Lebron James Is A Free Agent Again, World Cup Must Win For USMNT, John Smoltz Talking Baseball Plus Our Dingers Only Fantasy Draft

15:12Big Cat:Between that and victim Wimbanyama, he's having a summer.

15:17PFT Commenter:we actually should probably test him for steroids like this is a he's having a he's having a brady anderson holy shit skip is 70 years old he's hitting 55 home runs what the

15:27Big Cat:fuck is going on right now yeah this is weird this is weird but you know what appreciate greatness while you still can it'd be great if we if there was

15:35PFT Commenter:like a big story that skip has actually been just ripping like 80 milligram five answers to to to get back to the olden state days

15:43Big Cat:i'm trying to think what the uh what the peds for those kind of takes are because those are like old school newspaper guy takes like that's like cigarettes yeah cigarettes and cigars and whiskey yeah and getting divorced yeah he might him and ernestine might be on the rocks and he's just you know dipping back into the bottle maybe smoking some some cigs and now he's just cranking

16:04PFT Commenter:out takes left and right yeah like or like the the true pd for that would be like a men's only country club that also doesn't allow any minorities or anyone of like, that's not Protestant. He just goes and sits in the clubhouse and he's like, yeah, you know what? I got it again.

16:21Big Cat:Still got it. Now how funny would it be? And I wish Hank was on the show because I was just going to, I was just going to put the thought in his head of, of LeBron somehow playing for the Celtics just to see his reaction to that. I don't think he ever would do that. I think it's probably down to like, I would say the cabs, he might also be thinking about just going across town and playing for the Clippers.

16:44PFT Commenter:Well, that's the other big news. So, all right, wait, one last thing, LeBron, because as you guys know, my assistant, Dom, who's a diehard Cavs fan, LeBron can do no wrong. He gave me all the spark notes of things. He actually texted us today and was like, Hey, I just drove by LeBron's house in Akron and he's got mulch showing up or wherever his house is. I don't know where his house is, but he was doing some landscaping. So that's pretty much a done deal. But LeBron, here's some more nuggets. LeBron posted a new episode on Mind the Game today with Steph Curry. So that's a little hmm. Also, apparently LeBron, the Cavs assistant GM.

17:33PFT Commenter:Hold on. Let me make sure I have this right. I believe the Cavs assistant GM. Yeah. Brandon Weems is a childhood friend of LeBron James. Cleveland needs a new GM with Mike Gansey taking the 76ers job. Weems could maybe get the job by also landing LeBron. Hmm. Hmm. Just some things to think about. These are no ways. And then also there's the, he joined a country club in Ohio recently, which LeBron doesn't even have to like, I'm not, I, I don't know. I wish we had Hank here for this PFT. Like we don't. Hank's in a country club like LeBron doesn't have to. What did you say? I know they don't have a clubhouse, but yeah.

18:20PFT Commenter:But LeBron doesn't have to actually do anything to join a country club. Right. He just shows up and he says, hey, I'm LeBron. Where do I sign?

18:30Big Cat:Kind of the same thing. Like in Chicago, I was talking about this with Hank, where every country club in Chicago has Michael Jordan and Barack Obama as members. They've got lockers for him in case they ever show up, and they can just tell everybody, yeah, they have a membership here. 99 % of the time, they've never been to that club. Correct. I would assume it's like that in Ohio. Every country club has a membership for LeBron James.

18:53PFT Commenter:Which actually, in a backwards way, and I know we're meandering a little bit here, just shows just how much of a pervert Phil Mickelson is to lose those country club memberships.

19:05Big Cat:Yeah. Yeah. They love having anybody like, yeah, anybody who's anybody. So you can say, yeah, they're a member here. Hell, that's why they like the Oakmont Country Club really leaned into Wyndham smashing the lockers. Because like any stories like that, the locals love sharing that with their friends. It's like, yeah, you know, my club, That's where Windham took out those lockers. Yeah, pretty cool.

19:31PFT Commenter:All right, so we have Kawhi now to the Raptors. Never should have left. Like the Clippers-Kawhi era is maybe the most unforgettable, or forgettable, I'm sorry, era of all time. Like they did nothing. Just an absolute tease. They opened up a new stadium. Yeah, planted a lot of trees. maybe get maybe gonna get in a lot of trouble but kawaii back to the raptors i mean as does this make you nervous at all memes as i was gonna i was gonna say me and pft and i have to to maybe pump the brakes on like bulls and wizards being uh in that you know competitive nature in the east but you actually and zach have have a team that is defending a title and now quiet quiet when he's playing is still like a top 10 player in the league.

20:24PFT Commenter:Does it make you a little nervous that he's on the Raptors? No. Okay. I thought you were going to answer that.

20:32Big Cat:No. They might be able to win a playoff series now. Okay. Until they get a big man, then they're not really that much of a threat. Okay. Okay. I also, I have my doubts that Kawhi is going to stay healthy. I know that this last year he had like one of his best seasons. Yeah. He's still really, really like incredibly good. I just doubt that he's going to be able to do it back to back years.

20:54PFT Commenter:Yeah. All right. What other, I mean, I like it just in the, I like it because I can just see like, hell, Kawhi on the Raptors. Like, yeah, they were really good when he was on the Raptors. They want to ring. Like that makes sense. It just, it's a make sense situation to me.

21:08Big Cat:Yeah. He knows it. He knows the town. Yeah. What I could see LeBron going to the Clippers. Now that is a realistic spot. I hope he goes to the Cavs, but I could see him going across town,

21:19PFT Commenter:but they're like, they don't have, they're not, they're trying to basically just retool everything with like the trades they've made. They've tried to get a bunch of picks, which they've done well on, you know, it's going to be Darius Garland and Keaton Wagler going like that's going to be their future. I don't think he wants to restart.

21:38Big Cat:Right. You're probably, you're probably right. I'm just saying that that, that is a, that would be on the short list of places that I could see him going to.

21:45PFT Commenter:What other of note moves have happened? I know that Ja Morant. Oh, yeah, Ja Morant to the Blazers. So Ja Morant traded the Blazers. I feel like they just wanted him out no matter what, and they finally got someone to be like, okay, fine, we'll take him. So now he goes to Portland.

22:06Big Cat:I was hearing that from our colleague T-Bob that he might be going to New Orleans, which I would have been excited for just because with like jaw and Zion, then 40 % of the starting lineup would be Bob Marley lyrics. And that would be pretty incredible. But the Blazers, I don't know. I don't know what the Blazers are up to. And Dundon, their, their owner, it sounds like he's like laying the groundwork for moving the team, which is pretty fucking early in this relationship for him to be like attacking the city and dropping hints that he's going to leave. I don't like that one bit, But yeah, listen, the memes, you said it, the jailblazers are back.

22:47Big Cat:Also, Portland. Did you know I think Portland has the highest per capita number of strip clubs of any city in America?

23:00PFT Commenter:So per capita always fucks me up.

23:03Big Cat:It's like per person.

23:04PFT Commenter:I know. How many strip clubs do they have? Is it going to be a wow number or is it like they just have a decent amount for the size of the city?

23:13Big Cat:Let's see. I think they've got a decent amount. They've got over 50. Okay.

23:21PFT Commenter:That's pretty good. Yeah, that is pretty good. All right. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy how fast it's all kind of fallen apart for him where it's like he was future face this league for a minute there. And Grizzlies were like, you know, ride or die with him. And then it's boom. He's gone. Now you have two non power conference guys in Damon jaw, like maybe the best two pairing of non power conference guys going, going, you know, trying to lead the blazers.

23:55Big Cat:Yeah. Yeah. Except I don't know if they necessarily compliment each other.

23:59PFT Commenter:No, no, no. I'm just saying just simply the fact that they didn't play it like a blue blood and they're both really good at basketball. That was the only nugget I have. Yeah, that's a fair nugget. All right, what else? Any other moves?

24:16Big Cat:I'm curious. No, it's actually been kind of slow. Yeah. Landry Shammott back. Landry Shammott's back. Jose Alvarado's back. They're slowly.

24:28PFT Commenter:Mitchell Robinson not back. He's most likely gone. I think he's going to be back. It turns out that Jalen Duran actually did probably play himself out of money because it looks like he's looking elsewhere than the Pistons. Pistons basically like the rough and tough Pistons got bought. Like they basically got bullied by who did they lose to? Wait, they lost the Cavs, right? Yeah. Like James Harden ended the rough and tough Pistons. That's tough. Yeah. so yeah i guess we'll we'll have to we'll have to uh be included sunday we'll be back in studio so we'll recap everything when is this going to pick up i feel like it's off to a very very slow start i don't know yeah it has been weird also uh i know that maybe we haven't talked about it but jay caspian king who's a great follow on on twitter uh and actually actually probably the one guy who he wrote a piece about barstool like what what was that pft like nine years ago he yeah um yeah i'd say probably 2017 he's he was probably the fairest that anyone from traditional media has ever been like just fair like hey i understand why people like these guys they have you know they have the detractors and like here's the whole picture but uh he's a very funny writer really really talented writer and he's been pointing out over and over uh how ridiculous it is when guys like Shams make sure that they include the agents in these tweets because it really is the dumbest thing ever.

26:07PFT Commenter:So Shams for Kevin Herter, free agent sharpshooter Kevin Herter intends to sign a three-year$27 million deal to return to the Detroit Pistons. Sources tell ESPN the Pistons work through the deal with Mark Bartlestein and Andy Schiffman of Priority Sports on Monday.

26:24Big Cat:Who the fuck cares, dude yeah i mean shefter's been doing this too recently like they they they they plug the uh the agents because that's very obviously who's feeding them the information about the contracts and in exchange for that they get to get the news out there like 45 seconds before somebody else tells you that exact same news that's how that's how it works and then if uh somebody comes after shams he can just pull up uh uh nba head coach on facetime be like here talk to this guy he'll get me out of this ticket.

26:55PFT Commenter:Yeah. Well, not FaceTime, just a text. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let's do, let's talk some world cup before we do that draft Kings winner go home. That's it. The cup knockout round is now and draft Kings has you covered for every single match. The draft Kings app is now available in all 50 States and includes all markets, bringing the game straight to your fingertips, wherever you are from Florida to Texas to California, you're in on the excitement at the speed of sports. Follow every knockout round thriller, every penalty shootout, every stoppage time moment that ends a nation's run. Sweat the matches that matter in real time with the seamless experience built for the world's biggest stage.

27:33PFT Commenter:No matter where you're watching, you're always connected and in the game with one app. New DraftKings customers sign up with code TAKE. Spend five bucks to get 200 in rewards within 21 days. That's code TAKE in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. PFT, you are headed to San Francisco as people are listening to this, you're going to be on a flight. Is this the most must-win a game has ever been?

27:59Big Cat:Yeah, it's definitely a must-win. It's a must-win that you cannot underestimate the Herzkovinians as well as the Bosnians. Thank you. And I was doing some research on the country, and I looked up famous people from Bosnia and or Herzkovinia. There's really all I got is Yusuf Nurkic. besides that like that's that's about that's who we're going up against but yeah it's a must win it's a must win because we are i believe for the first time ever in the history of u.s soccer we're favored in a knockout round game i don't think that's ever happened before not only favored

28:36PFT Commenter:significant we're minus 700 to advance so but if you've been watching any of these games you know

28:43Big Cat:that anything can happen you know that you know you you can run up against a team that defends Well, they draw it into extra time. They draw it into penalty kicks. And then it's kind of a crapshoot from that point on. So, like, these upsets do happen. And Bosnia is not a bad team. We should beat them. And if we don't, it's a massive disappointment for the U.S. team. Massive. And then all that talk about, like, extending Pochettino, that looks kind of weird, right? Like, I thought that's a conversation you have after you win one to two knockout stage games. If we end up winning, if we end up playing against Belgium in the second round.

29:19Big Cat:Senegal. Or Senegal. But I would say Belgium specifically because we've played against them. Oh, by the way, I think the U.S. is something like 1-17 all time against European countries in the World Cup. The one win was 2002 against Portugal in the group stage. We don't beat European teams in the World Cup. We just never have. So it's realistic. We could lose that game. and then we have a history against Belgium. And so if we compete, lose a close one against Belgium, I still think you probably would end up extending Poach if we could through the next World Cup because he's implemented a new style and it's looked really good and we've gotten some good results.

30:00Big Cat:But, yeah, if we lose against Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is – it's a disaster. Well, it's – And it's going to be – I'm going to be very, very disappointed. That would be like the most heartbroken I've ever left the stadium probably. If we end up losing.

30:18PFT Commenter:You can't. You can't lose them because this is an expanded tournament. So the tournament doesn't even start until the next round. Like it doesn't.

30:28Big Cat:Right, like compared to other World Cups. Correct.

30:30PFT Commenter:So if you're judging on like you can't, you just have to. It would be like saying that we, you know, it would be celebrating a play-in win in the NCAA tournament. it you you have to you have to get to this next round and then we can start talking of like hey

30:46Big Cat:this team is different right we got to win and we should win convincingly they're probably going to try to kill them i i think we will too because they play a very similar style to paraguay and uh and australia who we had no problem with either one of those two teams um and then oh yeah germany gets knocked out by Paraguay and they just parked the bus for 90 minutes and then took them to penalties. And that's how an inferior team can win and it happens all the time in the World Cup in this stage. But I think that given we're totally healthy, Pulisic looked really good, then we got the nine other starters that we didn't have against Turkey that are going to be suiting up for us and starting.

31:27Big Cat:I think we win, I think it might be like 3-1, 3-0.

31:32PFT Commenter:Okay, I like that. I feel good about that the uh by the way i know that listen we are probably the number one perpetrators of what i'm about to say people flying into a sport and being like let me fix it when a sport is doing just fine without casual fans being like hey you know what would fix soccer i love penalty kicks i know people like some people don't like i fucking love penalty kicks if you can't figure it out in 120 minutes you're goddamn right we're going to go do penalty kicks and the penalty kicks between paraguay and germany were incredible like paraguay just not having to fuck up those last two and fucking up both of them and then having germany come over the top and be like hey you you saw how bad they messed that up let me kick this 40 feet above the bar that was incredible the netherlands morocco uh penalty kicks were incredible like i love them i think it's an awesome way to to end a game that is never going to end when you're 120 minutes in.

32:35Big Cat:I do too. There's no, there's nothing else you can do. If you've played that much soccer, it's like, okay, well we can't have these guys running like for even longer. The game's over. Penalties are great because it's all the pressure in the world. Like you have everybody in your country is focused on one guy kicking a shot that should, you should make it 90 % of the time. And it's just, it's so nerve wracking. You know what I fucking hate though? I can't stand it. when you're taking a penalty and you've got the guy doing the little stutter step and he like stops and like, he tries to make the goalie jump out of the way.

33:09Big Cat:That's bullshit. That's unethical bullshit. Don't do that. Just step up there, kick the fucking ball. Even though that one guy in Germany, he, I think that ball might've hit the lighthouse. He hit it so high. Like that was, that was an insane kick, but also credit to that guy because he was a six guy up from Germany. And they asked for other guys. Yeah. They wanted to take the kick and they said no. And he said, yeah, I'll step up there and I'll do it. So, yeah, it takes some balls. But that was also great goalkeeping by the Paraguayan goalkeeper who was going side to side on the line. You can't take a step off.

33:43Big Cat:They watch that like a hawk now. But he came up big in the penalties. I love penalties to solve a game. I think it's awesome. I think it's nerve-wracking. I think it's so simple that everybody can understand exactly what's going on. and the the task at hand for the person who's trying to score is so easy but then you've got the nerves that just turn them into like puddles of stress and sweat and i i love that that's that's why we watch sports is to see like exceptionally talented athletes crumble under unbelievable

34:16PFT Commenter:pressure yeah and it's been i mean it's been an incredible world cup we have brazil japan which was you know last second like it feels like half these games haven't don't start till extra time the only unfortunate like takeaway I have through the half the way through the knockout stages everyone's just playing for second because France is just playing on easy mode like they're not even trying and they're just dummying people like that was that did not look like Sweden could play forever and they would never have had a shot like they could have played France could have played with nine guys and they probably would have won that game

34:53Big Cat:They were so lucky. Sweden was so lucky in the first half, and they were just like missing shots off the post. The goalie was making incredible fingertip saves. But it was just you knew that the floodgates were going to open at some point, and Mbappe is just – I think he's the best player in the world right now. And France, like I said on Monday, France could play their backups, and their backups are probably better than almost every team in the entire world. Like they are chalk and they're favored, but they're favored for a reason. They're so fucking good. Dembele and Mbappe are like two of the best players in the entire tournament.

35:31Big Cat:And they're just, they're unstoppable once they get going. With the Netherlands, I love that game, by the way. That was one of the most entertaining soccer games I've ever seen. Netherlands against Morocco was, I think, 1-1, right? Before they went to penalties. But it was like a very exciting 1-1. The Dutch have just become like the dirtiest team in the world. And it's so fun to watch too, because they're giants. Netherlands, they're the tallest country in the world, like just by population. So when you ask, when you hear people say like, what would it look like if we had NBA players playing soccer?

36:06Big Cat:That's the Dutch. That is literally the Netherlands soccer team because nobody in the Netherlands grows up playing basketball. They have zero basketball culture. So all their tallest guys play soccer. So they've got a giant, like just mutant group of thugs that go out there and just shove you and kick you. And it's been like that since like the 2010 final against Spain. They're just like the most physically brutal team to play against. And then to see them crumble in penalties was awesome. That was so fun.

36:35PFT Commenter:Yeah, it's been a great it's been a great World Cup. Like it's just the World Cup rocks. And if you're not watching it, you're missing out because it's been and it's just it's free sports in the middle of the summer. It's like having three games in a row on a Tuesday. It's just like you just kind of set you like it's going to be a similar to March Madness where when this ends in two weeks and be like, what do I do now? Like, what do you mean? Like, I don't get to just I don't just get to flip on a game in the middle of the day. This sucks. But yeah, it's been so much fun to watch. And then the other story we should probably touch about on is they bullied our boy, Freddie, Freddie L.A.

37:14PFT Commenter:Seven off off the Twitter. so yeah so for people who don't know freddy la7 is a german fan who came to america uh tweeted about american culture got wildly viral and popular through these tweets was having like he was meeting uh like he met jj watt i think he met he met did he meet like a bunch of famous

37:39Big Cat:singers and stuff too zach yeah i think he i think he went to space yeah he went to space Zach Krami. He's doing backstage concerts. I know there's a couple country festivals. He's backstage as artists. He's doing penthouse suites. He's unbathomable hotel rooms.

37:55PFT Commenter:And just like anything in 2026, seeing anyone have a genuine good time will just piss off the majority of the internet for no real reason other than they're mad, they're jealous, they're pissed off and they have decided that he is a CIA plant or fake or something. and just bullied him to go off of Twitter. I don't know. I guess I do know why we can't just enjoy things at face value, but it just everyone should just take a step back and be like, hey, you know what? Maybe like all the cynicism I walk around with in my head, maybe I'll just, you know, dial it down a little bit and see if I like my life a little bit more.

38:35Big Cat:So I did say Langley on three when Germany got when they got eliminated. I don't think he's a CIA plant. I do think that there's something heartwarming about seeing him enjoy, you know, the small things about the United States. And then once it becomes like very, very corporate where now it's like massive brands that are now paying him to like talk about. That's not his fault. It's not his fault, but it also does. It makes people like appreciate the account less than when it's just a guy from Germany discovering the magic of like fried chicken and Tennessee gas station.

39:11PFT Commenter:But people were hating on it before that even too. But it's like eventually it just boils down to people are mad that they're getting free shit.

39:19Big Cat:Yeah, people are mad that they're getting free shit. And then also the fact that he didn't show his face. A lot of people were like, well, why is he hiding his face? It's pretty clear because the Internet is filled with psychopaths. And that would have led to some bad situations. Like now he became an international superstar. I do also understand why it says like, hey, the influencer life, it's not really for me. that's remarkable self-awareness on this part. Like that's, that's a good thing that he's recognizing that too. And then also people are like digging through his old tweets and finding out that he was like talking about attending a rap concert and being like, well, how come we can't sing along to all the words at a rap concert?

39:57Big Cat:And so now you've, you've reached that stage of people like combing through his history with a fine tooth comb. There was one weird thing about him though. One weird thing. Actually it's like two weird things, but it's kind of the same. So he's a massive Ronaldo fan, Zach. Yeah. His favorite soccer player. I understand. And he's also become like a big Saudi Arabia defender since Ronaldo started playing soccer there. So now he's like, you know, the country really not that bad. Kind of like how Hank is for Live Golf, but he was just for like the country. And then so he's a big Ronaldo fan. So he bought tickets to all of Portugal's games, But then he skipped their last game against Columbia, and he went and watched a Little League baseball game in Vermont and then went to some town in the middle of Maine.

40:46PFT Commenter:Well, where was Portugal and Columbia playing? Miami. So I think because then he was going to Germany's knockout game in Boston.

40:55Big Cat:Okay. That's why he went to Maine and said? Well, no, yeah.

41:00PFT Commenter:He was like, I think they were doing the whole trip up there. I think they went to a game in Canada and then went down to get ready for the game, the knockout game in Boston.

41:12Big Cat:Okay, got it. Okay, that makes a little bit more sense. But if you're like Ronaldo's number one fan, you probably want to see him play against Columbia, maybe.

41:19PFT Commenter:I think he's going to some of the other games. But yeah, I just I don't know. Listen, people can just judge however they want. I just it bums me out that we're at a point where just nothing can just be like, hey, you know what? That thing exists. If you don't like it, close your eyes. and just don't even interact with it. But instead, just... And the fact that he was like, I don't want to be part of this, more power to him. Because I don't know many people...

41:44Big Cat:He still got like a whirlwind trip across the United States and did like shit that nobody has ever done before. He had a great time and he got a lot of stuff for free. So now we shake our hands where you go our separate ways and he goes back to Germany.

41:59PFT Commenter:And people are pissed that he had been to America before but he did say that he had gone to like new york in vegas right but not at that point it was just people yeah or maine people

42:09Big Cat:getting mad at uh like a preconceived notion that they made up in their own acts that freddy said that he had never been here freddy never said that it was his first time in the united states he just was wowed by you know the deep south yeah as we all are our first time there yeah people okay with guys having fun but as soon as he starts having too much fun it's like oh well I can't experience that so we got to start dog piling on this guy right but that's also the internet I'm not really

42:37PFT Commenter:like I'm not losing sleep over the fact the internet bullied this kid I just I just wish that I feel like personally everyone should just try to maybe take a little bit of like step back and be like hey can I just don't immediately jump from it basically is a jump from thing happens to how does this thing the worst thing ever and we need to cancel it we actively try to ruin things as like a collective society

43:01Big Cat:I think it's I think it's for this. It's like Gigi's everyone. Freddie had a great time, had unforgettable experiences in the United States. It did become a thing where it was just like, I think everybody got upset once every PR company in America started using Freddie as an avenue to like promote whatever their thing was. I think that's what made people be like, hey, I don't like this anymore because you kind of took the magic. No, no. I'm not saying anything bad about Freddie at all.

43:30PFT Commenter:but he didn't do that he didn't he didn't like take up a lot of those offers i know i remember like the delta guy was trying to like get him a private plane he didn't i know that he like but talking to jj watt that's totally normal like that's fine i i don't think he he took advantage of a lot of the shit that people were trying to like shove down the throat because i agree i understand like it becomes just everyone's trying everyone on the internet's like oh how can i get myself. I did see him I did see him reading Cancel Me If You Can though. I did see him promoting that so that would have been funny if Freddie did a face reveal like go buy a book.

44:12PFT Commenter:Good for him. You hate this kid memes. You're the darkest heart we've got. No, he's cool. Just experience in America.

44:22Big Cat:There we go. Yeah, I got I got no problem with Freddie at all. I'm just saying that I think the reason why people started to turn on him was because they saw it as being like, oh, Freddie sold out in record time. And it's like Freddie's just having a good time. It kind of sucks that now it's become like a cynical thing that we have to we have to look at with like, you know, under a microscope. but I think people just they started to see that Freddie was going from a cute little story into potentially just being like a face of public relations

44:55PFT Commenter:see I think that's too deep I think it's simply guy goes viral multiple times and people get pissed off that's how like nasty online is like guy gets a little bit of shine and everyone's like fuck them you know it's as simple as that Zach you like Freddie we just gotta get back to

45:15Big Cat:we just gotta get back to fun internet everybody take a breath let Freddy have a good time and then when he has when it kind of blows up alright so he's having a little bit more fun like yeah everybody take a sec let him do his thing shout out to Freddy that looked like a sick week sick couple weeks Freddy the internet used

45:29PFT Commenter:to be a lot more fun that is definitely true definitely true back to that or no no we're done

45:35Big Cat:too far gone really that's such a

45:37PFT Commenter:that was like the Titus finding the Oakley message forum that's the internet i wish i that still existed it's just a message board with dudes who rock their oakley's every day and they compliment each other and they take pictures selfies of themselves being like check out my oakley's today and they're like dude those are sick check out mine and it's just there's no irony there's no cynicism just dudes rocking oakley's and hanging out sharing memes with each

46:05Big Cat:other yeah when titus i was on mostly sports when he brought that out and it was like it it felt like it was the year 2002 yeah and i say that in like the best way possible where it's like we don't know what we haven't been through the battles of the internet so many times that we expect something bad to happen it was just just guys being pure and and i thought about getting involved in the oakley forums i don't think shady rays would appreciate that no uh but listen i understand

46:35PFT Commenter:why somebody would fall into that and and listen i'm not also saying that uh i'm i'm like the moral arbiter of cynicism online because we definitely fall into the trap of being cynical at times and shitting on things for for no reason we all do i'm just saying i've personally tried to to take a step back and be like hey maybe not everything is the worst all the time maybe some things just

46:57Big Cat:can exist as they are and be okay also i will say this that um if what freddie was doing during his trip to America was actually making you feel upset, like the emotion of anger, the internet might not be for you. Dude, I was pumped. This might be a good time to log off.

47:17PFT Commenter:I was pumped that he was making me feel good as an American. Like, oh yeah, Chili's rocks. Oh, fuck yeah. We do. Yeah, you know what? Eastern Ohio is kind of cool if you get the right sunset.

47:30Big Cat:Yeah. You know what? Like a German that just got over here. Yeah, let's send him to NASA. That always ends well. Let's do it.

47:39PFT Commenter:Oh, man. All right. Let's do hot seat. Cool throw. Then we'll get to John Smoltz. Then we got our dingers only draft. Hot seat. Cool. Drone is brought to you by our good friends at Tick Pick. Listen, we just brought on Tick Pick and they're the absolute best in the business. They were the ones that sent memes and Zach and Shay to game five in San Antonio. They make memories at TickPick, and TickPick is the best because you can make sure that you find the absolute best deals. They have, when you go on TickPick, they have the seat views so you can see exactly what you're buying. So you're no obstructive view or like, oh, this is going to be bad.

48:17PFT Commenter:They have exactly what you're going to be buying. They have a price freeze, a lock-in price while you decide. And then they give you a credit boost. Receive TickPick credit when you buy. They are the official fan experience partner for NFL franchises, TickPick. They do it the absolute best. You will not overpay with TickPick. They're going to make sure that you get a great deal. You get into that game. You make those memories like Zach memes and Che. So the best memories start with the best prices and they start with TickPick. Go download TickPick app today or go check out TickPick.com. I've been using TickPick since they've come on and it's awesome.

48:54PFT Commenter:It's seamless. It's great. And you can just find those tickets. Boom. You're ready to go. I actually found the Tick Pick Pick tickets for Eddie when he went out for the NBA draft. Here's what Eddie did. He went and tried to buy tickets from a scalper. That's a no-no. He bought a fake ticket, an actual fake ticket, not even like been scanned before. Like the guy was just like, hey, dude, this is fake. I saw it and I was like, this is bad juju for the Bulls. Went to Tick Pick, found it. Boom, ready to go. Eddie was in the Barclays like five minutes later. basically saved Caleb Wilson's career, TickPick and Eddie getting in there.

49:34PFT Commenter:So go to TickPick right now. TickPick.com or download.

49:37Big Cat:They're getting into Levi's Stadium or excuse me, San Francisco Stadium for US against Herzegovina and Bosnia.

49:44PFT Commenter:Yeah, so there you go. Memories. All right. We're also brought to you by Chevy. Chill week is right around the corner. You know what that means. No schedules, no plans, just more of the good stuff. Chevy Silverado makes that possible. There's a reason Chevy's called the heartbeat of America and the Silverado keeps that heartbeat strong. These trucks work hard so you can chill harder, whether that's getting out of town, heading to the lake, or just not turning around when you probably should. It's got the capability, the space, and the muscle, everything you need for a proper summer, coolers, gear, whatever your version of chill looks like because at the end of the day, Silverado helps you tackle more of what you love.

50:18PFT Commenter:And let's be honest, you've earned this summer. Now it's time to go get it. So roll the windows down, turn the music up, and just listen. That's the heartbeat of America. That's today's Chevrolet. Head over to Chevy.com to learn more today. Okay. Hank and Max are out. PFT. You're up. Hot seat. Cool throne.

50:34Big Cat:My hot seat is Serena Williams because she lost in three sets at Wimbledon. So come back off. Grand opening. Grand closing. Damn. She was the Homer Simpson meme.

50:48PFT Commenter:Yeah. Yeah.

50:49Big Cat:She's probably still playing the doubles with Venus. It was a two-hour game. It was 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. So she won one set. Good for her. She's 44. That's pretty cool that she was able to do it. But yeah, come back over. Also, hot seat, maybe Jalen Brown. So there was a report that the offers that the Celtics have been getting for Brown are nowhere near what they were putting out there. So Hank actually, in a roundabout way, might end up being right just because the Celtics might not get anything remotely close to what they had planned to have him come back. And there was a comment on Instagram. This was from Orlando Vibe Dealer, commented under a Jalen Brown video.

51:37Big Cat:It says, man, as a person who can't stand the Celtics, I hope they do right by him by trading him to a city who respects him. Jalen Brown liked that comment. Ooh. So, yeah, I don't know what's going to happen with him, but it seems like the interest level is not what they thought it would be.

51:54PFT Commenter:Yikes. Okay. So Hank's fan fiction of Jalen Brown asking for a trade, then not getting traded, then going back to Brad Stevens being like, dude, it's okay. I'm good. Probably not looking good.

52:11Big Cat:No, I'm saying there's a chance that he sticks around just because they don't get a good enough offer to end up trading him.

52:18PFT Commenter:But it sounds like Jalen Brown wants out. he does want out yeah that part like if he's that part's over that part's over if he's like that if he's that upset it feels like they might have to trade him even for not a great offer

52:32Big Cat:for nothing you know that danny age is trying to get involved in something you know yeah the longer this goes on without the jazz making moves you know danny age is just sitting by the phone just fiending just scratching just shaking got the cold sweats he just let me get a quick hit of something just small trade take the edge off yeah okay you're cool and then my cool throne is playing victim because uh a little follow-up on the wmba uh caitlin clark throat punch elissa thomas is saying that uh now she's getting death threats and that people are threatening to uh to leak her information online so in a stunning turn of events she was actually the one that had the most harm done to her after that foul.

53:17Big Cat:Again, I'd like to opt out of the Caitlin Clark discourse until she wins something. But it is ridiculous that this league cannot figure it out in terms of a combination of marketing, protecting, but also encouraging good rivalries with her. It's crazy that they haven't figured out how to make this work from a financial standpoint yet.

53:40PFT Commenter:Yeah, I'd agree. um okay my hot seat is uh josh nailer because i don't know if you guys saw but josh nailer uh he got into a little uh brouhaha with with a former teammate austin hedges uh josh nailer stuck his arm out to get hit by a pitch and uh hedges john boy did a lip reading and hedges yelled at him you fucking loser no one likes you literally nobody likes you uh which that would be fine whatever it seems like people might not like josh uh nailer but then we got a story that uh is quite something from stone garrett who said that uh did you guys see this no okay i'm gonna read it for you memes you saw this right i did not okay so he he wrote a story about uh Josh Naylor, wait, I want to make sure that I have all the facts right.

54:40PFT Commenter:And maybe, well, let me make sure because I don't want to, you know, Stone Garrett played with Josh Naylor. And so in the minor leagues and Stone Garrett wrote a story on Instagram, a comment saying, Josh Naylor liked to play stupid games. Dude would come into our apartment. We were neighbors with aerosol and lighters multiple times. That wasn't his first time in our apartment with a butcher's knife. The guy hid in my closet waiting for me to get home. When I went to hang my shirt up, he jumped out with a knife pointed at me. It caught my thumb, sliced it wide open. I went to the ER. He waits for me when I get back.

55:18PFT Commenter:First question is, are you going to press charges? Next day, coach holds team meetings saying front office wants to keep it hush hush. I get surgery. He cut my nerves, still can't feel my right thumb. He got suspended for one game. two weeks later he goes to the futures game and gets traded he's the most psychotic person I've ever met in my life holy shit kind of sounds like a fun prank yeah that I mean just team building good luck I don't know I should have I should have no I mean listen like real Yahoo Sports wrote about it 80 oh wait here we go So, yeah, ex-Diamondbacks player says that, yeah, a 2016 knifing.

56:03PFT Commenter:This is from AZ Central. A 2016 knifing incident involving an ex-Diamondbacks player and a Seattle Mariners. Hold on, I got to pay for AZ Central. I'm not paying. Get out of here. Former All-Star Josh Naylor resurfaced on Instagram June 29th. Stone Garrett, who played for Arizona in 2022, called Naylor the most psychotic person he's ever known when he commented on a video posted by MLB social media influencer Mario. the post from Mario brought up the knife incident and asked for corroboration okay so that was that's crazy that's fucking crazy

56:36Big Cat:if you're hiding in the closet already for the jump scare why do you need the knife if you're already going to get the act and realism to it listen

56:45PFT Commenter:I was cool with the aerosol lighter thing everyone's done that that's funny knife in a closet is a crazy

56:54Big Cat:move that's that's not even really a prank anymore that's just that's just trying to

57:00PFT Commenter:stab somebody yeah holy shit so yeah that i mean that is stone garrett's official account and so he corroborated this so i guess it was an instagram mlb influencer being like i've heard this rumor can anyone corroborate and then stone garrett was like yeah it was me he jumped out of a fucking closet. Yeah, that's worse than the Michael Irvin haircut story. Yeah, I guess this is all still alleged. We should just say alleged, but I'm reading it right now on Yahoo Sports on AZ Central, Arizona Republic. It feels like there's some actual news places are reporting on this. How did that not get out?

57:43PFT Commenter:That's the other thing. They said hush, hush. it's fucking crazy

57:50Big Cat:you think Dan Heron knows about that

57:52PFT Commenter:let's see would that match up timeline would they say 20 no 2016 no I don't think that matches up oh man I'll ask him though holy shit but yeah Josh Naylor that would be my hot seat I'm trying to think what did I have for my cool throw Oh, cool throne. Oh, we should have also mentioned Malik Beasley. That seems bad. Yep. Wait, memes, did you have Azerhatsi cool throne? Yeah, I had it on there. All right, so you go into it, memes. My cool throne, though, is Ben Simmons because he's thinking about doing a comeback, and there's no one who does off-season hype better than Ben Simmons. He had a men's health.

58:43PFT Commenter:Yes, basketball. He was on his fishing boat in Miami, and he had a feature in men's health being like he might come back.

58:53Big Cat:Yeah. Ben, I feel like fishing is your calling. Yep. Agreed. All right, memes. You're hot seat.

59:01PFT Commenter:Throw him.

59:03Big Cat:Hot seat. Malik Beasley. He is guilty and going to prison for sports betting.

59:11PFT Commenter:Yeah, there's a lot of clips out there that are tough.

59:13Big Cat:did we just lose PFT?

59:15PFT Commenter:I think we lost PFT he was frozen for a little bit there just keep going let's keep ripping other hot seat was

59:23Big Cat:Katelyn Clark Emmanuel Acho said the WNBA would be better without Katelyn Clark because she is a bigger distraction than she is an additive

59:33PFT Commenter:oh shit we need PFT here for this

59:35Big Cat:yeah I know he said he was sick Katelyn Clark wait say it again the quote the NBA would be better without Caitlin Clark because she's a bigger distraction than she is an additive.

59:50PFT Commenter:Oh, man. I mean, Acho is just like, I know we just did this whole thing on, like, he's just trying to, he basically is that meme, like, how can I go in there and make this about myself? Right? Every single discussion that happens online, he's like, well, let me come over the top with the fucking outrageous take that you know what all right i'm coming on i'm sounding this out he is actually nice emmanuel ocho is nice in the fact that he does take heat off basically everyone else around him because he says something so ridiculous that's like okay now it's about ocho pft i was like hey memes you can keep going going and pft will hop back on and then he was it was his other hot seat was Emmanuel Acho and Kaitlin Clark.

1:00:41PFT Commenter:And I was like, oh, fuck, I wish BFD was here. So Emmanuel Acho, I guess, came over the top and said that the WNBA would be better without Kaitlin Clark.

1:00:49Big Cat:Yeah, I saw that. And then I saw a bunch of people saying that, like, Kaitlin Clark should leave and start her own league. I don't think that that's going to work either. I think that that's, like, we got to be, there has to be something in between that we can all agree on for the success of the WNBA and Kaitlin Clark to work out together. And then Acho said that he gave that take. And then somebody else replied, like, you should hear what Acho said to us in 2020 when he spoke to our entire team. And it was a guy that was on the Yankees. And for some reason, they asked Acho to, like, give a pump up speech to the New York Yankees in 2020.

1:01:26Big Cat:And it apparently ended up being the most ridiculous speech ever. I have to find out what was said in that. But what did Acho say to that team that was so outlandish that they're still talking about?

1:01:39PFT Commenter:I think, was it Clint Frazier who said that? Because Clint Frazier, yeah, he lets it fly. We should have him on the show. He lets it fly.

1:01:46Big Cat:Clint, we got to have you on part of my take. I want to hear exactly the message that Emmanuel Acho delivered to your team.

1:01:54PFT Commenter:We need it. We're Sunday night. Please, please. We would love to talk about what Emmanuel Acho's speech entailed. All right. your cool throne?

1:02:04Big Cat:Cool throne is just Mexico. Mexico fans were just outside Ecuador's hotel shooting off fireworks, playing the drums. I love that.

1:02:13PFT Commenter:I love that. That's how you do it. The home field advantage here is a real thing for them. Take advantage of every little piece you can.

1:02:26PFT Commenter:Zach?

1:02:27Big Cat:Oh, my hot seat this week was going to be Serena Williams. I would say she may be being a little selfish, but I can pivot there. My hot seat this week is probably going to be PFT. Oh, no. I think PFT. I'm seeing a lot of stuff about Anthony Davis leaving the Wizards. I don't know if it's because I'm part of the Wizards pipeline now, PFT, but it's so much so that if there's not a super team assembly clause in your bet, I think your car is gone. I think it made me gone forever. Zach, talk to me about this because I feel like you and I might be consuming different news sources. You might be consuming news sources that are more anti-whiz, that have anti-whiz derangement syndrome.

1:03:12I'm consuming the real news that's saying that Anthony Davis,

1:03:19Big Cat:unless we're getting multiple first-round picks and win now players, he's going to be a wizard. So you don't think it's going to be just the young core and Jimmy Butler? I don't know. I don't see a world in which that makes sense from a basketball standpoint. You've got too many people that would play that same position, including young guys that need minutes and Jimmy Butler being old and coming off an ACL. and he's never been the best guy to have on a team around young emerging players. So I don't know. I don't know. What are you seeing, Zach? Are you seeing Anthony Davis to the Warriors? Yeah, I was seeing Anthony Davis to the Warriors, sir.

1:04:00Big Cat:Yeah. I've seen Andy to the Warriors. Just knowing that LeBron James tends to get his way, that would be a reason why he might go out there. But I think it's more likely that LeBron goes to the Wizards than it is that AD goes to the Warriors. You want to play with AD so much, come to DC, LeBron. We'll have you. There you go. That's an open invite. So save space. You mean that? Yeah. Yeah, I do. I do. And I'm not just saying that because if LeBron James came to the Wizards, that my season tickets would quadruple in value. That's not why I'm saying that. Oh, my God.

1:04:40PFT Commenter:It'd be the greatest investment you've ever made in your entire life. Yeah.

1:04:44Big Cat:Yeah, yeah.

1:04:44PFT Commenter:It would be insane. A farewell tour?

1:04:47Big Cat:Yeah, it would be great. It would be great. You should do it. Listen, LeBron, MJ came to the Wizards. Everybody makes fun of those years. If you came to the Wizards, you got – I'll even say if you just get to like the Eastern Conference Finals with the Washington Wizards, that is worth more than winning a championship or two in South Beach. That's worth more than winning a bubble title in Los Angeles. I would put it almost on par for winning an NBA championship in Cleveland. Just getting the Wizards to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since the invention of the three-pointer would be – there'd be no argument anymore.

1:05:27Big Cat:That would be like Messi in this World Cup putting his stamp on the fact that he's the GOAT. Ronaldo's clearly number three or four. If that happened, there's no argument anymore, LeBron. You are the GOAT. So do it.

1:05:41PFT Commenter:Zach, by the way, the hot seat that I had for you that I forgot about, I don't remember. We did the dingers only like 10 days ago. We did the draft, which is also hilarious that we drafted it. Then we waited. When you drafted Vinny, you knew that he was hurt, right? Some things are bigger than performance. That's right. Is that what you said at the time? I don't know if I said that at the time, but I'll stand on that right now. Okay, because I was texting with Vinny last night, and I was like, hey, good news. You're on Zach's team. And he's like, does he know that I'm hurt?

1:06:14Big Cat:I feel like he's got great doctors. Home run's coming soon.

1:06:17PFT Commenter:Okay. All right. Good. I was like, I don't think he knows. I don't think he cares.

1:06:21Big Cat:No, no. Jersey was already in the Raptors from season one, so I just, out of respect, you know? Yeah. All right. Go ahead with your cool throne, Zach. My cool throne this week is going to be Nick Saban. So we did see everything going on with Taron Arnold. A lot going on there. You maybe didn't have the best people around him. A couple guys not looking out for his best interest but Nick Saban stepped in and said I gotta let you know as a character testimony this young man's a good guy could be not maybe not this young man isn't what the news is trying to make him out to be maybe Nick Saban stepped up for his guy yeah um I think uh he it would have been a much more effective letter if he had started out by saying I want to say that I am anti-kidnapping however and then the rest of his letter just maybe lead off with that next time so you know people don't want people to get the wrong impression for coach but yeah i mean if you look at it like 99.99 percent of terry on arnold's life he has spent not kidnapping people and they don't talk about that they just talk about the 0.01 percent and i think also like wasn't he overseeing was it a fit like he wasn't boots on the ground is what i was seeing online well yeah he was maybe you just got the wrong people around you you know?

1:07:34PFT Commenter:Yeah. Yeah. He's got, got to get a better fall guy. I think he was kind of in charge allegedly.

1:07:44Big Cat:And then he showed up and he was, he was deaf. They're alleging that he was a very, very, very big part of everything, but I do. I don't know. It's kind of crazy. This is the first time that I've heard Nick Saban, like go out on a limb like this for one of his former players. So I don't know what that means, but depending on where they try, the case and who the judge is, that might end up working. Yeah. I think it's Hillsborough County. Okay. You got the million dollar bond, but now you got to stay at the house because unfortunately the Lions dropped them. That would be very... I mean, can you imagine a player playing in a game with one of the ankle monitors?

1:08:23Big Cat:They requested the monitor, but he said he couldn't perform his job if he had the monitor. They did ask for it. That would kind of rock. That would kind of be awesome if you had a guy like... Can you imagine like a pick six wearing the monitor? Be cool.

1:08:39PFT Commenter:Yeah. Take it to the house. Yeah. Back to the house. Okay. Let's. Oh, last thing, obviously really sad story, but the Chris Johnson news was, was really, really sad for anyone who missed it. He did an interview with Michael Strahan on good morning America. He has ALS. I've talked about it before. I've lost some of my family to ALS. It's a horrific, horrific disease, and it's like there's no cure. So any funding helps, and there's a ton of places that you can donate. We obviously have a history with Pete Frady's and the Ice Bucket Challenge. I did something with Shambi for Lou Gehrig Day a couple weeks ago.

1:09:24PFT Commenter:So anything that can help. We all love to watch him play football. It's a horrific disease. It just and it's not only just like it. It's the disease for the person who passes, but it just consumes your whole family and everyone around you because it just it's really fast and just awful to watch. So terrible news. But yeah, anyone if you if you have extra money to, you know, throw around and give to a great cause. There's a ton of great causes that are doing ALS research because it'd be great if we could find a cure for it. So Steve Gleason does a lot of stuff.

1:09:57Big Cat:Yeah. And what's kind of crazy is that he had a Chris Johnson had a teammate, Tim Shaw, who was diagnosed with the ALS in 2014. Like two guys from that same Titans team are dealing with right now. But yeah, yeah, it's a great cause if you want to donate, because like Big Cat said, it's a really shitty thing to deal with.

1:10:17PFT Commenter:Yeah, it's terrific. Okay, let's get to our interview with John Smoltz, and then we will be dingers only. And then on Friday, we will have Dungeons and Dragons, and we'll be back in studio on Sunday night, and then it'll be chill week.

1:10:31Big Cat:Before we get to John Smoltz, he's brought to you by our great friends over at Mountain Dew. Summer's coming. I cannot wait to go back to Camp Barstool. Nothing goes better with doing some yard work. I was out mowing the lawn today. Nothing goes better with mowing the lawn like coming inside, cracking open an ice-cold Mountain Dew, the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew. It's great. Perfect, perfect drink for the summertime. Mountain Dew was proudly born in the foothills of Tennessee. Enjoy the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew, an American original. Grab a Dew, tasting great since 48.

1:11:07Big Cat:And John Smoltz is also brought to you by our great friends over at Fruit of the Loom. Fruit of the Loom, they know that for some reason guys hold on to their underwear way, way, way too long. We don't know why, but every guy does. But when a fresh, comfortable, well-designed pair of Fruit of the Loom costs less than your morning coffee, there's really no excuse. Refresh your underwear drawer today with well-made, well-priced Fruit of the Loom. It's a household name for generations, trusted for comfort, durability, and consistency. They have high-quality essentials, but they're affordable. They sent us a bunch of underwear.

1:11:41Big Cat:So comfortable. Love doing the full switch out. I got all Fruit of the Loom in my underwear drawer right now. They also sent some white teas right here, actually. As a matter of fact, crisp new white teas for the summertime from Fruit of the Loom. Nothing better than that. The iconic fruit people bring charm, make us stand out in a crowd. They're making trusted basics since 1851. That's nearly 175 years of delivering comfort. Fruit of the Loom delivers legendary comfort, an iconic style that you can trust. With nearly 175 years of expertise, we craft essentials that feel like designer, but at a fraction of the price.

1:12:16Big Cat:Great design, unbeatable value, everyday reliability. That's Fruit of the Loom. It's time to refresh your underwear drawer with well-made, well-priced Fruit of the Loom. And now here is John Smoltz.

1:12:29PFT Commenter:Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is Baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz, and he's getting ready for the American Century Championship in Tahoe, which we've, John, we've done it for the last two years. This is our third year. Maybe our favorite week of the entire year. I'd have to imagine it's the same for you, right? It is. Perfect venue, perfect time, collection of so many different celebrities. You couldn't cherry pick them, right? They come from all different walks of life and all different backgrounds and certainly all different golf games. So not all 91 of them obviously have a chance to win, But it's one of those, where do you rank within your peer group?

1:13:18And the ones that are there, like myself, that have a chance to win, we want to win.

1:13:23PFT Commenter:Yeah. It's a great competition. The fan base is crazy. But listen, American Century, they do an unbelievable job, not only behind the scenes, but putting on this event for over 30 years. The charity component, everything that they do for that only cancer research. But really, we're just we're blessed as athletes to get to be in a unique spot at the at that venue where people are screaming and it's not your normal golf tournament. Yeah. Does it does it feel like the juice is flowing again? Like every once a year you get to feel what you felt. Maybe maybe it's not the same as, you know, starting pitching or closing a game.

1:14:02PFT Commenter:But but getting a little bit of that back has to feel kind of special, especially for some of the retired athletes. It does. It takes a moment to get used to that kind of tournament golf where you're waiting on the last three holes quite a bit to get those shots in because of the jam-packed par 5, par 3, par 5. So when you get to that point, that's when it starts playing on your nerves a little bit. You can maybe get close to the sport of pitching with the bases loaded or pitching in the World Series. And just having the ability to close out a golf tournament is so difficult until you've done it a few times.

1:14:39And 17 is unique, man. It's that hard three shot that there's tons of people playing music and all the different anxiety that comes over you when you just have an iron in your hand. And you would think when you have an iron in your hand, it's no big deal, especially a nine iron pitching wedge. But that's where it starts getting a little nerve wracking, especially if you've got a chance to win or you're in the hunt.

1:15:02Big Cat:Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a very fun tournament to be at. It's a fun tournament to watch. Do you get any protection from having to be paired up with, no disrespect, you know, the Charles Barkleys of the world, some of the guys that might not have a shot to win the whole tournament? Do you get to kind of like make sure that you're going to be playing with guys that are in your same bracket? I think they do a good job with that in the pairings. They really put the guys together and the gals together that have kind of a similar style of golf. But there's unique setups as well, too. So, you know, in the past, I've been with some baseball people, and then I've been with a bunch of different people.

1:15:40And that's the fun part of seeing what your pairing is. But then knowing, you know, you're looking to the leaderboard, especially after about the first nine holes, to see if anyone's having that tremendous start to a tournament. It's a unique tournament where three points for birdie and one for par. And I say that because in stroke play, I would probably have a much better chance of winning because for some reason, all I do is make pars when I get out there. Pars is no good. Usually, par is good. You've got to make some birdies. You're better off making birdies and bogeys. I tried to adopt that philosophy.

1:16:15Birdies and bogeys. Birdies and bogeys. Be aggressive. And then you get in the thick of things and you still don't, you know, you don't want to ever make a bogey. You don't want to ever three putt. But what you definitely don't want to do is make a double bogey because that's minus two points. So I got to find a way to get out of that par mode. I had 29 consecutive pars one tournament. Jesus. And that is not, you would think that would be great. But it's not. It's like a snail's pace where other people are making six birdies and ten bogeys and they've passed me. You know, that's the difference.

1:16:50Big Cat:Yeah, I mean, a lot of people are saying out there, I don't know if you've heard the rumors and the buzz going through the media, John Smoltz can't win the big one. They're saying that you can't win this tournament, no clutch gene. That's true to this point until I do something about it. I joke about my career path in baseball is the same as my career path in Tahoe's. In baseball, we finished second four times, five times. I didn't want to even, you know, one in five in the World Series or one in four, whatever it is, trying to get that. But that's what's happening in Tahoe. I'm finishing for a second four times.

1:17:27That's that's got to change. So I got to find a way to be the oldest winner, which I will. At some point, I'm going to be the oldest winner to ever win Tahoe. It's just a matter of when.

1:17:36PFT Commenter:Yeah. Yeah. You can we talk some baseball? So we're taping this before the all star break. Is there a tiers of like teams that you've seen kind of shaking out where it's like these teams? Maybe it's the Braves and the Dodgers who are just that much ahead of everyone else. And it feels like it's their season to win a World Series and everyone else is chasing them. I think with the National League being more balanced, there's more teams for sure than the American League. Now, the Braves are on a little bit of thin ice with some of their injuries. They've got a nice lead, but it's dwindling because you've got the Phillies making a charge now.

1:18:12You've got some teams like Milwaukee proving they're not just that small market team again. They keep doing it. They keep finding ways to have young pitchers be dynamic. And then you've got some teams that you scratch your head about the Chicago Cubs. Like they've won 10 in a row two different times or more, and then they've lost 10 in a row or more. So it's a straight – I don't understand the San Diego Padres. They've been a disappointment. The Diamondbacks are trying to get healthy with a couple of their guys. But I think, yes, the Dodgers are the prohibited favors, as they should be, but they don't have Blake Snell.

1:18:46They don't have Glass now. They don't have some of their bullpen guys. The narrative of baseball, and I hate it, is health. We should be dealing with more health than we are. And so it comes down to who's the healthiest team at the right time to either make the trades to improve their club or obviously in the postseason. So even though there's more balance in the National League, some teams are dealing with some injuries that drastically changed their season.

1:19:15Big Cat:Yeah. Who would you say would be, like, are there any teams out there that people might be thinking might be sellers who you could see end up being buyers? Yeah, I've always said, and they've never proved me wrong, unfortunately. I've always said that the Pittsburgh Pirates sooner or later got to be buyers, but they end up being sellers. They end up not, you know, being in position. They've, they've accumulated a lot of talent. They've got Paul schemes. They got to find a way when you got generational players to get in the playoffs, to maximize that, that, that player, because you're never going to sign them.

1:19:50They haven't shown that they're going to resign any of these guys to a long period of contract. So I think what the eyes are going to be on is the New York Mets. Do they do enough by the, by the all-star break to not be sellers and still have that roster, which has been banged up and it's got a ton of salary on it. So I look for the Mets to be interesting to watch. The Nationals are getting closer and closer to being really relevant, which, you know, is ahead of the curve. And so they're going to be an interesting team. The Marlins, I don't think the Marlins ever look at being as buyers, but they're playing really good baseball.

1:20:28And so you got the same old kind of markets that you look to that the big teams cherry pick from that is going to be interesting. The Central has a lot of competitive teams. They were all close to 500 or above. I think Cincinnati is now just below. But I think what everyone's going to be looking at is the American League teams. What teams do they feast off of? And that's going to be the buyer-seller market is going to be majority is going to be, I think, an American League.

1:20:57Big Cat:Well, yeah, I'm thinking about Scooble in particular. And it's very rare that you would get a pitcher that is that talented that could be available. So who do you think makes the most sense? in terms of like what teams do you think will be most aggressive for school? Well, I think first and foremost, not in this order, but you've got to be able to think that Detroit may have waited too long. So I don't know what kind of package they get for a generational left-handed pitcher, but they're going to expect a lot. Otherwise, I think they're going to hang on to him to the end and then, of course, not be able to resign him and lose him.

1:21:28But I think the teams that are able to not only have the prospects to trade for, but the ability to sign him long-term before this labor dispute gets settled or whatever comes on the other end of it. So I think a big market team actually could be in the play for – and it's crazy to think that the Dodgers would be one of those teams, but they're going to be one of those teams. Whether they do it or not, they have all of the prospects, they have all of the money, and they have obviously spent a lot of money to see what happens and to shake out on the other side. Now, I don't think that a small market team, even if they're in the position of making the playoffs, would make that kind of move.

1:22:13But I heard from the beginning of the year, wouldn't it be unbelievable? And I think this ship may have passed. But what would be the prospects of Pittsburgh getting Scoogle with Skeens and being relevant in the postseason? Try to get through those two monsters in the postseason. and all of a sudden you've got a team that's marginal to all of a sudden they are very dangerous. Again, I don't think that's going to happen, but if I was a Pittsburgh Pirate fan, I would be like, man, let's put all our chips in to do that and try to make something happen. But I think for the most part it's going to be somebody who has the ability, I think, unless they're just willing to give up a bunch of prospects for a two-month player, which is tough to do, I think the big market teams actually have the best play.

1:23:00PFT Commenter:Are you shocked at all about how hard guys are throwing now? Like the Jacob Mizrowski, if you look at his stats and the fact that he's touching 104 regularly, it's just a different game than when you were pitching. Not that you weren't throwing hard and there were guys not throwing hard in the 90s, but it seems like if you don't have a couple guys on your staff throwing over 100, you're at a disadvantage. And it's just like, it's nuts how it's all evolved. Yes, but it's worked and it's insane. The reason I say that is it's the reward system that players are chasing. It's because what clubs want is not sustainable.

1:23:42It's just not. Nobody has survived it. We might have one freak, one Nolan Ryan in a generation. I always use this example. Nolan Ryan was a freak, right? You can't even come close to saying there were five other Nolan Ryans while Nolan Ryan pitched. We have 25 Nolan Ryans now. That's not genetically possible. That's a manufactured against the odds where your body can't sustain it. Yes, the radar gun's a little juiced, first of all. And guys are definitely training to throw the ball as hard as they can, no doubt. The training of baseball pitchers is way ahead of the training of hitting. And you see this shift going on of what clubs are trying to do and how they use 38 pitchers a year.

1:24:23Think about that. 38 pitchers to get through a season. That's insane. But because they have a lot of factory arms, because they have guys that don't know how to pitch but can throw, they can fill the gap with the rules that exist in baseball. Things have to change in a rule change down the road, which is going to come, but they got to get this labor thing behind it. A rule change is going to come just like it affected the pitch clock and the banning of the shift and all the things that have now made baseball relevant again, we're going to have to do that on the pitching front because right now clubs don't care whether a guy lasts five or six years.

1:24:59They just care about that moment and time where he can max effort. And we're having discussions that we should never be having on the narratives like this. Oh man, Tarek Skubel, unbelievable. When's he going to get his? Well, he had a precursor and already one of those little, I call it, you get a sneak preview of what's coming. When's Paul Skeen's going to get his? When's Miserowski going to get, I don't want to have those conversations. I said 10 years ago, what was coming and it's here and nobody cares because the guys that are running the game have never played. And so they only care about the bottom dollar and the opportunity to maximize run prevention.

1:25:37So from their side, if I had to jump on their side, here's what I would say. It works temporarily, but then you got to find the next guy. And until that runs out, which there is no sign that that's going to run out, guys' careers are cut in thirds, eighths, tenths. Like, it's insane. So, but if I had to jump on that side, I would absolutely use guys and abuse guys, which is what they're doing, and get them to buy in, you know, to the narrative that this is how you get drafted. This is how you get paid. oh by the way you're never going to have a 10 and 15 year career yeah so that's the byproduct

1:26:20PFT Commenter:or i should say the downside of what's going on well off that so you you were you i think you were the first pitcher to be elected in the hall of fame who had tommy john surgery and tommy john surgery now is just like commonplace it's like it's basically like you like you're saying like oh you're going to pitch for a couple years then you're gonna get tommy john then you're going to be back what is the rehab like on tommy john did when you came back from tommy john do you feel like brand new or because it does feel almost like an injury that's like all right check that box he got tommy john now he's gonna be back he'll be fine yeah here's the myths behind behind tommy john that nobody is paying attention to the theory is this is you're going to be better stronger and you're just going to it's like a band-aid you just got to wait 16 months 16 to 18 months which is way too long but everyone's okay with waiting 18 months to think that they're going to get the guy that can actually throw harder.

1:27:13That's a myth. You don't throw harder. You don't get to a place where you just imagine everybody. Like for me, I had about 2 ,400 innings as I was wearing down and all those postseason innings and pitching through pain and discomfort. I knew what was coming. I was pitching with a torn ligament for a year and a half and I was going to retire. But Tommy John himself called me, the doctors talked me into it and I pitched seven more years and I was back to where I was pre-Tommy John. But the myth is you're going to make it. Like if you have it at 16 years old, there's no guarantee you even get to the next level.

1:27:47You can get back to 16. Here's what Tommy John's stats are. Wherever you have your surgery, wherever you were at, you got a high likelihood of going back to that, but not necessarily advancing from that. We forget about the hundreds and thousands of pitchers who never advanced past their Tommy John, but yeah, their arm's good. and their elbow's good. But what I felt like, and I came back at 10 months, which is really early, and I had a setback with some tendonitis. But then once I was able to get over it, I went to the bullpen. I pitched another seven years, never really had an injury with my elbow.

1:28:21My shoulder was the one that ended up going. But this mindset that parents have, it's insane. I'm going to have little Johnny get a Tommy John at 12, and he's going to be fine because look at this guy. Look The earlier they have it, the more susceptible they are to a second one. We've got guys with two Tommy Johns and three Tommy Johns. This is not normal. The arm just, and the body's telling you this is not sustainable. When I see a young man at 14 throwing 92 miles an hour, I cringe. When a parent says, what should I do with my, you know, I said, put him in the outfield. Stop pitching. He's got the gift.

1:28:57What are we doing? Why are you dominating at 12 and 13 and just pushing the body to the point where it's okay to have a Tommy John surgery? I spent five minutes of my Hall of Fame speech on this topic, and it fell on deaf ears. And I think that's the reality of the why we need rule changes coming towards pitching to change the philosophy and change what we're asking guys to do. If we don't get that, we have a sport where the iconic and must-see TV starting pitchers are gone. There's no matchups. There's no, let me look and go to this game because I got this guy starting. When you look around the league today, I can't find 10 guys that I would buy a ticket to if I'm a fan to go.

1:29:45I have to go see him pitch. The reality is there's not that many that go six or seven innings anyways. And there's not that many that have the head up matchup where you go, that's a must ticket. So baseball's compartmentalized the entity that was the strongest unit that got you to the postseason, that was the marquee matchup. They've taken that away and used three pitchers for that one. And now it's taking 12 pitchers to 14 pitchers between two teams to get through a game. So if you're scrolling around going, yeah, Paul Skeens, I want to go see him pitch, but who is he going to pitch against? Those matchups have been diluted because we devalued the great role of a starting pitcher by analytics.

1:30:26Big Cat:So, I mean, I think you make a whole lot of sense, and I wish people would start paying attention to you. What rule change could you possibly put in, though, to discourage the way that clubs are just chewing guys up and spitting them out? Right. And there's a couple ways you can do it. And when you would have thought about the rule changes that we have today, when those came up, everyone said, you're crazy. Not really, because now we realize the game's moving along. The shift, which was killing left-handed ground balls and killing right-handed ground balls, is no longer. So when you have a society of the game that is trying to lift the ball out of the ballpark because it's counteracting high velocity, you have to find a way to incentivize clubs to teach their pitchers to do different.

1:31:09So one of the ways, and I floated this out five years ago, and of course they thought I was crazy, was you tie your starting pitcher to the DH. Well, what is that going to do? Well, that's going to give you a competitive advantage if your pitcher goes seven or eight innings versus the four or five. That's also going to eliminate the stupidest idea in the history of the game as an opener. Because if you want to start a guy for one inning, then you got five or four pinch hits coming down the pipe because you lose your DH. So that's one way to think proactively towards, all right, I'm a club that sees this rule and goes, I'm going to continue business the same way.

1:31:47Great. You can do it. See, it doesn't say you can't. It's just, I don't think you'll be advantageous down the road. So now your club says, okay, I got these guys that throw 103. I got to teach them. I really don't want them to max effort every single pitch. I want them to have 103, but let's just try to train them to give me seven, eight innings, which you can do, by the way. Like I don't understand why all of a sudden that's such a bad thing. So that's one way to do it. The other way to do it is limit roster manipulation in the farm system and roster big league rosters by only having 11 pitchers.

1:32:21If you only have 11 pitchers and you've got six bullpen guys, good luck trying to get four and five innings out of your starters every single time. And couple that with you don't have an elevator system where you can just have guys come up and down at will.

1:32:36Big Cat:It's interesting that you mentioned the opener. I was going to ask you about the opener. If you thought that you would have been a good opener later in your career, you got switched to the bullpen. You were a fantastic closer. Do you think the opener role would have been one that suited you? I would have quit. I would have flat out quit. And I know that, well, here's what's going on again in Stratomatic Baseball. When you do this, you're basically telling whatever that starting pitcher is that's coming in behind that can't face the lineup three times or the top of the order, you're saying to him, you're not that good.

1:33:10And so you've already impacted that next guy because he's coming in in the second inning. He realizes he can't face Aaron Judge in the first inning, but he's eventually got to face him. He's just only going to face them one and maybe two times. So that, again, on paper has ruined baseball. But it's not against the rules. So that's the rub, right? And I think when you start getting cute with the game and you start thinking on paper is the maximum success rate, it just doesn't work. Like it works in a game by itself. But if you keep doing that, look at all the teams that did that. And then the one problem, I don't have a problem with analytics.

1:33:50I think analytics is great. But the problem is if that's all your resources and that's the only decisions you make is on analytics, I think you're missing the boat. I think you just absolutely have no chance of winning a World Series and or anything else because you don't understand the game and how it's played over 162. You got to use your eyes and you got to be able to blend. So these kind of things I've been saying for years, and it's definitely showing up every year in a World Series. You see the teams that win, the teams that don't deviate from the way that they go about the game. Now, I will say this.

1:34:26If every game was played in the Dome, then you can get more universal kind of statistical categories that are neutral. But you got wind, you got elevation, you got all these other elements that we want to quantify by a stat. We want to show how smart we are to come up with an algorithm or a stat that just quantifies 100%. There's no such thing. But if you show me 100 % analytics as a manager, I will not deviate from that. But there is no such thing. So you have to balance it and you have to play the game in a certain way so that you can understand the flows and the ebbs and the human nature and the elements.

1:35:02But if everything was in a dome, then you would have a better case to make for those kind of numbers.

1:35:08PFT Commenter:Who's your favorite pitcher to watch right now and why? That's a great question. Thank you. I just think I'm a generational guy. I like a guy who can sustain time. I mean, don't get me wrong. I love watching Skeens. I love watching Scoble. I love watching Garrett Cole. I've always been partial to a Zach Wheeler. My favorite for the longest time was Justin Verlander because he had a, I called him a 10 speed bike. You know, he could start at 92 and end at 99 or throw at 100 in the first inning and still end at 100. He manipulated the game and he understood he could pitch in any generation. And my fear for these guys is when they lose their miles per hour, they have no tools in their tool set.

1:35:53They have no way to know how to pitch with less velocity because they've been taught max velocity. So, you know, Jacob DeGrom, when he came on the scene, drool came out of my mouth. You know, but then he's had two Tommy John surgery since. I look at a Mizorowski and I go, my gosh, this guy would be unbelievable. I hope he sustains it. I hope he can learn that he doesn't have to be addicted to 103. You know, that we don't have to keep talking about miles per hour and we talk about his success every time. I mean, I kind of want to throw up when I see his stats. All they talk about is how many pitches he threw over 102 miles an hour.

1:36:32He could have given up seven runs or thrown a no-hitter, and they're talking about 102 miles an hour. We've got to get back to pitching and rewarding these guys for great efforts. So there's so many dynamic arms, and there's so many guys that you just go, wow, my number one thing is please stay healthy. Please stay healthy. Please stay healthy. I want to watch you pitch as long as you possibly can.

1:36:59PFT Commenter:Yeah, and a question about your career, because you are the best ever, I would say, that started and then closed. When you went into the bullpen, what did you have to change about your mentality? Because a lot of guys don't like that, I would assume. They're either starters or it's almost like the old saying, a bullpen guy is just a failed starter. That's a guy, if he could start, he'd be making more money, but he can't, so he's in the bullpen. You did both at such a high level. What was that change like for you mentally and just emotionally and how you watched the game? It was the hardest thing I've ever done.

1:37:34And I know people are going to be like, what? You're still throwing a baseball. But the structure, the personality, everything you just mentioned. First of all, when I started, it was longevity. My reward system was different. We were taught to train for eight, nine innings. I never maxed effort a pitch. I could throw 94 to 97. But I varied my speeds. I varied my angles. All the things we were trying to do. guys had a two-strike approach. All of the things that hitters had were totally different than they are today. There was no badge of honor that you struck out three times but hit a home or you were like looked at with a funny face.

1:38:07But when I went in the closures role for an inning, I could actually let the ball eat, as you would say, 98, 99. But I still wasn't max efforting. I wasn't grunting. It was just the ability to do that, sustain it, and have 81 appearances or 78 appearances than I did my first time, I was exhausted. I've thrown 256 innings in a regular season, and I threw 81 innings or whatever it was my first time as a closer. I was gassed as a closer. All the warm-ups, all the times getting ready, all the times you didn't get in, and just that continual three in a row, five out of six, six out of eight, those dynamics have changed dramatically.

1:38:47Guys don't pitch three games in a row anymore. Guys are max effort trying to strike out three in an inning. I'd say mostly they're trying to strike out four in an inning if they get a pass ball. And I think it's the difference is what they're being rewarded for. But man, oh man, was it difficult for me to make that transition because of the structure and discipline for a pitching, a starting pitcher is the greatest life in the rest. It is. It's the greatest life, greatest job. And most people are envious of it when you do it well because it is the greatest job. But then when you go to the bullpen, you're like, forget that.

1:39:19You've got to be ready every day. Work out. your eating habits, everything changes. And I learned the hard way. I learned on the job because there wasn't time for me to gain experience. The one thing I did have an advantage of is my 14 previous years of starting pitching gave me the leverage that when I came into the game, guys didn't want to get to two strikes. So I got a lot of quick outs. I got a lot of, you know, outs without throwing a ton of pitches and they didn't want to get to two strikes. So I knew how to put guys away, and then it became a leverage for me when I got to the closing role.

1:39:54Big Cat:How did that affect your golf game, though? I imagine as a starting pitcher, you get to play a lot more golf than as a closer. In theory, yes. But reality, no. I played every day as a closer because I only had to get three outs or six outs at night, about 1030 at night. So I couldn't play the day I pitched as a starter, obvious reasons. So I played four days in between as a closer. I know a lot of heads turned. I know upper management was freaking out. And I told them it's not that big a deal. There won't be any, you know, I won't sacrifice my ability to pitch. After 55 saves my first year, they never questioned me about playing golf again.

1:40:31But I played a lot of golf as a closer because of the ability just you could. And you didn't, you know, you could rest and take a nap, whatever it is. Golf's not, by the way, a strenuous sport, especially if you're not walking 36 or you're not shooting 106.

1:40:47PFT Commenter:Right. Yeah. How many how many of your friends? I would imagine the invite to the American Century Championship is something that you covet because we talk to the guys and they're like, I just want to get invited back every year because it's that much fun. Have you do you get hit up a lot? Having people be like, hey, can you get me in? Can you can you help me out? Yeah, that's been a popular text. I try my best, but the turnover is about 18 to 21 per year, I guess, something like that, new players every year at Tahoe. And I don't take it for granted. You know, I'm honored to have been now 16, 17.

1:41:23I don't even know how many years it's been. It's been awesome. I missed it once for Miss Tahoe once because I got inducted in the Hall of Fame and I really, really, really, really wanted to go to Tahoe. But I felt it would be a bad luck if I missed the Hall of Fame. So it's definitely a – again, it's a calendar thing. I've told all my kids, six of them, don't plan anything, no weddings during July right around the All-Star break because I won't be there.

1:41:51PFT Commenter:Yeah, it's smart. Very smart. So we've had Greg Maddox on a couple times this show. He's obviously a Hall of Famer as well, but also a Hall of Fame prankster. Did he ever get you with something? okay no no there was kind of i don't know you know we kind of had an unwritten code picture on picture of crime um but he did he did a little bit of things that um you know let's just say i don't know how he didn't get beat up when he was a kid you know if he did these as a kid but he had a way about him um in his sneaky kind of um weird uh thinking way of getting through it without anybody really. I guess if he was a 500 pitcher, he couldn't get away with it.

1:42:39But just because he's such a great pitcher and one of the best of all times, you knew where your place was when it came to trying to get him. So he set the standards that indirectly said, you can't touch me, which kind of brilliant. But also, yeah, pitcher on pitcher crime was kind of looked really, really poorly if that if that if happened yeah was that weird at the time that like in the media

1:43:08Big Cat:the way that uh greg maddox was talked about was like a boy scout professor combination and then behind the scenes you're like this guy's the most disgusting human being in terms of the pranks that he tries to pull like how how who's his pr team yeah you you had no idea about the sentiment most of the time with how listen i will say he was brilliant in everything that he did because he gave horrible interviews on purpose, horrible. And it took the onus off of him and it put it on us. Me and Glavin probably did more interviews about him than he did about himself in the latter part of his career.

1:43:43And I look back and I go, it's actually brilliant. He could walk down the street, no one knew who he was. He always was by the numbers and did things that made him, you know, have an advantage and leverage. And yeah, he created a persona that was totally different. um i'll never forget when ernie johnson uh one of our and pete van weir and our announcers for tbs i think they coined him the professor i think that's where it started and we were like professor give me a break uh but you know in the in the in the scheme of things and what he was doing and how far advanced he was with his thinking then that that fit but when it came to everything else heck no it didn't fit you know but he wasn't he was a good fielder he was a good athlete he was a pretty good golfer all the things that he could have had in his era he could have had every commercial he could have been one of the highest marketable guys but he was low-keyed on purpose and all those things I think when I look back I'm like you know he did it his way and and he did it where the attention was kind of off of him because he made it off of him like when you give answers like uh uh you know uh i just kind of got lucky or just you know people are like what you know so he he i think i think he knew what he was doing what you guys obviously were part of

1:45:04PFT Commenter:an all-time pitching staff with you maddox and glavin and would you guys like share with each other would you tell each other things like what what was that relationship like or was it like hey i'm just doing my thing you worry about yourself let's just go get wins you know what I think the beauty of our threesome was that we talked about hitting a lot hitters a lot. What would you do? You know, ask each other question. We pitched three total different ways. Glavid and Maddox were more similar in their velocity and the way that they got hitters out with off speed. I was the guy that was deemed had all the stuff and should have won all the while, you know, all the hardware and the youngs.

1:45:45And I had all that pressure that basically I was in most people's eyes, not delivering to, but they were great teammates. Greg was great in the way that he taught me some things and I was able to teach him how to have fun and play games and still have a career because he was living in such a high level and an expectation was so great that there's nowhere to go from there. When you win four Cy Youngs in a row, there's nowhere to go from there. Like, and I, again, was underperforming in other people's eyes till I won mine in 96. And then Glavin was ho-hum and taught me individually how to just be, how to fake it, you know, how to have no, I was an emotional pitcher.

1:46:27I wore my emotions on my sleeve. It had its advantages and it had its disadvantages. He taught me how to fake it because when Glavin was on the mound, you didn't know if he's winning or losing, you didn't know if he had a no-hitter or giving up 10 runs. And I think that part of, I learned how to have a successful campaign, a successful year from Greg. I learned how to fight through my issues and not give the hitter an advantage to Tommy. And so collectively, we showed up every day without saying it, trying to one-up each other. And by one-upping each other, that meant indirectly, Greg threw a complete game, two runs, five hits.

1:47:06then for me it was all right I better give up two runs and four hits or one run and you know so it made us better and we checked our ego every time we came into the locker room because if you didn't each one of them had a chance you know if you wanted to be the ace then you were going to be humiliated at times if that's what was your mindset and we we all lived in our lanes and I like this example during the regular season over the course of our 10 years Greg and Tom took took turns driving the car and I was in the back seat come postseason I jumped in the front seat and I started driving the car that's the way I felt that's the way I felt about what I could do and it all worked out you know for three special years uh three special uh careers uh to end up

1:47:55Big Cat:where we did yeah it was a great team and another great player that was on some of those teams uh Fred McGriff the crime dog I'm wondering did you ever watch the Tom Amansky defensive drills video can you imagine how much grief he took from that i mean to this day he still has a horse laugh every time we bring it up and and i think he got stiffed to be honest with you i don't even think he got paid that commercial was on probably like 40 times a day for 20 years yeah i know if you knew the crime dog and how gentle giant he is and how what an awesome teammate he was It just it just it's perfect to see him in that video.

1:48:34Just we would laugh every single time. But the crime dog was awesome.

1:48:39Big Cat:That's awesome. It was a great I'm Fred. It was like he was reading cue cards for his own name in that one clip that they had. It was an awesome commercial. And your manager at the time, Bobby Cox, recently passed away. R.I.P. just seems like an all time baseball guy. I've read a lot of the stories, heard a lot of his players talk about him. But was there anything special about him that you identified with that you really appreciated? Well, first of all, you know, a lot of people criticize his loyalty towards players as being blind and just it wasn't that way. But he did have tremendous loyalty to his players who disciplined themselves, put in the time and the work and were always prepared.

1:49:17He understood the game was hard. And it was so easy in this game to jump ship on guys, especially managers who are on the hot seat because of their starter player or a few players. He never did. He had such credibility in our locker room for what he had done in the past. But his ability to lead men, and I've run through a wall for him. Like I say this all the time, he traded for me as the GM, and then he was my manager for 20 years. and he was the biggest reason, the single most reason why my career identified with what it did. I could have taken so many different turns for the worst under different leadership.

1:49:55In 1991, I'm 2-11. I mean, there's no precedent for a 2-11 first half guy to stick around in the rotation. In my day, you were going back to the bullpen or back to the minors. And he stuck with me. I went 12 and two, the rest is history. So he just had this ability to treat men like men. And then if you weren't a man, teach you how to be a man. And at the same time, give you confidence when you didn't have it. That's a lost art in a game that's identified by failure. And can you, I can even imagine today if he was managing and guys were hitting 220, which they do. And the league average is the worst it's always been.

1:50:35He would find a way to make that 220 guy feel like he was hitting 320 and that's a special talent because you can see your average every time you go to the plate and you can see what you're not doing and it would be much easier to get that guy out of the lineup than to sustain him on to give him confidence and

1:50:52PFT Commenter:he had a gift with that yeah uh john this has been awesome we can't wait for the american century championship we're going to be rooting for you this year uh we'll be out in tahoe that entire week it is one of our favorite events like i said we got one last question it's the Roback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com, promo code TAKE, 20 % off your first purchase, Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, Roback.com. Great golf wear. I wear a polo every time, Roback polo. Zach in the booth, you got a question for John Smoltz.

1:51:24Big Cat:How are we doing today, sir? Doing good, thank you. Great to hear that. You did have a quick question. With the American Century Championship coming up soon, if you could hand select your pairing, is there a group of guys you'd want to play with most out there? Oh, good question. Oh, yeah. That's a great question. I've never actually played in this. I don't think I played in the same group with Steph Curry, but I'd love to play in the same group with Steph Curry. He's got, you know, typically when he comes into Tahoe, he's coming off of a long playoffs, and he doesn't have that this year, so his game's going to be ready.

1:51:57I always love playing with Marty Fish. Marty Fish is one of my all-time favorites, and now we play together on the pro tour that we've started. and a lot of the athletes that are playing on the Pro Tour are going to be at Tahoe. But really, Joe Pavelski is another one that's one. I just love playing with guys that, first of all, are really, really good. And I learn a lot by watching really good players, even though I'm probably way older than all of them. I love seeing good swings. I love emulating good swings. I don't have any technique down pat perfect, but I just like playing with people who are pretty good.

1:52:37PFT Commenter:Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and you're very, very good. So maybe this is the year. Do you feel like your game's in a spot where this is the year? My game is in a great spot. Look, I'm two years removed from both my hips being replaced. I have learned a lot about my body since my hips. You know, I was playing golf banged up way too much because I'm addicted to golf. There's no doubt about it. I'll play through a broken leg, broken arm. I don't care. I want to get on a golf course, but I've learned a lot about my game. And the bottom line for me, it's not a hard answer to answer. If I don't putt well, I will not win, but I'll finish in the top 10.

1:53:16I just make too many pars in Tahoe, and I'm going to change that. I don't care if I have to sleep on the green one night to get one with the green, but it's a different surface. Poana treats me differently. I'm going to putt my golf ball that week with the idea that I'm the greatest putter in the world because that's the only way I'm going to change the narrative. When you make that many pars, you just don't have a chance to win. So it's got about birdies bust and maybe sprinkle in an eagle. I haven't had many of those either.

1:53:50Big Cat:Yeah, we better not see you leave any putts short. We'll get on you if you leave them short. Yeah, you got to leave a putt short if it's for par, but you should never leave it short if it's for birdie. Because the transition of that three points versus one versus zero. So if you're too aggressive on the par putts, you go from one to minus two real quick if you three putts. So yes, you're right. Leaving them short is not a great recipe, but it's the reality of golf. You don't, when you first get there, you don't want a three putt, but it's okay to three putt for a birdie. It is. It's okay. Like you can get, everyone goes, oh, you missed a two footer coming back.

1:54:29Yeah. Okay. But I was trying to make that three pointer, which is more important than that one pointer. So you're 100 % right. And I'm working on that.

1:54:38Big Cat:That's analytics. You're embracing analytics. Yeah, you love analytics. You're a nerd. You're the number one analytics guy that we've ever had on the show. that might be one of the cruelest things you've ever thought yeah i am i'm like i said i'm i'm kind of branded as the anti-analytics guy you know as a fox analyst i'm not i'm just not i'm just not going to spit out all this information just because i can to sound smart i'm going to balance the both and so when i start looking at a golf game you know what i do i i have notes books of notes of every round that i played that i learned what do i what do i have to do different so yeah i'm doing my own analytics i'm looking at those things because if you don't look at it you're stupid yeah but if you if you look at it and that's all you pay attention to then you're stupid yeah because you have to be able to balance what you feel like you're breathing you know how how different things work and so that's that's kind of where i'm at yeah just a

1:55:33PFT Commenter:tip going forward just don't say i don't hate analytics because that's always a telltale sign is someone who hates analytics. It's always a big butt coming. Yeah, that's exactly right. But when I talk about it on baseball and I tell you how the game's being played and what should or shouldn't happen, that's based on experience. But then I have to follow it up with, but this club wants to do this because it's based on their information. So it's definitely a blend that I've learned over the last 10 years. And the reality is, if people own up to their mistakes in the game of baseball and make necessary adjustments, I think that's great.

1:56:15But when you're smart and you want to stay smart, you never admit that you need to make changes based on your algorithm, I think that's a mistake. So I'm all in. I've seen the Rays make adjustments. I've seen the Brewers make adjustments on the fly, by the way, which is brilliant because then that's telling you what we once thought was wrong. And now we're going to do this. And when you, when you do those things, that means you're paying attention to the information and the way that you try to play. And then you're, you're adjusting on the fly. And I think that's great.

1:56:49Big Cat:Yeah. Is there one analytic, like a number that you'll reach out and say, okay, the analytic nerds were right about this one. That's a great question because the one thing that I promoted them to try to come up with is one that I think would serve us better value in the sport. When you're addicted to exit velocity, it doesn't tell you the story. It just tells you that big, strong dude hit it 117 off the bat. No kidding. It's going to go over 400 feet. When you're addicted to miles per hour, that's all. So what I've asked them to do is I said, come up with a stat. It's not sexy, but see all these stats that they come up with, they want to, they want to, they have a quantifiable factor behind it.

1:57:30The one I don't like is expected X. Like, how can you tell me what a player is going to do based on this current 10 game span or his 10 starts? Like, that's the one area where I say, nope, you lost me. Because when you throw 240 innings, there's an ability for you not to be as good at the end. Then when you're throwing 160, win a Cy Young and everyone goes crazy because they try to translate, well, at 240, this is where it would be. No, doesn't work that way. So the stat that I like is that exit velocity, you give me the average exit velocity of every time a ball is put in play or an out is made.

1:58:09So in other words, if you hit a ball at 110, great, you get that. But if you swing and miss and strike out, you get a zero. And at the end of the year, all the different things that you're going to have an average exit velocity of a lot lower number, but I guarantee you the number that is going to be in the 70s to 80s is going to be your best hitter. And that's been proven because they've taken the value of every time he hits a ball and the value of every time he doesn't hit a ball. Because when we get to exit velocity, they don't tell you that that guy struck out 210 times a year. Yeah. Right?

1:58:42They're just cherry picking a bad pitch, cherry picking a good swing. And to me, there's no value in that. We just get to see like we're enamored with, oh, wow, 117 off the bat. So that to me is when you start drawing a line to that's a stat that doesn't mean anything. Give me a stat that's more relevant and I'm all in. Like that's the way I think. And when they come up with those, I'm like, great job. But when they do the ones that just, again, by osmosis, we're addicted to how hard someone swings, how hard they throw. It's not telling the story. It's not helping your teammate. And that's the one thing that, you know, I kind of balance out.

1:59:23PFT Commenter:Yeah. All right. Well, John, thank you so much for joining us. And we can't wait to see you in Tahoe. Appreciate it so much. My pleasure, guys. I look forward to seeing you there.

1:59:32Big Cat:Before we get to dingers only, it's brought to you by Jose Cuervo. When Cuervo enters, every moment just gets better. You find yourself in the center of the dance floor. You can't help but stand up and high five those around you at the game. You know what? A dinger. We're doing dingers only draft, but if you get a massive dinger, that is a Jose Cuervo moment. That's when the room reacts like it just got the same text at the same time. You stop checking the time. Suddenly small talk escalates to laughing so hard. You can barely catch your breath. That's the Cuervo effect, the signal everybody understands.

2:00:04Big Cat:I would say Fernando Tatis home run. You get a dinger from that guy. That's a Cuervo moment. All you have to do is keep it Cuervo with Jose Cuervo. and Dingers Only is also brought to you by our great friends over at Morgan & Morgan, America's number one injury law firm. You don't hire the wrong people. If you hire the wrong people, it can be disastrous. That's where Morgan & Morgan comes in. They're America's largest injury law firm. They have over 100 offices nationwide, more than 1 ,000 lawyers, with over$30 billion recovered for over 500 ,000 clients. Morgan & Morgan has a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation.

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2:01:20PFT Commenter:Okay, we are back. It is Dinger's Only time. What year? What is this? The third, fourth year? Fourth year of Dinger's Only? No, third year, I think. Fourth year. Fourth because I didn't participate. You pitch, Max pitch, Stephen Chase still has to pitch. That's right, yeah. As a quick refresher for everyone, it is our fantasy baseball league that we start halfway through the baseball season. And the only stat is dingers. So we have Hank, Stephen Shea, Max, PFT, myself, Brandon Walker, Jerry, Zach, and Memes. Nine teams this year. And we are all going to draft nine players. So no pitcher, obviously.

2:02:01PFT Commenter:It's going to be DH instead. You have to get the actual position. And the only stat is dingers and the loser is going to have to pitch against a college or better baseball team. Stephen Shea, you still have to do that, which it might take for. I actually think Stephen's so bad at pitching. We should just we should play against Stephen. Us. Yeah, it would be fun. I'm bad at pitching. I didn't realize the mound was. I mean, I did realize.

2:02:24Big Cat:But like when I've stood out on a real mound, I went to a field recently far and elevated. Yeah. Yeah. He might be so bad if we have a good field. like we have the bananas again PFT pitched so slow that the hitters weren't able to time up the pitches and if you have a good field. I pitched an average of 60 miles per hour, 65 miles an hour.

2:02:50PFT Commenter:Well, that's what I'm saying. It might be fun to just stand in the box with Steven and take walks and then hit dingers off him. I threw my hardest at Yankee Stadium like 10 years ago in front of a speedometer or odometer, whatever those are called. 59. Okay. That was 10 years ago.

2:03:07Big Cat:Is that something you're proud of? I'm just saying I can't. I can't really tell with your cadence of whether not proud.

2:03:14PFT Commenter:Okay. So we're going to – Who has to catch? Second place. I think Zach, right? Zach has to catch Stephen Jay. We'll get that done. We'll get that done at some point this summer. Brandon is the defending champ. Two time. He requested that we – This year maybe everyone puts in$100. bucks so there's a cash prize because he's mad that he keeps winning things without cash involved i've won the dozen twice and i've won this twice i've won zero dollars at barstool sports okay so congratulations i win the dozen brand thank you pft is everyone is everyone should you win for soccer uh i actually for thanks max for do that but how much would it would have it would have been 10k but i i gave it to to my team i've never won a goddamn thing to have money attached to it

2:03:58Big Cat:only things i win are bullshit well the nvp for the dozen there was a cash prize of that Did you win that for the tournament? You didn't win that? Who won? I did. I got the cash prize. Oh, fuck yeah. Congratulations, BF2. But I also forgoo it.

2:04:14PFT Commenter:Yeah.

2:04:14Big Cat:So it goes to the second place finish.

2:04:16PFT Commenter:No, to the kids. You want to try to win Lib of the Year? Jerry's won that a couple years in a row. $25 ,000 cash prize. Mm-hmm. Lib of the Year? Get a Kamala poster.

2:04:24Big Cat:Are you still going for it, or it just happens?

2:04:26PFT Commenter:Yeah, I think this year might be$50 ,000.

2:04:28Big Cat:Yeah, but we're taxing that at 100%. Yeah, 100 % tax.

2:04:31PFT Commenter:Jerry just found that people can switch back and forth between being gay so he's yeah he's opening his eyes i'm all for it what happened there jerry

2:04:38Big Cat:dude i went viral on gay twitter okay i don't know pat like i don't know pat made a video like what it tell the story so pretty much i i have a gay cousin who pat has met at a gay club and like my gay cousin introduced himself to pat i don't know if they were trying to get with each other or anything but they were they were separated they were together him and him and the other gay um well gay like his partner whatever his boyfriend his boyfriend correct okay so they were together for multiple years they broke up about two years ago i found out that out through the facebook then i'm scrolling facebook this is two years later now this is like a couple days like a week ago i'm scrolling and i'm like what the fuck no that and i zoom i'm like no this is him and i was like oh this gotta be ai or something or a joke his ex-boyfriend who was gay he's not gay anymore he actually has a baby on the way with a female so he just totally was like fuck that i'm straight now okay and then like i'm saying to myself like that's just not possible like like You don't just wake up and like, oh, I'm not gay no more, right?

2:05:54Big Cat:Well, I mean, you could. It sounds like maybe he was bisexual. Yeah, I don't know, man. I feel like there's just, you're either all in or you're all out. Isn't that kind of how it... But I mean, okay, Jared. Nope. No, because, so, Jared, you like women. Correct, yeah. Like physically, you like looking at a woman, right? Correct, yeah. You like having sex with women. Yeah. You like seeing naked women. Correct, yeah. You also kind of like looking at T.J. Watt. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And you like feet. I've seen you look at a man's feet. Yeah. You were attracted to my feet. That's tough. Yeah. When you put it like that.

2:06:28Big Cat:You don't like, you're not in love with TJ Watt, but when he comes on the screen, you're like, that's a good looking man. I'll say this. I've never even had a conversation or even like known somebody to go both, to do both.

2:06:42PFT Commenter:Have you ever watched porn?

2:06:44Big Cat:Yeah.

2:06:45PFT Commenter:Kind of gay. Read. Really? Gay? You watched another guy. There's dick in it. Yeah, I mean, I guess you're right. But the tweet that Jerry threw out there without context said, there's no way I can just turn gay. So how did that happen? So that makes it look like I'm gay. Like I'm saying, oh, I woke up.

2:07:04Big Cat:I'm just gay now. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. So I didn't. I forgot to add the context to it. Like, hey, look at my other tweet. Yeah, I'm straight. This is. Yeah.

2:07:16Big Cat:All right.

2:07:18PFT Commenter:We're going to decide the order with a sporkle. So how it works is there's going to be a sporkle up. We'll start with Hank. You just answer any of them, and then if you get something wrong, you're out. And then the last person standing gets to decide if they want the first pick or whatever pick they want. Are we snakes?

2:07:35Big Cat:Snakes around? But just the person who wins picks their spot, and then it goes around. We've got to go in the order.

2:07:41PFT Commenter:Yes, correct. And please say the question that you're answering for the podcast listeners so they can hear. All right, here we go. Ready, Hank? It's up. It's a grab bag. Do free mode. Free mode, yep. All right. So we're going to go around until there's one man standing. Somebody should read all the categories now.

2:07:59Big Cat:Seven milk options at Starbucks. Oat.

2:08:01PFT Commenter:Okay. Okay. 4-J. Read all the categories. Go ahead. One drink served in Water Fountain and movie Idiocracy. Three subatomic particles. Three main characters in Trailer Park Boys. Four teams. Allen Iverson played for six countries to make these brands. Lego, Lululemon, Prada, Samsung, Lexus, and Ikea. Seven milk options at Starbucks. Six actresses to appear nude in following movies. There's movies there. Seven original members of the Seven and the Boys. Nine running backs with over 10K career rush yards and eight or more 1K rushing seasons. And ten Kevin Costner sports movies. I'm going to struggle with this.

2:08:40Alright.

2:08:41PFT Commenter:Go ahead. Four teams Allen Iverson played for Philadelphia 76ers. Okay, Max?

2:08:47Big Cat:That was going to be mine. I'll go with the Detroit Pistons.

2:08:51PFT Commenter:For teams Allen Iverson played for. Okay.

2:08:54Big Cat:I'll go with the Denver Nuggets for teams Allen Iverson played for.

2:08:57PFT Commenter:I will go with Sweden for Ikea countries to make these brands. I will go with Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner sports movies. Okay.

2:09:08Big Cat:I will go with the Starbucks Seven Different Milks. I will go with Skim. Nice. I'd also like to go seven different milks and go almond.

2:09:17PFT Commenter:We're cooking now. Memes? I'm going to go Trailer Park Boy characters. Bubbles. Okay. Back to you, Hank.

2:09:25Big Cat:I will go Trailer Park Boys characters. Ricky.

2:09:31PFT Commenter:Seven milk options at Starbucks. 2%.

2:09:36Big Cat:I will go Allen Iverson Grizzlies. Well done. Nice. So the Jerome Bettis played for the Rams. Nope. Didn't know that. I'm going to go with Kevin Costner, sports movies, tin cup. Nice.

2:09:52PFT Commenter:I will go milk options, hole. I will go Kevin Costner, sports movies, bull Durham. See you, Jerry. Okay, Jerry. Jerry might be in trouble here. Do subatomic particles

2:10:18Okay

2:10:22Big Cat:Sorry I just had to read I'm going to do the Sorry I'm going to do the running backs With Dan can you read me the yards again

2:10:32PFT Commenter:10k career rush yards And 8 or more 1k rushing seasons Okay

2:10:38Big Cat:Okay Yeah Eight or more That's a lot Yeah That's a lot Yeah Gonna go Barry Sanders Got it Nice job Zach I would like to take Subatomic particles And I would like to go with Adam

2:11:01PFT Commenter:Oh That's tough And that's Zach is out I can't believe that's what it went All right Memes A lot on the board Memes That's a crazy move.

2:11:09Big Cat:Trailer Park Boys, Julian. Okay. Six actresses to appear in the following movies. I will go Margot Robbie. Nice one. Nice one. Seven milk options at Starbucks. 1%.

2:11:26PFT Commenter:Running out of milk over there, Stephen. And it's wrong. Good night.

2:11:29Big Cat:I thought that was going to be wrong. That's wrong. They don't have the 1%. I will go actresses in the following movies. Halle Berry. Nice. Nice. Sat next door once in a UFC fight. No big deal. I remember. She loved me. I watched that scene as a child. Yeah. I'm going to go with actresses to appear nude in the following movies. Titanic, Kate Winslet. Nice. And that's what I thought you were going to do.

2:11:51PFT Commenter:Give me Emmett Smith for running backs.

2:11:54Big Cat:That was my answer.

2:11:57PFT Commenter:Brandon? Give me 10 Kevin Costner sports movies. Give me McFarland, USA. Wow. Whoa. Good one. He's flexing. You're just going to dominate that category.

2:12:10Big Cat:Dan, I'm sorry. I can't see anything. Yeah. Can you read me the milk that we read off?

2:12:14PFT Commenter:Yeah, we've read off whole skim. 2 % almond oat. Two left. We got two left. Two left. Two left there.

2:12:25Big Cat:And then we got running backs, right? Yeah, we still got running backs.

2:12:30PFT Commenter:Milk or running backs? Have you ever seen the boys? Milk, boobs, running backs. Wait, what's boobs? Hold on. What's boobs? Boobs. Six after just appear nude in following movies. Oh. I don't think you're a big movie guy. No hard feelings, fast times, and wild things. Okay. Let me go running backs here then.

2:12:46Big Cat:Okay. You go milk. I could go milk, but I'm out. All right. I'm going to take a flyer. This can backfire quick. Okay. We got 1%. We got 2%. Let's go 3%. All right. Is that out? Jerry's out. Jerry's out.

2:13:05PFT Commenter:Jerry, Steven, and Zach are out. Memes, you're out. We didn't get 1%.

2:13:09Big Cat:1 % we didn't get. Oh, really? Yeah. Draft day. Good one. Good pick memes. Good one.

2:13:26Big Cat:Seven original members of the seven and the boys. I'm taking a look at the deep. I don't even know. Nice. Oh, nice. All right, Max. I will go Kevin Costner, Sports Movie, For the Love of the Game. Nice. Good pick. Okay. PFT. Seven milk options at Starbucks. I'm going to go with... Four percent. Soy. Wow. Good one. I didn't even know that's a milk.

2:13:52PFT Commenter:Show me Walter Payton. You cunt. Oh.

2:13:59PFT Commenter:Brandon, you're out of Costner movies? Well, I had for love of the game. There's...

2:14:09PFT Commenter:Five. No, not five. Jerry took forever. I can't see. I can't see either. What do they say? Hold on. Let me do a running back. Let me do a running back. Let me do a running back. Let me do a running back. I'm going to do a running back. Here's what I'm going to do. Hold on. I'm going to do a running back. There's not five, four, three, two. Stop that. Y 'all are bothering me. Breaking Away 10 Kevin Costner sports movies It's a good movie Fuck But it's not Kevin Costner You're right God damn it Oh no It's a bicycling movie Memes So it's just memes Max PFT and I You do Homelander Ah that was gonna be mine Yeah And Hank

2:14:49Big Cat:Let's go with France For 8 countries For the following brands Nice

2:14:55PFT Commenter:No

2:14:56Big Cat:Fuck I will go with Japan Ah shit That wasn't what I had. Fuck. Good pick. Good pick, dude. I'm going to go half and half for milk options at Starbucks. Show me half and half. Memes knows every single one of the boys, by the way. So he's just going to win.

2:15:15PFT Commenter:Half and half not there. No half and half? No half and half. Udenian Tomlinson. That's a good answer. There we go. All right. Memes, you're up. You're going to do Black Noir. Oh, shit. He does know all these He knows everyone Fuck So Hank you're I'm out Oh you're out It's just Max Me Maxing memes Come on Max Fight him off This is just more in line No he knows every single one of them He's more in line So we gotta beat him on that We gotta beat him on that

2:15:49Big Cat:I'm gonna go with Come on Come on You know if I'm gonna go out swinging I'm gonna go out swinging Six countries and make these brands Give me Italy. Yeah.

2:16:02PFT Commenter:Yes, Prada. I feel like one of these two has to be America. Lego and Lululemon. No, Lego, I do not think is America. Lululemon feels like America. Give me America. Show me America. United States. Where'd it go? Where'd it go? American Flyers. American Flyers. That counts. That's the movie I was fucking thinking of. All right, memes, you're up. That counts? Yeah. How does that count? It doesn't. It has America in it.

2:16:27Big Cat:Type in USA. See if that's what they're looking for.

2:16:31PFT Commenter:All right. Max and memes. I'm out. I'm going to do a neutron. Oh, Jesus. No, I think usually we treat an accident like it counts.

2:16:40Big Cat:Yep. We do treat an accident like it counts. All right, fine. I'm still in. You're right. Well, all right. Then you go.

2:16:45PFT Commenter:No, no. It's you.

2:16:46Big Cat:I just did.

2:16:47PFT Commenter:He got American fire.

2:16:49Big Cat:I'll do proton.

2:16:51PFT Commenter:Oh, shit.

2:16:52Big Cat:What about.

2:16:54PFT Commenter:What about. What about.

2:16:56Big Cat:Neutron sparked something.

2:17:00PFT Commenter:What about... Spark anything else? Mm-hmm. What about Jamal Lewis? Raven? Whoa. No, I'm out. Paul don't lie. I didn't deserve to be in. Gonna do Jennifer Lawrence. No hard feelings. Oh, I can... Oh, wow. Come on, Max. This guy's a machine. Come on. I could have got that.

2:17:21Big Cat:You got this, Max. Come on, Max.

2:17:25PFT Commenter:come on max max max max max five i'm gonna go with three two electron yeah max yeah

2:17:39Big Cat:way to go max you're gonna do a train okay damn it he still has the boys Oh,

2:17:47PFT Commenter:is it wrong? Is it a dash train?

2:17:49Big Cat:Try eight.

2:17:50PFT Commenter:Oh, shit. All right. Come on, Max.

2:17:56Big Cat:See, she wasn't an original member. I know Starlight is. I don't think she counts as an original member. Could I go China? I feel like one of those has got to be China. That's a good guess.

2:18:12PFT Commenter:I'm going to go China. China. Oh. All right. Memes, you got to get one right. Memes, you got to get one right now. You're going to do translucent? Yeah. I mean, those.

2:18:23Big Cat:All right.

2:18:23PFT Commenter:So memes. Wait.

2:18:25Big Cat:See if what's her name counted. All right. Oh, never mind. Let's see.

2:18:28PFT Commenter:Show answers. Oh, you got it. South Korea. Italy. I think it's Korea. All right. She didn't. That makes me feel better. Emerson. Curtis Martin.

2:18:34Big Cat:Adrian Peterson, I was going to say, but I was like, no one else. Frank Gore. Frank Gore.

2:18:37PFT Commenter:Jerome Bettis.

2:18:38Big Cat:You bitch.

2:18:39PFT Commenter:Oh, man.

2:18:41Big Cat:That's pretty good. Yeah. Okay. Coconut milk. I guess half and half doesn't count as milk. You talking about good nut? A good nut.

2:18:49PFT Commenter:Yeah, good nut. All right, Memes, would you like first pick? I would like first pick. All right, so we'll go Memes, then Hank, all the way back to Zach, and all the way back around. Oh, that's good. All right. I'll be taking Kyle Schwarber. That's a good pick. I had him on my board. Good pick. I was so close to getting Schwarber. Good pick, Memes. Memes got fucking Boyd. You got Boyd.

2:19:13Big Cat:He can't compete with the boys. Okay. It's Memes' favorite show. It's the only thing he talks about. And wait, who decided which? It's literally the only television that Memes talks about.

2:19:23PFT Commenter:And who decided which Sporkle we were going to do?

2:19:26Big Cat:Memes.

2:19:27PFT Commenter:Oh, interesting. Oh, really?

2:19:29Big Cat:And Memes still hasn't commented on Geno Smith.

2:19:30PFT Commenter:That's very interesting. Interesting. That's really interesting. All right. Go ahead, Hank.

2:19:38Big Cat:I will be taking Ben Rice, pride of Cohasset. Okay. You for real? Over a judge, it's crazy. Yeah, he's fourth in home runs this year. Check those out on your sheet. You don't get home runs that have already happened.

2:19:56PFT Commenter:Yeah, he plays in Yankee Stadium. He's a lefty. Taking a Yankee, that's interesting. Okay. All right, Steven? I'll go with potential future Triple Crown guy, Jordan Alvarez. That's a good pick, dude. I'll take Otani.

2:20:11Big Cat:I forgot about Otani. That's a good pick. My 1-1's on the board right now. James Wood? I'm going to take James Wood. DC's own. Good Wood.

2:20:24PFT Commenter:Number one in barrel rate. As a right fielder, I will take Juan Soto.

2:20:32Big Cat:Let's check that really quick because I have him as a left. Okay. Okay, well, he's right field on my board as well. And James Wood is right field. He's left field on ESPN. As long as he's played at least 10 games was the rule last year.

2:20:48PFT Commenter:Yeah, I'm just saying he says right field, but I'm fine with taking him left field.

2:20:51Big Cat:And remember, if you draft a player that gets accused of child pornography or pedophilia, you are allowed to have one penalty-free cut option for that player.

2:21:01PFT Commenter:But you have to cut him before the MLB decides. Yes. I cut Wander Franco before the MLB decided on his punishment. I'm up. I will be taking, and I will say this name slowly. All right, he's a left fielder. I don't know why it's right field in this sheet. All right, goddammit, Evo. Yeah, that's Evo.

2:21:21Big Cat:PFT, you're taking Wood as right field, correct? I am, yes. Okay. I will be taking first baseman, Nick.

2:21:33PFT Commenter:Kurtz. Nice. You can say it again. We can cut out that middle part.

2:21:40Big Cat:You can say Nicholas. Kurtz. I'm also going to take first base. I'm going to go with C. Walker, first base. Okay. Christian. Christian Walker. Christian Walker. You live of the year. Jerry won't even say the word Christian. Okay.

2:21:57PFT Commenter:I'd like to take Bobachette. Bobachette. You have two. You have two. You have two picks. Bobachette.

2:22:04Big Cat:What position is Mr. Bichette? Shortstop? I think he's playing third this year, but he's probably eligible for short. You have two picks here. All right. I would like to take him, and then I would like to go to future Hall of Famer on my team. I'd like to take Vinny Pasquantino again. Oh, I love that. I love that. Good pick.

2:22:24PFT Commenter:Good pick. He is first base, correct? That is correct.

2:22:27Big Cat:Mm-hmm. Okay. I'm going to go with center fielder. Byron Buxton. Yeah, good pick. Twins, good pick.

2:22:38PFT Commenter:Good pick. I'll be taking catcher Cal Raleigh. Wow. All right. All right. I'm going to take friend of the program, first base, Matt Olsen.

2:22:49Big Cat:Fuck. I was going to take him. Yeah.

2:22:51PFT Commenter:Future Hall of Famer. Should I try to call him and see if he wants to be on my team? Yeah. Okay, I'll try to call him. Give him a ring. Let's see. I didn't prep him at all. Did you prep any? No, I didn't prep anyone. No. No. I didn't prep anyone. It's kind of a hard being like, hey, we're doing a draft, a fantasy draft in the middle of the season, and I want to call you. Is it more awkward to just cold call and say that? Well, I don't know. We'll see. We'll find out. I'm guessing he's not going to pick up. I'm pretty sure he's not going to pick up. Doesn't appear he's going to pick up. Seems like a non-pickup.

2:23:29PFT Commenter:Yeah. We will also make one other phone call whenever Gunnar Henderson gets picked. Steven's going to have to call him. Okay.

2:23:40Big Cat:PFT is up. I'm going to take a future Hall of Famer, maybe future best player in the history of baseball, healthy for the first time in a long time, Mike Trout. Nice.

2:23:56PFT Commenter:He's actually hurt right now. What? He's legit. He's literally hurt right now. When did that happen?

2:24:02Big Cat:Stop it.

2:24:03PFT Commenter:He just got out like three days ago. Are you fucking serious? You've already taken him, but you said healthy for the first time. Your hand is off the chest. He's on the injured list right now.

2:24:12Big Cat:He got injured yesterday? Mike Trout. Three days ago.

2:24:15PFT Commenter:I'm looking it up for you. Jesus Christ. With Trout on IL former. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Hamstring injury shelves Trout. I thought we'd let him pick someone at the end.

2:24:25Big Cat:No, no, no. He's not out. He's not out. part of the thing. We've all drafted guys that have been hurt before. Hamstrings are easy to come back from. He's not out long. All right. I will take catcher Shane Langoliers. Nice. Nice job, Max. It's a damn good pick, Max. Brando's guy. A's. Oops, hold on. Sorry.

2:24:49PFT Commenter:Steven. Steven. Yep. Sorry. I was entering. Oh. All right. At what point is Steven going to take PCA?

2:25:00Big Cat:Nope. I'm technically going to take a guy who's injured right now. It's for the culture. Okay. Munitake Murakawa.

2:25:08PFT Commenter:Okay, that's a good pick. Hell yeah. He's going to be back very soon. That's just not the right name. That's just not his name. Yeah. And what was the culture? Munitake Murakami? Yeah. And what was the culture? We all knew what he was doing. For anyone who's maybe not a baseball fan, he was trying to take the Asian guy on the White Sox. Yeah. Right. Did you say that? Moonball. Did you pass on Otani earlier? Yeah, he did. Just to take. You should have done an all-Asian team. Right. I got Otani. Yeah. That's true.

2:25:38Big Cat:I will take catcher for the Colorado Rockies, Altitude, Hunter Goodman.

2:25:43PFT Commenter:That's a good value pick, Hank. Thank you. Really good value pick. Okay. That's two. I would like to do Colson Montgomery. Okay. And Pete Alonzo. I am not, by the way, following who's been picked. No, I'm not doing that at all.

2:26:00Big Cat:I got it. That's why I'm taking on the longer. There you go. Okay. That's actually very valid. I'm happy. Thank you for doing that, Steven. Alonzo was a terrible fit. I will take Chicago Cub left fielder Ian Happ.

2:26:13PFT Commenter:Great pick. Does hit a lot of home runs. Not for average. It's not the average league. Nope. Sorry. Who did memes? Who did memes just pick? It ain't the batting average league. They took Pete Alonzo. Pete Alonzo. And Hunter. No. Montgomery. Yeah. Call someone. Gotcha.

2:26:28Big Cat:Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. Mm-hmm. Hmm. I will go with... This guy is a second baseman. Mm-hmm. I'm going with Brandon Lau on the Pittsburgh Pirates, 18 home runs. Is that one of your guys, too? Very cool. Jeff. I'm going to go with first baseman Bryce Harper

2:26:57PFT Commenter:Oh, good pick Good pick

2:27:03Big Cat:Nice pick Thanks Great pick Thanks everyone Has Shea Lang Lears been picked? He has He has been picked But we're not going to shame that No, no, we're not shaming that at all Seems like there's a lot of bad That was as simple he has No, but I just want to Going forward Because that's going to happen to me Yeah I'm going to take Detroit Lions catcher Dylan Dingler Nice Detroit Tigers Detroit Tigers catcher Dylan Dingler Great Dinger name

2:27:32PFT Commenter:I will take PCA Just for that I will be taking Right fielder For the Atlanta Braves Ronald Acuna Jr He needs to come back from injury as well Good pick I will take third baseman

2:27:51Big Cat:Junior Camonero I like that

2:27:54PFT Commenter:Shout out to anyone who's listening right now

2:27:56Big Cat:They're the best No, we're having fun Yeah, this is good

2:27:59PFT Commenter:Is left fielder Riley Green available?

2:28:01Big Cat:Yeah Sounds very available I'd like to take Riley Green left field Okay, you got another pick Alright, and then I would like to run I would like to take another pick here I want to go Is Brandon Lowe available? Nope Nope Alright What about What about Shea? Nope Yep, not available. All right, well, here we go. Sorry. I'm going to go George Springer. What position is Mr. Springer? I thought you were a position guy. I'm writing him down.

2:28:34PFT Commenter:He's our documenter.

2:28:36Big Cat:My bad. I thought you were a documenter. George Springer's a DH.

2:28:38PFT Commenter:Probably need a documentarian, too.

2:28:42Big Cat:I'm documenting my own team. There's a spreadsheet we could all just pull up. I'm going to go with shortstop. C.J. Abrams. Good pick.

2:28:54PFT Commenter:Good pick. I'll be going with third baseman Eugenio Suarez. Good pick. Did someone take Judge? No. What's the timetable? July to August. Early as possible, late July.

2:29:13PFT Commenter:I'm going to take Judge just because it's going to look awesome on my roster. He's right field, correct? Yeah. Yeah, that's going to be. I have an outfield of Juan Soto, PCA, and Aaron Jones. That's sick.

2:29:28Big Cat:Okay, I'm going to take left fielder for the Milwaukee Brewers, Jackson Churio. That's a damn good pick. That's a really good pick. People forget he was injured the first month. He's been good since then. I will be taking second baseman, Cattell Marte.

2:29:43PFT Commenter:Oh, that's a hell of a pick. That's a great pick. That was freaking my pick. Yeah, it was. you're so far away you're so far away from your pick okay check something

2:30:03Big Cat:sorry who'd you just pick I took a tell Marte second base alright

2:30:14Big Cat:just making sure this guy's not injured All right, I will take Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy.

2:30:21PFT Commenter:That's not a great pick. Why? I don't know.

2:30:25Big Cat:I will take, just got off the DL on June 5th, Jose Altuve at second base. Okay. Okay. Has Jordan Walker been picked?

2:30:39PFT Commenter:No. Nope. I'm going to pick him. Smart.

2:30:42Big Cat:And Ozzie Albies. Sorry, can you guys say positions before you call the players? Right fielder, Jordan Walker, and second baseman, Ozzie Albies.

2:30:53PFT Commenter:Nice picks. Good picks, good picks. Good picks all around, boys. I will take Yandy Diaz of the double raise.

2:31:05Big Cat:DH. And who did you pick right before that? Jose Altuve, second base.

2:31:11PFT Commenter:Okay.

2:31:16All right.

2:31:19PFT Commenter:I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. Steven.

2:31:32Big Cat:Steven. Just make sure. Come on. Steven.

2:31:37PFT Commenter:Steven.

2:31:37Big Cat:Steven.

2:31:38PFT Commenter:I'll go with. Steven. Steven. Steven. Steven. You're up. You know what? Yeah. There we go. Do it. Fucking do it. I was going to pick a guy I have. Dansby Swanson. Give it to him. Nope. You can just say who you're going to pick. I'm going to go Gunnar Henderson. Okay. Call him.

2:31:54Big Cat:Right now?

2:31:55PFT Commenter:Yeah. Call him. Give him a call. FaceTime or phone call? Phone call him and ask him if he's willing to be on your dingers only team. Okay.

2:32:04Big Cat:Can you force a trade if he's not?

2:32:06PFT Commenter:Yeah, that's true. If he doesn't agree, this is going to be really awkward. Eli. Stephen's going to call him. I hope he's not playing right now. He's not. It's Monday. Is it just Monday? It's just Monday.

2:32:21Big Cat:It's just Monday.

2:32:23PFT Commenter:It's Monday. I wish it was Sunday. That's my fun day. I don't have to run day. Shall I leave a voicemail? Yes. Call me back. I want to see if I can draft you on Dingers Only. Hey, hit me up. please leave a message on our training calls so as possible thanks

2:32:48Big Cat:Gunner what's up buddy Steve I am drafting you on my dingers only team just wanted to officially welcome

2:32:55PFT Commenter:me to the squad have a good season call me back call me back bye okay excuse me Max

2:33:03Big Cat:I will be going with center fielder Julio Rodriguez good one that one lasted way too long

2:33:13PFT Commenter:Yeah. That's a good pick, dude. Good pick. Thank you. That's a really good pick.

2:33:18Big Cat:I like that pick for you, buddy. That's a good fucking pick, dude. I'm going to take Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Kazuma Okamoto. And that's a hell of a pick.

2:33:35PFT Commenter:Has anyone taken Bobby Witt? No.

2:33:38Big Cat:I was going between those two. I want Bobby Witt Jr.

2:33:42PFT Commenter:Um, it was embarrassing. Can, short, how do you spell? W I T T. No, you don't know the Asians name. Yeah.

2:33:50Big Cat:B B Y. Oh, did I say left? I meant third base, third base, the third baseman, Kazuma Okamoto. Oh, okay. Got him. Yeah. My fault. Oh shit. Yeah. What was that? Oh shit. Yeah. I had him right below, uh, like I'm next month. I should have done. I will be taking, Oh, wait, PFT, you have two. Or no, you have him at third base. Third base. Third base.

2:34:16PFT Commenter:He's got him at third base.

2:34:20PFT Commenter:I'll be taking designated hitter Brent Rooker. Mississippi State. Nice. Nice. A really good pick. Thanks. Nice. It's going to be so funny when you don't win this year and there's a cash prize. Big head, who did you just take? I took Bobby Witt Jr. Sure. W-I-T-T. W-I-T-T.

2:34:40Big Cat:I'm going to take a right fielder. Seiya Suzuki. Yeah.

2:34:47PFT Commenter:Oh, Matt Olsen's calling me back. Oh, let's go. Hey, Matt, I just drafted you on my dingers only team. Are you ready to hit some dingers? Yeah. When does it start? July 1st. So don't hit any. So, yeah, just maybe don't hit any between now and July 1st. Okay, I'll save them up. All right, cool. All right, welcome to the squad, dude. Let's fucking crush it. Yeah, fuck yeah, let's go. All right. Love it. All right. Talk to you later, man. All right. Bye. He was super fun. Yeah, he's very excited. Fuck yeah. Now we can put him in the title.

2:35:17Big Cat:That's what the ballplayers need this time of year. So you get him to the all-star break? Yeah. Just any sort of boost.

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2:36:02PFT Commenter:Using code PMT, Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every customer's age verified warning this product contains nicotine nicotine is an addictive chemical okay back to dingers only i'd like to take a may machado okay that's gonna be third base no hustle worst hitter in the league don't say that that was hate brandon

2:36:25Big Cat:and then i'd also like to take is matt mcclain available yeah yeah i take or can I disavow Matt McClain pick and pick a different pick? No. You don't have to disavow him.

2:36:36PFT Commenter:Alright, I'll take... Fine. I'll take him.

2:36:40Big Cat:What position is this? Why do you want to disavow? Why would you like to disavow? It seems like strong language. It felt like I jumped to him too quick on the board and then... In past, I just stuck with it. That was a mistake last time. I just stuck with it. So I was going to maybe pivot, but we'll go with Matt. What position is this? Matt's going to be a... I believe Matt's a second baseman. Okay. Okay. Are you guys okay with me swapping Matt to Sal Stewart, though? Sure. Who are you picking? Yeah. I'll take Sal Stewart. Stand it. Sal Stewart is a great pick. He's the first baseman for the Reds.

2:37:12Big Cat:First baseman. Really good pick. Really good pick. That was a good step off. All right, Jerry. I'm going to go DH. Casey Schmidt. Okay. The Giants.

2:37:27PFT Commenter:Brandon. Second baseman, J.J. Weatherholt. rookie. I will also go DH from the Giants. Rafael Devers. Did you see him not take a... Yeah, that was bad. Yeah, so bad. He got walked late in the game and they tried to pinch run and he literally just said, no. No, I do not want to come off.

2:37:52Big Cat:Showed up as manager. What do we think about my guy

2:38:03Big Cat:Freddie Freeman. Has he been drafted? He has not. He's not. I'd like to take first baseman, Los Angeles Dodgers, Frederick Freeman. I'm going to say one that I think has already been picked, and I apologize for that. Colson Montgomery has been picked? He's been picked, yeah. Okay. See? I'm happy that I apologize ahead of time. In that case, I will be taking Kyle Tucker. Boo. Yeah, boo. He's still on the right, yeah? Yes. Okay. Somebody should take Jose Ramirez. I'll be taking catcher for the Atlanta Braves Drake Baldwin hopefully he comes back healthy

2:39:02PFT Commenter:he played yesterday hopefully he comes back healthy I don't know what to tell you

2:39:07Big Cat:I will be taking expected to return shortly from the hamstring injury Eli de la Cruz shortstop Cincinnati Reds it's a damn good pick it's a good pick it's a good pick i'll be doing o 'neill cruise fuck you i was gonna cruise it up there man you gonna go cruise missiles yeah you can almost have to let him do the cruise that's dude it's fucked up were you gonna take ellie no see that's that's selfish you you went the wrong cruise no i guess yeah you're right damn fuck get hantavirus that way uh and then left field me i do cody Bellinger.

2:39:51Big Cat:I'm going to make sure this person isn't injured. Oh, Jerry, you just said it, right? Is he injured? Is that why you said it? I picked him last year. It was great. Yeah, I'm going to take him. No, I'm going to take Julio Rodriguez. He's already taken him. It's tough. It's tough out here. I will take...

2:40:19PFT Commenter:Wilier Abreu Red Sox right fielder I'm going to definitely pick some guys at this point

2:40:31Big Cat:That's okay everyone It's okay everyone I will be taking

2:40:35PFT Commenter:It's okay everyone

2:40:41Left fielder Damn it Mickey Moniak.

2:40:46PFT Commenter:Oh, that's okay.

2:40:47Big Cat:Ooh, I like that.

2:40:52Big Cat:I'm all over the place right now. Believe in yourself. I don't believe in myself. He's a puddle right now. I will be taking... You got this, Max.

2:41:07Big Cat:I will be taking... Oh, you got this. There you go. Third baseman. I apologize if he's already been picked. Miguel Vargas? Sounds like he hasn't been picked. I don't think so. I don't know why anybody would take him.

2:41:27Big Cat:I'm going to take... I think he's a third baseman too. Yeah. Is that... He is a third baseman. I have him as a third baseman.

2:41:37Big Cat:I'm going to take...

2:41:44Big Cat:You know what? Yep. You know what we're going to do? What are we going to do?

2:41:53Big Cat:Take designated hitter from the Seattle Mariners, Dominic Canzoni. Good pick. Nice.

2:42:01PFT Commenter:Has anyone taken Manny Machado? Yes. Fuck. That was a long time ago, wasn't it?

2:42:06Big Cat:It's okay. we're all struggling out here I think Zach took him right you want to give him up to pick it

2:42:14PFT Commenter:oh no we got alright alright I'll do Adley Rushman infield right catcher left fielder I don't know if he's picked or not Wyatt Langford sounds like you

2:42:40Big Cat:All designated hitters are off the board.

2:42:43PFT Commenter:Okay, good to know. Good to know. Good to know. Good to know. That's great to know. Wait. That's just not true. Well, everyone has one. Oh, I see. Everyone has one. All right.

2:42:54Big Cat:Sorry. I'm going to take... I'm going to go with Jazz Chisholm, second base. Love it. Yankees. Love it. It's a hell of a pick. I'm going to go center field Andy Pages. Yep. We'll take close. I'd also like to go left field. Is Ian Happ available or someone scoop Ian Happ? You also have a left fielder in Riley Green.

2:43:20PFT Commenter:Oh, no.

2:43:21Big Cat:I'd like to keep Riley Green. Okay. You need a right fielder. Yep. And a catcher.

2:43:34Big Cat:catcher you need a catcher get a catcher quick just pick up a catcher yeah i'll just go uh right field instead i'll go adolis garcia he's hurt for the year great comes max to well okay

2:43:48PFT Commenter:yeah we did tell pfc that he had to do that great comes trout is coming back are you saying this

2:43:53Big Cat:guys out for the entire year hoping to return by 2027 oh my god that's really out what happened uh i tore something in his shoulder what about why they're a brave gone gone okay wow anthony santander you're good right field is that correct that's correct

2:44:18Big Cat:Am I up? Yeah. Has anybody picked the left fielder Jackson Churio? Yes. Yes. Okay. This is the part of the draft where we keep doing this.

2:44:27PFT Commenter:No, this is going to be a tough part. Yeah. Okay. But it's okay. You got to stick with us.

2:44:31Big Cat:Steven, I need a left fielder, I'm guessing. Churio. You need a catcher. Okay. And a left fielder, yes. Yep. Okay. I will go with left fielder

2:44:47Big Cat:Spencer Steer.

2:44:52Big Cat:Sounds like a horrible pick. No. I like that you can hear memes just laugh through the...

2:45:01PFT Commenter:Brandon, you need a shortstop? And a center fielder. And a center fielder, yes. Center fielder Joe Adele. The Joe Show.

2:45:08Big Cat:God, what a steal.

2:45:12PFT Commenter:um

2:45:16PFT Commenter:shit he just got hurt but I'm trying to go for like splashy name I'm trying to go for the all splashy you just want to look good on the graphic no you know what I'm not going to I did want to look good on the graphic I was thinking about taking Jackson Holiday but he's yeah he's hurt again he started hurt he's hurt again um I'm going to just say some names and you guys just tell me if they've been drafted.

2:45:47PFT Commenter:As JJ Weatherholt been drafted. Okay. And Bryce string obviously was drafted. No. Oh, okay. I'll take Bryce trying second. That's not that's second baseman. It's great. Good pick. Really good. Yeah, it is really good.

2:46:03Big Cat:I'm going to take it's a second baseman and you're going to take Bryce shortstop. I was not. I was locked in on Zach Netto.

2:46:11PFT Commenter:And that's a hell of a pick.

2:46:12Big Cat:That's a great pick. I was thinking about him. Thank you. Yeah. His barrel rate is really good. You going analytics? I'm strictly looking at barrel rate. I'm a one-stat man. So let me see here. I still need left field, correct? Steven? Oh. Thank God Steven did write everything down. Yeah. Yes. Left field and shortstop. I need left field and shortstop. I am going to go. God damn it.

2:46:53Big Cat:I'm going to go with. I'm going to go with. I don't know. I'm going to go with. This is a panic. This is panic. Yeah, it's not going to be really bad. It's going to be a bad pick. It's about to be terrible. Wait. Oh, man. Wait. Everyone's about to laugh at you. Is anyone taking Christian Yelich? No. I'll take Christian Yelich. Okay. He's left. Next. Left, yes. Okay.

2:47:25PFT Commenter:I will go with Michael Harris, Atlanta Braves, center field. Good pick. Thank you.

2:47:34Big Cat:I will go with a guy who's been struggling, but I think he's going to have a big second half of the year. Give me third baseman Alex Bregman. Love it.

2:47:43PFT Commenter:I was going to take him just out of solidarity. I was thinking about doing that too. Listen, he's going to turn it around. All right, Memes needs a third baseman.

2:47:51Big Cat:I'm going to go with Zach Geloff. Third baseman. Geloff. Athletics. And you're going to take Lindor. No, I already have a shortstop. Oh, you told me you were going to take Lindor. catcher Liam Hicks Marlins former Yak legend Hank do you know who you are I need a center fielder and I will take Dodger Andy Pages he's been taken I will take Brave Michael Harris I just took him listen it's gonna happen boys

2:48:29PFT Commenter:it's gonna happen

2:48:33Big Cat:This is how Dingers only goes Jackson Merrill's been taken I don't think so Alright Podhead Jackson Merrill I think Hank has a good team I came in second last year I think

2:48:52PFT Commenter:I'm going to try to take Manny Machado He came in second

2:48:55Big Cat:I came in second last year I need a right fielder

2:49:00PFT Commenter:What do you guys need? Max and...

2:49:04Big Cat:I need a shortstop. What do you need? Second baseman.

2:49:07PFT Commenter:Has Jake Burger been taken? No.

2:49:10Big Cat:Okay, great. Some are burgers. So, yeah, that's big for you. That's huge. Needed.

2:49:16PFT Commenter:I will take... Steven Che. Steven Che's up. Jock Caglianone. Okay. Good pick. What was his name again? has everyone written down their teams I got mine yeah or no Kansas City Max needs

2:49:38Big Cat:I am going to take shortstop um

2:49:49Big Cat:I am going to take shortstop Mookie Betts good pick PFT needs a second basement I need a second basement and this is where I'm about to either win the whole damn thing for myself or possibly possibly lose the whole damn thing for myself because we're trying to time the market on Fernando Tatis Jr. yeah I think it's a... I'm going to time the market. I'm taking FTJ. Oh, that's what Brandon was trying to do. Is that what you're going to do, Brandon? I'm happy you did that. You're going to try to time the market? Don't you need a second baseman? Yeah, he's played second baseman. He plays second baseman.

2:50:37Big Cat:Oh, does he? Yeah, he does. Damn, memes.

2:50:40PFT Commenter:That's on me. I got to... He's got two home runs. I know he's going to hit 22. I get a third baseman. Yeah, I don't know how many... I saved it to the last fucking round. Jake Berger plays first and third, so I got barrel right he's listed his first and third but I don't know how many he's played does anyone know who Jake Berger how do I get to all I always go to I was doing baseball right there I'll do it for you thank you but I can't get I have last five games but I don't have yeah no I

2:51:12Big Cat:got I got I got it you got it got it so how many how many do they need for the 10 games 10 games what position are you trying to draft him at first first first first first i'm seeing he's on my list as a third base i'm seeing zero games at third base zero games at third base this year i'm seeing

2:51:30PFT Commenter:zero okay well good thing that was integrity can we just all take a moment and just say great great integrity great integrity um all right that that's sucks because that would have been Pretty cool to have Jake Berger on my team. All right. You know what? How's Alec Baum been?

2:51:49Big Cat:He's getting hot.

2:51:50PFT Commenter:All right.

2:51:51Big Cat:He's getting hot.

2:51:52PFT Commenter:That was who you're going to take? No, but you should have taken that guy. Who? Austin Riley? Well, that's okay. You're going to take Alec Baum. I'm going to take Alec Baum. He's getting hot. That's what I heard. Reports on the ground is he's getting hot. Shortstop, Lindor. Okay. Good pick, Brandon. Wait a second. What position does J.J.

2:52:13Big Cat:Weatherholt play? He plays second base. Okay, good. Has Goodman been drafted? Yes. Did you catch him? All right, then I'll go. Hank got him. Wait, you still needed a shortstop, Brandon? Tatis hasn't played any games at shortstop. He's on my list at shortstops, so it doesn't matter. It does matter because we said he needed to play 10 games. No, it doesn't matter because I didn't get him. I know, but you wouldn't have even been able to use him anymore. Right, but he added himself.

2:52:39PFT Commenter:But it doesn't matter. So we're good. because I didn't get him. This is how you win the league every year. Yeah. Who'd you just pick, Brandon? Lindor. Okay.

2:52:48Big Cat:Because I was thinking the same. I was looking at him at shortstop, and then I went to go check his game log. I was like, oh, he hasn't played any shortstop this year. Right. But I didn't get him. Yeah. So we're good. So it doesn't matter. We're on the same page. He's got 121 balls hit over 95 miles per hour. Wow. Yeah. Two home runs. Two home runs. It's about to happen. That's turning around. Kyle Schwarber has as many, had to admit. This past weekend, Kyle Schwarber had as many home runs in one inning as Fernando Tatis had all year. Wow. Great stat. Good stat. Good stat. But all we care about is home runs to come right now.

2:53:19Big Cat:I'm just saying. Actually, not even. Fun fact. I don't want Fernando to do shit. Yeah. For the next, like, week. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah. These are all wasted home runs. Every home run. Damn, Lindor. What a great pick at Lindor is. Mm-hmm. Jerry and Zach both need catchers. I'm going to go with catcher Salvador Perez. I was thinking about going catcher Ben Rice, but he may not be a catcher. No, he doesn't. And he was also picked in the first round. The second overall. That's good game log from you guys. My bad. I'll go Augustine Ramirez. Is that available? Yep. All right, I'll go Augustine Ramirez, catcher.

2:54:02PFT Commenter:So in the past, we've all picked a pitcher in case of a tie for strikeouts. I'll take Jacob Miserowski No we're not going to do We haven't done that Alright so good draft everyone Do you want to go through your teams? Memes you want to start? Tell us your team

2:54:23Hold

2:54:24PFT Commenter:Okay Hank you want to start?

2:54:26Big Cat:I got Ben Rice at first base I got Hunter Goodman at catcher I got Ian Happ in left field I got Jose Altuve At second base I got Yandy Diaz at DH. I got Eli De La Cruz at shortstop. Willier Abreu in right field. Alex Bregman at third base. And Jackson Merrill at center field. We got Triple Crown Yordan at DH.

2:54:54PFT Commenter:We got Munitaka Murakami. Is that his name? Yeah, Triple Crown. That's right, right? I don't know. Moonball, we got him at first. Brandon Lau, second base. Max Muncy, third. Oh, an infield. Gunnar Henderson, shortstop. We got a catcher, Drake Baldwin. We don't even touch the outfield until the last three rounds. Mickey Moniak, left field, Michael Harris, second center field. Not the best strategy.

2:55:15Big Cat:And Jock Caglino on the right field. That could be. What do we know? No,

2:55:20PFT Commenter:that's definitively most home runs are coming from the outfield.

2:55:23Big Cat:Yeah, but that also means that. Yeah, I guess. They're avoiding the shortage in the infield.

2:55:28PFT Commenter:Yeah, but the shortage in the infield is like the gap between home runs and the infield is like four. like all the second basemen have like are different between four okay listen just a little

2:55:41Big Cat:chip on your shoulder do you what i said that's the beauty of dingers only is we're all gonna find out yeah yeah they're playing small ball yeah that's not what you should do for dingers max we're manufacturing home uh i don't have a i don't have an order here but i have catcher uh shea langoliers first base bryce harper what do you mean you don't have an order i didn't oh I didn't write it down, like the draft order that I did. I did it by position. Second base, Cattell Marte. Shortstop, Mookie Betts. Third base, Miguel Vargas. Left field, Christian Yelich. Center field, Julio Rodriguez. Right field, Kyle Tucker.

2:56:18Big Cat:DH, Shohei Otani.

2:56:20PFT Commenter:Nice. That's a good team.

2:56:21Big Cat:Yeah, not bad.

2:56:22PFT Commenter:Okay.

2:56:23Big Cat:I've got left field, Jackson Chorio. Center field, the super healthy Mike Trout. Right field, James Wood. That's a good outfield. Really good outfield. Third base, Kazuma Okamoto. Shortstop, Zach Neto. Second base, Fernando Tatis Jr. First base, Freddie Freeman. Catcher, Dylan Dingler. And DH, Dominic Canzone.

2:56:47PFT Commenter:Okay. I have DH, Rafael Devers. Catcher, Adley Rushman. Matt Olsen at first. Bryce Terrain at second. Bobby Witt Jr. at third. Or shortstop, Alec Baum at third. And then my outfield. I want to jerk off to my outfield. Juan Soto, PCA, Aaron Judge. If Aaron Judge comes back, watch out. I have first baseman Nicholas Kurtz, catcher Cal Raleigh, right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr., third baseman Eugenio Suarez, D.H. Brent Rooker, second baseman J.J. Weatherholt, left fielder Wyatt Langford, center fielder Joe Adele, shortstop Francisco Lindor.

2:57:26Big Cat:Good roster there. I got catchers Salvador Perez left fielder Spencer Steer second base Jazz Chisholm DH Casey Schmidt right field Seah Suzuki shortstop CJ Abrams third base Junior Caminero center fielder Byron Buxton first baseman I do not know who I have Christian Walker Christian Walker that was your first pick love that I've got a designated hitter George Springer. Center field, we've got Andy Page. Left field, Riley Green. Right field, Anthony Santander. Shortstop, Bobachette. Catcher, Augustine Ramirez. Third base, May Machado. Second base, Sal Stewart. And first base, Vinny Pascantino.

2:58:14PFT Commenter:Nice. Great rosters.

2:58:16Big Cat:Memes, finish us off. I got Kyle Schwarber, DH, Colson Montgomery at shortstop. Pete Alonzo, first base. Jordan Walker, right field. Ozzie Albee's second base, O 'Neal Cruz center field, Cody Bellinger left field, Zach Geloff third, and Liam Hicks at catcher. Shane, who'd we miss? Vlad Guerrero?

2:58:36PFT Commenter:I don't know. Vlad doesn't have many home runs this year, but he's going to hit them.

2:58:40Big Cat:Yeah.

2:58:41PFT Commenter:Yeah, that's a mistake. That was a mistake. Soderstrom. And reminder, you get one add and drop throughout the year. But that's it. That's it.

2:58:51Big Cat:It has nothing to do with. there's no injuries no it's injury there's an injury spot and there's pedophile spot right

2:58:57PFT Commenter:there's pedophile stuff but you can only add and drop an injured player correct otherwise you're

2:59:01Big Cat:but like set is it is it like rest of the year injury or any injury no it's any injury but then

2:59:07PFT Commenter:you obviously don't get that guy yeah ever again got it but he has to be injured you can't just be like this guy sucks i'm dropping him we need we need a check on someone in the pedophiles sal stewart yeah okay positions first baseman third man so okay so he plays them all i guess

2:59:21Big Cat:Prior to the setback, Mike Trout was enjoying a highly productive and remarkably durable season, appearing in 74 of the Angels' first 75 games. 17 home runs, I think.

2:59:30PFT Commenter:Okay.

2:59:31Big Cat:Sorry, PFT.

2:59:32PFT Commenter:Sorry, PFT.

2:59:34Big Cat:It's okay. I think you're fine. I think you'll be back by early July. He'll probably be very healthy.

2:59:38PFT Commenter:Brandon, are you more of a Dingers-only expert in college football? I'm equal in both. I'm a depth at Dingers-only. One you've won twice. The other you've won once and got dog walked last year. We've only done it twice. I did not get dog walked. I think I was still in it going into the championship game. You had one team in the playoffs. And that was the team playing for the national championship. No, you got smoked. No, I didn't. I think I statistically would have won if Miami had won the national title. You didn't even know. No, but they didn't. They didn't. And you wouldn't have. I didn't get smoked.

3:00:08PFT Commenter:And you didn't pick Indiana. No, but neither of us picked Indiana.

3:00:11Big Cat:He didn't have like barely any teams that were in the playoffs. That's right. He had no good teams. And you could have picked James. But he's really good at dingers only. Yeah. that I get no money for.

3:00:20PFT Commenter:Well, this year you can win it and get money. Nobody agreed to it. No. Has everyone agreed to$100? Nobody agreed to it. Nobody agreed to that. Right. Will everyone agree to$100?

3:00:30Big Cat:As much money as you got. You can't agree to$100? Brandon, I'll do$500 with you. And it can just be whoever wants to put money in. But it's just us then. I will also do$100. I will do$100. I'm in for money. All right.

3:00:41PFT Commenter:So the pot will be$500 from me,$500 from PFT,$500 from Brandon, $100 from everyone else. Now, wait a minute.

3:00:47Big Cat:Yeah. Deal. All right. I'll accept that deal. Deal. As much fucking money as you make. Who? You. I don't make money. I lose money. Shit.

3:00:58PFT Commenter:What about? No. You know what? Jerry, instead of$100, you've got to put up 1 % of Bush.

3:01:04Big Cat:He's got zero. I've got zero. You've got to give up 1 % of your zero. What about 1 % of your future stakes in Bush? Any stake in Bush that you make? I don't think I'll ever get any stake in Bush.

3:01:14PFT Commenter:I want 1 % in the pot. I mean, 1 % is worth nothing right now. But just say it. Say it. 1 % is in the plot. I can't. I can't. I got nothing. I can't say it. I can't say it. 1 % of Bush. Fine. Done. All right. Deal. 1 % of Bush is for the winner. Wow. We need to make an exception here. Oh. Sal Stewart has played at time of taping seven games at second. Oh, nobody's fine. That's fine. Zach's pick? Yeah. Yeah. Zach's pick.

3:01:39Big Cat:We said that last year, and Zach almost won. Yeah, that's true. He did.

3:01:43PFT Commenter:That's true.

3:01:43Big Cat:So. Tough list. I feel great about my guys this year.

3:01:46PFT Commenter:Yeah, I mean, Vinny.

3:01:48Big Cat:Yeah, I feel good about the guys, yeah. I was looking at the wrong stat for a couple picks, but we pivoted and we're good now. What was the stat you were looking at? I was looking at hits, not home runs.

3:01:57PFT Commenter:Hits only would be a good lead. Hits only?

3:02:01Big Cat:I don't hate maybe thinking of hits only next year.

3:02:04PFT Commenter:Yeah, or walks only.

3:02:06Big Cat:That would be great. Just good eye.

3:02:09PFT Commenter:I think if Brandon wins this year, we should next year change it to the Brandon Walker walks only. Yeah. I'm down with that. Yeah. If he wins, we're officially doing walks only. Three in a row, we got to do something. Yeah. We got to have some kind of party. So the pot's 2K. Yeah. And 1 % of Bush. It could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah.

3:02:30Big Cat:Any thought to like a most correct ABS calls incentive at the end? Oh. Oh, who has like the highest percentage?

3:02:36PFT Commenter:Oh, an ABS only league would be good.

3:02:40Big Cat:That would be a lot of fun. That would suck. That would suck. who overturns the most calls.

3:02:46PFT Commenter:Yeah. No, and we draft umps. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, who gets the most overturned on them. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Good job, boys. Dingers only complete. Let's get out there and hit some home runs. Okay, numbers. 77. 50. 26. 95.

3:03:07Big Cat:7. 31. 69. 90. 8.

3:03:27That's it.

3:03:33Big Cat:That's 31.

3:03:34PFT Commenter:67. So close to 69. 67.

3:03:40Big Cat:All right. Love you guys. Happy birthday to Tate McRae. Shut the fuck up.

3:03:49Big Cat:Happy birthday to America.

3:04:02Thank you.

3:04:31Thank you.

3:05:03Thank you.

3:05:35Thank you.