today the app grows got to tip their cap to you, John Schneider. Big bad Chad Green locking it down at the end Trevor Richards. Keep increasing that trade value. Let's not get distracted about the ultimate goal of this thing. And Nate Pearson looking nasty again. Of course, a big bomb from George Springer. We certainly like that. I'm feeling good this morning, Daniella. How are you, buddy? I'm doing OK. Yeah, they're all right. Nasty Nate action last night. Like that. God, I do like it. You know, he's like the most polarizing, confounding player on this roster because you don't know what you're going to get on any given day. Some I think he's a guy that is incredibly allergic to leverage. And then he does that last night. And you're just like, God, what a science experiment this 24 guy is. Yeah, he really is. I mean, let's just start there. I mean, Pearson's such an odd one, right? And it's, I don't think we're ever going to get to this point with with Vlad and Bo because, I mean, just quite frankly, there's been more there, there in the majors. But we've kind of come out the other side of it with Nate Pearson, right? Forever. He was the top prospect guy. And was he the guy you should move to get something that's going to help you now? And then all of a sudden, oh, you start to have your little dalliance with him, the health stuff always coming. And now we just got to a point with Nate Pearson where, I don't know, maybe there's some people out there still holding like a little bit of stock just in case. But I think everyone has mostly understood what this is now. It's that it's a guy who in at the very best versions of himself can be great can give you multiple innings. Boy, does that sound like something you'd like in a big league bullpen. But we also now, you know, even the yesterday we did with Uriel Rodriguez where he can unlock that. What does it there's no, what does it mean for Nate Pearson? It means that do that again next time we ask you and we could just kind of enjoy it without it being a referendum on what does this mean for one of the pillars of the front? No, it was just great night for Nate Pearson again, obviously, plenty of things to take about out of that game. But that was the thing I was thinking about watching him last night is just what it's like to see a guy when you're finally on the other side of all these great debates about a player. Yeah, you know, so I was even as recently as Friday, I was at the ball game against the Yankees where the J score some runs, which has become more of a common theme for them as of late. And that's that's that's the best part of all this. Yep. They win a game seven, six. Now, the offense disappeared for five innings. That being said, it is fun. When you score runs, offense, guess what it does. It brings some electricity and energy into a building. I think you're going to say that's contagious. Well, it is that that is also true when a couple guys get going and then it sort of starts to seep into other other bats in your lineup. But when it comes to Pearson, in particular, I felt, for example, on Friday, he pitches against the Yankees. It goes horribly in that instance. And I just I left the ballpark that night and basically said to myself and Kevin Barker ends up echoing my sentiment on Jay's talk afterwards. I think we've seen enough and we kind of know what he is. Yeah. And I'm like, yeah, I think that encapsulates how I feel about him. And then sure enough, here he comes out last night, big spot. They need a guy to bridge the gap to their leverage relievers and he does a terrific job in a two run ball game. And you're now you're asking the question of like, OK, so what is this guy? I think we still don't have a definitive answer. If anything, it's clear that he is one way or the other, regardless of how he performs, he's going to be in the bullpen the rest of the way this season because they need those arms, they need guys to eat innings and occupy innings. And I think what you're trying to figure out is, OK, who is he? Who is he? And I feel like we have a decent understanding of what works and what doesn't for him when he cannot locate his fastball. He is a I don't want to say terrible. He's a below average major league relief, like the fastball plays. It's 99. But if he ain't hit spot, guess what? They ain't going to swing at it. And your secondary stuff is not as threatening when you're not able to locate the fastball. And teams know, OK, this guy has no confidence in that pitch. He we're just going to sit off speed. And that's where he gets in trouble. So last night, everything was working and looks great. My question is, God, can you just do it a little bit more consistent? Yeah, do it a little bit more consistently. And you're going to have more more often than not, your odies are going to look like last night compared to what we saw on Friday against the Yankees or another game I attended where he was brought in against the Orioles and he got shelled. Yeah, I'm thinking, come on, just give us a little bit more consistency here. Yeah, I think that this is that's why he is who he is at this point in his career, right? If he was giving you more consistency, we wouldn't be talking about him in this guy that bridges you to leverage. He's a guy that gives you leverage. I just think this is what you see. I mean, if we're going to do the inverse and talk about him like he's a hitter, he's a guy will give you a couple knocks in the game and it'll go a week or so without without giving you much. And that's again, that's why he occupies the spot he does on the roster. Somebody else who occupies a big spot on the roster on the balance sheet as well. George Springer. Hey, good for him, man. He's hit 500. Yeah, seven game hit streak, another big bomb last night. Are we sure what George Springer is because I thought I was sure and I still think I'm sure. But if you kind of change your opinion a little bit with this hot streak, I'm just happy for him. I've got to be honest, I'm happy for him because this guy, you know, rightfully so when you're making $25 million a season, there are expectations that come with that. And he has obviously underperformed and not just this year, but last year as well in what was his healthiest season as a Blue Jay, he put up career worst numbers across the board in various statistical categories, including power and production overall. So I just, I'm happy to see him sort of tap into at least some semblance of the player that he used to be and be a threat. That is the key there. We went the first two plus months of the season without this guy being a threat. And it's not just the last seven games in which he's got four homers, but the approach is better and you're seeing him actually start to drive the ball and turn on pitches and to the pull side, which is so important. So if you can get anything from him offensively and I don't mean to not, not, I don't mean that in the sense of like, okay, give us a one for four outing, George, but the occasional bit of pop in your line. That's it. With the defense that he provides in right field, because he he still plays a really quality right field defensively. You're going to live with that. The reality is here, Gunnar, when it comes to Springer, I don't feel like there's an obvious solution. I think the reality is he's probably stuck on your roster. Nobody's going to take on that contract. Nobody's going to be in the mark. Unless he goes on some historic tear over the next, what, four weeks where he's just doing this, hitting 500 and hitting homers every two, three days. Then at that point, maybe you have a team that says, Oh, you know what, we can sort of close our eyes and talk ourselves in a George Springer. Say for that, he's here and you got to deal with that. Yeah, enjoy the ride while it's here. You're going to have some. This is, you know, Ben and I talked about this of what can he be as a baseball player. And I think the idea of, you know, just a consistency, it's always such a thing in any sport. But in baseball, you feel it the most just because it's an everyday thing is that I don't think George Springer is going to be consistently this. But I do still think he is capable of two week runs that look something like this. I don't think he's going to hit 500 for two weeks at any given time. I'm going to go ahead and call my shot on that one. But I think that this what you're going to see, you're going to see you guys going to run into one. Run into a couple in a short span. You feel good about yourself. Confidence is a real thing. And that only begets you playing better. And then, guess what? Eventually, hits are going to dry up a little bit. And then confidence probably goes down. Sure. And we're having another conversation. I was somebody used to clamor and to get them out of the lead off spot earlier in the year. I think we all were. Do they consider changing things or is it working so well? You have to keep them there because we've seen this before with bow, right? Where, hey, oh, bow, you're not performing into the seven hole. And I don't know what it is about the seven spot in this lineup that seems to be magic and cures all the aisles. It's like the Marley's to Samsonov. It's a seven spot for Jay's hitters. But it do you at all have a conversation about moving them up. I mean, they've kind of incrementally bumped them up to six even now. What would you do with them? Just ask IKF because that's where he that precipitated him going on a historic 13 game hitting show now. Like I said yesterday, never thought I'd be so bitterly disappointed to not have IKF in a lineup. It is unfortunate because he's been red on at the plate regarding Springer. I think you just kind of leave him. I feel like this is a guy at the stage of his career. If you can get this okay and you just laid it out perfectly, these occasional stretches where he seems to tap into the old George Springer where he's providing power. He's being disruptive. He's a threat consistently at the plate. That's the guy I am comfortable having hit in the bottom third of my lineup. Even if it's in the five hole occasionally, that's fine. That's fine. I don't need to see him hit lead off. And I actually think the way that and this this ties in perfectly because one of the thoughts I had yesterday in just watching the game and seeing how the lineup is currently constructed on a daily basis. Boba Shed is hitting lead off for the time being. I think the way the lineup is constructed is very, very instructive as to what they think of the team. I say that in this sense. Bo's hitting lead off for a reason. Spencer Horowitz, they consider to be a more consistent on base threat than Boba Shed. That's why he's hitting second compared to Boba Shed. So the fact Bo's hitting lead off, I don't read anything into that per se. In fact, I think it's more of an indictment on Bo that he's hitting lead off as opposed to hitting second or cleanup. It's actually works for him because the traditional sort of rule of thumb is your best, most complete hitter bats second to set the table for the guys that are coming behind him. So you have Horowitz who they deem to be a better, more consistent threat of getting on base or Vlad than Bo who is supposed to be your most consistent, balanced hitter. And I think Springer's in the right spot where he is in the, you know, towards the middle third of the lineup, so to speak. I think that is exactly where he needs to be. And if you can get these stretches here and there where he's able to tap into that power, you're happy and you'll take it. Yeah, I think you certainly would do that. I do think at a certain point in time, if Pachek continues to look like this, you do have to consider somebody else going up top, if not him. And I suppose you don't want to, you know, wreck a good thing with Springer, but I do think at a certain point in time, like, you've got him right. Go put him back in the spot. He feels confident and then maybe he can continue that in the lead off spot. That's how that's how I think you at some point have to do it. But I also think they're trying the who's batting lead off has very little to do with George Springer to your point. It's about Pachet and I think they want to, they've tried the demotion thing with him this year. It hasn't worked. I don't know why they wouldn't go back to it, though, quite quite frankly. I mean, you'd want to try it again. And I don't say that as a like, go ruffle his feathers thing, but she understands this. Okay, he is Mr. Serious winner guy. If anyone's going to understand, I'm not performing, I get dropped in the lineup. You would think it would be him. So I think you could do that. The other, the problem with this team and I mean, we've spent so many times, so much time in the past, Vlad and Beau, Vlad and Beau. The problem with this team this year is Beau quite, quite frankly, like you want more of Vlad, you want the pop. We talked about George Springer. Certainly he hasn't lived up to his financial commitment that the team has made to him. But when this team is put together, okay, every team in every sport, when they put their, when they're sitting there in the off season, they have their baseline of expectations. And depending on how important the player is, the baseline is more important or less important to the way they put that team together. You can argue outside of, you know, expecting the entirety of the rotation to be good. And, you know, maybe unfair to ask them to be as good as they've been. There was nothing that Jayce could have banked on more coming into the season than Bobashette being Bobashette offensively and him just going in the tank in this way has just completely nuked any possibility of this team being a competent offense. You see Horowitz, he's coming, he's hitting, it's giving them some hope, some life in that position. Vlad again has, I don't know, like what is certainly not exceeding expectations but has had a better year than a lot of people. >> It almost looks like Olvah. >> I think a lot of people would have expected. So you're sitting there going, okay, you have the baseline there. George Springer, I think everyone expected some decline, maybe not quite like this. But everything else has to a certain extent kind of gone as could have been expected with this offense. Bo is the one outlier in there. And that is why it just continues to be baffling that he's performing this. >> 1,000 a percent agree. And I've had this opinion for a while. People talk about, well, and especially more on a national scale when you hear from national insiders or reporters that kind of like peek in on the J's from time to time. There's this perception that they've underperformed. I would argue they haven't underperformed. This is kind of what they are, man. >> Yeah. >> Mike, I don't know, Gunner, if that's just me being overly negative and pessimistic. But I do with the only guy I would point to and say, yes, unequivocally he has vastly underperformed. Is Boba? >> You know what, there's one other guy I'm thinking of in this regard. >> Okay. >> Because we all dumped on him too much last year. >> Sure. >> And then now we gave him too much praise at the beginning of this year. But the dumping is back. It's all to Varsho. This guy's hitting 195 right now. He has 674 OPS. And look, he's not here to have a high average, but he is here to give you the pop. That's kind of dried up as well. >> Yep. >> He's obviously still doing all the surplus defensive stuff. But I will say, if we were interviewing Ross Atkins about this, and I mean, he wouldn't go out of his way to hammer of Daltar Varsho of all people. Let's be honest. But I think that is one that they would point to and say, well, hold on, that hasn't exactly gone to the baseline either. And that is a really peak piece of the puzzle. >> That's a great point. I just going in to the regular season, coming out of spring training. Another guy I had relatively high hopes for in terms of rebounding was Alejandro Kirk. And he's another, you talk about Dalton Varsho hitting below the Mendoza line. Boy over Kirk. Kirk, he's had an awful season objectively. Just brutal. He's got two homers. He's hitting below 200. Like that's, that's, doesn't matter what you're doing defensively at the catcher position, you better be able to hit a little bit, a little bit, man. So that's disappointing. But when I looked at the roster coming into opening day this year, and now it has changed a fair bit. There are a lot of different pieces and names that we've seen come up from Buffalo and Factor and prominently on a regular basis for this team. But what names scare you other than Bachete and Guerrero? And we had more questions as you put it about Guerrero than Bachete. That being said, I still felt like if we looked at it on paper and we said realistically, what does if we read off the names? What is this roster capable of? It's probably right about what they've done. You know, like, so the idea that we say, oh my goodness, this has been a drastic disappointment. And they've underperformed. No, I think it's been disappointing because of the amount of resources they've invested to get this product. But not because they've quote unquote underperformed with this product. There's a difference there. And with Bachete in particular, I obviously circle him as the chief among all these guys as the guy you least expected to struggle that is now in a serious, serious slump. He's three for 20 over his last five games. And here's the big thing. I look at often when I try to figure out or decipher as an uneducated baseball mind. Hey, why are guys struggling? Why are hitters struggling? I look at how are they hitting fastballs? And with Bo in particular, this is a very interesting exercise because he's always been a really, really good, not good actually. Always a consistently great fastball hitter. This year he's hitting 241 on the fastball with just one home run and a three 10th slugging percentage. In his career gunner, he is a 309 fastball hitter. Last year, he had 328 on the heater. That tells you all you need to know right there. He's not taking advantage of pitches he would typically do damage on. And I think that is now then spiraling into everything else. So if you're not hitting the heater, what leads you to believe you're going to be able to take advantage of off speed pitches all the time. It's just not going to happen. Yeah, I mean, this, the, I mean, depending on your pick your poison right, it's the beauty or the peril of baseball at times. But it's like, there's a number for everything. You go look at it. I just pull up Bo's baseball Bachete, or sorry, his baseball Bachete. Yeah, no, his baseball savant page and just blue all over. Okay. His badgerun value way down, base running value way down, fielding. Guess what? It used to be a little red. Not not so much anymore. The thing I'm looking at for him is the chase rate, right? This was a guy who, you know, we all made our bow and two jokes and whatever. But then just when he did the damage on the pitch when he eventually got it or even if it wasn't his pitch, you'd still find a way to do that. You have to minimize chasing to get something to hit. This is all the conversations we've had about Vlad as well. And, you know, it's not to say that that Bo is ever going to be a guy who is 99th percentile and chase rate or anything like that. You want him to if you're a hitter that's going to do some damage, eventually you have to go out and get a pitch. So I don't have a problem with him kind of chasing the odd pitch here or there. But that is a massive, massive drop from where he was. I mean, even just last year, you know, he was a 10% a little higher than that 14. Like it has got lower and like he's dropped percentiles every year in that stat specifically. And that's just not something you you want from the player there. So I think the beshept thing of it all is going to be probably the biggest kind of albatross for this back half of the season. I think everybody we've it's been a while, but we've done this before. We've seen a death march for a bad baseball team, but we haven't seen it with guys that are supposed to be performing, you know, like Spencer Horwitz can come up. He can be as good as he wants. He can be as bad as he wants. It's not really going to matter. So I'm going to move the needle and good on him for performing the way he has quite frankly. But it's going to be about those guys and they just wonder what that does to the tenor of the conversation around the team. Because I think it's totally different. If Bo and Vlad are pulling their weight and we're frustrated that Justin Turner's old or George Springer isn't hitting or whatever. Whatever the other myriad of things to hold this team back are. We are not used to it being that guy specifically. And then this is kind of something we touched on at the end of the yesterday show. The idea of going into this off season that are, you know, to Ben's point, BNS brought it up with this yesterday. They don't have to make up their mind. They could go into the walk here think they could. I don't think it'd be the most prudent decision they make. And then how do you trade a guy coming off his worst season? How do you, if you're a player, how do you talk extension coming off your worst season? So I think that's the thing is just at a time when we were walking towards a big fork in the road for for this team. Quite frankly, this makes it an even more kind of dangerous one. Bo struggling in 2024 has done zero favors to the Toronto Blue Jays or to him individually as a player because this puts him in a position where the most realistic outcome heading into 2025 is that he plays out the remainder of his contract on this existing deal. The Jays are unable to even entertain trade opportunities for him because his value is diminished. He's a diminished asset at this point. And that's and that's a really, really difficult position to be in. That's why even if even if we didn't feel or we don't feel like him and Vlad are both fixtures here in Toronto for the long haul, you still want to see them perform well because it's in the best interest of the team to have those guys play well in order to maximize their value as trade chips, whether that's at this deadline or in the off season. And Vlad is doing his part in sort of validating okay or reinforcing some of the some of the belief that he is this caliber of player that he truly is a guy that has significant offensive upside. He's going to have his years where he hits for a ton of power. He might have seasons where he doesn't but his baseline is pretty safe. Both historically always met that criteria except for this year and the most important year of his contract where they need to make decisions. But how do you entertain discussions whether it's about extending him or trading him when he's having a career work season? It just it doesn't bode well for anybody involved. Yeah you know who it bodes well for is the myriad of teams that would come picking at the carcass of the Toronto Blue Jays this off season going you got it's like the end of the day of a garage sale. It's like you want nothing for it or something they're going to probably just hang on to Boba Shedd I think thanks is what they're probably going to have to do. And I think that that is I mean you know you should not make decisions especially like I'm not I'm not beyond the 26th guy on the roster being like a PR decision. Okay like I'm we'll get into PR decisions later with Bronnie James in the hour. Okay like I'm not I'm not beyond that you should not be making this big of decisions based on like what the fan base thinks or anything along those lines but it's just you know I'm having so many leaf parallels of like was last year the year to make your move and you're going to walk into this one and all of a sudden it's everybody's walkier and it's just we've seen this movie so many times before regarding the hockey club it's just going to be it's it's kind of scary to see it playing out in a different way and I think the I think the difference is is that you know not to say this team isn't going to spend money I think they've proven they're willing to spend money but you just had a year where you spend a ton of money and you know like well it's the bottom line looks like but from my team's success point you're not going to have anything to show for this the team that's spending into the luxury tax and you're not going to have anything to show for it what proof of concept is that to go hand even let's say the two sides could come together on a number which they won't be able to because of the way this year's gone let's say like why is the front office dying to rush back to to sign up this core like again we've just we've seen this movie in this town there like the Raptors just said no thanks we don't want to sign up for a core that does nothing for us the Leafs have been I don't know they've been playing musical chairs with their core and trading them and not trading them but it's a conversation we had and for the Blue Jays you know this is the thing that I think is really kind of affecting Toronto sports right now is it's just a vicious cycle of everything not really hitting for any of the teams and then you see the same problems they're not like what's the saying it's like history doesn't always repeat itself but it often rhymes and that's what you're seeing with all these Toronto sports teams now it's like ah this feels similar I don't like this and the Blue Jays are I don't want to call them a victim of it because they're certainly part of the perpetrators of it but they're also a victim of the lack of success and the frustration that's surrounding the other two teams now as well you know I do recall a couple years ago having this conversation as it relates to the core of each of the main three Toronto sports teams the Raptors the Leafs and the Blue Jays and and the discussion of okay if you had to think about it long term over the next five ten years you had to select one court to sort of ride or die with and say I will I will commit myself to this nucleus of players going forward I thought there was a strong conversation to be had between the Leafs and the Blue Jays that is clearly completely gone out the window in in a 24 month span it's remarkable think that and think of how we feel about the Leafs exactly right then like how how how crazy it is that in the span of 24 months that conversation has flipped so drastically timing is everything like timing is everything in life in sports and we've seen it it's very difficult when you miss out on the ideal window to still cash in in the best manner possible now the Raptors might be in the exception to this rule because boy oh boy have they ever preached patience to the end degree and yet it still feels like they're in a decent spot despite yeah despite letting guys walk and get and and putting some of their marquee players in positions where they entered walk years routinely still feels like they got in the kind of got away with that but if you're the Blue Jays and in baseball in particular you you rather trade a guy one year too soon than one year too late because you're done you're not going to get the commensurate value that you're looking for the tricky thing here is now you're in so deep with a player like Bo I think you're you're stuck you're riding it out you have no choice at this point but to see it all the way through yeah I think that's that's very much the spot they've arrived in and you know it's interesting I wasn't I wasn't planning on going here today but we just like find ourselves talking about this it's interesting you're right that the Raptors are kind of in that spot but it is also and you know like diehards obviously feel differently about this I mean not as a monolith but I think there's a debate to be had but the NBA is the sport that I think most casual see the least point of being in that well they're okay spot right like I mean people people are cool like no one's going to be happy about it in the moment yeah but people would love to go love to have a 86 win team they could go drink beers in the sun and sit there and they cheer for them and playoffs are in the mix and like that's a part of the baseball experience right hockey it's like we've been through this a million times before it's like these group it's going to frustrate you but we also remember the Sahara Desert before they came here so we're not going to get too greedy but but I do feel like with casuals they go oh you're just mad to lose the play in now or to yeah and big time not wrong but it is funny that it's if the if the Blue Jays were in the spot and guess what they were two years ago in the spot where the Raptors core was we'd all be saying this is fine building steps hey let's go get an arm at the deadline let's add a bat and you'd be totally fine with that because it's part of the building they built they built they built it should be there should be a little bit more of a finished process there's got to pay off at some point totally and and I think the key is you there's proof of concept of in in sports like the NHL and in major league baseball in those leagues teams that sneak in and do go and win yeah like that happens in basketball that doesn't happen you need to be you need to be the richest of the rich the the most wealthy the most talent laid in franchise in order to be in a position to win even that he team that made the finals two years ago this is one of my biggest pet peeves love it because when I look at that team yeah they've been they look at what they invested in mm-hmm they were not a playing team well they happened to be because they kind of lolly gave their way around a regular season me but bam Jimmy like you go you go and get Jimmy for the purpose of trying to win a title not to be an eight seed playing team that's going to get eliminated around one that's just not the reality of it and then you throw in Tyler hero like and they spent money elsewhere so that that team isn't a liar to me in so many different ways that's why what they did and then the raptors following up the year after and say but look at Miami and uh we're that's why we traded for Jakob Pertil no you you're that's that's idiotic that's not the case look at who they have and look at you what you have yeah and and bigger picture in baseball and in hockey you can at least point to so many examples of teams that either go win it all that just sneak in or not even if they win it all they go on a deep run that induces a ton of pride and excitement yeah and energy and and you're absolutely right you can tolerate an eighty six win baseball team because you're thinking they might sneak in and they might do something completely different story and some other sports yeah it's always the reason why i've been like oh if you want honestly if every team in the NBA wants to be in the play internment go for it's not gonna bother me because we're gonna get a true champion at the end of it's fair if you started the major league baseball playoffs with every team in it and same goes for the stay on link up i genuinely believe anything can happen with either of those two sports whereas with basketball you're gonna likely get a true winner and i do feel that way with football as well especially just the one one-game nature of it and quarterbacks tend to kind of rise to the top all right look at that didn't know we got their whole worth interesting we're in summer topics now oh baby we are in summer topics now including brawny james really is his father's son oh god is he i'll tell you what i mean by that more we also we got to the bottom of where erin rogers was during chess minicam and there's an injury for canada at conca calf all that more fan morning show continues gutting in ten yellow on sports net five nine of the fan dive deep into toronto sports and the nfl the jd bunk is podcast subscribe and download the show on apple spotify or wherever you get your podcasts sounds like his dad god he does tell like that uh it's okay he's gonna be sick of it but guess what them some breaks kid uh we know we know how you got here part of it is basketball accurately i'm not going to completely diminish that mmm bigger part of it though last name yes bet non bloodline certainly is the thing that's happened in in any sport uh before that is the first thing that jumped out to be about that clip a billion things to say about the uh the truthfulness or lack thereof of of the words he used but god it just sounds exactly like his dad's always one of the things you've heard about LeBron is you know obviously like you know especially people like myself sit here and gosh about the basketball ability and the iq but that's the one thing that is like my favorite little anecdotes from people who have played with him or played against him or just like you hear officials talk about it is his voice it cuts through the loudest of arenas when he's barking out instructions or bellowing at a ref or whatever it is and i just i've always loved that i think it's great that like all the greats have their little thing like we'll always talk about maybe we'll talk about Brady a little later on in the segment it's like you picture him just tongue-lashing his receivers right just like the offensive line yeah unacceptable there are no mistakes to be had around him yeah and it's just one of the quirks of him and i always love that about LeBron it's like you almost it almost the stories you hear about his voice and the way it could cut through it almost feels like the old like Negro League fables about like sacrificial pages fastball it's like almost faster than a bullet train it's like well it wasn't really but it's a good way to talk about it and that was what we heard about brawn's voice and you hear it there with brawny now what are you talking about you never thought about this you never talked about it buddy i am not a professional athlete and i'm sitting there with my kid like you're going to play for the least one day okay so like i can only imagine if i played for the Leafs i'd be saying we're going to do this together how can you not have talked about it i mean there's all the videos we've seen forever of him and the younger one yep as well Bryce yeah and so i the idea you i understand your back is up and like you're walking the door he's like oh my god i made it to the NBA they're like shut up nuffo baby you did not make it to the NBA your daddy got you here i can understand the defense of this and trying to distance yourself from it but if you if that was so important to you go to some other team clutch board certainly has gotten a guy drafted in the second i am oh oh yeah without search team yeah we're pretty sure rich ball could have pulled a string and got your job somewhere else okay and i'm also i'm not you you're more informed on this to me i'm not blind to the reality that some other team might have just wanted them in the second round okay that's entirely possible but the idea to sit here and be like oh no no never never crossed our mind you both have set into microphones in our face before that you would want to do it so i everybody is like you are where you come from right and it's like nature versus nurture it's not like these things are cast in stone but obviously he looks up to his dad in a big big way why wouldn't he yeah and yeah that's just that's his dad like there's the clip that's been going around about LeBron catching himself in the lie well you know like i love to play chess i mean play chess i think about playing chess okay so that you don't love to play chess you've just thought about it before this is who he is he says stuff it's not always exactly what it means to say or he's just lying to us whatever way you want to put it but yeah it's just it's jarring how similar that is to a lot of what we heard of his dad for sure uh love the saying nature versus nurture always reminds me of wedding crashes nature versus nurture lodge and nature always wins always i love that i love that line one of my favorite lines from that movie um okay i'm gonna break it down a few ways yeah go for it the comments themselves yesterday so he contrary to what it sounds like he wasn't the only player present they did unveil the actual first round pick a guy by the name of Dalton connected yeah who's gonna wear number four so his nickname will be connect four that's very cool i like that very nice we're number three in college at Tennessee obviously that is taken and held by Anthony Davis i could assure you though if brawny won in number three he would have got number three that i can almost guarantee now to the commentary that was offered by brawny yeah who was peppered with questions more obviously than what poor Dalton connected was even presented with even though he was the first round first question for Brian James why is that guy says next to you yes he do it here yes who's this guy yeah wait what oh oh they drafted you oh wait you were 17 overall wow i thought it was the inverse um Freudian slip when he goes given he says i am grateful for what rob and jj have given me yep so that's one because clearly it adds to the narrative that you didn't earn it fully you were given this yep in a large in in by and large this was provided to you thanks to your dad also i i don't know but i kind of found a word that he called jj jj and not hey i'm very thankful for what rob and coach jj or coach yeah did like i i'm more traditionalist in that sense but buddy you just stepped foot in the league like i know tenure veteran yeah totally get it yep they're paying you 25 million you can call the guy whatever you want you can call him an expletive and you'll say thank you right but you're a rookie okay so i found that a little bit awkward too you know why that is though tell me come on he's hanging out of the house like we're hanging around together right right it's like that's all called jj jj i mean we've all seen the jokes online about it but like what's gonna call that yeah yeah two three captain i like cap cap i've just been watching showtime so maybe that's why go yeah go oh briday you're you're gonna be the first and you're you can only refer to me on the court god as go oh okay i start start making noises i need these stories i need these stories from because it's going to slip like i highly doubt i'd home he calls him LeBron or like you know calls him dad right or whatever you know like whatever you call your father like it's it pops or whatever like whatever it's going to slip at some point in the game we're gonna get it on mic and i cannot wait for the internet's reaction that day um okay then when it comes to the subject of his his line about i never thought or i didn't really consider playing with my dad that was never a priority so i actually one i think this whole conversation of LeBron wanting to play with his son and vice versa this is all dictated and generated by his father this is where i kind of feel bad for the man because he was not complicit in this in fact nobody bothered to ever ask him the question explicitly gunner of hey you know your dad has said on numerous occasions that one of his last goals as a nba basketball player is to share the court with you on the same team not just like playing with you no no no on the same team do you feel the same way nobody's ever asked that question until the combine this year when somebody finally perked up and said you know what brawny like this this has been out there nobody's bothered to ask you what do you think do you actually care is this something you're interested in his answer has consistently been no i want to be in the mba and i want to make it on my own merit the problem is the problem is if that were true brawny you would have been with a different agent you would have gone a different path that we've seen nepotism in sports a bunch before it is common it's very commonplace the jones family owns and runs the dallas cowboys all of his kids jerry's kids are employed in the most senior executive positions that they do not deserve and have no background yep to warrant those positions we've seen it how do you think kyle shanahan he came in nfl head coach and he's a damn good one is gonna say i think that's actually a very good name to break up in this right he's a damn good one but guess how you get your foot in the door his father happens to be a really good nfl coach in his own right yep and that that gets you in i think why this story captivates public audiences the public consciousness and casual fans not just hardcore basketball fans it's a bigger story that transcends various layers and barriers is because the best player of this generation decided to go out of his way to push this narrative yep we've seen other fathers who had either played in the nba previously who had now even now there are plenty of car mellow like car mellows kids really good but we don't see car mellow standing and campaigning for his son every day right there's a difference between livar ball doing that we never played in a professional basketball league for his three boys and a guy like lebron who is still an active player who is regarded as one of the greatest of all time to be standing there and campaigning not just for his son to be in the mba but to play with his son and clearly the reality and and i look at it this way so one on a on a human level i respect and i i'm happy for brawny because like most kids his age there are plenty of people millions of kids around the world that have dreamt about playing in a professional sports league and specifically the mba plenty of kids in his same position and to his credit he's there he's accomplished that the dream fulfilled that's cool nobody can ever take it away from him i'm also happy for him because he endured a pretty serious medical scare last year right but the truth is what's best for him at this particular juncture is he should still be in college developing and he needs more seasoning but it feels like he's been pressured into going this route prematurely i would add because his father is the one yes and is the one pulling the strings and trying to manipulate the system and even i i know i know jd asked bobby webster last week explicitly there was the report about the the rich paul trying to manipulate the draft positioning did you receive a call he refused to answer it okay just quickly that was one of the funniest things that's ever happened on our station was the general manager yeah mba franchise yes no but like trying to that's not my pay grade so you're hitting bro you're the gm gm oh my god who are they calling well you know who if it doesn't matter you're so privy to it of course you're privy to it of course right i couldn't i just great job by bunk i with that i just i could not believe it because he had to spit out as well but you're the gm like it was just it was one of the better things that's happened on our station recently so i'm very happy you brought that to me because i i saw that and i just i'm like man are we like really even even as an an opposing general manager yeah as somebody running a completely different franchise independent of whatever the heck is going on in la la land where it's a circus you still like you could have answered that question yeah we did you know we had uh if anything you could have said hey we did have a conversation he called us and i'm not gonna get into particulars but we did have dialogue with his agent that's all you have to say it's clear they manipulated the draft course they do it's a manipulation of the draft and what irritates me is a basketball hard-o as somebody that really isn't passionate about the the sport and the process and what this entails there are only 60 guys that get drafted every year and guess what the vast majority don't end up having long careers but that you can never take away that moment from that individual when they hear their name called and brawny yeah took away a moment from somebody else yeah i think that's i think that's fair there i don't disagree with anything you're saying and i also am i also am wholly ultimately of the belief that like you get the advantages you have to take the arrows that come along with it like i don't begrudge him that but we cannot now the guaranteed deal part that we haven't even mentioned this slide this in this is why it's actually a bigger story than just brawny saying he's never talked about this we're gonna hear that lie about 800 times this this season so that's fine the guaranteed deal is what's got people so up in arms and that is something you do not see for second round picks but i don't i am not so up in arms about brawny getting to taking one of those 60 spots from guys because agents at the end of drafts pull favors for their guys all the time so there is some guy who's taken with the 57th pick this year last year is going to be next year the 45th pick at times so i i look at it and that's the part that i don't get so up in arms about but it is the the clear paving of the path with gold and like again like you know i felt maybe i would have felt differently about this for i have my own kid it's like god we'd all love to do that now you don't want to put them at a disadvantage by doing it it's all the kind of perils of it i that's the part that i think is is such a it's what makes it so interesting to me is that it is not just a clear because this is happening for tons of other guys in the league the guaranteed deal part of it is the thing though that that really kind of separates this from everything else we're we're kind of talking about because i again with brawny to your point i do think he's kind of been sucked up in in all of this has been his dad like since he was born i mean god like how many videos and pictures have we seen them on mba courts a training center all of this stuff forever it's always been kind of a a part of the plan i'm just i'm really curious to say well i'm not curious i know how the week's gonna react like they're gonna go at him the other thing i was thinking about during the kind of spiel you you went on there was and i i don't know how nisha how how aware most people are this video but i know you'll have seen it there's this video at i'm assuming it's an a you camp or something along those lines and it's Bradley Beale talking to guys about his mba card and he says i hate i hate doing this there's 400 me you think you're better than me and he goes around the huddle and he's looking these kids dead in their eye and the realization these kids have that oh Bradley Beale will kill me to keep his card is an NBA player he would do that and that's Bradley Beale who is super secure in that and will never have to worry about that for a very long time imagine how the guy who is yeah the 13th guy on a roster some of them on those lines i can only imagine how they feel and those guys i i do feel for but i also don't want to i don't want to make brawny the subject of all ire for sports nepotism you can be mad at him for it you can be mad at nepotism but to your point it's like we don't get to remember that's i'll pick my own we don't get to remember that Stephen Belichick exists correct and go and damn you brawny it's all your fault okay we can't just make him the the person we kind of focus all of the ire on that for and i do think there is a segment of that that's happening and i think a big part of that is because it's LeBron like LeBron is still we finally got out of the completely polarizing like do you love him do you hate him but he's still a polarizing figure that causes reactions from somebody and i think the last thing on it is just it's LeBron being a singular kind of one-on-one the reason we're not talking about i mean like Carmelo Anthony yes Carlos Boozer he's got two of them he's got two really good kids right but but if Carlos Boozer was on the bench for some team in the NBA and he was making stops in different cities it wouldn't be like LeBron because Carlos Boozer's not LeBron yep but he'd be getting asked about it and you know what he'd be saying i'd love to do it but i could hang on for one more year or two more year i'm sure he'd be given those answers and i think that it's just the reason we're dealing with this is because most guys at this point are getting gone as far as a professional basketball player goes and that's just like i know this is where you wanted to end it but it's like yeah just like leads back to the specialness of LeBron like it does like build the length of the career and everything there all right i wanted to sneak this in yes let's do it okay Aaron Rodgers do it so there was the weirdest statements coming out of the jets around their minicamp of it's it's unexcused we're aware he told us we said no he's still not here so do with that what you will and i think we all said i think Aaron Rodgers is skipping minicamp and you're mad about it and they tried to damp that fire down but it's Aaron Rodgers and there seemed to be a lot of i bet it was a bet it was a wedding they're like was it a was it a charity date that couldn't be moved i don't think so i don't think most charities sign up for NFL players to do events away from minicamps and mandatory times finally came out he was in Egypt okay like i don't congratulate you take your trips wherever you want to go i am not like mr world traveler so i'm not i'm probably the least person who would go well you got to see the pyramid you got to go to Egypt but did you have to go to Egypt you had to go see the parents there's no other time in your life you could do this you couldn't escape to drink in ayahuasca in your darkness cave and gone and done that instead you had a whole buddy you're just and i guess egypt snow fun on a on abama kiddies but who gets that thing right now anyways that you couldn't have done this last year i this is just more proof that erin roger's is just exactly who we think he is this is going to be a side show year again he might i i'm i will i'm my chief belief is that he will not be performing to a level that allows people to put up with this there's a slight chance that happens but regardless there's gonna be three four five more of these stories throughout the year of roger's saying something or a weird interview he's going to go on mackephie and pop off every week and it's just this is the guy who's like we got to limit distractions i need to go to Egypt right now i would die if i could not go during minicamp i have to go but we have to limit distractions it's just there has never been a guy who has talked to more out of both sides of his mouth we felt sorry for him at the beginning of his career because far i've wanted to hold on and it took forever for people to stop feeling sorry for him and it's like i think the mask is off it's been off for me for a while it's too like who he really is so i think if you asked anybody five years ago pre-2020 covid season and you know he's a great quarterback and you know he's kind of one of the underrated stars of league we don't hear a lot about him and you kind of feel bad for him you wish he the packers would surround him with more weapons consistently that's pretty much what the narrative was and then 2020 rolls around and Aaron Rodgers decides i'm gonna start opening my mouth on a regular basis and speaking and that was the worst thing possible for Aaron Rodgers say just be quiet in fact shut your mouth and not just play but like that actually did more damage to the image of Aaron Rodgers his brand and the player than when he spent the first 15 years of his career being a really good hall of fame level quarterback and nobody said boo other than just appreciate how good he was and you're a hundred percent right we're gonna it's it's inevitable that Diana Rossini in week six is gonna have a report about how teammates absolutely hate this guy that's gonna happen that's a hundred percent gonna happen you're telling me he couldn't have taken that trip a week before or three weeks before or what come on like give me a break man had to do it nobody Tom Brady will tell you i know Brady is a star in his own right and a legend but man at certain point nobody's bigger than team no team matters and if you're gonna show that you care and you want to win and you want to be a central figure in helping that team win i know it's mini camp but that's Tom Brady how many mini camps he skipped or missed in his career and you're the quarterback you got to be there okay come on you're not this isn't a guy i'll put somebody else at x no you're in the quarterback you're spending it okay they they kind of changed everything to bring you in here brought in all your friends all your guys you know hacking everybody yeah for sure so you got to be there you just yeah i know like man this is a speech a lot of people need you got to show up to work i'm sorry okay like i know you want to go on vacation does a guy's literally from vacation today half the part of being successful is showing up that's right that's you need to be present yes that's simple now do it yes show up please please please somebody who has showed up in spades for the Toronto Maple Leafs john Tavares will there be a sea on his sweater winning shows up to the Leafs training camp i think there will be but we'll talk about that when we continue here first hour in the books fan morning show with gutting and den yell a sports nap five nine of the fan
