Trouble In The Clubhouse?

It's the Kicking and Screaming Podcast with your host, the grouchiest sports podcaster on the Upper East Side, Lou Albanese. Welcome aboard. We're here. Big sports time. Playoffs are underway. In baseball, the NLCS, the ALCS, little guys are beating up on the big guys. Everybody loves to see the little guys beat up the big guys. I know I do. I love when the big guy gets punched in the face. Our football teams are punching a few people in the face, the Jets and Giants. We're going to talk about all that coming up. Now, as you see, I'm actually wearing a buttoned shirt because I dressed up for this occasion. You know why? Because I am so happy to have as my guest, my colleague, the woman I produce every Saturday, every Sunday for sports. She's a sports reporter, sports anchor, sports... And she also sat in this chair once. By the way, I haven't gotten over that part yet. Jennifer Williams. Thank you for having me. And I wore my black polo for you, Lou. I know, I appreciate that. See, that's what we're doing. So I thought we might be twinning and you dressed up for this. No, no, I dressed up for the occasion. This is a big moment for me. The two of us haven't done a show. We do our Saturdays. People watch on Fox Local. But that's different. That's Fox Local, Newsroom Live. Luckily, we have a little more separation. But now we're a little separated here. We're actually sitting down. We actually have comfortable chairs, which is nice. We've got a... Well, let's not get carried away. It doesn't smell that great. But anyhow, it does nice to have a sit down. We'll talk a little sports. It's nice. A little sports ball. You know who doesn't love the small markets winning right now is Major League Baseball. Well, Major League Baseball owners. the owners thinking that's right, the owners are not happy right because this obviously would have been the argument like hey if the Dodgers rolled this would have been the argument like hey this is why we need a salary cap exactly you have the Rays, Guardians now the Rays you could make the argument they've been playing small ball and playing moneyball for quite some time you they're they have this ability we we've seen it with Freddy Peralta to take a guy that maybe struggled somewhere else and they you know know how to polish a diamond in the rough but you have the Guardians, the Rays and then the Brewers who and you know what it's all about money right yeah it's always about money but everything's about money uh Maddie put that put that graphic up take a look at this all right put that graphic up so here we go MLB payrolls number two is the Dodgers 338 let's be honest that's what the deferred payments they're about 450 let's not kid ourselves and they're number one i know the Mets are always one number three the Yankees three or four one right yeah the Mets are one these little teams i pointed out the Dodgers the Yankees because the Brewers it looks like they're about to knock out the Dodgers they are three games to none 143 19 which actually not bad look at the Rays who knocked out the Yankees 98 million dollars how embarrassing is that for the Yankees and the Guardians who they're playing Guardians have the lowest payroll in baseball at 74 million dollars you look at that and you got to say one thing money does not always buy happiness does it no you know and i always go back to what year 2018 when i first came to Fox 5 and it's when a team the Yankees you know it was Aaron Judge's rookie season um when a team has to exceed expectations and when the expectations aren't too high in this market um they tend to exceed them but when all eyes i mean look at The Mets in the past I mean In the second half of the season With the young players They brought up You know Nolan McLean A.J. Ewing You made a good point there About Aaron Judge Came up He was young I think it was 2017 Yeah 27, 2018 And they were rookies Aaron Judge was young Gary Sanchez They had young players Okay And they excelled The baby bombers As they called them back then Right And now look at the Mets They were They were horrible to watch The first couple of months They got out of the race But then they started Getting exciting to watch You had uh Carson Bench, you had A.J. Ewing, you had Nolan McLean These young players are hungry Yeah, you know what I see in the Dodgers, right Now I know they won the last two World Series, I understand that, but they look old, like broken down and old men who can't hit it. Well, Shohei's clearly, you know, something's up with Shohei and apparently Dave, yeah, Dave Roberts went to him and said, 'Hey look, what, don't feel like you have' to... he's never gonna... we know these guys, the way they're built, they're never gonna... we saw it with Aaron Judge, right? He was saying that he wanted to play I mean, it's honestly, it sounded like he was nowhere close to being ready to coming back not at all, um, this idea of him being ready for the the the ALCS would have been, you know, really hard to believe. Maybe the World Series but um, you know, yeah, it's just one of these things. I also think for the Mets the second half of the year the they were playing with house money in where there was no pressure on them right well i understand that because but making the playoffs would have been just but you're so out of reach but when you're playing in New York it's always pressure right i know we've had this conversation and the fact that the young kids got better as the i mean Nolan McLean had a great second half but then look at the Yankees with Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler young players it's a young man's game it really is Spencer Jones spencer jones ben rice yeah ben rice and athletes young athletes and you're seeing it now for a while there i know the argument was oh we can't spend they're gonna buy all the players the dodgers get Tariq Scoobel you know what when a team gets a lot of guys and guys are making big big bucks it usually means they're over 30 years of age and eventually they get old fast i saw this happen to the yankees during their dynasty years remember oh one they could barely hit 2000 they were lucky to get past the Mets and win that third championship and that's what happens when you load up with all these big time contracts these guys get old and you can't get rid of them young players excel and they're right now and i think that's a big thing yeah no well well i was also going to bring up the point so and again you could feel free to bring it up you're your boy David Stearns he he kind of helped laid the foundation for the Brewers maybe okay you know you could also put in let's be fair here people say that all the time you know i mean i look look the look the the mets unloaded at the trade deadline and what were they were on a streak of having one like what 18 out of like i mean they were on a crazy streak after the trade deadline um so i don't know i just i don't know if the I get that you don't want to rely on analytics so much, but there is some truth to it. Okay, I'll say this about David Stearns. I'll tell you what is true. What David Stearns is very good at, and I give him full credit for, he's very good at finding young players. And you're seeing it right now. He drafted Carson Bench out of Oklahoma State. Two-way player, excellent hitter. Some of the young players, they're developing and they're bringing up to the majors. I still like the Mets future. That's what Milwaukee does. They have a really good young core of players. And you look at these guys that come out of the bullpen, kind of similar to what the Mets did at the end of the year. Great arms, great arms. He's good at that. I'm not going to take that away from him. He made some mistakes here. Right, I totally agree. And he made mistakes. He made mistakes on areas where it's not his strength. Signing free agents, bringing in that type of player. Because of the pressures of New York. He'd be better off building this Mets team with just young players and one or two stars. Right, right. Milwaukee has stars. Christian Yelich is a former MVP who's making a lot of money. Yeah. Contreras, William Contreras is a good up-and-coming player. And he was the one who brought in Yelich. Right, he brought in Yelich. And he brought in a couple of players like that. So you get that one or two stars like the Lindor and like the Soto, and you build around with young players. And I think now he knows, I'm going to do what I normally do. I'm stopping the pressure of having to fill in these slots with the Poloncos of the world. and i think he'll be better off i think he's gonna be better off starting doing this so i can't rip him and you're right milwaukee he built that foundation but milwaukee's taking it to the next level right exactly the next guy that came in has which is his guy right exactly exactly um so yeah i again i do think there's been some missteps like i think he underestimated how much the fans love pete alonso and again let's listen not human right yeah i mean i'm serious I hate to be mean about David Stearns, but if you're human and you think human thoughts like people, and you think the fans and the players and the love affair, he don't think that way. He thinks like a computer. He thinks like AI, and that's how he thinks. He doesn't want to put the human emotion into these events, and I think that's something he learned. That's part of the thing I said learning, that sometimes you have to take that into consideration, and he doesn't. He just doesn't do it. Well, and look, ultimately winning translates to butts in the seats, tickets being sold. And look, Rick Pitino came when he came to St. John's. He said, you know, I had never heard a coach talk like this. He said, my job is to put butts in the seats. And guys like, again, that fan base was, I don't even think I realized how attached to Pete Alonzo, these homegrown players. So with the Carson bench, maybe he'll learn that. A homegrown player. It's not just numbers. Right. You got to figure out how to keep them. And more importantly, you got to understand, it's more, these are human beings playing on the field. And that's what I'm saying. The connection is important. And I think Steve Cohen understood that. He let Stearns do what he had to do by letting Alonzo go. But I think that's a big regret. And when he says that Stearns has learned, I'm hoping what he means is that Stearns has learned it's more than just numbers. Cold facts. Numbers. is more to that building a baseball team and you're seeing it with Milwaukee and the love affair they had they could have dumped Christian Yelich probably but they kept him because they know his value as a professional hitter professionalism is important in this game young players surrounded by a couple of key big name stars and a couple of key pros and you get yourself what you're seeing right now in Tampa what you're seeing right now in Cleveland and what you're seeing right now in Milwaukee are young teams hungry for a title and they're beating out the big boys i do think there's something to be said about a veteran presence Spencer Jones was talking about just someone like a Cody Bellinger being able to bounce ideas off him we saw with the Nets a few years ago when they brought in some veterans because they had you know they had a bunch of young talent that was kind of just needing a little vets to come in and be like hey you know this is how things should go it's culture yeah right is that what we're talking about sports culture yeah you know who talked about that this week uh CC Sabathia he was on a podcast with i believe with Dylan Patines and i believe it was Chris Young and it was this whole thing i think it was called it's a popular podcast he talked about how the problem with the Yankees is that they don't have that presence anymore in fact to take a listen to what he said this was this was i think it was this week or so take a listen to what CC had to say and then we'll talk about it afterwards let's talk let's say let's play it back once Guidry left it was it's been a wrap you know i'm saying like when you don't have when i was in there when i first came it was Ron Guidry it was Reggie Jackson it was Mickey Rivers it was uh Willie Randolph it was not only the core four it was those guys too so you knew what the standard was these dudes need to be around the clubhouse they need to be in Tampa in spring training like that that was the standard that's how the standard is set and those guys ain't around no more and and it's and it's it's completely different and maybe maybe i'm i'm to blame because i was one of the ones that said hey we don't need the the facial hair rule maybe we do need rules maybe maybe we do need to separate ourselves maybe our organization is different and people ain't seen it like that even inside of it anymore culture and that's what he's talking about building a Yankee way the Dodgers said the same thing about about the Dodger way and the Mets need a culture is important and veterans are like that you know it's separate this is a separate argument from what we're talking about young and old but sometimes the young players are helped by veteran players who come in and lead the way and that's what he's saying the Yankees don't have that anymore and that's what's hurting the Yankees and a lot of teams young players win games but they need to be led like JD Martinez Jose Iglesias did a couple years ago with the Mets and players like that and like he talked about not just guys from who are in the team who are veterans but past players and you see that with all these teams now you're seeing more and more veteran players from from franchises coming back and saying hey we won this is how you win and you build it the race have a winning tradition you're right and so is Cleveland you know a few years ago they were in the World Series with Francisco Lindor uh against uh the Cubs you know and even and even a team like you're talking about the Milwaukee Brewers they're in every year so you gotta build that whole we know we gotta win hunger and culture and it all works and that builds winning not just money it's not always about money and numbers that's basically the point i think he's making i think the point i'm making is it's more than just money and numbers it's culture and people and how they go about it when it for me when it comes to the Yankees i just it's this season just felt again just all the errors that we saw in the postseason i mean i think the standard should be once you get to the postseason clean the baseline is playing clean baseball and we saw that two years ago in game five of the World Series loss to the Dodgers and again for them not to have cleaned that up and even by the way the errors were from everyone on that roster the young guys too i don't know i i trust Ben Rice defensively even though he's great at the plate so there's just got to be something there's just got to be i don't know maybe the more of a bench coach there's accountability accountability and there's growth and there's learning from the veterans and then you feel more relaxed when the veterans come in and it goes to show you these young teams now teams like these Rays and all we're going to go to break in about two seconds it's like he my Matt's like doing one of these to me we're gonna go to break relax but i got a point to make and i'm gonna make it young players young players though they're showing it right now young players who have hunger to win beats out money and i'll tell you something else people are gonna think this is the opposite people don't think oh this is great for the players now there'll never be a salary cap and blah blah because you know they prove the fact that the big money is gone for this strike let me tell you something if i'm the players at the scene what i saw now i want the salary cap and the reason i want the salary cap is because what you're seeing now is teams making 95 million dollar payrolls 74 million dollar payrolls winning when the floor is at 175 or whatever it is you don't take that cap more teams are going to go younger and and and you're going to see payrolls drop so maybe you're better off taking that cap because you're guaranteed a certain number up here as strange as that sounds I know it's a strange thing I'm saying now, but this actually will be bad for the players, even though they think it's good, because more teams may want to go south of 175. We're going to go to break. We're going to come back, and we're going to talk our favorite sport, which is football. Oh, your favorite sport. I like baseball. Oh, this is tennis. Well, somebody's favorite sport out there, because everybody watches it every Sunday. Anyhow, we're going to talk a little Jets, a little Giants, and maybe even some Buffalo Bills. New York's team, right? Okay, we'll talk about that. We are back here, and we're talking our favorite sport, football. We joke football is America's sport. As much as I love baseball, football, everyone loves football. Yeah. So you're going out this weekend, too? Giants. Giants Saints. And the Saints have lost three straight. And the Giants have, what are they? They're a three, one, and one. To be fair, we didn't give them full credit. The first place Giants. Giants, yes. And should we take this question from, And since we're talking Giants, Daniel Stumpf, where does the Washington Commanders' clock management fall in all sports' greatest fails? I would say, I mean, do you want to stick with Dan Quinn and say the debacle with the Falcons' favorite Super Bowl? Well, that was pretty bad for them. I said three that come to mind. For people who are old like me, they remember Joe Pisarcik fumbling at the Meadowlands, the great fumble where all they had to do was take a knee. He decides to hand off. Larry Zonker and him fumble Herm Edwards picks it up the Eagles win It was one of the worst collapses In the history of the NFL everyone thought the game Was over the butt fumble was pretty Disgusting on Thanksgiving night Everybody's eating a turkey And we know what Mark Sanchez Ate that night and of course I would Say that that's number three that was A debacle It's lost I mean if anything the Giants should be thanking the Commanders a little bit They should be throwing If they make the playoffs They should give us a percentage to Dan Quinn The Giants Also had a chance To kick a field goal They blew that one The kid missed his third one I'm surprised they took him home And then of course Cam fumbled Three missed field goals I don't care if they're from the 50s I never underestimate kickers No, they're worthless They really are the worthless kicker well when you have a good one they're great they're great yeah they're great but they're mostly you know you know how football players always say the worthless kicker we lost from the worthless kicker there's other words there but we're trying to be a family show yes but uh no it's one of the you know ridiculous i mean and of course Dan Quinn with the Super Bowl against the Patriots he's very good he's very good at collapsing isn't he i mean he he from what i've heard from fans he's fans like him as a coach but it's just inexcusable it's a fireable it's a fireable it was it's a fireable and it will be a fireable offense they're just not firing him today but yeah that's the end you know he's a dead man and Jayden Jayden didn't do him any better it's like what am i doing they're running around i can't even know what's going on it was just so mind-boggling one man's mistake is another man's gain and the Giants wins a tie a win when you basically knew that the game was over and you were about to lose. So it's a win. This is a big opportunity for the Giants this weekend. Great opportunity hosting the Saints, the Giants' pass rush could pressure Tyler Locke. He threw two picks last weekend. I mean, to see if neighbors continues to... And Winston didn't throw any. That's a miracle in itself. You want to talk about a miracle in the Meadowlands? A miracle in D.C.? You know, I think it was Andrew Thomas and Illuminor. They both didn't practice on yesterday, Wednesday. So we'll see how their O-line is looking by Sunday. So I think some keys, as long as the Giants' O-line can protect Winston because... I mean, look, he looked horrible in the first half. Yeah. In the second half, he looked really good. It's going to be surviving. It's a very weird team with Winston. But look at the division, okay? Dallas Cowboys couldn't stop your grandmother. Their defense is so bad, your grandmother can gain 150 yards and two touchdowns, okay? Number two, the Eagles are so banged up, and now we heard the word now that Jalen Hurts is out this week because of a blood clot. Which is, who knows? Huge, huge. They have no running game. They're down to their fourth running back, and the blood clot can keep him out who knows how long. Could be the season for, you know, depending how bad it is. And he's been playing with it, which is very scary. Their offensive line is a shambles. Okay, so your offense is a disaster. They have no bodies whatsoever, so who knows where the Philadelphia Eagles are going. We already talked about the Commanders. They're just absolute garbage. There's a dumpster fire ready to be, they fit perfectly in Washington, D.C., with the dumpster fire down there. So when you look at the division, it doesn't take a lot of wins to make the playoffs. Right, and Harbaugh knows how to, I mean, the fact that the word resilient comes up, the fact that they've been able to, and granted I I do think they should have won last week's game like I don't think they could have also lost it they could have also lost fair um I I think it's good coaching and resiliency and I still think that I'm curious to see whether or not McCarthy JJ McCarthy will come in at some point he's 23s he showed a lot of promise maybe with right head coach still has to get comfortable with offense again if it's not broke you don't have to fix it just yet I think I think they'll like to squeeze out as much as they can out of Winston yes exactly I don't I don't think they know where that's going right the Winston wave until they can't make any you know what I mean they can't make any excuses his fourth quarter got him another start I'm basically what it comes down to okay that's the Giants we both agree they're gonna win yeah I agree I think I think we both If they don't, again... It would be disappointing. It would be disappointing. It would be like, okay. Right. Now we're falling back. Okay, the other side of town, Jets coming off a win. Right. And you know what I liked about the win? And a good win. You were at that game. Yes. And we spoke about, you spoke about how it was in that locker room. But what I liked about that was they look good. Think of the Jets season, okay? They win opening day in Tennessee, blow out the Tennessee Titans. We all know they stink. lose two tough games to the Packers and the Lions especially in Detroit tough games tough losses then they go to Chicago and they get spanked yeah literally spanked 35 plays they run which is a joke i mean i mean little league teams do that in the first half it'll pop one you'll see more than 35 plays they could have easily collapsed at that point Aaron Glenn the whole disaster but they came out against Cleveland people said oh Cleveland's on a good team they're three and one So go tell the three teams they beat. Right. They were riding a three-game streak coming into that. And they played solid game, solid defense. And from the jump, their first drive. And they scored right away. Granted, and Garrett Wilson said it as well. You know, it was Smith to Wilson, what, 32 yards? Something like that. Touchdown, first drive. That, for me, that was kind of like, okay, we know we only had, you know, what, 35 plays on the offense against the Bears. We got to show they were legit. We need to come out. And Wilson said they had a little bit of a lull, but it's how you start and ultimately how you finish. And that was a big issue with these Jets, that they themselves said, hey, we're just one play away. We're knocking. We're contending in these games. And it can be frustrating when you're so close yet so far to punch through. Well, they were able to do that last week and how they finished. And so if they were able to go up to New England and take one, right, steal one it's all about stealing one here stealing one there I think that way because I think this team's better than the record I think so too um they're two and three I think they're better than their record if they were able to go and I actually was a little surprised at the you know Vegas giving them a seven and a half point the defending head AFC champs are coming a big win against the Raiders who had three wins themselves they seem to you know they also beat Buffalo, you're talking about New England now right this would be a great win yeah i don't think they're going to win i don't but if they do this would be the statement win that Aaron Glenn and the jets knew this would be a major major stepping stone to making basically says hey aaron glenn might be worth keeping that's a big win right that could definitely really bode well for uh ammo in terms of yeah he should keep his job i will say and because the look the players seem to really like glenn um they're buying in that's half the battle more than half the battle but it's if you again if you're so close and you're falling short due to certain play calls after a while that is that's coaching yeah right that is coaching and if you're a guy you think of um someone like garrett wilson who in my opinion is a generational talent and for him he's got to want to see some results you know what i mean he's got like again And it just feels like such a waste for such talented players to be on teams where, you know, they're winning, what, three, four? Gary Wilson could be, honestly, one of the top three receivers in the NFL. He's never had a quarterback. I mean, you watch him make, I mean, tough catches, tough catches, tough catches. You know, and Gino, he hasn't had a bad year. He hasn't had a great year. He's had a good year. His numbers are better than they should be. Solid. Look at Sam Darnold. He won a Super Bowl by being solid. And the reason I say that is he throws some bad passes, and his receivers make some great catches. And Garrett Wilson bails him out a lot. Yes. But a win in New England would be, you know, that would be a game changer for the Jets. I myself don't think they will. What do you think? I think they'll fall short. What do you think? Yeah, I think they're going to. It's going to be like a difference of a field goal. Okay. You know what? If they can keep this one close and lose another tight one, as bad as people will be upset you can't rip them for it if they get blown out again now remember they're zero to two I'm sorry the last game on the road they're zero to you know zero for the last two on the road they won in Tennessee I'm not counting that that doesn't that's like basically a who cares game you know Detroit and in Chicago they lost their last two on the road if they get blown out against New England it could be a big problem all right well then we're wrapping it up so listen for everyone out there i want to thank everybody for watching on YouTube and yes Fox Local questions and uh also and also on uh TikTok we appreciate them all every Saturday night from 8 30 to 9 Jen and i will talk sports and we'll give you all your updates and everything you need to know thanks for watching guys Jen thanks for being here thanks for having me it was fun it was a lot of fun all right and we'll be back next week three o'clock every Thursday