middle where people ride or die with you or they just absolutely can't stand you.

I think you're becoming polarizing around the office here. A lot of people in the last 24 hours or so are starting to realize these shower no cap videos. And let's just say like out of 10 people, five will tell me, I don't know what Hickey's doing. He's got to stop.

Whether that's to my face or just texting me to the side. And then the other five people, while I'm sitting next to you in the newsroom today, will come up to me and be like, Hickey, heck of a job. Great job at these shower no cap videos. I think you have found your calling in the sports media world where now people are looking at you as polarizing because I kid you not, Hickey, I've gotten some nasty texts about you about these videos and then you've seen a lot of praise also in the office.

I don't know what you have with these videos, but you got something, even though I don't necessarily condone what actually goes on in some of these videos. I'll take it. It's so far working now. We just got to keep the momentum somehow going. We'll see if you could do that.

And once again, I've been very clear about it. You got to add props to these videos, but someone did suggest in the office today that maybe you start bringing guests into the shower, which I think that would be funny, but it also could get a little bit risky if you're bringing guests into your showers to record a video. I don't know if the bosses would love that.

Well, why would they hate it? We're talking sports. Well, you got to be dressed, obviously. Can't be bringing a stranger into the shower with you naked. You're naked in these videos, right? Yes, I am.

But obviously the camera doesn't show everything for those who are unaware. Someone is there in the shower lashing the entire universe on Twitter with my sports takes. Yes, but Tom Izzo who works here behind the scenes, not the Michigan State basketball coach said, maybe you should bring in guests.

If let's just say, I don't know, give me a host here on CBS Sports Radio. That's not me because I don't want to be thrown in here. Just if DA is wants to come be the first guest on the shower, no cap, he is more than welcome.

The invites out there. And if you're naked in that in that shower, that's a little bit awkward. I would say so, but I think you have to put on like a bathing suit. I think you have to wear a bathing suit if you're going to do that would probably be my number one question. If I was someone on the outside watching that video is what's the deal? Are both truly in shower form? Are we like pool dressed? What are we doing?

Yeah, so I can actually distract from what I'm saying, which is the ultimate goal, because then I think most people would be wondering what's the dynamic here. Now an unnamed source here at CBS Sports Radio. A lot of unnamed sources here.

You're like Wozershams. According to sources. I'm going to cover up the name so you can't see the name, but you can see some text. I'm 30 feet away.

I like the guy. I can't see their blue lights. I can't see the little two initials of the person you're texting from 30 feet away through two panes of glass.

But this one unnamed source here at CBS Sports Radio. Said why do I want to see Hickey in the shower? Dumbest thing ever. And if he's going to do it, I would like a little more edge and personality from him. Well, edge meaning. Like risk and takes are a little bland.

Maybe maybe they think you were recording a video of you in the shower. Of course, you're going to disagree with that. Interesting. I mean, we're talking about Bill Belichick in five years, so I haven't seen anyone saying that.

So I would say these takes are risque are edgy. Nick writer Rob Parker probably been saying that for him. Well, Rob Parker has been talking about the downfall of Tom Brady for, you know, before I was born. So before Tom Brady was born. So I can't beat him there.

I'm just saying what an unnamed source says at CBS Sports Radio. And if you don't like him, that's no problem. I'm not saying everyone to like it. Why can't people just instead of texting you to say, hey, you're an idiot? Well, I can't control fight anybody. I can't control what I'm just sitting here, minding my own business. And I just get a thing on my phone when people are going to text me. People in this ad or network have my number for some reason, because since you're my producer, people think like I control everything you do when you're not in the office or even when you are here and you say things on the air. People think like I'm like a puppet master here and I control you.

When he goes home, I can't tell you what the heck he's going to do and what content he puts out. But there have been people and this was not the unnamed source, but like I heard Boggish talking about this the other day where Boggish is like, oh, this is a gel bit. But he got in the shower.

This is not a gel bit whatsoever. I've talked about it because you put out the content and then I start getting tweets and text messages from people around here. But this was your idea. It wasn't my idea.

I don't want to see in the shower, putting out takes. I would have never thought of that. And I'm proudly, proudly behind the idea. Yeah, I stand by it. I love the idea. I will say this. I think the name is really good.

Shower no cap. And I think you're building something. The videos to me, though, we have to find a way to to pick up the intensity of the videos like I partially agree with that unnamed source a little bit.

I wouldn't have been that harsh, but I do agree with it in some capacity. By the way, we do have breaking news in the NFL. And it's about a wide receiver getting a big contract from the New England Patriots. It's not DeAndre Hopkins, but his first name does start with a date. The Patriots and wide receiver Devante Parker, according to rap sheet Ian Rappaport, have reached an agreement on a three year new contract worth up to 33 million dollars. The deal done by Parker's longtime agent and owner of Management One Jimmy Gold also includes 14 million dollars in guaranteed guarantees and pregame roster bonuses. Parker finds a home in New England. Now, Devante Parker was on the roster.

And he had one year left on his contract. The idea of Devante Parker is a good one back in 2019 when he played a full season and he had twelve hundred yards receiving and he had nine touchdowns and he hasn't been this putrid receiver, but he's failed to stay healthy. And he's put up in 14 games in 2020, 793 yards in 10 games in 2021, 515 yards. And last year in 13 games, he put up 539 yards. I was not expecting this news today, Hickey, that the Patriots would be giving out a deal to a wide receiver whose first name starts with a D and it would be someone other than DeAndre Hopkins. Not great. I mean, look, 14 million dollars over three years.

It's very easy to get out of it. So it's not like that's a, you know, a deal that they are now stuck with. But this will be sensationalized like when you see it. Oh, three years, 33 million dollars. It is a WTF type of move.

And then you find out, oh, it's only 14 million dollars in guaranteed. It just really shows you I have no clue how to analyze a contract anymore when it first gets reported. The bigger deal would be if this takes them out of the DeAndre Hopkins sweepstakes and moves their focus either elsewhere or they feel content with the roster because you said it.

I think you're right. This roster, especially receiver wise, is lacking big time. And for a possibly make or break year with Mac Jones, we'll see if things go south, if the Patriots want to move on from him.

But this is obviously a pivotal season for Mac to play well and show his worth. Not great that so far, again, you're prioritizing a guy that's often injured and when he's on the field, not exactly that productive over a guy who we know is very productive. Injury concerns, yes.

Age concerns, yes. But is very productive when he's out there in DeAndre Hopkins. Let's just stay off the performance and answering drugs, DeAndre Hopkins, and we know how productive he could be.

That's all I need him to stay off of. He had a really good year last year with a bad Kyler Murray, and then Kyler Murray got hurt and he was still productive. So you look at DeAndre Hopkins, they should bring him in because it finally brings in a number one wide receiver. Like Juju Smith-Schuster is a solid wide receiver.

He's good. He's not a number one though. Devante Parker is like a three. Kendrick Bourne, I thought he was really good two years ago. And then Matt Patricia, for some reason, put him in his doghouse and he was absolutely horrible. You know, Taequann Thornton, you keep on hearing there's some buzz around him, but you got to go out there and prove it. And he got hurt early on last year in training camp. So to answer your question, I don't know if this takes DeAndre Hopkins and the Patriots away from each other.

I don't. But if it does, that's a big time problem because I would have much rather if, if Hopkins is, let's say, looking for a deal, right? The Odell Beckham deal, which is $15 million a year. If you're giving out $14 million spread out over three years in guarantees to Devante Parker, if, if that, what is it? Three years, 33 million.

So 14 million of that is guaranteed. I would have just much rather have rolled the dice with, see what Devante Parker does this year. Even if he's unhappy, he's on the final year of his contract, so be it. And even it's not fully giving the $14 million guaranteed to DeAndre Hopkins, but like a one year deal, give him like 11 or 12 this late in the game.

That's what I would have done. So if they end up getting DeAndre Hopkins, I don't care about this contract, but if they don't get DeAndre Hopkins and they prioritize Devante Parker over DeAndre Hopkins, that's a big time problem. And maybe where there's a lot of optimism and everyone's saying the Patriots are leaders in the clubhouse and I'm buying into this and I believe DeAndre Hopkins will be a Patriot before you did see this news. Maybe a lot of that is misleading and the Patriots get the sense. Maybe they're being used to kind of drive up the price and he's going to go somewhere else.

So I don't know how to interpret that Hickey, because it's probably easy to say, yeah, this takes them out of the running, but you get two deals done. And just because you pay Devante Parker doesn't mean that they won't pay DeAndre Hopkins. You also wonder why now, I mean, if he plays well, is he gonna be that expensive next off season? I have no clue. I would doubt it. Yeah, probably not. So means one thing, him and Mac Jones have a good relationship. Zach Yelp shows CBS Sports Radio. When we come on back, one prominent NBA insider says the Warriors, they bring back this player are still a championship contender.