Hour 2: Andy McCullough, MLB Writer for The Athletic

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1:23Rich Eisen Show, and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. Oh, my God, you guys are my favorites. This is the Rich Eisen Show. The one and only. Rich Eisen. I know what I'm talking about. That's the headline. The Rich Eisen Show. With guest host, Brian Weber. I mean, honestly, he's brilliant. Brian Weber. I've got a long resume. Google me, it saves time. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. And now, sitting in for Rich. It's Brian Weber. It is another hour of the program, and it's great to have you with us coast to coast. However, you may be enjoying this audio experience, whether it be our great affiliates across the nation, the ESPN Radio app, Sirius XM Channel 80, or my former employers at TuneIn.

2:16Let's keep the conversation going on social media. B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs on the X platform. We address baseball heading into the All-Star break in the first hour of the show. If you missed that, no worries. You can listen to any portion of any program anytime by checking out the Rich Eisen Show podcast. That'll drop shortly after the conclusion of the show. And we will circle the bases again in 20 minutes, getting you set for what are the important topics to know heading into the All-Star Game. And then it's on to the trade deadline. With a reminder, you can catch full coverage of Home Run Derby on Monday.

2:54And then the All-Star Game itself right here on ESPN Radio. We'll get analysis from Andy McCullough of The Athletic. And I'm pausing NBA conversation. I would clap for myself, but I'm afraid I'll knock the microphone over. More NFL coming up in the last hour of the show. We will take you across the league with Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com, part of good friend of the program Mike Florio's Media Empire. I follow the stars. I think people forget why this is called broadcasting, and I'll destroy the momentum I thought I had established. Let me do it in 15 seconds. It was a agricultural term, a farming term.

3:36So when a farmer was tossing his seeds out there, you don't want to throw it in one spot in case that is not receptive to growth, because you can tell I have a green thumb. You broadly cast it out there. I want a long way to point out that if you talk about notable names and Conor McGregor is still a notable name, whether it's making terrible movies like the reboot of Roadhouse or for other reasons, and he can steal a press conference, as we saw again yesterday, he returns to the octagon tomorrow for the first time in six years. Does Conor need the UFC anymore, or do they need him? It's a really interesting dynamic.

4:17That is coming up in 45 minutes. But no, I will not be breaking down what it takes to pull off a rear naked choke. In two hours, and this is another reason why, even if you're not a soccer fan, I get it. I'm not trying to convert anybody, and I don't have any professional connection to soccer anymore. I faked my way through doing high-level college soccer here on the West Coast for national champion programs like Stanford and UCLA. Learned a ton from hanging around with those coaching staffs. But when I'm not on the air, I'm not watching La Liga. I'm not watching the EPL. Occasionally, I'll watch Champions League.

4:55But I appreciate the beautiful game because I'm open-minded. And I've been to Europe a couple times, and there's a reason why everybody else in the world loves it so much. Here's one reason, just as a sports consumer, you might want to appreciate soccer. They start the game on time. When I say two hours from now, less than that. When we get to 3 p.m. Eastern, that game between Spain and Belgium, that could have been the United States, will get underway promptly. Now, we could talk about the corruption of FIFA and everything else wrong with soccer and bogus red cards, but we're not going to do that because we're trying to stay upbeat in my final fill-in shift for Mr.

5:38Eisen and the crew. So I mentioned, and by now, I'm not telling you anything you don't know, the ratings for what happened on Monday night, unfortunately, a one-sided victory put together by Team Belgium, were unbelievably big. I'm talking historic, the biggest non-NFL sporting event since 1994, Tanya and Nancy back in the day. Such a big controversy. They made movies out of that debacle. So had the United States actually performed to the best of their abilities, maybe that would not have been a 4-1 beatdown. Either way, it was a lost opportunity because of all of the momentum and because of all the casual fan interest.

6:23and you know how it works in sports somebody's got to be the fall guy as chris carter once said somebody's got to take the heat and that somebody a week ago was largely regarded as the most skilled player in the history of american soccer i'm talking about christian pulisic so let us hear from craig burley who like christian played for chelsea at the top of the sport in the english premier league he said on a great soccer show you should check it out for the rest of the world cup and beyond, ESPN FC, that those who are now piling on, quote unquote, Captain America, may be going too far. And I get it.

7:00He's had a tough tournament because he started well, got injured, hasn't really found his flow again, ends the tournament the way he pretty much started, is injured. But the pile on, the pile on to an individual is way over the top. It's like if Christian Pulisic had had a great tournament, the U.S. would have gone all the way. That's kind of how the talk is. And I get it. He has a responsibility. And he didn't come into this tournament to try and be under par or play badly. But to me, if I was Christian Pulisic, I would be big time annoyed. Because it seems to me it's almost a personal attack on an individual rather than an analysis of the football that's gone before.

7:42Because if it was an analysis of the football, you could go through pretty much the whole team and say, well, he had a bad game, he had a bad game, the goalkeeper made a mistake, He's Serginio Dess at a terrible game, letting balls bounce in the box, all that sort of stuff. But it seems that he has been painted up there as the poster boy. That is well said. And since I like to dwell in the afterglow of when I had a thriving career, I spent a lot of time in the tennis world, 19 years of tennis channel, because I like to work. And if you think about it, they play tennis every day. My issue with that sport, and I love tennis.

8:14And by the way, if we're going to wonder why the United States is not better in soccer, After 49 years since Pele wrapped it up in 1977 at Giants Stadium, do you realize an American men's tennis player hasn't won a Grand Slam tournament since 2003? That was Andy Roddick who's killing it, as he always does in media work on ESPN. My problem with tennis, other than having to work at 2 o 'clock in the morning for international matches, is it's too insular. If you're quote-unquote not one of us, they don't want the casuals, And soccer has that same kind of vibe. And there's so many connections within the sport and so many generations now.

8:54Think Greg Berhalter, who I give him credit, is defending Christian and his son, Sebastian, who played well amongst the few bright spots for Team USA that came crashing down against a much better Belgium team. But as much as I appreciate the strong analysis from Carly Lord, In fact, I think she's been the best analyst across all of Fox's coverage. Felt like she was being a little bit over the top. And I know she was in the moment reacting to Christian, saying when he came off the field and asked for his postgame reaction on Monday that he felt like, well, the good news is I'm going to be OK. And she effectively said, well, he's got plenty of time at the end of his career to rest.

9:38Landon Donovan, I think, is just auditioning to be the next Alexi Lawless. Now, if you know anything about the backstory and the personal dynamics between Landon Donovan and the Pulisic family, evidently Landon, who used to be the face of American soccer, and he'll always have, especially now with the United States failing to meet expectations that were out there, but at least reaching the quarterfinals. And I'm Brian Weber, flexing soccer knowledge for the last time. I don't know if I'll be here in four years when we roll around to the next World Cup. In for Rich. Hit me up on the X platform.

10:10B.W. Weber. Weber with two Bs in less than 15 minutes. We get you set for baseball heading into the All-Star break when we're joined by Andy McCullough of The Athletic. Donovan was the star in 2002 when the United States made the quarterfinals, coached by Bruce Arena, and then became the elder statesman of American soccer. We've known about Pulisic since he was very young, a phenom, and with that comes the bird of expectations. According to all these reports, Landon tried to be supportive and a mentor to a young Christian Pulisic, and Pulisic's father essentially blew him off, said, no, we're good.

10:50Now, if you just want to tell it like it is, as much as Pulisic is getting buried, should we mention that now it's been confirmed, I don't think anybody thought he was faking the injury or exaggerating it, he's got a micro fracture in his leg. He's going to miss several weeks for his high-paying gig at AC Milan in Italy. That's notable because everybody who was burying him for not cutting his leg off to get back on the field now looks pretty foolish. But Donovan, I think, has a degree, and this is just me being amateur psychologist, of envy that this is just a fair assessment, I think, if you just look at their international body of work, Pulisic has had much more success playing at the top of the sport.

11:35I mentioned he won a Champions League title for Chelsea. He is part of a very prestigious AC Milan team. Now, there, he's the third option. And here's where things got askew. Back to my notion of I'm always going to look for stars because I want people who don't love sports as much as you and I, as hardcores do. and we're going to talk Conor McGregor coming up in 40 minutes with his return to the Octagon tomorrow. We were so desperate to have a new face of American soccer and here came this unbelievably talented kid and we said, you're the man. In all the comparisons to Tiger Woods and LeBron James.

12:19Now Christian never went out and said any of that. He didn't print t-shirts that said Captain America but you don't get to choose when you're anointed. We, as a sporting society, do that. And with all of that adulation and the money comes massive expectations. And when you are the face of American soccer, you got to do better than one assist and no goals in this tournament. Now, some of that comes down to injury. Unfortunately, that's been a consistent issue beyond his control. So it feels like scapegoating is going on. I think the real shift that has occurred, even if you paid little attention to the tournament, you couldn't misname Balogun because it was all over the news shows over the weekend.

13:04When FIFA got to the right conclusion by pausing that red card that should never have been doled out, just you can go back and watch the replay. It was incidental contact. But they did in such a FIFA way with no transparency. They foisted it on Belgium at the last minute after the Belgians spent the better part of a week preparing for the American side without Belgen. And you've got to believe that that was extra motivation for Belgium. Why do you think, in my estimation, they came out with so much attacking intensity, peppering the United States with shot after shot in the first 10 minutes? This is now Belgen's team.

13:42You can just use the eyeball test. You can see the difference in speed, athletic ability between Balogun and Pulisic. So as Pulisic now, if he accepts a contributing role, I'm not saying it's Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen. I'm not coming up with other analogies from other sports. I'm saying it's 1 and 1A. Balogun just has a different gear and I think a mindset. He wants the pressure of the moment. and Pulisic, I think, is more comfortable being a complementary talent. So they got four years to figure this out. But the only issue comes down to this. Expectations got completely distorted when the United States blew out Paraguay and suddenly it was World Cup title or bust.

14:30Look, I'll mention again, if you saw Pele like I did now, I was six years old. But if you saw him in 1977, you figured sometime in the next 25 years, We'd actually be a contender in the World Cup. It's been 49 years. Nothing has changed. So we should recalibrate our expectations. The negativity surrounding Pulisic, I think, really is just a replacement for overall disappointment of how poorly the United States played the mental miscues and just the glaring display of the wide gap between, quote unquote, us and the Premier teams, which include victorious Belgium taking on Spain coming up at three Eastern here in Southern California.

15:14If you don't love soccer, my gift to you on the pitches. We're not talking about it again in our remaining hour and 45 minutes. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. Hit me up on Twitter. I don't work for Elon. Don't have to call an X. My handle is BWWeber, Weber with two Bs. Coming up, because baseball still commands our attention, especially heading into the All-Star break, is this year of excellence on the mound reflecting a absolute resurgence of young arms is it a one off and who is the best pitcher in all the baseball we'll find out when we bring in Andy McCullough senior baseball writer for the athletic I'm Brian Weber in for rich a reminder when you run a small business you don't just do the job you're also the hiring manager the payroll department and the benefits team, usually all before lunch.

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19:36The Rich Eisen Show podcast. It's the Rich Eisen Show here on ESPN radio. Brian Weber with you. Coming up in 30 minutes, we will spotlight the world of the Octagon and the return of Conor McGregor to UFC tomorrow. Wasn't mean for Conor, wasn't mean for the sport. That is on the docket, but this is an absolutely outstanding time of the year to be a baseball fan heading into the All-Star break with Home Run Derby on Monday, the All-Star game itself in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Full coverage, of course, here on ESPN Radio. Always great to focus on MLB with Andy McCullough, senior baseball writer for The Athletic and author of the terrific book, The Last of His Kind, focusing on Clayton Kershaw.

20:19Andy, thanks for taking the time. How are you? I'm well. How are you? I'm well. And it's our first conversation in a year. Not only are our interactions so memorable, but I keep notes of my time filling in for Rich. a year ago we were talking about the book 12 months later did you get any feedback from Clayton or his team about it no I mean he still hasn't read the thing it came out two years ago you know he told me he told me when I wrote it I'm not going to read this and to my knowledge you know he's he's held firm on that he's a man of his word okay I mean look like um Clayton and his family were exceedingly generous with their time and you know during the process of doing the book over a couple years.

21:00And so, you know, he's just he's been very gracious about the whole thing. I imagine it's very strange thing to have someone write a book about you. So, yeah, I couldn't really ask for more in terms of the subject. OK, did not mean to bring up a tough topic. Now, I'm a narcissist. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can write about me. But, you know, maybe we'll do a side deal. And I have a couple of bucks. It'll be more of a pamphlet. And it'd be more like common sense. Thomas Paine is coming up Independence Day. Well, you know, the Dodgers very well beyond on the terrific book on Clayton Kershaw.

21:30I used to work for the LA Times. Are you surprised at all this team has been this dominant despite all of the injuries? I mean, honestly, a little bit. You know, the last couple years as they've won the World Series, they've, you know, really sort of downshifted in the regular season, and it's like it's just not a priority for them organizationally. But, you know, it's just a testament. Like, everyone knew coming into the year that they were the best team, right? They have the best players. They have Shohei Otani. They, you know, add Kyle Tucker for an insane amount of money. They add Edwin Diaz, and they're getting sort of minimal contributions from Diaz.

22:04Tucker's been, you know, a little bit better as of late, but it's basically like a league average hitter, and they're just storming along, you know. It'll be interesting to see, you know, the question for them is just like, can they get to October 1st still healthy? You know, that's really the thing. It's like if they won 110 games, 115 games, you know, whatever, It doesn't really matter in L.A. What matters is if they can three feet, you know, and so it's like, can Mookie Betts, you know, who's 33 and Max Muncy, 35, Freddie Freeman, you know, 36. Like, can you can get them all to October 1st healthy?

22:37Can Will Smith get his neck right then? You know, will Shohei Otani, who's dealing with a bunch of sort of nagging small things, will he still be at his top level, you know, when the postseason starts? And so I do expect that they maybe will kind of take the, you know, the throttle down a little bit in the second half, but also like they're not really pushing guys to the max right now. They're just a really good baseball team, which is really scary for the rest of the National League and all of MLB. I'm Brian Weber in for rich. We're spotlighting the diamond with Andy McCullough of the athletic Andy.

23:08There's lazy analysis out there that all the Dodgers just buy a championship or they have some sort of supercomputer in addition to the big brain of Andrew Friedman spitting out different combinations. So they have that advantage. You're around the team. You know the human element. How would you sum up what Dave Roberts means to this team in terms of their success becoming this season the fastest manager to get to 1 ,000 career wins? Yeah, I mean, he's been a big part of it. He's been there for at least a decade now. As you said, the fastest to 1 ,000 wins, three World Series championships. They've never missed the postseason.

23:46I think that he's really, you know, been essential for keeping the clubhouse together in times of, you know, in tough times dealing with injuries. There's been, you know, like there's lots of things that come with his job that other managers don't have to deal with. Like it's a privilege, right, to get to write Shohei Otani's name into the lineup every day. But at the same time, there's also like lots of media responsibilities. He has to answer questions about him all the time. He has to sort of, you know, just be the public face of this organization. And it is a very involved, very intense job.

24:20And he's, you know, really been great at all of it. He's always been a great sort of spokesman for the Dodgers. You know, his in-game decisions, while at times have been criticized, tend to be really, really good. And you hear very little about sort of strife within the room, you know, among players. And that's in part because of the culture that Roberts has helped create. Andy McCullough of The Athletic is our guest on the Rich Eisen Show. Since we're talking about the role and importance of a manager, even in the analytics era, what do you make of the turnaround in Philadelphia after they parted ways with Rob Thompson in April coming off that sluggish start?

24:56How much of an impact do you think Don Mattingly, who used to manage the Dodgers, has had? Or is this much more about the return of Zach Wheeler? Well, I think it's a lot of things. I mean, I think, obviously, and the Phillies players have talked about this, Rob Thompson getting fired was a bit of a wake-up call to them, and Don Mattingly put it to them plainly. I'm just like, this should not have happened. I think the players understood that it was their fault, that Rob Thompson, a guy who had a great reputation and seemed to work really well within that room, lost his job essentially because the players underperformed.

25:30I think we've gotten a lot of guys sort of back in line to where they'd be expected. Mattingly is a good manager. He was a good manager with the Dodgers. You know, he had, you know, he acquitted himself well when he was managing the Marlins at a difficult time, you know, in their franchise history. He earned a lot of respect during his time in Toronto last year. And yes, as you said, like Zach Wheeler's back and looks like a, you know, a number one, looks like the sort of guy who, you know, is could be the best pitcher in baseball. If it were not for, you know, Christopher Sanchez, who is, you know, currently his teammate who's currently like seems on track to be, you know, Cy Young favorite.

26:06So, yeah, I mean, I think it's just the baseball season is so long, man. Like, it feels like so long ago that the Phillies were, like, falling apart and Rob Thompson was getting fired because they've been a good team now for, like, several months. You know, and so from their perspective, you know, they feel like it was a shame that Thompson lost his job, but it was a necessary change, and the results have been there. Andy, to follow up on your allusion to the Cy Young race in the National League with what's going on in Philadelphia and the phenom that is the Miz in Milwaukee. How do you see that race?