Hour 3: Gabe Lacques, MLB Reporter for USA Today

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1:23Now, on with the show. Oh, my God. You guys are my favorite. 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's the final hour of the program, and it's great to have you with us coast to coast, However, you may be enjoying the program on one of our great affiliates on the ESPN Radio app, Sirius XM Channel 80 or TuneIn.

2:05We have covered a lot of basketball. We have some more news to address that broke within the last 45 minutes. But because it is Independence Day weekend and because I'm not 22 anymore, I grew up in a era in which baseball was the grand old game, was our pastime, and somebody is still watching all these games. Much more watchable, I might add, because of the innovation of the pitch clock. So, heading into the holiday weekend, roughly halfway through the marathon season, we're talking baseball coming up in 20 minutes when we check in with Gabe Lax of USA Today. in 45 minutes by popular demand. People have spoken and I've listened.

2:53It's the return of the World Wide Webber segment. I do my best to be thoroughly comprehensive. Maybe five hours of content crammed into the three hours we have together, but occasionally I might overlook something. So we'll find out if that's the case coming up to wrap up the program with gusto. I was going to return to more thoughts coming off our conversation about the NBA with Kurt Heelan, lead NBA writer for NBCSports.com. And if you missed that chat, all you got to do is wait for the podcast. That'll be pushed out just after the conclusion of the program because Kurt had some interesting thoughts about LeBron's future, including more than just the usual suspects.

3:36He put Denver as a team to potentially watch. So as I was refreshing the X account, I appreciate the feedback and the follows on Twitter. It's B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. I did see the report from who else? Shams Harania, the best in the business, NBA senior insider here on ESPN. Not earth shattering nor surprising, but now it's getting done. The Lakers are no longer in the DeAndre Ayton, and there's a T in there. DeAndre Ayton business as they've made a deal with the Wizards. What am I doing? Local radio in D.C. on July 3rd? I did not plan. Of course, it should be clear I have not scripted out the program.

4:22I can't afford the writers, and it would take too long. I did not plan on talking any Washington hoops today, but you could link this to Anthony Davis if you want to spin things forward. The former number one overall pick, not talking about A.D. I'm talking about DeAndre Ayton, expendable once more. He's been jettisoned from the Lakers to the Wizards for a young another shooter, Jaden Hardy, and a couple second-round picks in 31-32, if you care about the particulars. So this was obvious once the Lakers gave up a lot to get Walker Kessler, but they had to to make sure that Utah wouldn't match his offer sheet as a restricted free agent.

5:08And this is all in an effort to keep Luka happy because we heard all the reports from Team Doncic that he wanted a rim protector, he wanted a big man to play with, as worked out so well when he and Kyrie made that unlikely run all the way to the NBA Finals, losing to Boston. So once Kessler was acquired by the Lakers, Aiton was expendable. And let me just be transparent. I know we're on here in Southern California on the flagship station of the Lakers radio network, 710 ESPN LA. I have been critical of Aiton and maybe it's my own geographic bias because I play a lot of the hits in terms of when I go through my past and how I've seen a player develop.

5:53I saw Aiton play a ton at the University of Arizona. There's a reason why he was so coveted coming out of college. And remember, since I'm talking about unlikely runs to the NBA Finals, he was a critical contributor to the Suns, reaching the championship round before they lost to the Bucs. Since then, it has been an unmitigated disaster. Got paid, checked out mentally. Portland gave them away to the Lakers last year. Now, they got them for virtually nothing because Portland picked up some of the salary. And he had the player option this year. But if you track the Lakers at all, they had a massive void in the middle.

6:33Yes, he did show up. He did not have the same kind of rash of injuries. So at least he did the bare minimum. But he had just the basic fundamental issues like hanging out to the ball when they would feed him in the post. So the goal was to do better than Aiton, which was a low threshold to surpass. They got that done by getting Kessler, and they got something for Aiton, which is surprising, considering how much of a basketball vagabond he has become, but another tall player for Washington to put on their roster. And if we think about the future of Anthony Davis, perhaps that signals that Washington will listen to more offers for the battered big man, which is all connected to LeBron James as well as we took the long way to get to more thoughts about the king I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen conversation heating up on the x platform that is BW Weber Weber with two b's in 15 minutes we talk baseball with Gabe Lex of USA Today so we've spent a lot of time focusing on a couple big names in the NBA all the fallout that continues to be able to sift through in the wake of Jalen Brown being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in division by the Celtics.

7:56And where is LeBron going to go as a free agent? So to keep that going, let's get the outlook of ESPN, NBA reporter, Anthony Slater, who weighed in on NBA Today about how the Warriors currently see themselves and their chances of landing LeBron. They continue to get indications that they're on LeBron James' short list. But, you know, I'm hearing a growing belief from them that they don't necessarily believe they're at the top of that short list. And, you know, if they're not able to get LeBron done, you're looking at a roster that probably is going to remain relatively stable. They've re-signed Melton, Porzingis, Horford, Draymond Green is likely back.

8:32But you do have people around the league wondering, looking at the Warriors draft ammo, looking at the way they strategically structured Chris Ops Porzingis' contract so it can be traded, and wondering if they can execute a trade that could maybe lure LeBron James. Okay, a lot to dissect there. And since I'm trying to be objective and if I'm going to bash players for having availability issues, and I've just pointed out what is self-evident, Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, Porzingis also made of glass. And whatever viral inflammation he has had in the past, there's a reason he went from, he was the first player I can recall in the NBA, and I might be overlooking something because I don't hang out on Twitch and all of the other social media platforms out there.

9:19But just from a mainstream standpoint, he was the first player I remember being called, quote-unquote, a unicorn because of his versatility as a big fella. But now when you go from New York to Dallas to Boston to Atlanta to Golden State, you are the very definition of a journeyman. In terms of LeBron's desire to go to the Warriors, and I keep going back to the signposts, Lineposts that was set up by his agent. It is not hard to crystallize the thoughts of Rich Paul anymore. He's got his own podcast with Max Kellerman saying that for LeBron, the goal is to maximize happiness. I don't know where winning fits into that balancing act, but if he wants to be happy with or without Anthony Davis wounding up in Golden State, you can understand the reasons why the Warriors make a ton of sense.

10:11It's a relationship-driven sport. The NBA is run by their players, which I have no problem with because, after all, they generate the revenue. And with baseball conversation coming up in 10 minutes when we check in with Gabe Lacks of USA Today, another reason why I'm hammering baseball while I can, and this is a doomsday scenario, but I think we all know what's coming. The owners have been so transparent, if you want to give them credit. Overt would be the other way of viewing things, signaling that the cap is going to occur. Whether we have to slam it on the players through a lockout or we have to go to court or they're willing to get something back in a just brutal, bare-knuckle negotiation.

10:56But a lockout is coming. And the Players Association is hung tough every step of the way. We'll see what their appetite is to miss game checks in this latest labor war after they shut the sport down in 1994 and missed the World Series. But the NBA players run the league because, just do the math, there are fewer of them, and superstars mean everything. And I'll give the league some credit. As much as this new collective bargaining agreement has effectively killed free agency, it has made the league more competitive. Eight different champions over the span of eight years. I can throw out just about every team and you could think of a recognizable superstar.

11:42All good things. That's also a reflection of the players understanding that they need the owners as their partners, as they hammer out how much revenue they can get and who does better than NBA players. We're talking about unbelievable Powerball type numbers. And just to put a footnote on Jalen Brown, he's up for another extension in a couple weeks. Another reason why he was expendable from the perspective of the Celtics, because they were not going to move forward with two Supermax contracts, and they chose Tatum, which I can understand. As for LeBron's choice, to me, if it's the Warriors, it's about fits.

12:22It's about situation. He likes hanging out with Steph. He respects, presumably, Steve Kerr from their Olympic experience. and are they going to win anything? Probably not. And I know I keep hearing this. Well, all they have to do is get hot in April and stay healthy. Those are two giant hypotheticals. And we're talking about a team that, and all the jokes out there about being sponsored by Icy Hot and everything else, is going to have to turn back the clock if your core is Steph, LeBron, Draymond, and Porzingis if he's still there. and the guy's never healthy. So this would not be a championship push because after all of these moves have occurred and LeBron's still the X factor, what has really changed?

13:09At the top of the West, I would go with Oklahoma City because I remember they were missing Jada and A.J. Mitchell, but let's just say the reigning champs of the West, I have not overlooked this, are the Spurs. Remember, they took four out of five from OKC in the regular season, so head-to-head matters. However you want to slot it. Spurs, Thunder. The question is, who is the third best team in the West going to be? Maybe it's the Young Lakers. I'll still go with the Nuggets with their dysfunction. And Joker needing more assistance. I don't know if it's going to work in Minnesota with Ball and Ant-Man doing their thing, but it's going to be fascinating to watch.

13:47Could be a car wreck, but could also be winning the lottery. And then in the East, for all the conversation about Giannis, I don't think the Heat are any better than the 4 or 5 seed. certainly behind Philadelphia now with Jalen Brown and everybody still looking up at the Knicks. Although, as we wind down this portion of the NBA conversation, who better demonstrated the value of a team concept more than the Knicks. Yes, they had a superstar or found his way in Brunson, but they got it done as a collective. And it's going to be very intriguing to see what happens as now Mitchell Robinson is going to be able to be a key defender for Boston, how the Knicks look missing that piece.

14:29I'm not trying to overstate the value of a role player, but they got it done together, and now they are missing a key component of that championship team. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. You want to hit me up on Twitter, you can do that. Hit me up with some thoughts on the X platform. That's B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs. Coming up, we're going to talk some baseball because it is a holiday weekend in July. While it came in a loss, the Miz was lights out again yesterday. Ten more strikeouts in just five innings. Is his dominance and velocity sustainable? We'll find out. We check in with Gabe Black's MLB writer for USA Today.

15:10While the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent, the future stars who are already turning heads at the age of 14 because Next does not wait for an invitation. Neither do we. Hyundai has always moved the future within reach. We did it when we made advanced safety standard on every vehicle and engineered EVs with ultra-fast charging capability because the future isn't some far-off concept. It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. This is The Rich Eisen Show. The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

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17:33Continue on the Rich Eisen Show. Brian Weber with you. Always having a great time whenever I'm lucky enough to pitch in for Rich and the fellas. we've done our best to cover it all talking world cup and team usa a ton of nba even some competitive eating and taylor swift and travis kelsey tying the knot chunite but it is after all independence day weekend and baseball remains the grand old game so i gotta hit the diamond for that i'm pleased to be joined by an old friend a terrific baseball journalist it is gabe lax mlb writer for USA Today. Gabe, I appreciate you taking the time. How are you? Oh, not too bad.

18:17A little schvitzy, but we're hanging in there, you know. I hear you. Although, where are you right now? Because I'm originally from the East Coast, although I've tried to bury the accent. All my relatives are complaining, saying it's about a billion degrees there. Yeah, I'm in the greater D.C. area, and it feels like it's creeping toward 110, you know. Yeah, it's not pleasant, to say the least. So, you know, but, you know, thank goodness for Freon, I suppose. There you go. And traffic and weather together here on ESPN Radio. Well, let me be Hacking Magoo and come up with a segue. Hey, the Miz is heating up.

18:54Gabe, this man is phenomenal. Now, I know he took the loss yesterday. Didn't get a lot of run support dropping that game to the Reds. But he had 10 more strikeouts in five innings, 9-4, 147 ERA, for those of us who care about the counting numbers. Gabe, you've been covering baseball for a long time and have a great sense of history. Can you think of a comp for what Miz is doing in terms of consistently hitting the gun over 100 miles per hour? And do you worry about injuries with that kind of velocity? Yeah, it's looking at the total, I guess, stuff with him, the total package, the one kind of comp I can come up with, and this is going to be kind of like inept for a few reasons, But it kind of reminds me of Randy Johnson, just because, you know, he's a 6 '7 guy, not as tall as the big unit.

19:45And obviously, he's right-handed. Johnson was left-handed. But, you know, back in the day, Randy Johnson would come down the mound at 98 miles an hour, and then he'd come at you with a 93-mile-an-hour slider. And here's Miserowski hitting 102, 103 with consistency. Pretty much every fastball is over 100. and then a slider that weighs in at 97, 98 miles an hour. And I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole too much of how the modern radar gun might be a little different or all that. Hang on, might be? I think it's conventional wisdom that it's a little bit juiced up and a good way to talk about juice in baseball for once.

20:26Yes. But, you know, the manner in which, you know, strength training and all that kind of stuff that they do nowadays, is that they can turn, you know, mega velocity into absurd velocity with a bit of a, you know, wind at your back from the gun. We'll certainly, yeah, we'll concede that point. But the fact that he can, you know, he can throw that slider up there at 98 along with the elite velocity, you know, a decent curveball as well. I mean, it's just increasingly hopeless. You know, you talk to guys who have faced him and they're basically like, okay, maybe there will be one pitch that might be down the middle in one at that.

21:03And you better hit that one or else you're cooked. So it's remarkable to see. And as for the injury thing, you know, it's just tough to say. You know, some guys last forever. Some guys, you know, hit the red flags eventually. You just kind of got to enjoy it while you can. And, I mean, you know, it's going to be a really long time. So we really look back and fully correlate how velocity, you know, leads to breakdowns. You know, we're talking 5, 10, 15 years from now. We'll look back on the Miz and we'll look back on schemes and guys like that and whether they held up and all that kind of stuff.

21:47Because some guys truly are built different, you know. And so maybe, you know, maybe physiologically they can handle it so far. And I got to say, I've been impressed with the one year, the 12 months since the Miz was named an All-Star, for him to continue to get better as a pitcher and continue to be more dominant and hold up physically. He has a couple of hiccups here and there, but it is remarkable. But we'll certainly just kind of reserve judgment on whether it's sustainable until we see, just because it's certainly a scientific marvel right now. Appreciate that overview. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich.

22:26It's the Rich Eisen Show here on ESPN Radio, rounding the bases with Gabe Lex of USA Today. Well, you mentioned Skeens. Feels like the late 1960s and the year of the pitcher in the National League with the Miz and what Christopher Sanchez is doing in Philadelphia. But, Gabe, and I realize he is human after all, Skeens has been a bit mortal lately. He had his worst start of the year Wednesday. He got roughed up by the Phils. struggling a bit as of late? Do you think this is just a blip, or do you have any reasons for real concerns? Really good question. A lot of the peripherals look as good as they did.

23:05A lot of the stuff looks as good as it did. Right now, getting really bit by the home run ball. He's already equaled the amount of home runs he gave up all last year. 11 home runs already, so obviously on pace since we're pretty much halfway to give up 22 to 25 home runs. So that part of it is a little bit daunting to be certain. Yeah, it's maybe just things just don't last forever per se or guys sometimes can get that occasionally non-dominant swath of time. But he's still punching out 11 guys per nine innings, which is very encouraging. still striking out, you know, the strikeout walk ratio still looks really strong.

23:5122 walks in 97 innings. That's pretty crazy. So, you know, he's getting hit a little more, which is, I think, behooves him to start making some adjustments, you know, and I think he'll be the first guy to tell you that. You know, not that he can't. It's just that, you know, in this cat and mouse game, and, you know, I like to tell people if you find anybody who doesn't believe in evolution, and have them watch baseball. You know, the way guys have adjusted to velocity. You know, the much-volley-hooed 104.5-mile-hour pitch, whatever it was, you know, that Mizorowski threw last week, you know, everybody's freaking out about it.

24:31You know, one thing that, you know, is less known about that pitch is Pete Crow Armstrong fouled it off. You know, it's not like it's some kid's 90s movie where, you know, a guy throws 104 miles an hour and it makes everybody's head spin. You know, these guys are trained now for velocity, and, you know, as long as the ante keeps getting raised, they're going to continue to attempt to try to hit it, and some of them with great success. So, you know, even for the package that Schemes has, it still requires adjustments and tweaks and all that kind of stuff, and, you know, I'm pretty sure he's going to find it and he's going to be close to the guy that we saw his first couple years.

25:11I did not think we'd get an allusion to the Scopes monkey trial, but Gabe Lacks is just that versatile. He knows history on and off the dime. And check out his great work for USA Today. Gabe, you referenced that your base closed to D.C. So you saw, in terms of local team, the Nats go through an absolute series of heartbreak against Philadelphia last week with all of those comebacks in the ninth inning. When you look at Philadelphia, and as they've now come alive and are trying to run down the Braves and the NLEs. What impact do you think Don Mattingly has had as the interim manager with the cool dynamic of working for his son, who's the GM?

25:50I would say the biggest thing he has had that Rob Thompson did not have is Zach Weaver. And kind of similar to when you call a team meeting before you're facing a real palooka, so it looks like the team meeting had a good effect. You know, he switched managers right around the time Wheeler was coming back. And, you know, that has certainly helped, you know, Mattingly's cause. And Wheeler is a really interesting case because, you know, you hear thoracic outlet syndrome and, you know, it's just you fear the worst. You fear Steven Strasburg. You think about Matt Harvey. Now, you know, we're knowing more about this thing and the various types of TOS that can occur.

26:29And, you know, Wheeler famously had a rib removed, and he decided to keep the rib after he was surgically removed, and apparently it's up in his closet somewhere. And, you know, that might be a magic rib. The guy's been amazing, you know, a 2-3-6 ERA. He's 8-1, you know, after basically missing all the spring training. You know, his spring training was basically spent in the month of April, you know. So that's what really gives them a really daunting look when you consider the rest of the season in the NL East and then the playoffs, just because suddenly you're pairing Wheeler with Christopher Sanchez, who's arguably been the best pitcher in baseball.

27:11Obviously, Miz, him and Miz, it's kind of an apples and oranges thing. Certainly you can give a tip of the cap to either one of those guys. But then you look down the line, and to me, the key guy for them from a pitching standpoint is Jesus Lozardo, just because he got off to a disaster start, signed a big extension. Now he's starting to spin it a little better, got his ERA down to 3.88. If there's one thing I look for in championship potential teams, it's three good starters, because that means you've got a good chance at winning three out of five. You set up well in playoff series. And with those three guys, I think they really have a fighting chance and uh and mattingly you know it's it's kind of unbelievable you know he's uh he's now 40 and 20 uh which is which is insane and obviously he's you know in such a such an interesting spot with the yeah his son kind of a second in command in uh in uh in baseball ops and and he's you know down here from toronto closer to his family and all that kind of stuff it's really pretty cool and you know the guy always remains so non-plussed by stuff you know just so he just kind of goes about his business and and very uh you know quietly kind of explains things away to the media and stuff and it's a it's an interesting it's interesting to watch him go about his business watch him handle things but uh yeah the the switch that they have flipped is remarkable and, you know, suddenly you're within just a couple of games of the Atlanta Braves.

28:47So really the sky's the limit for those guys, and it'll be interesting to see if they can – I don't know if they're going to sustain winning two out of three forever like Donnie's done so far, but anything close to that, and they're certainly, you know, right up there with the Dodgers as a favorite in the National League. It is a Friday installment on July 3rd of the Rich Eisen Show. Brian Weber with you, rounding the bases with Gabe Lacks of USA Today. So let's go from the surging Phillies to the suddenly cold Yankees. Gabe, we knew there would be challenges once they lost Aaron Judge to his rib injury.