Carolina Confusion? (Hour 2)

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45% off selected products at Blinds.com. Rules and restrictions may apply. Alrighty, our number two of our radio program. It is the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio.

Major League Baseball opened up their season last week. So let's head out to the desert right now and welcome in the President and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks and that is Derek Hall who's kind enough to join us on the Zach Gelb Show Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio. Derek, appreciate the time. Thank you for doing this. How are you? Hey Zach, doing great. Thanks for having me on.

No problem. So when I watch baseball this year, the pitch clock, it stands out and I know it's an adjustment but so far as a consumer of the sport, I absolutely love it because it increases the pace of play. What have been your reactions so far to the pitch clock?

I am totally with you and I'm a traditionalist so at first I thought, oh boy, this is not going to work. But what a difference it's made. We fought in spring training and it was really making a difference in the game times and in the pace overall. And then WBC came along and there was no pitch clock and I kept thinking, what are we missing here?

As good as WBC was, they need the pitch clock. But I think it's been great, you know, for us and then the feedback we've had from our fans as a result, they're thrilled. We're asking fans to go to 81 or 83 with our exhibition games, you know, home games. And that's a lot of them. So when you're there Saturday night, say three and a half, four hours, do you really want to get up the next morning and go again? This is going to encourage people to do so. And now also, like you go to a game, you can get off your phone a little bit because it moves so quickly and you're not standing at the concession lines for two, three innings probably because if you do that, then you're going to miss the entire game. So that's like one thing that I do wonder is inside the stadium, what do you do to kind of bring the food directly to the fans? Because if you have to go wait in a long line, you could miss a lot of the game now.

That's a great point. And so we're always trying to figure out ways to get those lines moving faster. But there's so much now, you know, offering wise where people can get their food in their seats or they can place their order on their phone, go up to that location. They've got it waiting there. They just pick it up and go. But, you know, in-seat service is a big thing now. Grab and go. We have a lot of grab and go sections.

You walk right up, grab exactly what you want, get back to your seat in time. So making sure that people aren't missing innings, like you say, especially with the speed of game right now, it's important to get them to get their food, get their drink and back into their seats as quickly as possible because the action is moving. I know you mentioned the World Baseball Classic. It was right in your backyard. How do you kind of look back at the World Baseball Classic from what you were able to see in Arizona? Boy, it was big. You know, I think that right now there is so much excitement for baseball.

I think it's part of rules changes. The fact that it was our first normal spring. We didn't have a couple of years of pandemic or the mess with the CBA. It was, you know, 1.7 million fans here watching Cactus League Baseball and then it rolled right into WBC. It was huge. I mean, Zach, we had 250,000 tickets sold for those 10 games in five days. The Sunday night game, Mexico, USA, I have never seen this place so loud and energetic. 48,000 fans.

It was the largest game of any of the pool games, you know, which were Taiwan, Japan, Miami, Phoenix. And the feedback we got was great, where Mike Trout said he's never been in a stadium environment like that. And I think that the momentum hopefully is just carrying right over.

There is excitement for WBC. It was must-watch TV. It was great.

It was perfect timing. And I think in three years it's going to be just as popular, but I also feel like the momentum is going right into the regular season, which we haven't had for a long time. I feel like our popularity is going back to the height it was before the strike back in the early 90s even. Derek Hall here with us, the president and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now I preface this saying I'm a Mets fan, Derek, so I'm not in love with the World Baseball Classic after the Edwin Diaz injury. But you heard afterwards, even Rob Manfred, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, say that we want more pitchers going, especially in the U.S. So you guys are on board. If your players come to you and say we want to play in the World Baseball Classic in a few years, no problem. We are.

I think you always hold your breath. We had Merrill Kelly pitching for USA, so we're on board. If a player wants to go, we're behind that player. But yeah, that was a heartbreaker, the Diaz, and it was such an accident, flukey accident, but you hate to see that. There's also the other argument where guys are chanting if they're at risk of getting injured if they're in a spring game anyways, whether it's grapefruit or tactics league.

Yet you never want to see injury, especially when they're preparing for the season and especially when they're as highly touted and successful and what a year he had the year before. Yeah, I've had two baseball players leading up to the season, the Hall of Famer Tom Glavine and then Will Middlebrooks, who does a great job covering baseball now and played for the Red Sox. And we both wondered, going back to the pitch clock, Derek Hall, how it was going to get called later on in the season. Do you still think, with the emphasis that it is now, that it will be that way and it won't be lenient when the games start to matter more down the stretch?

I think so. I think they're going to be consistent, but then again, I think guys are going to be so used to it. Like when we talk to our minor leaders, in fact, they're used to it because they already went through it in the minors, so they come up here and it's not an issue.

Some of our veteran guys, you can tell it's in between their ears a little bit, but I think by the end of the year when games are so important, I think it's going to be fine. Now, there was the argument where when you had that classic matchup between Otani and Trout, would you really want to pitch clock? And I can understand both sides of that argument, yet again, I think it's going to be tough to say when you do it and when you don't. Is the eighth inning any more important than the seventh inning? Is the ninth inning just the most important meeting between pitcher and hitter?

I'm not sure that you can really differentiate, and if guys are used to it and it becomes a big part of the game, stick to it. You have a young team, and I just wonder, because for years people talk about pace of play, and I do think the pitch clock is enormous, but I've always argued baseball has to do a better job of marketing their stars. Now, I understand it also takes the player to tango in this situation as well, but as a president and CEO, how do you look to really market your stars to grow the game that way? That is a great one, and so we're encouraging our guys to get out there as much as possible. When you do have a younger team, especially from your own farm system that you develop, you start telling them at a very early age, not only to get out in the community, go to hospitals, visit kids, not with a camera, but because it's the right thing to do, go to schools and read books, but in addition to that, go out and do your interviews, get some media training, be comfortable on a camera, show your face out there as much as possible. So by the time they get up here, they're doing the same thing, but it is tougher with a younger team. I think in our case, our fans are finally excited about our young team, and you tell them as you're rebuilding this thing for three, four years, wait till these guys get up here, you're really going to fall in love with them, and they think, yeah, right, we'll believe it when we see it. But the style of baseball they saw at the end of last year, they did get excited, they couldn't wait to see these guys back up here this year, and now as a result, our fans, not the rest of the nation necessarily, but they're watching, they know that it's also Jordan Lawler coming up, it's Drew Jones coming up, it's going to be Walston and Faught, and all these guys, they already know who they are, they already know what they look like, but we have to do a better job, as you say, of getting those guys out there and bringing them prominence from a national perspective too. I know that a lot of baseball beat writers aren't going to like this, but I've said this for years, I sometimes think there's too much media availability, like before the game, after the game, you have 162 games of this, I also think that makes it why a lot of these players sometimes don't take the extra opportunities. I get that, and I also think, someone like yourself, because you embrace it, you understand it, you're active on it, social media too, where we used to, you and I, a long time ago, used to only focus on the media attention or what was written or what was said on TV and radio, whereas now, there's that whole other aspect of social media, and I think we were scared as executives or owners for years, saying, hey, let's limit it, they're going to make mistakes, they say the wrong things. You've got to set them free, because that is so important and so much of their following comes in that regard, rather than just seeing them postgame or their comments or the period postgame show.

So yeah, there is a lot of attention, but I think we need to do a better job of letting them be even more free and creative and be themselves on social media, and not monitor and police that too much where we put, you know, cups on them. Derek Hall here with us, president and CEO of the Diamondbacks. I was at the Super Bowl this year, and a buddy of mine said, you pay all this money for the ticket, and then all you do is you just get a ticket on your phone. You guys have been doing something since 2021, the commemorative ticket, tell me about that process. Great question, yeah, and especially here we are in our 25th anniversary, so we've had a lot of fans say, hey, you're only giving us digital tickets, I want something commemorative, I want a collective, you know, collectible. And in fact, since 21 and before that, when we did go more digital, and it makes sense, I mean, I prefer to have on my phone my airline ticket, my movie ticket, my theme park ticket, even sports events, but some people want that handheld ticket as a commemorative, and if it's their kid's first game, or if it's a no-hitter, or it's a postseason game, or, you know, the 25th anniversary weekend that we're celebrating, they're probably going to want something, so we did it with, we partnered with a company called WWNL, and you're exactly right, they do the Super Bowl, they do the Final Four, I believe, and the Olympics, big, big tickets.

They do a great job, and so now our fans have the ability, they'll go through the ballpark app, which is also where you get your tickets today, and there's an experience where you can actually purchase the ticket itself, or you can scan a code when you go into the ballpark, some other teams are doing it as well, then the fan can go on after the game and select what ticket, there's like four different to choose from, do you want the A with the red logo, do you want one of our players, Marte, Galen, Krista Walker, they're available, and then they actually get to have that ticket delivered to their home, first class, like within seven to ten days. Wrap it up with the President and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Derek Call. What's going on with Chase Field? You guys staying, you're moving, what's going on, Derek?

You're good, Zach. Yeah, I want to know soon, you know, we do have some interested parties in Maricopa County for a new build, we have a lot of reasons to stay right here at Chase Field, we're still talking to all the municipalities, the city, the county, the state, whether it makes sense for us to stay at Chase Field, I really need to know soon because our lease expires at the end of 27, and if we're going to be here, we're going to have to schedule it out with all of our concerts and bowl games and, you know, non-baseball events, and there's a lot to do, this is now the fourth oldest stadium in all of the league, and, you know, which is hard to believe, but in order to do all of that, it's like, it's go time, and it really needs a facelift, but I'm hoping to know Zach in the next, say, two or three months, and here we go, you know, it gets shoveled and ground. Does it make sense to renovate at this point or just build a whole new thing?

I think it makes sense if we can partner with the municipalities around us and have access to some mixed use. You see that today, when you have a new ballpark, so much of it is also the 365-day activation, you've got to have hotels, restaurants, retail, office space, we don't have any of that, we're just a stand-alone stadium, I think those days are really outnumbered, but for us to do that, we're going to really have to do fan-facing experiential upgrades, and that's everything from LED lights to new scoreboards to new LED ribbons to new sound system, new premium areas, it's really outdated, new seats, this is a very big cavernous place, I don't know that we'll ever fix that, but we can make it more intimate in different ways and bring up some of the quality offerings that you have in some of the newer ballparks. We've seen the Braves do this a lot. Before this year started, you gave Corbin Cowell, one of your young players, an eight-year, $111 million contract, I know every team in the NL West, besides you guys, are top 15 in payroll, is this just the future of what the Diamondbacks will do? It makes sense, that's in our market, who we should be and need to be, but it really comes down to scouting and development, if we're going to do it and we're going to stick to it, we have to do a good job, and so far, so good, we went from a bottom five farm system to a top five, three of the top 15 prospects are DBACs, so as long as we have that pipeline like the guys I mentioned earlier, you can build around someone like a Corbin Carroll, and if you've got guys who are under control through their six arbitration years and two or three, as is the case with Carroll, of their free agency years, it's smart, but then you have to keep those guys coming, like the Braves have done such a good job, the A's have done such a good job, you can compete that way, but again, you've got to draft and sign the right guys to do it. Well, what did you see in his 32 games and then even before that that made you guys feel confident that you could give him a contract like that? Yeah, you know, he, the year before, was named the overall minor league player of the year in all of baseball, and the scouts have all loved him. I mean, we're relying really on those eyes that have seen him for years, but he's such a good kid, smart kid, focused kid, committed.

He is a five-tool player, you hear that, but he does have the defense and the arm and the speed, obviously, and he can hit and he can hit for power. He's just a very important cornerstone piece for us, and it also, I mean, Zach, the message that it sends to the clubhouse, like, we're committed to you guys, we're going to invest in you guys, and we want to win, and we want someone like this to be around for a very long time because we know he's going to be a very special player. You're in a brutal division, and you have a bunch of youngsters, so you never know how that's going to go, especially in a sport like this. What are your expectations for the group this year?

It's tough to say whether this is going to be the year or next year. I know a lot of people are saying that we're going to compete for a wildcard spot. It might be too soon for that, especially when you look around the league, and as you said in our division, the Dodgers, the Padres, the Giants got better. Central, you got the Cardinals, and the Brewers are so good, and you also have the Cubs much improved. Your Mets, the Phillies, the Braves, so it could be tough, but I look at our first road trip, and you know, you've got these young guys. They're going to have to open up four games in L.A., and then the next two in San Diego, and you go to Dodger Stadium.

You've got four decks all full and loud, you know, and we ended up leaving that. We didn't even play our best baseball, and we came back home, and we were three and three, and then we have to play four more with the Dodgers again, so it doesn't get any easier. You've got the Brewers, and you're going on the road, the Cardinals, but really tough month. If we can hold our head above water, then anything can happen, but what they showed me is they're scrappy, they're fast, you know, get on base, and you know, anything can happen, and I don't think teams love playing a style like that against a style like that, but again, we can't have, you know, a pitcher like Dustin May just run up and down the lineup and go 13 innings and allow one run.

You've got to get on base to be that type of team, but they have confidence, they have focus, and I think they're going to be fine. Well, Derek, really do appreciate the time. He's Derek Hall, the president and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Thanks for doing this. Zach, I enjoyed it anytime. Look forward to coming back. You got it.

Sounds good. There is Derek Hall joining us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We will take a time out. When we come on back, we'll update you on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports right now with the news brief.

Zach Gelb show, CBS Sports Radio. So, Hickey and yours truly are going to the Mets game tomorrow, separately. We'll see if Hickey texts me if we meet up for a beer or something like that.

I'm putting that on him. I'm down to go grab a beer with hot take Hickey. We'll see if he big times me while he's at the stadium. But I want to ask you this.

What's your plan for tomorrow? This is a 4 10 game. And I thought about this when Derek Hall was on with us. This is a big concern of mine because I don't usually like to miss much of the action. But in previous years, when there's no pitch clock, it's like eventually when you're sitting there for three and a half, four hours, you've got to get up and walk around the stadium. If you go in the lines long, let's say for that Pat Lefrida steak sandwich stand or the really good chicken that they serve in center field as well, the chicken bucket with the tater tots that they have as well.

If you have to go wait in one of those lines, like you will literally miss. I'm going to say like two innings of the game, especially if it's one, two, three, one, two, three. And with the bat sometimes operate, that would not surprise me whatsoever. And even just if it's not, you're eating just to get a beer. I think you may have to now do this the old fashioned way, really, where you're in the stands. The beer vendor comes down and you have to flag down the beer vendor as if it's a taxi driver on Seventh Avenue, because if you go to one of these concession stands, I think that's a big problem now in Major League Baseball. You could maybe miss like a full inning or maybe even two full innings. So what's your plan for tomorrow?

I'm very nervous. And we all know when Hickey goes to a sporting event, he likes to have a few drinks. That is true.

That is very true. So that's what I'm going to try to eat before I get in or if I get in right away to get that taken care of. And then, yes, any time I get up to go to the bathroom very quickly or to go get a brewski. So I'm get on the subway tomorrow at about like three o'clock ish. So I would think I should get to the stadium at three forty five. That doesn't give you much time to go get food beforehand. So I actually made and I love the food at Citi Field. There's some ballparks and some stadiums where the food is horrendous. The food at Citi Field is actually like good food. So I kind of feel weird not getting food at the stadium, knowing how good the food is, especially when it's my first time going to the stadium this year. Now, my seats are in the outfield, so it could make it a little bit easier because that main concourse for food is in center field.

So it's directly behind my seats. But I may do a little like two thirty sandwich. And then just get a bunch of beers at the game. And then when I leave the game, hopefully it's like two hours and 30 minutes or so for 10 start out there by like six thirty, six forty five.

Then dinnertime back in the city before the big UFC card coming up, which I have a lot of time to wait for UFC 287 before the main card does get underway. Now, the only thing going in our benefit is that tomorrow is not going to be the best weather day. Oh, that's a good point. I could see the stadium being maybe half empty, but it's cold.

I sang today. Yes, but I bet you a lot of fans will look at cloudy. Now, it's not going to be that cold to 50 degrees, at least the last I've seen. Also, you have to factor in Easter, too. Easter weekend, Sunday people traveling, not in town, maybe today was opening days, always a sellout.

I would say if there's if there's thirty thousand fans, I'd be surprised. But it was coming off a rain out to like that stadium. I know it was a sellout because of the previous day. There was a lot of people. It felt like that weren't able to make the Friday. Well, that's also tough with the rain out.

Most people. Oh, it's Thursday opening day. I'll be there, take off work, work, taking off Friday or switching the days. Not exactly easy for most.

You can think of the auto parts where your car care needs guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. So you put in food in that system tomorrow at the game or are you just doing a liquid diet there? So I don't know yet.

It's as you know, at the overnight schedule, it's very tricky. So I am planning I get off the air at six a.m. So by the way, I give you permission to burp all throughout the stadium tomorrow. Don't worry, you won't get bad burping in the stadium is allowed. OK, good to know.

I wasn't sure if it's a lifetime ban of the burping or not. So I'm going to try to wake up around one, probably eat something then. And then it's like I have a big breakfast. Then I'm kind of screwed because either you like to leave around three o'clock. So I'm not going to eat like a lunch two hours after you eat a big breakfast. I'm a little nervous tomorrow about how I'm going to go about trying to, you know, again, definitely having a few drinks without a doubt. That's first and foremost.

But how to also incorporate food there as well. It's gonna be a little tricky tomorrow. So someone that did that weekend overnight shift for two years and I did Friday into Saturday, Saturday into Sunday. So I was even more of a zombie than you are just doing it one night. But you do work five days a week.

I will say this. I feel like during the day because you never know how long you're going to sleep coming off that shift. But I do think during the day you get hungry a lot, a lot more in greater frequency just because I'm not someone that likes to eat when I'm on the air.

I try to avoid it. And when you're up that late at night, it's like kind of tricky when you decide to actually eat. So I think knowing that you don't have anything to do on Sunday other than celebrate Easter, but I'm talking about from a work commitment standpoint, I could see Hickey having a fat burger at the ballpark tomorrow or a hot dog or a sausage. I think you are eating at the ballpark. Well, I'd love a Shake Shack burger. The only issue is it takes before the pitch clock, it would take legitimately two innings.

So now it's got to be I mean, maybe half the game could be missing. There's better options in center field than the Shake Shack burger. I'm a sucker. I'm a sucker for the Shake Shack. Have you had the Pat LaFrieda cheesesteak, the filet mignon cheesesteak? It's delicious. It's delicious. And I think the best thing at the stadium right now is the chicken bucket in center field. You get the General Tso's chicken bucket and they give you they give you like french fries and they give you tater tots as well. It is tremendous.

It's a lot of food, though, like I will even me. I will share that with people at the stadium. You know, we got to hit up both of us. Peter Schwartz. The man, because he was there at the stadium doing the taste testing, he's got to give us the ins and outs of what food is new.

I'm sorry. Peter Schwartz's palate is disgraceful. I think I might book him on my show tonight. I have never seen someone post worse looking food than Peter Schwartz. And you know what? It's disgraceful that he went to that taste testing and he brought a doggy bag to bring food home.

That's a disgrace. Hey, by the way, I made that joke that you could burp at the stadium. I have a gift for you. Can you get a gift? Yeah.

Can you do me a favor? I put it in the general. It's labeled like Ryan Hickey special clip. And I told you, don't listen to it. So there's this whole big thing on CBS Sports Radio this week where last weekend, Hickey burped on the air. So just in case if you burp again tonight and D.A.

and Mraz like wanted you suspended. I said, we're not going to suspend you from this show. I actually made a rejoined for you in case if Belch Take Hickey pops up again this evening.

It's the Belch Take Hickey show. Sorry about that. I think it's one of my apologies. That was a burp that slipped out. My bad laugh at the hot takes. But beware of the burps with Ryan Hot Take Hickey only on CBS Sports Radio.

My bad. You're going to use that tonight. Paul Turner, maybe the busiest man in this company, had time to record that. Yeah, very quickly. I asked him this morning, impromptu was working out and I go, we could have some fun. Sent a little note off within 30 minutes.

Got all the liners back. He was too excited to record that. Oh, he was way too excited to record that. No, but not I would not be using that. You have no fun, no fun, no fun whatsoever. Everyone's having fun with this. David Maranick, our boss, is saying we should have extended court. Yeah. Yeah.

What's to bring this to the high courts? You know, D.A. having fun with it. Maranick's having fun with it. I'm having fun with it. Everyone behind the scenes having fun with it.

And here you are just being a curmudgeon. Can't have any fun. Listen, I'm all for fun.

I just, you know, I'd appreciate the fun of someone else's experience. I'm not going to lie about that. Don't burp on the air or know how to turn off your microphone. I'm going to try to.

Well, I hope hopefully tonight I'm a lot better at it. Now, also, I will say this. I thought you were intentionally burping a lot around the office. I have never heard you burp as much as you burp today before the show.

Like I heard three or four burps in the 30 minutes that I was here before the start of the show. Told you it's a problem. Yeah.

Big time problem. All right. Let's update you on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. Let's get to the news brief. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports.

Sam Bennett, the amateur. He was able to complete the first two rounds of the Masters. Not everyone was, unfortunately, because of rain. So they will resume this coming up tomorrow at 8 a.m. And also a tree falling down, too. And I don't know how anyone did not get hurt, which is good news to have.

But I was surprised when I read that that no one got hurt from the tree falling down. But Sam Bennett opens it up with two sixty eights. He's eight under par and he's in third place right now. Jon Rahm in second, nine under, but still has to complete his second round. And Brooks Koepka threw two rounds, his twelve under par.

He was five under today. Let's hear the amateur Sam Bennett on why the massive stage of the Masters hasn't rattled him at all. I've created confidence by putting myself in the right situations. Playing the weekend at the U.S. Open, you know, being really nervous at the Valero, my first PGA Series start, and, you know, not playing well.

Same at Bay Hill. So everything I've done in my golf career with playing in these big tournaments has led me to be able to succeed, you know, here this week and leading forward. Let's hear one more from Sam Bennett and his expectations heading into this week.

Everybody who was coming into the week was, yeah, I hope you get low A.M. That's pretty much all they're saying. So, you know, I just wanted to put two good rounds up. I knew my good golf was good enough to compete out here.

And, you know, I found myself in a situation that, you know, low A.M. is kind of out of this equation and I got a golf term and I can go out and win. Just remarkable heading into the weekend. Has a legitimate shot to win this thing when you open it up 68-68. Let's go to Brooks Koepka, the outright leader so far, twelve under.

Brooks Koepka says his game is back to peak level. The feeling is probably pretty similar. I feel really good. I like the way I'm swinging the golf club. I like the way I'm putting it. I like the way I'm chipping it. Driving it. Iron plays solid.

It feels really similar. Now, Hickey, let me ask you this. You have one more clip here. Kevin Durant on if he's proud that the Suns are undefeated in games he's played in. I just want to ask you.

That sounds like a dumb question. Is this salty or not salty? Is this annoyed Kevin Durant or did he actually give, like, a serious answer here? No, he gave a serious answer.

Okay. He's no reason to be salty. He's away from Kyrie. He's out of Brooklyn.

Isn't that good? Well, I do find it funny not to get sidetracked here, that you brought that up because we both talked about this for a while, how KD just didn't have the ponies to tell Kyrie that we need to move on. He kept on making it out to be that he still wanted Kyrie on the Brooklyn Nets.

Biggest lie that is almost like trying to convince himself that it's the truth when it was not. Yeah. It's almost like trying to say that you accidentally burped last week or you trying to make the case, if Anthony Richardson could do X, Y, and Z, he'll be the best quarterback in the NFL. It's just like as stupid as that. That is what it is.

So let's hear Kevin Durant, who the Suns are 8-0 when he's in the lineup, and if he's proud that the Suns are undefeated in games he's played in. We played a lot of couple of teams that wasn't full strength. I don't make too much of it.

There's a whole new season about to start. So, you know, what we're doing right now is cool record-wise, but we want to keep building good habits and stay healthy. I think it was like a little mixture of both. KD doesn't want to get too ahead of himself. And I don't know, like if you're asked, are you proud of being undefeated when you're in the starting lineup and when you're playing for the Suns? I just feel like that's a, you know what the answer to that question is.

That seems like you're trying to get some TV stand-up sound on tape or something like that for a stand-up that you're doing, or you're looking for a specific quote in an article. That's what it sounds like to me, Hickey. I mean, in a way, it's a fair question just because he's been in and out of the lineup. You're a new player on a new team, and it's like you're undefeated. Now, I do respect the fact that he's pointed out that some teams have rested their stars, like the Nuggets last night, sitting everybody. So some of these wins are a little easier to get maybe than what the schedule should have said.

Or the Mavericks with Lucas saying that he's going to play until his team's eliminated, and then they're sitting five guys out, and now he's playing one quarter tonight, and then they're going to bench him. He doesn't have a big streak. He's got to continue. But it's like eight games? Eight games in a row he's played in. Give me a break.

Make it nine tonight. He's no Lou Gehrig or Cal Ripken Jr. Watch out, Cal. The Iron Man is here. He's heavily leaning towards CJ Stroud. CJ Stroud did well at the combine.

He did well at the protein. I'm told that the interviews with CJ Stroud, he's knocked them out of the park, and he's very genuine. He's been very Fort Wright that he's a likable guy. I'm told that everybody in the building is heavily leaning, if not checked off the box, on CJ Stroud. So that was in response to when WFNZ asked if Anthony Richardson has a chance to be the top guy on the draft board for Carolina. Now Pauline went on to say, I'm told that Frank Reich, if he had it his way, would go with Anthony Richardson because of the upside, because of what Anthony Richardson could be two or three years down the road. It's just a matter of how much of a fight is Frank Reich going to put up in that war room to say, hey, listen, I want Anthony Richardson. I think right now there's probably less than a 20 percent chance it is Anthony Richardson, and all signs are pointing towards CJ Stroud. So that was the entire response.

Here's what I don't get, Hickey. Chris Mortensen yesterday, once again, he was leading the Bryce Young charge, right? That's what he's been told? And he said what everyone in the building loves Bryce Young, basically the same report, but take out CJ Stroud's name, insert Bryce Young's name.

So that's what Mort said. For pretty much ever since you had the move up to one, the majority of the conversation has been, or the first report we saw was Joe Person, who said the intention is to go trade up to draft CJ Stroud. And now you have Tony Pauline, who goes to the combine, right?

He covers the draft, he does all that, all these mock drafts and everything Pro Football Network's saying. If it was up to only Frank, he would be on board with drafting Anthony Richardson. Now he likes CJ Stroud, but pretty much everyone in that organization prefers CJ Stroud right now. So that's why it's going to be CJ Stroud. And he doesn't think Frank Reich is going to put up much of a fight. Now, you also had Schefter, who we all know how much his name has so much clout in NFL circles. Schefter, a few weeks ago, was like the first one to actually say, no, it's not going to be Stroud. He expects it to be Bryce Young.

Can we just admit something here, Hickey? No one has a clue what they're talking about right now. That is what I hate about draft season. It's too long where people hear too many things and either they're being lied to, the information they're getting, their sources are not that reliable, that in tune and plugged in. Whatever it is, it is frustrating because, like I said, you can hear three different reports in the span of a week.

This is definitely the guy. And we're still, unfortunately, three weeks away, basically, from the draft. So there's still a lot more time to go. And Pauline said this twice on WFNZ, because the question was, what are the chances that Anthony Richardson is going to be on top of the board? And he said, if it's up to Frank Reich, yes. And then later on in that answer said, I'm told that Frank Reich, if he had it his way, would go with Anthony Richardson because of the upside. What is up with people that either rocked the Indianapolis Colts and repped the Indianapolis Colts or used to, all of a sudden drinking everything about the upside of Anthony Richardson?

You did it earlier. Frank Reich is now doing so as well. It's just amazing to me.

And this is the dumbest part about the NFL draft process. We have seen Bryce Young excel at the highest level in college football for the last two years. We've seen C.J.

Stroud have two really good seasons as well. And Anthony Richardson, outside of week one up against Utah, which it was a great performance, didn't really have that many moments. And now, just because of the combine and a pro day, people are going to go, oh, well, if he could get accuracy, we know how much he could run. If he could just develop that accuracy, he's going to be tremendous. He's going to be this. He's going to be that. Like, I just don't get it.

I get it. Not everyone is fully developed and how they're going to be as a pro when they get drafted. And not everyone is NFL ready. But if you go to Indiana, Hickey, they're not waiting two years to put Anthony Richardson on the field.

They're not. There's no way that they're going to wait two years to put Anthony Richardson on this field. And I know Scott Federer has been there before.

Frank Reich, it's a new regime. But you got to remember these fans. These fans in Carolina just saw Teddy Bridgewater. Then after that, they saw Sam Donald.

Then after that, they saw Baker Mayfield. If you think that you could go draft Anthony Richardson and Andy Dalton is going to hold people off for two years or even just a year, I don't think that's realistic. And I know Matt Corral is also on the roster as well.

We'll see where he's at from a recovery standpoint with his injury from last year. But the moment when Andy Dalton throws an interception, you know who those fans are going to be clamoring for? And who they're going to be calling for? It's going to be Anthony Richardson.

I don't think Richardson is going to be the pick for many reasons. And even Pauline said it will end up being CJ Stroud. But CJ Stroud could go there right away and play. If they want to do this idiotic thing that the Steelers did where you have Mitch Trubusky there and then you just delay Kenny Pickett by three or four games.

By the way, look how well that looked for Pittsburgh. The first mistake Trubisky makes, those fans are calling for Kenny. And it'll be the same thing for Andy Dalton because Andy Dalton used to be a good quarterback.

Now, he's not a starting quarterback for an entire NFL season. And you go with the guy that has proved it more in college, and that's Young and Stroud over Richardson for many reasons. But even if you want to tell me it's the upside of Richardson, this and that, good luck holding off Panthers fans for a year or two with Frank Reich. I just don't see how Anthony Richardson would make sense for the Carolina Panthers, Icky.

Mainly because of that and for other reasons. Well, I'm with you with Stroud and Young for sure, but here's what I'll say, I guess, for Frank Reich and for Scott Fitterer. Their duty, their actual goal is not to placate the fans. Their goal is to get the best quarterback they think that could take them to the highest heights possible. If Anthony Richardson, let's just say pans out, and forget it'll be the best quarterback in the NFL, is their bedrock quarterback for the next ten years and they win a Super Bowl with Anthony Richardson, let's just say, the fans are not going to care and it shouldn't have mattered that he had to sit for a year or two and they had to suffer through Andy Dalton. But they're not going to be able to hold off the fan base for two years. Well, if you're convicted in your plan, then you eat the booze, you go through your process, that's part of understanding. If you take Anthony Richardson number one, like you said, you're going to hear a big push from the fans to play their guy right away.

You have to be strong in your conviction of, we're doing whatever it takes. Maybe they don't even think they have to sit him. Maybe they think he could start right away and they'll work through their growing pains. I don't know.

But if their plan is we're going to sit him one year, then the fan outrage shouldn't impact you. Well, let me ask you this. How much do you believe, Pauline, that if it's up to Reich, he would take Richardson? How much do you believe that? Because I think why we're getting so much, so many differentiating reports, Tiki, I think it's for many reasons. One, not many people know what they're talking about to begin with. Two, I also think it's because there's clearly a disagreement somewhere in that Panthers organization. Where originally you heard David Tepper likes Bryce Young, and then it was Frank Reich likes CJ Stroud, and we don't know who Scott Fitterer likes. Like maybe there's a case where Scott Fitterer really likes CJ Stroud, David Tepper really likes Bryce Young. We know who McCown likes.

That's clear. He likes CJ Stroud. He was like, oh, I like that dude.

That's the way that he looked at him. And then maybe it is Frank Reich who likes Anthony Richardson. And ultimately, if that's the case, it's going to be like, then who's the guy that you like the second best? If you're all disagreeing in that room, where let's say Tepper says Young, and let's say Scott Fitterer says CJ Stroud, and then you have Frank Reich that says Anthony Richardson. Well, I would think David Tepper's second answer would be CJ Stroud. Then it kind of gets canceled out because I would assume Scott Fitterer's answer, if he likes CJ Stroud the most, then it would be Bryce Young too. And then if you're Frank Reich, maybe his second answer, if Richardson is one, is going to determine who they draft here.

And according to this Pauline report, he's okay with drafting CJ Stroud. It's like, maybe that's just me spitballing and making some crazy theory. But I really do feel like there's probably a lot of disagreement in that room, which is fine, with how many different names we get told week by week. It's Stroud, it's Young, now it's Richardson. Like, what the heck is going on out here? I mean, it makes sense in a standpoint of, again, when you have a draft class that, even though me and you both believe in Bryce Young, there's questions, whatever.

There's no Trevor Lawrence or Andrew Luck where it's, without a doubt, this is the guy, Joe Burrow, let's move on. Everyone has their preference, and now it's who's going to either win out and be the biggest voice in the room? Who could do the best-sell job? Or, like you said, can you all kind of somehow come to, I guess, a compromise? Maybe be the best word in, you know.

That's what I'm saying. I think you go to your number two option. First pick here, second pick here, okay, we'll settle, and we'll all agree that CJ Stroud could work, or Bryce Young could work, something like that. Well, it wouldn't surprise me if Frank Reich likes Anthony Richardson, because some of his quarterback selection is horrendous when you go back to him wanting Carson Wentz with the Indianapolis Colts to try to save his job.

So, maybe it's true that Frank Reich would want Anthony Richardson. Frank could change very quickly in Carolina, and your name is very easy. Fire, Frank! Fire, Frank!

Changes very, very, very quickly. Right now, who's the pick? Who will be the pick? CJ Stroud. I still think more and more by the day that it's going to be CJ Stroud as well. Onside to offside, next.