00:00:00
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern, 7 to 11 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at foxsportsradio.com or stream us live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Hello, welcome inside hour two of the Jason Smith Show with my best friend, Mike Harmon. Holler if you hear me. Be sure to check out our YouTube channel for the show. Just search Jason Smith Show within YouTube. Again, that's Jason Smith Show. Hit the subscribe button, then tap the thumbs up icon. Comment away whether you agree or disagree. Let us know what you think. Again, just search Jason Smith Show on YouTube and subscribe. We got John Palmarosi coming up in about 20 minutes. No shortage of huge baseball stories to get to. Aaron Judge's injury. The injuries with the Dodgers. Otani coming back. Paul Skeens in the World Baseball Classic.
00:01:05
Speaker 2: Because you know how JP loves some World Baseball Classic.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Now Skeens is throwing mud at it. But one of the biggest stories in the NFL this year. And we have big, big stuff about the quarterback in a minute. But, we'll check it in a minute, but I do want to say this. I think it's my fault the Chargers are 0-2. I blamed you all along. I think it's my fault. I think it's been sending me no shortage.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: Of things to fire off in your general direction.
00:01:34
Speaker 1: And the reason it's my fault is because of the shirt I'm wearing tonight. You are wearing a Chargers shirt, yeah. I got this Chargers shirt sometime the beginning of the year. Like, I'm going back, like, January for whatever it was. Like, I went shopping. You know me. I like to go thrift with my daughter, and I found this Charger shirt. I'm like, oh, this is cool. It fit me good. I'm like, oh, I love it. Great, great. So, you know, because the Chargers and the Jets were the same franchise. It's just 3,000 miles apart.
00:01:58
Speaker 3: Right?
00:01:58
Speaker 1: So I got a Charger shirt.
00:02:00
Speaker 4: And.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: I didn't realize this, but apparently I'd been missing this now for months. For months? Right. So, which means your daughter stole it? Yeah, no, no, no, no.
00:02:13
Speaker 2: Because that's how things always operated in my house where stuff would disappear. Here, Dad, here's a bunch of shirts I stole.
00:02:18
Speaker 1: I know when she takes stuff that was mine. Oh, where is it? I know where this is. I know whose closet it's in. But, like, I didn't realize that I couldn't find this shirt forever. And I like to wear it because it fits. Like I said, I like it. we came back today, my wife and I come back from running errands and I come back in to the house and all of a sudden sitting on the couch, dusty, dirty with the stuff on it is my charger shirt. And I go, Zoe, where was this? And she goes, Oh, the remote control fell in between the couch cushions. So I had to move the couch and, To get it because it was one of the, you know, felt I could hear it at the ground. So she pulled it out and this shirt was stuck. Not on, not under the ground. It was stuck between like the, the, uh, the bottom of the couch and, and the, and the side, you, cause we have a couch where you have the chair that reclines and then you have the middle where there's the drinks and then you have another chair. So down at the bottom in between the chair. And the inside, where the drinks are, that's where the shirt was. I go, so what happened to you? So I got it. I pulled it out. It's your shirt. I go, yes, this is my shirt.
00:03:30
Speaker 2: So now that you try to hit the rewind machine, because your recall on a lot of things is pretty incredible. We were going back into deep dives, you and Steve DeSegar, of... in baseball games from 1986. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you were reliving them in your mind. You were on a mind meld and you were watching the same screen. It was like the NLCS. It was encouraging and terrifying. So let's go back in a moment. Were you celebrating something in a game so you had to rip your shirt off and put it around your head like a helicopter?
00:04:00
Speaker 1: I don't know why.
00:04:00
Speaker 2: Were you just hot and bothered watching some Mets highlights in the pub? Or a Knicks big win back in January or February that you had to get your shirt off?
00:04:10
Speaker 1: What do we do? what I'm thinking it probably was was I was on watching TV I got hot I took the shirt off and somehow it wound up Under the bottom. Silk stockings reruns late night. I didn't shove it all the way down. It's too hot to sleep. Silk stockings. Mitzi Capture. Rob Estes. Right? How did it get all the way down? I have no idea. But it came out. I'm like, okay. So first I said, okay, I'm doing laundry because I want to wear this shirt today. And so now I did laundry and I'm wearing it and it looks great and I'm okay. No, it does fit you well, I would say. So now I've got my Chargers shirt back. they're going to start winning now. I think that's what it was. I didn't have the shirt. They started out 0-2. They've been absolutely terrible in all phases of the game, but I didn't have my Chargers shirt. So now I got the Chargers shirt, and now I think winning will continue for the Chargers. Because the playbook and execution look dusty.
00:05:04
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:05:05
Speaker 1: Rusty. Dusty, yeah. Kind of useless. Stains on it. Yeah, no, not good at all.
00:05:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:05:09
Speaker 1: What is that? Is that some sort of— Is that some sort of cheese product that's on there?
00:05:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you need to wash the stink off of what you see in the last two weeks.
00:05:16
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:05:16
Speaker 1: No, so I put this in with just like another shirt and a pair of shorts. I'm washing this now. I want to wear it tonight. I'm wearing it tonight. My Chargers t-shirt. I'm wearing it. Because it's funny, you know, when we do this. as we've done this on Fox Sports Radio, you and I, for years.
00:05:30
Speaker 2: We watch how quickly the court of public opinion can swing.
00:05:34
Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, yeah, real fast. Like, really fast. Like, Justin Herbert was everybody's golden child.
00:05:39
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:05:39
Speaker 2: A couple of weeks ago, ha-ha-ha, Madison Beer, she's going to have the same effect that Haley Steinfeld's had on Josh Allen, and look how brilliant he's been.
00:05:49
Speaker 1: And then in two weeks, everybody hates her. Yeah. I still don't know what she does or did or whatever.
00:05:55
Speaker 3: But.
00:05:56
Speaker 2: They don't like her. And the short-lived love affair of Justin Herbert? Yeah.
00:06:01
Speaker 1: No, it's over. It's gone. It's over. Just like gone. Well, that's back, back, back, back, gone. Back, back, back, back, back, back, gone. You want something big for this year, right? Charges have been terrible. Is it all on Justin Herbert? No, but enough of it when you're the quarterback and you're getting paid and you have been terrible the first two weeks.
00:06:23
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:25
Speaker 1: This is what's at stake for the Chargers this year. If it's a bad year and they wind up picking really high in the draft, this is Justin Herbert's last year as the Chargers quarterback. Ooh, now there's a take. He is someplace else next year if it's a bad year for the Chargers.
00:06:44
Speaker 3: Why?
00:06:45
Speaker 1: How many years has he been there now? It's been a while. He hasn't really been great in like five years. He's been very good. At his best, he's been very good. But now, here's another year with Jim Harbaugh where he's not quite living up to expectations. You brought in the quarterback guru that's going to unlock him in Mike McDaniel. That hasn't worked so far. The Chargers are going to get to a point in the offseason where they have to say... We've gone as far as we can with Justin Herbert. We've seen the best of him, and it's not good enough. And the clock is going to start ticking on Jim Harbaugh, too. And what's a better way to do it? While he still has... Hey, everybody loves Harbaugh with the Chargers. He's the guy that's bringing in the attitude. He's brought in a lot of talent. This is a loaded Chargers roster. While he still has that juice, it's going to be time to move on to another quarterback. We've gone as far as we can. This is an incredibly talented Chargers team. There's not anything the Chargers need. So if they falter... It's a bad year for Justin Herbert. He's somewhere else because he is eminently available for many teams who are going to say, well, he's only getting paid $ 37- 40 million a year because now that's a bargain. Five years ago it wasn't. Now it's a bargain. Two years left before the opt-out. Yeah, we can make a trade. We can trade a couple of draft picks wherever we want for Justin Herbert. We think we can make him back into that guy that he was really good. We're not taking a chance on somebody in the draft. He's still 28 years old. But the Chargers have seen the best of him for a long time, and it's still not quite good enough. And if it's a bad year, it's going to be someone's got to get the blame. Ain't going to be Harbaugh. Ain't going to be McDaniel. It's going to be Herbert because Herbert's been bad. If he has a lights-out year and the Chargers don't win, okay, it's different. But he has been bad. He is playing for his future in L.A., and he likes being Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, right? He likes that. He's a big star here. He'd be someone that, okay, now you're cutting your– your NFL life in half if you have to go play for another team because you're only getting a couple of years. He's actually following on the Carson Wentz path in the NFL, which is not great because you went from, hey, Carson Wentz, terrific with the Eagles. But then stuff happened. He lost his job. Then he goes to another team, and suddenly he's a backup. He's still playing in the league. This is the path that Justin Herbert is on. And if the Chargers have a bad year, he's going to be the guy that is going to come down as responsible for it. because the Chargers will find a way to move on from him. And also, with all the quarterbacks in the draft this year, if they're picking high enough, yeah, we like our guy. I'm sure Jim Harbaugh is in his office every day going, can I find a way to make a trade for J.J. McCarthy too? I can get McCarthy. I can get Dante Moore. Because if you're picking high, this is the year to go get a quarterback. Are you really going to say, no, no, no, we want one more year with Justin Herbert before we go looking for a quarterback? If there's a lot this year and you're picking high, This is the time to go get that quarterback. Herbert will still have enough interest in the rest of the league where someone will take a shot on him for a couple of years. But if it's bad, the charges will move on from him after this season.
00:09:46
Speaker 2: What's interesting is coming into the year, this is where you and I differ. I love the roster up and down. Losing your center before game one obviously doesn't help. And a retooled interior offensive line. The thing I like with Herbert, is after the first game, he actually popped off a little. It's like, we haven't really seen that too much in his history. And he's one of those guys. If you played the, whose voice is it game? I don't know that there's oftentimes you have a quarterback or someone in that profile that you'd be like, yeah, I'm not sure who that is talking to me, but you, you look at the roster, you've got the receiving core. and Ladd McConkie, and this was supposed to be Mike McDaniel. So right now he's looking around going, hey, you're screwing me by not being able to execute because this was supposed to be my fast track to being a head coach again right here because I've got you to bring the best out of you. Now, at some point, and I don't know if they can still do this, remember the old drill if you fumbled? Because multiple times they duct tape a ball to your hands.
00:10:44
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. O'Marion Hampton needs kind of that going on right now.
00:10:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
00:10:47
Speaker 2: Because he is absolutely killing them by not being able to hold on to the football.
00:10:52
Speaker 1: Everything is bad. Everything is bad for the Chargers now. Quentin Johnston playing for a contract. You wouldn't know it. Everything is bad.
00:10:58
Speaker 2: Trey Harris has moments, but consistency and Ladd McConkie, he's banged up, right? The hospital ball from week one.
00:11:04
Speaker 1: But how many years can you say, oh, no, no, Justin Herbert's going to turn back into a star? How many years can you say that? And I get that life can always be worse, but are you trying to stay competitive or are you trying to win the Super Bowl? And every year, the Chargers do great things with their roster. They do a great job drafting, free agency. They bring in what they need. Last year, the offensive line injuries absolutely torpedoed their season. But eventually, it's going to be, we may need something else. We've got to get something else out of quarterback.
00:11:30
Speaker 2: Last year, he played really well behind a makeshift offensive line. But because you didn't win overall, you get no credit for it.
00:11:37
Speaker 1: Right. And if this is your offseason to get a quarterback because you're drafting really high, you kind of have to do that. It's like when the Bears were faced with that decision of, well, we just watched Justin Fields run for 1,000 yards. Do we go draft a quarterback, number one overall, or do we re-sign Justin Fields? And obviously that was the absolute right decision.
00:11:54
Speaker 2: Hey, Justin Fields is going to show up in one of those packages in the backfield for the Chiefs at some point.
00:11:59
Speaker 1: They're going to have some trickeration. Yeah. We've got to get Kenneth Walker a break, so you're going to run a couple of plays here. So it's going to be not quite that kind of situation, but the same thing of, hey, we've gone as far as we can with Herbert. What can we do? Can we get better? Or can we kind of do a hard relaunch with a younger quarterback and Harbaugh's going to say, okay, this is going to buy me more time to win? Because I don't know how many more years he would have to win if it's him and Justin Herbert joined at the hip. Hey, there's billboards on the 405. Super chargers.
00:12:29
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
00:12:30
Speaker 1: And then a bunch of accident attorneys. Yeah. And then a casino.
00:12:33
Speaker 2: Yeah. Telling me that 38 Special or whatever's playing out.
00:12:38
Speaker 1: Every time you say that, I just think of Berman on NFL primetime when he would charge a plane in San Diego and he would be announcing the four o'clock highlight and the charge would be coming back. coming from behind to play a game, winning a game. And they would throw a touch and he would go.
00:12:53
Speaker 5: San Diego Superchargers. And it's Dan Fouts, another completion. Or it's Dan Humphries to Tony Martin. San Diego Superchargers.
00:13:04
Speaker 1: Now, don't you want to go back to the 70s?
00:13:06
Speaker 2: Like, if you have the opportunity and you're hanging out with Doctor Strange and the crew to go a little time travel, go see Berman in the discos of the 70s.
00:13:14
Speaker 6: Oh, sure.
00:13:14
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:13:15
Speaker 1: Big collars and singing the San Diego. Hey, play that one. And, and, and instead of it would be this and DJ, I'm not feeling well. I have a Saturday night fever. If you could play that song, DJ, and then I get older and then I'm sitting next to TJ. So it kind of works. Hey, you know, like Anita Ward, you can ring my bell if you need to.
00:13:42
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, America and all of our listeners intergalactically.
00:13:48
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be in the winter, spring, or fall. I can meet you in MacArthur Park in the summer, DJ.
00:13:58
Speaker 2: Someone left the cake out in the rain. And I just sent us down a bad path.
00:14:03
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Oh, this 0-2 start for the Chargers, like the Bee Gees sang, a tragedy for Jim Harbaugh. Tragedy! One of the most underrated Bee Gees songs. With no one coming to games at SoFi now to support the other team, you have to ask the Chargers fans, how deep is your love for this team going forward, DJ? What's John Paul Marossi got to say to all of this? Jason Smith, Mike Harmon, live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. So get ready. Justin Herbert playing for his Chargers life. The wait is over. Football is here, and so is DraftKings. DraftKings is now live in all 50 states. One app, every sport, all 50 states. Right now, use the promo code JSS to claim your special offer at DraftKings. Again, that's promo code JSS at DraftKings, DraftKings code JSS, code JSS at DraftKings. The crown is yours. Judge Ohtani, the Red Sox, an under 500 division winner. All the hottest baseball stories next with John Palmarosi, Jason and Mike Fox. Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
00:15:22
Speaker 7: Welcome to Football Doesn't Lie.
00:15:24
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Bill Parcells.
00:15:26
Speaker 7: And I'm Catherine Zazzora.
00:15:28
Speaker 6: I have a lot of experience in the game of football, Catherine.
00:15:31
Speaker 7: And I'm learning the game with Bill's help. Every week, we're going to talk about the NFL slate through the lens of Bill's expertise as he coaches me from novice fan to football expert over the course of the season.
00:15:42
Speaker 6: You know, I'm looking forward to this show, Catherine, and hopefully we can give our audience a little in-depth look into the inner sanctum of pro football that they can't get anywhere else.
00:15:52
Speaker 7: Tune in every Thursday for unfiltered stories from Coach Parcells, analysis on the state of the modern game, and education on how football really works.
00:16:01
Speaker 4: Continuity is very important. But what happens when you get good coaches on your staff and people begin to recognize them, then they want to hire them. And then you can't stop a guy from trying to improve himself, but you have to replace them.
00:16:18
Speaker 7: Because once you understand what's going on inside the mind of the coaches, you'll understand more about the whole game.
00:16:24
Speaker 6: So all aspects can be discussed. The only thing I haven't done... because I didn't have enough money. I don't own the team. I never owned a team.
00:16:32
Speaker 7: Listen to Football Doesn't Lie on the iHeartRadio.
00:16:35
Speaker 1: Join us. Been a long time. NLB Network, Fox Sports Radio, Insider Extraordinaire. He is on Twitter, at John Marossi. He is the Pope. John Paul Marossi, what's happening, bud? How are.
00:16:47
Speaker 3: You? Do you know, I know you know, but I'll repeat it for everyone's benefit, that by this time next week, We will already be one full day into postseason baseball. It is here, my friends. It is here where we are going to be talking wildcard series and oh, I can already hear it. The lamenting that, oh my goodness, we're going to have Red Sox-Yankees in the first round, and then one of those teams is going to get knocked out, and then they're going to have to, the team that wins is going to have to play Tampa Bay, and oh my goodness, what's going to befall the American League East? To which I say, the current playoff format is genius. I love it. And you're going to get drama right away. We're going to have a Red Sox-Yankees game tomorrow. will be ending right about now, one week from now. I cannot wait for it.
00:17:42
Speaker 1: John Paul, I got news for you. We talked about this early in the show. This is a no-good, very bad day for the Yankees that's about to get worse. No Aaron Judge maybe for the first round of the playoffs. We found that out earlier today. We watched the Rays beat them to clinch the AL East. Now you're looking at a first-round series against the Red Sox. That's a team that's pretty built to handle the Yankee Bats without Aaron Judge. I've got to be honest, John Paul, if I'm looking for an American League team right now to go to the World Series, the teams in the West are terrible. I'm not believing in the teams in the Central. I would take the Red Sox right now to go on a run. They're going to get a couple of big players back soon. Crochet is on his way back, right? We know they're going to get a couple of guys here, a couple of pitchers that are going to be able to come out of the bullpen. It's going to be a big... big run for the Red Sox here, which is really the worst nightmare for the Yankees.
00:18:33
Speaker 3: You know what? I accept that premise. I agree. I am worried about Aaron Judge not being there, but in fairness, the Yankees have put together a pretty good year without Aaron Judge available for most of it. And they do have the frontrunner right now, at least, for Cy Young and Schlittler there. I do like their run prevention is excellent. Their pitching is excellent. And I do think, and this point has been made, I can't remember who I heard make it today, but it's a really good one. that the Red Sox do have a lot of lefty pitching. And, of course, without Judge, you're even more susceptible to good lefty pitching. And Crochet, to your point... I don't know how often we will see him pitch in the first round, but he would be a bullpen option for you, maybe in Game 1 and maybe in Game 3. But again, it's a short series. But you're right. The Red Sox have some really good lefties, including that guy at the end of the game who's probably going to be a Hall of Famer. So it's not a good matchup. It is not a good matchup. And I think for all the reasons that you're mentioning, the Red Sox are not exactly afraid going into Yankee Stadium with the Yankees, of course, having the home field advantage in that particular series. So I... agree with much of what you're saying. I do think that the Guardians are a more formidable team than they have been. I realized two years ago they ran up against the Yankees in the ALCS, and it wasn't much of a contest. I think they're a better team now. I really do, with a little bit more pitching. So I've got the Guardians being more of a threat, but I share your concerns right now about the Yankees, and wouldn't it be wild if it came down to it and it was Tampa Bay against the Red Sox in a division series, and then The winner of that, of course, would become the likely favorite of the ALCS. That is how I see it playing out. Right now, I would predict, you're talking me into this, Jason, I would predict the Red Sox to beat the Yankees in round one.
00:20:43
Speaker 1: And that's where they all lose to the White Sox. Every last one of them.
00:20:48
Speaker 3: So here's a thought. Here's a thought. Does... Do the White Sox, I'm going to ask you this question, do the White Sox have to win the division for this to be considered, Mike, a successful, extraordinary bounce back year? Or is just making the playoffs enough? Or have they already made it a season to remember even if they somehow fall short?
00:21:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say this, that at this point, the injury to Caleb Williams means that the White Sox need to be that much better and they need to finish this thing off. So we had the, you know, obviously Murakami struggled down the stretch home run tonight. They hang on to beat the Royals and then they have the Rockies to finish, JP. But, you know, I think folks are all in because you're never promised another one.
00:21:39
Speaker 3: Right. And by the way, speaking of teams that have some momentum going right now, I am happy to report here live on Fox Sports Radio, Mookie Betts has doubled again. And Mookie is back.
00:21:51
Speaker 1: He's been on fire.
00:21:53
Speaker 3: He is back. And so here's the thing about the Dodgers. They're obviously a better team with Shoei. Obviously, that would be absurd to suggest otherwise. But they have done significant work in the month of September without him, as we see Freddie Freeman knock in Mookie Betts with a base hit of his own. So it's now a 5-0 lead for the Dodgers. And Shoei comes back tomorrow. Where's he going to bat? I mean, in my opinion, this Mookie-Freddie partnership at the top He's too good. I would honestly move Shohei down a little bit. I know that's not what probably he would like to be the case, but let's be honest here. Shohei, because of the injuries and just the general taxing of this year because he's been trying to pitch it at the same time, he has not been running the bases like he did two years ago. in the 50-50 year. He is no longer this perpetual stolen base threat. This is now the domain of PCA, for example. So I would bat Shohei a little bit lower. I know you haven't asked the question, but I'm just kind of going there right now.
00:23:03
Speaker 1: No, hang on. I'm tweeting this out right now, John Paul.
00:23:06
Speaker 3: Hang on.
00:23:07
Speaker 1: John Paul Morosi, MLB Network, Shohei should bat ninth.
00:23:11
Speaker 2: I like that you sideswiped him with the PCA reference while you.
00:23:14
Speaker 1: Were at it, so that was good.
00:23:16
Speaker 3: And again, this is not Morosi, colon, drop Shohei in the lineup. That's pretty good, though.
00:23:22
Speaker 1: I like that.
00:23:23
Speaker 3: You're not being demoted, okay? This is not a demotion. This is– oh, I'm about to utter a word that's just dripping with a little sarcasm here. It's optimization. We are optimizing. It's a little bit of tech speak there for you. Optimization. We're going to tech speak. We're going to optimize it there. I think this team now, they're hitting well. They're producing runs. The at-bats are connected again. There was a couple weeks ago where I was like, man, I don't know if I'm feeling the Dodgers. But– Now I am, and they're getting healthier. Sasaki's in the game right now. He's pitching well. They're back. Everybody that thought they were going to just be able to, oh, glide past the Dodgers this season, I don't think so.
00:24:08
Speaker 1: From John Paul Marossi, MLB Network, Shohei should platoon at DH. With Teoscar Hernandez.
00:24:17
Speaker 3: He should platoon at DH with Yasiel Puig.
00:24:22
Speaker 1: There you go. You know what I'm going to say?
00:24:23
Speaker 3: Teoscar's like, remember like 13 years ago when Puig showed up? And basically, he was the most talked about player in baseball for like five solid months.
00:24:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a referendum on.
00:24:38
Speaker 3: How you felt about the game. What do you got on 66? Either you liked him or you didn't like him, but there are a lot of conversations going on, and yet that year for the Dodgers, Hammy Ramirez was probably even more important than Puig. But I digress. We have talked about the 2013 Dodgers enough right now.
00:24:55
Speaker 1: All right, now we have to get to this, John Paul, because this is a– look, we haven't seen it. We really could see it, okay? Now the Mets beat the Rangers tonight. Okay, Mets beat the Rangers tonight. The Rangers are in first place in the AL West. Their record is 78-79. This is not the middle of August where a bunch of teams are still hanging around 500. We are in the final week of the regular season, and someone can win the AL West with an under 500 record. That could actually really happen, John Paul.
00:25:28
Speaker 3: It could, and I remember that a few weeks ago I promised you that would not happen, and it looks like I might be wrong. You've done a very good job. See, everyone, this is why Jason and Mike are such great friends of mine and why I've been on the show for so long. They both know that I said, don't worry, America. Don't worry. You will not be ashamed at the American League West. There will be a winning team in that division for you to rally behind to the entire Southwest and West. You will have one of your... One of yours will redeem the quality and caliber of your division. And here they go, just struggling to the finish. I don't even know what to say. This division... Three of the five teams have let go of their president of baseball operations within the last three months. So there's a lot happening there. And even against that backdrop, how could you not take advantage of that, Seattle Mariners? This is the fault of the Mariners, the team that I pick every year. And so indirectly, it's my fault. So I will, on behalf of all baseball pundits, I apologize. This is my fault. and yet I still think, I still do trust in Skip Schumacher and the Rangers a little more than I trust the Astros, even though the Astros have Jordan. I've got, I believe that the Rangers will finish at least 81 and 81, and that will redeem the integrity of the American League West.
00:27:04
Speaker 2: John Balmarosi with us as he is every week here at the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, Fox Sports Radio. At John Balmarosi, leave out the H because mom said so. J-O-N-M-O-R-O-S-I-M-L-B Network covers all sports for us. We'll get to his Lions pick in a moment. But, J.P., one of the Major League Baseball's biggest stars recently Cut to the quick on your beloved world baseball classic, Paul Skeen, saying that it's all WBC's fault.
00:27:34
Speaker 1: That I have no velocity.
00:27:36
Speaker 3: The WBC has now re-entered the chat, okay? And as all the kids are saying. But here's the thing. Dylan Cease just had a significant drop in velocity yesterday. He didn't pitch to WBC. I don't doubt that getting ready for the season early was certainly an element in why Paul has struggled again. He has had diminished velocity much longer than Cease has, if I'm being fair. But I do think it's a real concern. It has been a real concern. The other co-ace for Team USA was Scooble, and about six weeks after that he had to have a bone chipper move, but that was already going on before everything started. So what I'll say is this. This affirms the reality that it's a hard thing to get pitchers to buy into this thing and to pitch in it, at least for Team USA. Other countries seem to not have quite as much of a struggle, but the American pitchers, it is an obstacle. And to get them to buy in is real. Now, the next time we have a major international tournament, Fingers crossed. It'll be the Olympics in the middle of the season, and there won't be any of those issues that they'll be ready to go and they'll all pitch, hopefully. But the next time this comes around, let's say 2029, there will probably be some pitchers that take a second look, and that's basically where we've always been with this. But the difference between now and, let's say, 2009 is, is that the tournament is so much bigger now. It's so popular. Everybody around the world now has bought in. The sponsorship's off the charts. So you can't stop the tournament, but is it fair for the U.S. to potentially revise their ideas about what their rotation could look like? Yeah, I think that's totally fair. Paul Skeen saying that he believes the WBC is part of the reason why he has diminished velocity, that is not the death knell for the WBC. It's just not. It might dissuade a few more pitchers from participating next time, maybe even including Paul Skeen. I hope that's not the case, but if it does, they'll find other guys to do it, And the tournament will continue to be one of the great spectacles that we have seen in international sport the last decade plus.
00:30:07
Speaker 1: He's on Twitter, at John Marossi. That is at John Marossi. Now, real quick, John Paul, the pressure is on you. Your Lions, my Jets, what's the score this week?
00:30:17
Speaker 3: All right, so the Lions, as you know, they're 1-1. As you well know, I thought they... They were a little bit outclassed by Buffalo, but they're a better team than the Jets. And so I've got Detroit 31. A number I don't pick very often. Detroit 31, Jets 24. I've got Detroit 31, 24 with the Jets.
00:30:45
Speaker 1: Celebrity picker of the Detroit Lions. There it is. John Palmarosi, a big week for the Lions. We will see. When we speak next week. He got up to 31 on you. He's usually 24, 27, John Paul.
00:30:58
Speaker 3: I have gone... You correctly referenced the fact that I try to cover sports that are not just baseball. Back-to-back weekends... I saw a significant college football sporting contest. I saw Michigan-Oklahoma followed by Notre Dame-Michigan State. Two great cathedrals of college football. Michigan Stadium, Notre Dame Stadium. Loved them both. Two great experiences. But now I'm back to my natural habitat. A little bit of baseball now for the month of October.
00:31:26
Speaker 1: Buddy, as always, outstanding. We'll talk to you next week as we are breaking down the playoffs.
00:31:31
Speaker 3: Love it, my friends. I'll be there. It'll be a great way to cap off night one. Tuesday is night one, the wild card run. You call me and we'll have this conversation. And if I'm wrong in anything I say, then this was all just off the record.
00:31:46
Speaker 1: There you go. To the millions and millions. Wipe their brains like men in black. There goes John Paul Pelosi. It was just for entertainment purposes only. Absolutely, yeah. Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific. Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
00:32:08
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:32:09
Speaker 1: As we turn the page on week two and get into week three in the NFL. You know, something we had a tiny conversation on last night really started to blow up earlier today, and it's shocking because I'm shocked that what we said was met with such shock. Okay. So we were talking about, you know, looking at the best teams in the NFL the first three weeks, and... In the AFC, you've got a lot of contenders, right? You have the Bills look fantastic. The Bengals have looked fantastic. Defense coming to play, baby. The new-look Chargers. The new-look Chiefs. The new-look Chargers are terrible. The new-look Chiefs, right? So you have a few teams. In the NFC, there's nobody who's been more impressive than the Seahawks, and they've done it without their starting quarterback and without their starting running back. I don't know that everybody isn't sleeping on the Super Bowl champions who, let's face it, may make it a boring NFL season because they should be in the Super Bowl again. That's how good they are. The defense is still that good. You can lose your quarterback. You still don't know who's going to run the football. What are we going to do? Who's going to be our guy? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Well, the guy that ran this week. We'll get a Packers cast off to show up and gain 95 yards for us. They probably wish they had him hanging around right now. They can do everything. And because it's the Seahawks and it's not a ton of star power and it's Sam Darnold. Yeah, I don't know. But Drew Locke shows up cold off the bench. Game one wins the game. goes for 303 touchdowns in game two it's a workman like week 12 really good team versus really bad team when they had over the arizona cardinals and jacoby brissett didn't even throw for 100 yards like i think everybody is sleeping on just how good the seahawks aren't yes other teams have had good starts right the 49ers are two and oh yeah see me in week 10 week 11 for the 49ers with their vets and see if they're still standing but like the seahawks they're so good everywhere. And just to think about how they've done, they haven't even batted an eye, haven't even played a really close game by missing two of their biggest guns. And it doesn't matter. JSN still has a big day. Game two with Drew Locke, not a lot of reps, not a lot of anything. Doesn't matter. It looks like he's been catching passes from Drew Locke for the past five years. Like, that's how good Seattle is. And it could just make everything really boring in the NFC, where at the end it's like, wow, Here's the Seahawks in the Super Bowl again, and they should be there. The way they are right now, week two, overwhelmingly they're the best team in the NFC.
00:34:46
Speaker 2: Well, we trust what the defense brings to bear, and I think part of the argument and discussion is just we expected them to be good, and they're good.
00:34:55
Speaker 1: There's no... There's no juice to it, right?
00:34:58
Speaker 2: I mean, you look at that opener against New England, even with a couple of defensive starters out, right?
00:35:03
Speaker 1: No, I'm in worry. Didn't matter, right?
00:35:05
Speaker 2: They did a great job of keeping the Patriots at bay. Of course, losing A.J. Brown in that game, I would have loved to seen how that plays out, but we got what we got, right? And ultimately, they forced Drake May into a fourth quarter that will live in infamy. uh in terms of how bad that was because you know boston sports radio the next day was is this the guy look at look at the last five games he's played he's terrible it's like well maybe maybe not maybe you had that one number one and then he gets hurt but you look at what drew lock did he had the one big play to jsn okay that's the the fire starter big week this week but i think the fact that they don't get more run is that we've seen john schneider do this He puts together a great squad. They're not a bunch of flashy guys that are looking for highlights. I don't know any commercials that star any of these guys, right? So it's not like they're out front and peacocking coming off the Super Bowl win. The one guy that got the juice is now running the ball for Kansas City.
00:36:03
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:36:03
Speaker 1: Everybody else just goes about their business. They've replaced him pretty easy, right? They still don't have Zach Charbonnet, right? Wilson had a big game, yeah. Oh, Jadarian Price, he's going to be the big star. Big fantasy sleeper. Well, okay, he was a guy week one. No, no, no, no, no. Wilson week two. We got two guys. Wait a minute. Yeah, now we got another guy. Oh, okay. And again, and the guy that's going to take the lion's share of the carries is still not healthy and still they're winning. But that's just it, right? They're the second favorite in the NFC for the Super Bowl and have been all along. So from a betting purpose, people are on board. From a, how do you get excited about a team? They're not flashy. But how do people not get that they are so far ahead of everybody else? You put them on the field with the 49ers right now, even Drew Locke would dice them up and they would win this game. Look at you. Drew Locke, truth or want to buy some rookie cards?
00:36:50
Speaker 3: Exactly.
00:36:51
Speaker 1: 2019, I got a couple for you.
00:36:54
Speaker 2: A couple of nice, shiny prism cards.
00:36:57
Speaker 1: Come on now. Exit out of Fresca. Exit Swollen Dome. Jason Smith, Mike Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Coming up next, get another big story out of the NFL. This is Fox.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern, 7 to 11 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at foxsportsradio.com or stream us live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Hello, welcome inside hour two of the Jason Smith Show with my best friend, Mike Harmon. Holler if you hear me. Be sure to check out our YouTube channel for the show. Just search Jason Smith Show within YouTube. Again, that's Jason Smith Show. Hit the subscribe button, then tap the thumbs up icon. Comment away whether you agree or disagree. Let us know what you think. Again, just search Jason Smith Show on YouTube and subscribe. We got John Palmarosi coming up in about 20 minutes. No shortage of huge baseball stories to get to. Aaron Judge's injury. The injuries with the Dodgers. Otani coming back. Paul Skeens in the World Baseball Classic.
00:01:05
Speaker 2: Because you know how JP loves some World Baseball Classic.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Now Skeens is throwing mud at it. But one of the biggest stories in the NFL this year. And we have big, big stuff about the quarterback in a minute. But, we'll check it in a minute, but I do want to say this. I think it's my fault the Chargers are 0-2. I blamed you all along. I think it's my fault. I think it's been sending me no shortage.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: Of things to fire off in your general direction.
00:01:34
Speaker 1: And the reason it's my fault is because of the shirt I'm wearing tonight. You are wearing a Chargers shirt, yeah. I got this Chargers shirt sometime the beginning of the year. Like, I'm going back, like, January for whatever it was. Like, I went shopping. You know me. I like to go thrift with my daughter, and I found this Charger shirt. I'm like, oh, this is cool. It fit me good. I'm like, oh, I love it. Great, great. So, you know, because the Chargers and the Jets were the same franchise. It's just 3,000 miles apart.
00:01:58
Speaker 3: Right?
00:01:58
Speaker 1: So I got a Charger shirt.
00:02:00
Speaker 4: And.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: I didn't realize this, but apparently I'd been missing this now for months. For months? Right. So, which means your daughter stole it? Yeah, no, no, no, no.
00:02:13
Speaker 2: Because that's how things always operated in my house where stuff would disappear. Here, Dad, here's a bunch of shirts I stole.
00:02:18
Speaker 1: I know when she takes stuff that was mine. Oh, where is it? I know where this is. I know whose closet it's in. But, like, I didn't realize that I couldn't find this shirt forever. And I like to wear it because it fits. Like I said, I like it. we came back today, my wife and I come back from running errands and I come back in to the house and all of a sudden sitting on the couch, dusty, dirty with the stuff on it is my charger shirt. And I go, Zoe, where was this? And she goes, Oh, the remote control fell in between the couch cushions. So I had to move the couch and, To get it because it was one of the, you know, felt I could hear it at the ground. So she pulled it out and this shirt was stuck. Not on, not under the ground. It was stuck between like the, the, uh, the bottom of the couch and, and the, and the side, you, cause we have a couch where you have the chair that reclines and then you have the middle where there's the drinks and then you have another chair. So down at the bottom in between the chair. And the inside, where the drinks are, that's where the shirt was. I go, so what happened to you? So I got it. I pulled it out. It's your shirt. I go, yes, this is my shirt.
00:03:30
Speaker 2: So now that you try to hit the rewind machine, because your recall on a lot of things is pretty incredible. We were going back into deep dives, you and Steve DeSegar, of... in baseball games from 1986. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you were reliving them in your mind. You were on a mind meld and you were watching the same screen. It was like the NLCS. It was encouraging and terrifying. So let's go back in a moment. Were you celebrating something in a game so you had to rip your shirt off and put it around your head like a helicopter?
00:04:00
Speaker 1: I don't know why.
00:04:00
Speaker 2: Were you just hot and bothered watching some Mets highlights in the pub? Or a Knicks big win back in January or February that you had to get your shirt off?
00:04:10
Speaker 1: What do we do? what I'm thinking it probably was was I was on watching TV I got hot I took the shirt off and somehow it wound up Under the bottom. Silk stockings reruns late night. I didn't shove it all the way down. It's too hot to sleep. Silk stockings. Mitzi Capture. Rob Estes. Right? How did it get all the way down? I have no idea. But it came out. I'm like, okay. So first I said, okay, I'm doing laundry because I want to wear this shirt today. And so now I did laundry and I'm wearing it and it looks great and I'm okay. No, it does fit you well, I would say. So now I've got my Chargers shirt back. they're going to start winning now. I think that's what it was. I didn't have the shirt. They started out 0-2. They've been absolutely terrible in all phases of the game, but I didn't have my Chargers shirt. So now I got the Chargers shirt, and now I think winning will continue for the Chargers. Because the playbook and execution look dusty.
00:05:04
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:05:05
Speaker 1: Rusty. Dusty, yeah. Kind of useless. Stains on it. Yeah, no, not good at all.
00:05:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:05:09
Speaker 1: What is that? Is that some sort of— Is that some sort of cheese product that's on there?
00:05:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you need to wash the stink off of what you see in the last two weeks.
00:05:16
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:05:16
Speaker 1: No, so I put this in with just like another shirt and a pair of shorts. I'm washing this now. I want to wear it tonight. I'm wearing it tonight. My Chargers t-shirt. I'm wearing it. Because it's funny, you know, when we do this. as we've done this on Fox Sports Radio, you and I, for years.
00:05:30
Speaker 2: We watch how quickly the court of public opinion can swing.
00:05:34
Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, yeah, real fast. Like, really fast. Like, Justin Herbert was everybody's golden child.
00:05:39
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:05:39
Speaker 2: A couple of weeks ago, ha-ha-ha, Madison Beer, she's going to have the same effect that Haley Steinfeld's had on Josh Allen, and look how brilliant he's been.
00:05:49
Speaker 1: And then in two weeks, everybody hates her. Yeah. I still don't know what she does or did or whatever.
00:05:55
Speaker 3: But.
00:05:56
Speaker 2: They don't like her. And the short-lived love affair of Justin Herbert? Yeah.
00:06:01
Speaker 1: No, it's over. It's gone. It's over. Just like gone. Well, that's back, back, back, back, gone. Back, back, back, back, back, back, gone. You want something big for this year, right? Charges have been terrible. Is it all on Justin Herbert? No, but enough of it when you're the quarterback and you're getting paid and you have been terrible the first two weeks.
00:06:23
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:25
Speaker 1: This is what's at stake for the Chargers this year. If it's a bad year and they wind up picking really high in the draft, this is Justin Herbert's last year as the Chargers quarterback. Ooh, now there's a take. He is someplace else next year if it's a bad year for the Chargers.
00:06:44
Speaker 3: Why?
00:06:45
Speaker 1: How many years has he been there now? It's been a while. He hasn't really been great in like five years. He's been very good. At his best, he's been very good. But now, here's another year with Jim Harbaugh where he's not quite living up to expectations. You brought in the quarterback guru that's going to unlock him in Mike McDaniel. That hasn't worked so far. The Chargers are going to get to a point in the offseason where they have to say... We've gone as far as we can with Justin Herbert. We've seen the best of him, and it's not good enough. And the clock is going to start ticking on Jim Harbaugh, too. And what's a better way to do it? While he still has... Hey, everybody loves Harbaugh with the Chargers. He's the guy that's bringing in the attitude. He's brought in a lot of talent. This is a loaded Chargers roster. While he still has that juice, it's going to be time to move on to another quarterback. We've gone as far as we can. This is an incredibly talented Chargers team. There's not anything the Chargers need. So if they falter... It's a bad year for Justin Herbert. He's somewhere else because he is eminently available for many teams who are going to say, well, he's only getting paid $ 37- 40 million a year because now that's a bargain. Five years ago it wasn't. Now it's a bargain. Two years left before the opt-out. Yeah, we can make a trade. We can trade a couple of draft picks wherever we want for Justin Herbert. We think we can make him back into that guy that he was really good. We're not taking a chance on somebody in the draft. He's still 28 years old. But the Chargers have seen the best of him for a long time, and it's still not quite good enough. And if it's a bad year, it's going to be someone's got to get the blame. Ain't going to be Harbaugh. Ain't going to be McDaniel. It's going to be Herbert because Herbert's been bad. If he has a lights-out year and the Chargers don't win, okay, it's different. But he has been bad. He is playing for his future in L.A., and he likes being Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, right? He likes that. He's a big star here. He'd be someone that, okay, now you're cutting your– your NFL life in half if you have to go play for another team because you're only getting a couple of years. He's actually following on the Carson Wentz path in the NFL, which is not great because you went from, hey, Carson Wentz, terrific with the Eagles. But then stuff happened. He lost his job. Then he goes to another team, and suddenly he's a backup. He's still playing in the league. This is the path that Justin Herbert is on. And if the Chargers have a bad year, he's going to be the guy that is going to come down as responsible for it. because the Chargers will find a way to move on from him. And also, with all the quarterbacks in the draft this year, if they're picking high enough, yeah, we like our guy. I'm sure Jim Harbaugh is in his office every day going, can I find a way to make a trade for J.J. McCarthy too? I can get McCarthy. I can get Dante Moore. Because if you're picking high, this is the year to go get a quarterback. Are you really going to say, no, no, no, we want one more year with Justin Herbert before we go looking for a quarterback? If there's a lot this year and you're picking high, This is the time to go get that quarterback. Herbert will still have enough interest in the rest of the league where someone will take a shot on him for a couple of years. But if it's bad, the charges will move on from him after this season.
00:09:46
Speaker 2: What's interesting is coming into the year, this is where you and I differ. I love the roster up and down. Losing your center before game one obviously doesn't help. And a retooled interior offensive line. The thing I like with Herbert, is after the first game, he actually popped off a little. It's like, we haven't really seen that too much in his history. And he's one of those guys. If you played the, whose voice is it game? I don't know that there's oftentimes you have a quarterback or someone in that profile that you'd be like, yeah, I'm not sure who that is talking to me, but you, you look at the roster, you've got the receiving core. and Ladd McConkie, and this was supposed to be Mike McDaniel. So right now he's looking around going, hey, you're screwing me by not being able to execute because this was supposed to be my fast track to being a head coach again right here because I've got you to bring the best out of you. Now, at some point, and I don't know if they can still do this, remember the old drill if you fumbled? Because multiple times they duct tape a ball to your hands.
00:10:44
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. O'Marion Hampton needs kind of that going on right now.
00:10:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
00:10:47
Speaker 2: Because he is absolutely killing them by not being able to hold on to the football.
00:10:52
Speaker 1: Everything is bad. Everything is bad for the Chargers now. Quentin Johnston playing for a contract. You wouldn't know it. Everything is bad.
00:10:58
Speaker 2: Trey Harris has moments, but consistency and Ladd McConkie, he's banged up, right? The hospital ball from week one.
00:11:04
Speaker 1: But how many years can you say, oh, no, no, Justin Herbert's going to turn back into a star? How many years can you say that? And I get that life can always be worse, but are you trying to stay competitive or are you trying to win the Super Bowl? And every year, the Chargers do great things with their roster. They do a great job drafting, free agency. They bring in what they need. Last year, the offensive line injuries absolutely torpedoed their season. But eventually, it's going to be, we may need something else. We've got to get something else out of quarterback.
00:11:30
Speaker 2: Last year, he played really well behind a makeshift offensive line. But because you didn't win overall, you get no credit for it.
00:11:37
Speaker 1: Right. And if this is your offseason to get a quarterback because you're drafting really high, you kind of have to do that. It's like when the Bears were faced with that decision of, well, we just watched Justin Fields run for 1,000 yards. Do we go draft a quarterback, number one overall, or do we re-sign Justin Fields? And obviously that was the absolute right decision.
00:11:54
Speaker 2: Hey, Justin Fields is going to show up in one of those packages in the backfield for the Chiefs at some point.
00:11:59
Speaker 1: They're going to have some trickeration. Yeah. We've got to get Kenneth Walker a break, so you're going to run a couple of plays here. So it's going to be not quite that kind of situation, but the same thing of, hey, we've gone as far as we can with Herbert. What can we do? Can we get better? Or can we kind of do a hard relaunch with a younger quarterback and Harbaugh's going to say, okay, this is going to buy me more time to win? Because I don't know how many more years he would have to win if it's him and Justin Herbert joined at the hip. Hey, there's billboards on the 405. Super chargers.
00:12:29
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
00:12:30
Speaker 1: And then a bunch of accident attorneys. Yeah. And then a casino.
00:12:33
Speaker 2: Yeah. Telling me that 38 Special or whatever's playing out.
00:12:38
Speaker 1: Every time you say that, I just think of Berman on NFL primetime when he would charge a plane in San Diego and he would be announcing the four o'clock highlight and the charge would be coming back. coming from behind to play a game, winning a game. And they would throw a touch and he would go.
00:12:53
Speaker 5: San Diego Superchargers. And it's Dan Fouts, another completion. Or it's Dan Humphries to Tony Martin. San Diego Superchargers.
00:13:04
Speaker 1: Now, don't you want to go back to the 70s?
00:13:06
Speaker 2: Like, if you have the opportunity and you're hanging out with Doctor Strange and the crew to go a little time travel, go see Berman in the discos of the 70s.
00:13:14
Speaker 6: Oh, sure.
00:13:14
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:13:15
Speaker 1: Big collars and singing the San Diego. Hey, play that one. And, and, and instead of it would be this and DJ, I'm not feeling well. I have a Saturday night fever. If you could play that song, DJ, and then I get older and then I'm sitting next to TJ. So it kind of works. Hey, you know, like Anita Ward, you can ring my bell if you need to.
00:13:42
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, America and all of our listeners intergalactically.
00:13:48
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be in the winter, spring, or fall. I can meet you in MacArthur Park in the summer, DJ.
00:13:58
Speaker 2: Someone left the cake out in the rain. And I just sent us down a bad path.
00:14:03
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Oh, this 0-2 start for the Chargers, like the Bee Gees sang, a tragedy for Jim Harbaugh. Tragedy! One of the most underrated Bee Gees songs. With no one coming to games at SoFi now to support the other team, you have to ask the Chargers fans, how deep is your love for this team going forward, DJ? What's John Paul Marossi got to say to all of this? Jason Smith, Mike Harmon, live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. So get ready. Justin Herbert playing for his Chargers life. The wait is over. Football is here, and so is DraftKings. DraftKings is now live in all 50 states. One app, every sport, all 50 states. Right now, use the promo code JSS to claim your special offer at DraftKings. Again, that's promo code JSS at DraftKings, DraftKings code JSS, code JSS at DraftKings. The crown is yours. Judge Ohtani, the Red Sox, an under 500 division winner. All the hottest baseball stories next with John Palmarosi, Jason and Mike Fox. Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
00:15:22
Speaker 7: Welcome to Football Doesn't Lie.
00:15:24
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Bill Parcells.
00:15:26
Speaker 7: And I'm Catherine Zazzora.
00:15:28
Speaker 6: I have a lot of experience in the game of football, Catherine.
00:15:31
Speaker 7: And I'm learning the game with Bill's help. Every week, we're going to talk about the NFL slate through the lens of Bill's expertise as he coaches me from novice fan to football expert over the course of the season.
00:15:42
Speaker 6: You know, I'm looking forward to this show, Catherine, and hopefully we can give our audience a little in-depth look into the inner sanctum of pro football that they can't get anywhere else.
00:15:52
Speaker 7: Tune in every Thursday for unfiltered stories from Coach Parcells, analysis on the state of the modern game, and education on how football really works.
00:16:01
Speaker 4: Continuity is very important. But what happens when you get good coaches on your staff and people begin to recognize them, then they want to hire them. And then you can't stop a guy from trying to improve himself, but you have to replace them.
00:16:18
Speaker 7: Because once you understand what's going on inside the mind of the coaches, you'll understand more about the whole game.
00:16:24
Speaker 6: So all aspects can be discussed. The only thing I haven't done... because I didn't have enough money. I don't own the team. I never owned a team.
00:16:32
Speaker 7: Listen to Football Doesn't Lie on the iHeartRadio.
00:16:35
Speaker 1: Join us. Been a long time. NLB Network, Fox Sports Radio, Insider Extraordinaire. He is on Twitter, at John Marossi. He is the Pope. John Paul Marossi, what's happening, bud? How are.
00:16:47
Speaker 3: You? Do you know, I know you know, but I'll repeat it for everyone's benefit, that by this time next week, We will already be one full day into postseason baseball. It is here, my friends. It is here where we are going to be talking wildcard series and oh, I can already hear it. The lamenting that, oh my goodness, we're going to have Red Sox-Yankees in the first round, and then one of those teams is going to get knocked out, and then they're going to have to, the team that wins is going to have to play Tampa Bay, and oh my goodness, what's going to befall the American League East? To which I say, the current playoff format is genius. I love it. And you're going to get drama right away. We're going to have a Red Sox-Yankees game tomorrow. will be ending right about now, one week from now. I cannot wait for it.
00:17:42
Speaker 1: John Paul, I got news for you. We talked about this early in the show. This is a no-good, very bad day for the Yankees that's about to get worse. No Aaron Judge maybe for the first round of the playoffs. We found that out earlier today. We watched the Rays beat them to clinch the AL East. Now you're looking at a first-round series against the Red Sox. That's a team that's pretty built to handle the Yankee Bats without Aaron Judge. I've got to be honest, John Paul, if I'm looking for an American League team right now to go to the World Series, the teams in the West are terrible. I'm not believing in the teams in the Central. I would take the Red Sox right now to go on a run. They're going to get a couple of big players back soon. Crochet is on his way back, right? We know they're going to get a couple of guys here, a couple of pitchers that are going to be able to come out of the bullpen. It's going to be a big... big run for the Red Sox here, which is really the worst nightmare for the Yankees.
00:18:33
Speaker 3: You know what? I accept that premise. I agree. I am worried about Aaron Judge not being there, but in fairness, the Yankees have put together a pretty good year without Aaron Judge available for most of it. And they do have the frontrunner right now, at least, for Cy Young and Schlittler there. I do like their run prevention is excellent. Their pitching is excellent. And I do think, and this point has been made, I can't remember who I heard make it today, but it's a really good one. that the Red Sox do have a lot of lefty pitching. And, of course, without Judge, you're even more susceptible to good lefty pitching. And Crochet, to your point... I don't know how often we will see him pitch in the first round, but he would be a bullpen option for you, maybe in Game 1 and maybe in Game 3. But again, it's a short series. But you're right. The Red Sox have some really good lefties, including that guy at the end of the game who's probably going to be a Hall of Famer. So it's not a good matchup. It is not a good matchup. And I think for all the reasons that you're mentioning, the Red Sox are not exactly afraid going into Yankee Stadium with the Yankees, of course, having the home field advantage in that particular series. So I... agree with much of what you're saying. I do think that the Guardians are a more formidable team than they have been. I realized two years ago they ran up against the Yankees in the ALCS, and it wasn't much of a contest. I think they're a better team now. I really do, with a little bit more pitching. So I've got the Guardians being more of a threat, but I share your concerns right now about the Yankees, and wouldn't it be wild if it came down to it and it was Tampa Bay against the Red Sox in a division series, and then The winner of that, of course, would become the likely favorite of the ALCS. That is how I see it playing out. Right now, I would predict, you're talking me into this, Jason, I would predict the Red Sox to beat the Yankees in round one.
00:20:43
Speaker 1: And that's where they all lose to the White Sox. Every last one of them.
00:20:48
Speaker 3: So here's a thought. Here's a thought. Does... Do the White Sox, I'm going to ask you this question, do the White Sox have to win the division for this to be considered, Mike, a successful, extraordinary bounce back year? Or is just making the playoffs enough? Or have they already made it a season to remember even if they somehow fall short?
00:21:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say this, that at this point, the injury to Caleb Williams means that the White Sox need to be that much better and they need to finish this thing off. So we had the, you know, obviously Murakami struggled down the stretch home run tonight. They hang on to beat the Royals and then they have the Rockies to finish, JP. But, you know, I think folks are all in because you're never promised another one.
00:21:39
Speaker 3: Right. And by the way, speaking of teams that have some momentum going right now, I am happy to report here live on Fox Sports Radio, Mookie Betts has doubled again. And Mookie is back.
00:21:51
Speaker 1: He's been on fire.
00:21:53
Speaker 3: He is back. And so here's the thing about the Dodgers. They're obviously a better team with Shoei. Obviously, that would be absurd to suggest otherwise. But they have done significant work in the month of September without him, as we see Freddie Freeman knock in Mookie Betts with a base hit of his own. So it's now a 5-0 lead for the Dodgers. And Shoei comes back tomorrow. Where's he going to bat? I mean, in my opinion, this Mookie-Freddie partnership at the top He's too good. I would honestly move Shohei down a little bit. I know that's not what probably he would like to be the case, but let's be honest here. Shohei, because of the injuries and just the general taxing of this year because he's been trying to pitch it at the same time, he has not been running the bases like he did two years ago. in the 50-50 year. He is no longer this perpetual stolen base threat. This is now the domain of PCA, for example. So I would bat Shohei a little bit lower. I know you haven't asked the question, but I'm just kind of going there right now.
00:23:03
Speaker 1: No, hang on. I'm tweeting this out right now, John Paul.
00:23:06
Speaker 3: Hang on.
00:23:07
Speaker 1: John Paul Morosi, MLB Network, Shohei should bat ninth.
00:23:11
Speaker 2: I like that you sideswiped him with the PCA reference while you.
00:23:14
Speaker 1: Were at it, so that was good.
00:23:16
Speaker 3: And again, this is not Morosi, colon, drop Shohei in the lineup. That's pretty good, though.
00:23:22
Speaker 1: I like that.
00:23:23
Speaker 3: You're not being demoted, okay? This is not a demotion. This is– oh, I'm about to utter a word that's just dripping with a little sarcasm here. It's optimization. We are optimizing. It's a little bit of tech speak there for you. Optimization. We're going to tech speak. We're going to optimize it there. I think this team now, they're hitting well. They're producing runs. The at-bats are connected again. There was a couple weeks ago where I was like, man, I don't know if I'm feeling the Dodgers. But– Now I am, and they're getting healthier. Sasaki's in the game right now. He's pitching well. They're back. Everybody that thought they were going to just be able to, oh, glide past the Dodgers this season, I don't think so.
00:24:08
Speaker 1: From John Paul Marossi, MLB Network, Shohei should platoon at DH. With Teoscar Hernandez.
00:24:17
Speaker 3: He should platoon at DH with Yasiel Puig.
00:24:22
Speaker 1: There you go. You know what I'm going to say?
00:24:23
Speaker 3: Teoscar's like, remember like 13 years ago when Puig showed up? And basically, he was the most talked about player in baseball for like five solid months.
00:24:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a referendum on.
00:24:38
Speaker 3: How you felt about the game. What do you got on 66? Either you liked him or you didn't like him, but there are a lot of conversations going on, and yet that year for the Dodgers, Hammy Ramirez was probably even more important than Puig. But I digress. We have talked about the 2013 Dodgers enough right now.
00:24:55
Speaker 1: All right, now we have to get to this, John Paul, because this is a– look, we haven't seen it. We really could see it, okay? Now the Mets beat the Rangers tonight. Okay, Mets beat the Rangers tonight. The Rangers are in first place in the AL West. Their record is 78-79. This is not the middle of August where a bunch of teams are still hanging around 500. We are in the final week of the regular season, and someone can win the AL West with an under 500 record. That could actually really happen, John Paul.
00:25:28
Speaker 3: It could, and I remember that a few weeks ago I promised you that would not happen, and it looks like I might be wrong. You've done a very good job. See, everyone, this is why Jason and Mike are such great friends of mine and why I've been on the show for so long. They both know that I said, don't worry, America. Don't worry. You will not be ashamed at the American League West. There will be a winning team in that division for you to rally behind to the entire Southwest and West. You will have one of your... One of yours will redeem the quality and caliber of your division. And here they go, just struggling to the finish. I don't even know what to say. This division... Three of the five teams have let go of their president of baseball operations within the last three months. So there's a lot happening there. And even against that backdrop, how could you not take advantage of that, Seattle Mariners? This is the fault of the Mariners, the team that I pick every year. And so indirectly, it's my fault. So I will, on behalf of all baseball pundits, I apologize. This is my fault. and yet I still think, I still do trust in Skip Schumacher and the Rangers a little more than I trust the Astros, even though the Astros have Jordan. I've got, I believe that the Rangers will finish at least 81 and 81, and that will redeem the integrity of the American League West.
00:27:04
Speaker 2: John Balmarosi with us as he is every week here at the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, Fox Sports Radio. At John Balmarosi, leave out the H because mom said so. J-O-N-M-O-R-O-S-I-M-L-B Network covers all sports for us. We'll get to his Lions pick in a moment. But, J.P., one of the Major League Baseball's biggest stars recently Cut to the quick on your beloved world baseball classic, Paul Skeen, saying that it's all WBC's fault.
00:27:34
Speaker 1: That I have no velocity.
00:27:36
Speaker 3: The WBC has now re-entered the chat, okay? And as all the kids are saying. But here's the thing. Dylan Cease just had a significant drop in velocity yesterday. He didn't pitch to WBC. I don't doubt that getting ready for the season early was certainly an element in why Paul has struggled again. He has had diminished velocity much longer than Cease has, if I'm being fair. But I do think it's a real concern. It has been a real concern. The other co-ace for Team USA was Scooble, and about six weeks after that he had to have a bone chipper move, but that was already going on before everything started. So what I'll say is this. This affirms the reality that it's a hard thing to get pitchers to buy into this thing and to pitch in it, at least for Team USA. Other countries seem to not have quite as much of a struggle, but the American pitchers, it is an obstacle. And to get them to buy in is real. Now, the next time we have a major international tournament, Fingers crossed. It'll be the Olympics in the middle of the season, and there won't be any of those issues that they'll be ready to go and they'll all pitch, hopefully. But the next time this comes around, let's say 2029, there will probably be some pitchers that take a second look, and that's basically where we've always been with this. But the difference between now and, let's say, 2009 is, is that the tournament is so much bigger now. It's so popular. Everybody around the world now has bought in. The sponsorship's off the charts. So you can't stop the tournament, but is it fair for the U.S. to potentially revise their ideas about what their rotation could look like? Yeah, I think that's totally fair. Paul Skeen saying that he believes the WBC is part of the reason why he has diminished velocity, that is not the death knell for the WBC. It's just not. It might dissuade a few more pitchers from participating next time, maybe even including Paul Skeen. I hope that's not the case, but if it does, they'll find other guys to do it, And the tournament will continue to be one of the great spectacles that we have seen in international sport the last decade plus.
00:30:07
Speaker 1: He's on Twitter, at John Marossi. That is at John Marossi. Now, real quick, John Paul, the pressure is on you. Your Lions, my Jets, what's the score this week?
00:30:17
Speaker 3: All right, so the Lions, as you know, they're 1-1. As you well know, I thought they... They were a little bit outclassed by Buffalo, but they're a better team than the Jets. And so I've got Detroit 31. A number I don't pick very often. Detroit 31, Jets 24. I've got Detroit 31, 24 with the Jets.
00:30:45
Speaker 1: Celebrity picker of the Detroit Lions. There it is. John Palmarosi, a big week for the Lions. We will see. When we speak next week. He got up to 31 on you. He's usually 24, 27, John Paul.
00:30:58
Speaker 3: I have gone... You correctly referenced the fact that I try to cover sports that are not just baseball. Back-to-back weekends... I saw a significant college football sporting contest. I saw Michigan-Oklahoma followed by Notre Dame-Michigan State. Two great cathedrals of college football. Michigan Stadium, Notre Dame Stadium. Loved them both. Two great experiences. But now I'm back to my natural habitat. A little bit of baseball now for the month of October.
00:31:26
Speaker 1: Buddy, as always, outstanding. We'll talk to you next week as we are breaking down the playoffs.
00:31:31
Speaker 3: Love it, my friends. I'll be there. It'll be a great way to cap off night one. Tuesday is night one, the wild card run. You call me and we'll have this conversation. And if I'm wrong in anything I say, then this was all just off the record.
00:31:46
Speaker 1: There you go. To the millions and millions. Wipe their brains like men in black. There goes John Paul Pelosi. It was just for entertainment purposes only. Absolutely, yeah. Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific. Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
00:32:08
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:32:09
Speaker 1: As we turn the page on week two and get into week three in the NFL. You know, something we had a tiny conversation on last night really started to blow up earlier today, and it's shocking because I'm shocked that what we said was met with such shock. Okay. So we were talking about, you know, looking at the best teams in the NFL the first three weeks, and... In the AFC, you've got a lot of contenders, right? You have the Bills look fantastic. The Bengals have looked fantastic. Defense coming to play, baby. The new-look Chargers. The new-look Chiefs. The new-look Chargers are terrible. The new-look Chiefs, right? So you have a few teams. In the NFC, there's nobody who's been more impressive than the Seahawks, and they've done it without their starting quarterback and without their starting running back. I don't know that everybody isn't sleeping on the Super Bowl champions who, let's face it, may make it a boring NFL season because they should be in the Super Bowl again. That's how good they are. The defense is still that good. You can lose your quarterback. You still don't know who's going to run the football. What are we going to do? Who's going to be our guy? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Well, the guy that ran this week. We'll get a Packers cast off to show up and gain 95 yards for us. They probably wish they had him hanging around right now. They can do everything. And because it's the Seahawks and it's not a ton of star power and it's Sam Darnold. Yeah, I don't know. But Drew Locke shows up cold off the bench. Game one wins the game. goes for 303 touchdowns in game two it's a workman like week 12 really good team versus really bad team when they had over the arizona cardinals and jacoby brissett didn't even throw for 100 yards like i think everybody is sleeping on just how good the seahawks aren't yes other teams have had good starts right the 49ers are two and oh yeah see me in week 10 week 11 for the 49ers with their vets and see if they're still standing but like the seahawks they're so good everywhere. And just to think about how they've done, they haven't even batted an eye, haven't even played a really close game by missing two of their biggest guns. And it doesn't matter. JSN still has a big day. Game two with Drew Locke, not a lot of reps, not a lot of anything. Doesn't matter. It looks like he's been catching passes from Drew Locke for the past five years. Like, that's how good Seattle is. And it could just make everything really boring in the NFC, where at the end it's like, wow, Here's the Seahawks in the Super Bowl again, and they should be there. The way they are right now, week two, overwhelmingly they're the best team in the NFC.
00:34:46
Speaker 2: Well, we trust what the defense brings to bear, and I think part of the argument and discussion is just we expected them to be good, and they're good.
00:34:55
Speaker 1: There's no... There's no juice to it, right?
00:34:58
Speaker 2: I mean, you look at that opener against New England, even with a couple of defensive starters out, right?
00:35:03
Speaker 1: No, I'm in worry. Didn't matter, right?
00:35:05
Speaker 2: They did a great job of keeping the Patriots at bay. Of course, losing A.J. Brown in that game, I would have loved to seen how that plays out, but we got what we got, right? And ultimately, they forced Drake May into a fourth quarter that will live in infamy. uh in terms of how bad that was because you know boston sports radio the next day was is this the guy look at look at the last five games he's played he's terrible it's like well maybe maybe not maybe you had that one number one and then he gets hurt but you look at what drew lock did he had the one big play to jsn okay that's the the fire starter big week this week but i think the fact that they don't get more run is that we've seen john schneider do this He puts together a great squad. They're not a bunch of flashy guys that are looking for highlights. I don't know any commercials that star any of these guys, right? So it's not like they're out front and peacocking coming off the Super Bowl win. The one guy that got the juice is now running the ball for Kansas City.
00:36:03
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:36:03
Speaker 1: Everybody else just goes about their business. They've replaced him pretty easy, right? They still don't have Zach Charbonnet, right? Wilson had a big game, yeah. Oh, Jadarian Price, he's going to be the big star. Big fantasy sleeper. Well, okay, he was a guy week one. No, no, no, no, no. Wilson week two. We got two guys. Wait a minute. Yeah, now we got another guy. Oh, okay. And again, and the guy that's going to take the lion's share of the carries is still not healthy and still they're winning. But that's just it, right? They're the second favorite in the NFC for the Super Bowl and have been all along. So from a betting purpose, people are on board. From a, how do you get excited about a team? They're not flashy. But how do people not get that they are so far ahead of everybody else? You put them on the field with the 49ers right now, even Drew Locke would dice them up and they would win this game. Look at you. Drew Locke, truth or want to buy some rookie cards?
00:36:50
Speaker 3: Exactly.
00:36:51
Speaker 1: 2019, I got a couple for you.
00:36:54
Speaker 2: A couple of nice, shiny prism cards.
00:36:57
Speaker 1: Come on now. Exit out of Fresca. Exit Swollen Dome. Jason Smith, Mike Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Coming up next, get another big story out of the NFL. This is Fox.
