ESPN Chicago, and this is Waddle and Sylvie, WMVP, WTBC, HD2 Chicago, a good karma brand's radio station. Hello everybody, how's it going? Sweet. So that, no, just generic music today, Charlie. I like to be open to the YouTube show a little bit better. A little bit. You can hear that on the pod. For those of you just joining us on ESPN 1000, 100.3 HD2 and the ESPN Chicago app, welcome in to Waddle and Sylvie. We've been at it for the previous three hours. In case you missed the news, during Sox season, when the Sox play in the afternoon in the 2-6 time slot, we will still do our show on our YouTube channel and also on our Twitch channel. So if you think, like, because of past years that we're usually off the air during White Sox games, that's not the case anymore. We do an uncensored show where you can watch or listen to us. You could also feed it through your Bluetooth in your car. But if listening to the White Sox or a dire Sox fan and you want to listen to the great call of Len Casper and Darren Jackson along with Jeff Meller, you certainly should. And it's all in the same places on ESPN 1000, 100.3 HD2, and the ESPN Chicago app. Sox lost today to Baltimore. They got swept in that series after sweeping the Toronto Blue Jays. So they've been up and down so far to start the season. But it's great to talk to you today. 3-1-2, 3-3-2, 3-7-7-6. They're getting better pitching. Okay, so that should buoy your hopes if you're a Sox fan. But the bats have yet to come alive. Conditions haven't been great either. Wait till it warms up. Today is a little bit better. Yesterday was brutal. Yesterday was brutal. I said to Waddle, I told Charlie and Tyler too, for those who have listened and watched on YouTube, you know our feelings on the Bulls since their press conference, but this is the first time we've been, quote, on the air. So you want to kick them in the nuts? Go ahead. On ESPN 1000. Well, I don't even think we have to do it anymore. They kick themselves in the balls. Yeah, like they do it to themselves. We started the YouTube part of the show. You know, I heard from someone in the organization today who is defensive of the narrative out there, the opinions out there from people like us, saying, look, people want this job. We are getting no shortage of input from around the league about, you know, people wanting this job as well. and even that they believe, or else they wouldn't do it, of course they believe it, that the way it was phrased to me is like, look, the New York Knicks have wanted Billy Donovan recently. UNC was interested in Billy Donovan recently. Kentucky last year was interested in Billy Donovan. If Kentucky, the Knicks, and UNC were interested in him, we certainly believe this should not impair our search for a new general manager or VP, whatever the title is going to be. And all that's well and fine. And, like, it may not hurt you. We just don't think that that's the correct process. We think the biggest assignment right now, and Billy's been here for six years too. So, like, the one thing I would say to the pro Billy crowd, and there's actually more people out there, which has surprised me, who are very against Billy. There are a lot of passionate people who have called us and said they don't believe in him at all. But I would just say, like, what has Billy done well? You may say that Billy Donovan, you can do worse, or he's not the reason. He's, like, last on the list of why the Bulls are where they're at. But what has Billy Donovan done since he's been in Chicago? And I'm not just talking about record winning one playoff game. But, like, what is he, like, what do they do well? What's the Bulls' identity? Who is he developed? Who do you say, well, like, I could name you 50 guys that Tibbs has developed, good and bad players, good players who got great, average players who got good, bad players who got average, under Tom Thibodeau. So I know that AK has really messed this up. I think everyone has to wear this, not just AK and Mark Eversley. Billy's got to wear some of it, too. I mean, look, if you were going to attribute blame in a percentage fashion, he may get the smaller percentage. But I've asked this to whoever. You're going to tell me that with his resume and with all of his time in basketball, his voice isn't heard inside that building? so while he may not have wanted Patrick Williams maybe wanted Tyrese Halliburton and if you could go back in time you'd take his you know advice versus what AK decided to but when it's time to to sign Patrick Williams again how is Billy not in that meeting saying guys he can't can't do it I mean this is silly we don't need to bring him back we don't want to bring him back he's not the answer to any of our questions. So I mean, I would think somebody with Billy's basketball chops would be consultant on a number of these personnel issues. If you're like, he hired AK, I hired Billy Donovan. That was his hire. Remember when Michael actually said when AK was hired, hey, meet Boylan, you know, see what he's about. I think it was during the COVID situation. So I don't know if they were playing at this time i it's it's i want to say the summer of 2020 and get to know him and then make your decision up on on our coach they didn't give him a restriction whether they could keep him or let him go and after dealing with him for a month or two they finally said no i gotta get my own coach they hired billy donovan and i applauded that move so it was his guy just like ben johnson is ryan poles's guy so what did ryan do in his first draft with ben johnson and i've been critical of ryan in the past but he used him as an accomplished offensive mind to draft guys who play well why didn't like billy i've heard say like i don't insert myself into personnel well why not right you're like you well you're coaching these guys you should have a say on us like and i heard michael rinsdorf say we want him to take more of an active role now in personnel well why what as team president as the ceo why wasn't that a thing like waddle said why wasn't it the thing that when patrick williams was a bust that you and i believe they signed him as a restricted free agent is that right like didn't they have another year to just wait on him where they didn't even have to sign him period patrick williams yes was he an unrestricted free agent or restricted when they signed him restricted so the point is they didn't have to sign you do have to sign him there you do yeah you do and i thought it was only if someone else gave you an offer, you could... But he's a free agent. So if someone else offers him... That's right. But no one offered him anything, did they? I mean, I don't know. There may have been offers out there, but he signed with the Bulls. The thing that frustrates me, Sylvie, is what the person from the Bulls told you is like, yeah, the Knicks tried to talk to Billy Donovan. Yeah, North Carolina tried to talk. The Knicks tried to talk to everybody last year. Like the Knicks, like it was a laughingstock because the Knicks kept asking teams to interview their head coaches and kept getting told no. North Carolina, they wanted Dusty May. They wanted Tommy Lloyd. Billy Donovan was probably their third choice. So this idea that he was some hot commodity that every program was knocking the door down trying to get, it just doesn't add up. Well, even if he is, I'm not going to deny that. He may make everyone hot and bothered at the thought of having him as your coach. that's the decision of the general manager in my world you you if you're going to bring in somebody who is a talented basketball guy and decision maker and your personnel guy he should i just think maybe brad stevens loves him like maybe let him make that decision call that's the difference let brad stevens make that decision why why just like already rule for the guy who's not even employed well what you've what you've decided is is billy's the most important guy in the building on a basketball front and if you're already saying that i again i would i would ask how does that affect the attractiveness of this job compared to others and i know like your contact there is saying oh there's people but there are you want to hear shams first sure i'll play you zach low So we played that on the – he's reached out to people, and he believes, first of all, that the Bulls' job would be a good job because whoever turns them around is going to be great. But you'll hear this is a criticism of the Bulls. But firstly, here's Shams. So Shams is the information gatherer that he is. He's a local guy. We love Shams. Went to my junior high in Skokie, Old Orchard Junior. I believe he went to Loyola for high school. And then I think he went to Loyola University. This is Shams talking about the Bulls' job and where it ranks right now. Well, right now the Bulls are going to start their process, likely potentially hiring a search firm to assist this. And this process could take four weeks, six weeks, could be even longer than that to find that. But the Bulls' job that we see now open, it is still viewed as a premier job. One, because of the market. Two, because you see the loyalty that the Ryan's Dorts have had for years, for decades. When I talk to people around the NBA, it is viewed as a top job under those circumstances. And yes, Billy Donovan is someone ownership wants to continue to move forward with as long as he wants to be there. And also give him an input on the roster and an input on the potential president slash GM hire. That's going to be a room. If Billy Donovan stays, that's going to be Jerry Reinsdorf, Michael Reinsdorf, John Paxson, who's a senior advisor. He ran the Bulls for a long period of time. And Billy Donovan, if he stays, that's kind of your core group to decide the next head of basketball operations. This is a team with seven first round picks moving forward. They've got ample cap space. So they are well positioned here in that market to turn this around. What do you think? I think there are some attractive qualities to this job I mean who wouldn want to be you know in that building with regard to the history You know it the building that Michael built You know, I mean, like there is, it's the third largest market. But again, if the general manager is in control of hiring his own guy, that to me would be a bit of a stumbling block. What I worry about, too, with the committee, with Michael and Jerry, along with Pax, and if Billy Donovan's going to be along, too, if he agrees to come back and he's included in some of these interviews is you already have like-minded thinkers who have not stopped the ineptitude of the Bulls in the past. So they may not be willing to change on a different voice. So if someone says, this is what the Bulls have done wrong for 15 years, going back to when Gar and Pax ran the Bulls. Well, Pax is on the committee. So do you think they're going to be receptive as Michael and Jerry, who has owned the team then, Pax ran the team, and Billy Donovan is currently coaching the team to a guy who wants to come in and say, look, you know what I would do? I would do things completely different than you've been doing it the last 15 years. How's that going to be received? That's what I mean, and if you're not open to real change, you could change people, but you're really not changing the thought process of how you want to run. We've talked about this with the Bears in the past. There were people who wanted the Bears job and they said, first thing we would do is get rid of Ted Phillips as the president. Well, guess who's sitting there is Ted Phillips. Or we want to get rid of Jay. Well, sorry, we're not getting rid of Jay. Now all of a sudden you're being short-sighted to why you're in the situation to begin with. The Bulls have not won on a high level since 1998. And the blip on the radar of when they started to win with Derek was only because of luck. They got bailed out because of a lottery ball. They were drafting way towards the end of the lottery and they won the lottery. Without that, they probably would not have a 60-win season since 1998. So, like, all of a sudden you're going to be talking to the guys who created the issue, The owner, the same former team president, and the current coach. And if you want to criticize the way they've done things, you're not going to get hired. It's not an encouraging situation from my perspective. Again, though, you can have an imperfect process and still find the right answer. Yes. So it doesn't mean you can't find success. It's just not the path that I would choose. And sorry for being a downer. I think that you look to the past to try and project the future, and the past is how you've described it. It's the same people. Why is it going to be different? That would be the question I would ask. Why are things going to be different? When the same people who have run the team are in the room. The guys you released six years ago to hire AK, now he's on the search committee again. I love PAX as much as anybody. I just think this situation needs a fresh set of eyes, a fresh perspective. It just, to me, it needs a full basketball anima. Start over. Yeah, they clearly don't know what to do. This is Zach Lowe. This is from his podcast. He used to work for ESPN. And listen to this part. This is what I foreshadowed. There is, he speaks about how he thinks whoever turns this team around is going to be viewed a hero. So he's not coming at it as criticism. He's telling you what his research revealed. Listen to this. I talked to maybe six months, a year ago, I talked to a front office free agent who, let's just say, would have his pick of any job, most jobs if they came open. And he said to me, what would you do if you were me? Like, what job intrigues you? And I said, whoever saves the Chicago Bulls will be a legend in the NBA forever. Oh, he stays in Chicago. I mean, you won't pay for a shot of Malort for the rest of your life. Guess who still does it? Tom Thibodeau. And he hasn't coached the team in like 10 years. Um, and because it's the bulls and they become so more abundant. So nothing. And so just completely forgotten in the NBA ecosystem. And he, and he said to me, that sounds great in theory. Like I don't trust the ownership. Don't trust the ownership. This is from like six months, a year ago. He told you when he knew before the ownership group knew that AK and Mark Eversley weren't going anywhere. So I would ask what about, what about the ownership group? Don't you trust? What is, what is, what is your most concern? And this is what he said regarding AK and Eversley. If you talk to Arturis and Eversley today, they would probably say, honestly, we were doing the bidding of an ownership group that doesn't care. That just wants to make money. That is happy to be in the play-in tournament every year. And so we aimed our transactions at that. Look, perception is reality. And, you know, inside that building, there are no mirrors, obviously, because of the way they're going about their business. But, like, they think they're doing things fine. And Bill Simmons tweeted yesterday. Courtney alluded to this when we had her on. If you missed it, you can grab it in our podcast from the Uncensored YouTube show. I read you his tweet from yesterday. Yeah, do you have that handy? I know I have it on my Twitter handle that I could call pretty quickly. But, like, this is a guy, you may be a fan of Simmons, you may not be, but he is a guy who is viewed as an NBA historian. He has over 4 million followers. He is a pretty loud voice in the NBA community. I believe this was the tweet from yesterday. Another classic moment from today's Bulls press conference. Since Sterling sold, no NBA franchise has cared less about doing right by their fans with the possible exception of New Orleans. And they're actually just incompetent. For Chicago, this has been a money strategy. And that's in response to Joe Callie's tweet that said Michael Reinstorf opened statement by reiterating that he needs this fixed for the fans. so i look i i i don't have i have i've drifted into the fan feeling of apathy and nothing i heard yesterday changed how i feel about things right now i don't feel encouraged that i'm not saying it can't happen because again an imperfect process can still deliver you the right result but i just don't know in what sport and what business would you try to bring in somebody who sits in a very high chair very high level and you kind of handicap or you handcuff a better term for it his ability to do what it is he wants and even if billy's a really good coach and and everyone thinks he's a really good coach let the guy coming in to run your team make that decision where which is the bite charlie where he references uh jerry his dad michael reinsdorf is it the second one on my screen yeah i believe it's the one where he talks about not tanking any regret on not tanking earlier i want to play you this because then i want to play you jerry from a couple of years ago listen to michael reinsdorf on you know the question is form tanking and whoever asked then admits that it's probably the wrong way to put it i do believe there's a difference between bottoming out going young and and and then you know letting guys grow and then you finish low and then you you get back good draft picks you stockpile draft picks but But this is Michael Reinsdorf on that answer. I don't like to use the word tanking. That's fair. That's just not who we are as an organization. And I love Billy and really respect him as a coach. If I indicated to him that we wanted to lose games on purpose, we wouldn't be sitting down with Billy at the end of the year. He wouldn't be our coach. I think everyone out there who knows anything about my dad, They know how much he believes in being real and doing your best to win games. And it's unfair to the coach. It's unfair to the players. It's actually unfair to our fans. Sure, there are some fans, many fans, who might say, you know, lose games on purpose, tank, do whatever you can to hopefully win the lottery. But there are a lot of fans that go to the games who aren't there to see us get blown out every game and who want to see us compete. And I saw those fans. When we beat Houston a couple weeks ago, I saw the excitement. I saw the competitiveness of the game against Phoenix the other day. So I actually don't have any regrets. The lottery is kind of a crapshoot anyways. Last year, if Josh Giddey doesn't hit that half-court shot against the Lakers, Cooper Flagg is the number one pick for the Chicago Bulls. So I don't want to mess with the basketball gods. We'll take our chances. We're going to have a great pick this year regardless, and hopefully we can start this process moving forward. The thing that stood out to me in there is not the understanding of how you have to reset sometimes to get good, just like the San Antonio Spurs, just like Oklahoma City, just like the Detroit Pistons, some of the top seeds in the postseason right now. And on the other hand, there are teams like the Celtics and the Lakers who just know how to win, where the Bulls had their winning time, and that's it. But the Celtics, generation after generation, just build great teams. This version of the Celtics, I'll trust whatever direction they tell you they're going to take that they'll find the right answer to it. Well, think about it. Every decade, the Celtics have had a great team. Like, the last decade, it was the Garnett, Ray Allen, and Pierce team. you know bird like uh and mikhail and dennis johnson and then before that the red auerbach every time like the celtics lose magic johnson what happens they get kobe bryan and shaq comes to town the lakers the lakers what'd they say even even in down years the celtics had like isaiah thomas and then what do they do with isaiah thomas it was a really good story it was a really cool run they traded him they're sharing for Kyrie which didn't work out but like if the Isaiah Thomas oh you're talking about that Isaiah Thomas I was good yeah sorry sorry yeah the the short one the if that had happened to the Bulls what do you think the Bulls would have done they would have ridden that until the wheels fell off they're always in play so like there are teams who know how to build the Bulls didn't the Bulls the only time in my lifetime really like there were the Dick Mata years when I was very very young but the only time especially under the ownership of Jerry Reinsdorf that the Bulls have ever won, is when they had Michael Jordan, the greatest athlete to ever live, and he was inherited by the Reinsdorf ownership group. He was drafted the year before Jerry took over. Second time was when they got lucky with Derrick Rose in the lottery balls. Other than that they have not built anything So here is this is Jerry about the White socks so when michael reinsdorf says i i i want to be like my dad who is he being real i want to be real like my dad and he does whatever it takes to win games this was two years ago when jerry did the same playbook that the bulls are about to do now and he just grabbed his general manager from in-house didn't interview anyone like they want to do with their coach now doesn't matter what the new gm thinks he's our coach we're we're going to be lazy we're not going to let him him do anything because we're comfortable here this is what jerry reinsdorf told socks fans the reason why he's hiring chris gets in house well i don't want to make predictions but in this division and with the core of talent that we have i would hope and i expect that it'll get the next year will be a lot better than this year but you know how much better i don't know but you look look at the core on this team and and and if we can get them all on the field and you know and one of the things that we're we're doing this year it's a little different you know every year we send players home with a plan this is what you got to do we're going to add this year is we're going to police these plans we're going to make sure that the players are following their plans so when they come to spring training they're they're ready we're not going to take their word that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing so given the division and given that we have a really good core of players i would expect next year will be better so this was said the year before they set the record for the most losses in the modern era we're going to be better next year this is going to be a quick fix because gets knows what we have we have a lot of talent inside the building he didn't know either he's as clueless as anybody about his own team or he's lying to you and michael reinsdorf now two years later is trying to tell you that the coach who's been here for the last six years should stay because anyone would want him. Like, why would we ever think, being real, like to hear Michael Reinsdorf say, my dad being real, no one wants to win as much as my dad. He didn't interview a soul for the general manager's job, and the following year, they lost as many games as any team in the modern day. Bulls fans, it's only going to get worse unless they luck into someone. it's just a dangerous i mean from a relative sports perspective headline to say bulls reindsdorf says next gm must be sold on donovan as coach or you're not getting the job right just like just like hey chris gets is my gm i don't care who i interview i know who's out there i don't want to interview any of them okay how'd you like the last couple years jerry where 60 wins was an improvement hell tony larousse is our manager we're not gonna go with AJ Hinge. That's the pattern. This is what I was going to say about GMs. It would have been easy for, you asked me this question earlier, at what point does a GM basically say, look, I can't do this. This isn't my decision. This has been taken away from me. I don't even know what role I'm really playing in a lot of fronts. It'd be easy for Rick Hahn to have said, look, I'm out. But there's only 30 of these. And you still think you can win even when you're having the rug pulled out from under you at times. So, like, it's, that's why, I mean, like, it's hard to step aside from these types of positions even when, or, like, pursuing this job, even if there are limitations. It's still going to be a desirable job for someone. Maybe not Bob Myers. Maybe not, you know, maybe Brad Stevens has no interest. Maybe, you know, Sam Presti doesn't even want to take the call. Somebody will be very excited about this job. Reginald Banks says this is a little lazy, dumb, response on YouTube. I referenced this yesterday. I get this from the dumb people. Sylvie, why don't you be the effing general manager or the owner of the Bulls? Let's see what you would do. That's the point, Reginald. These guys are supposed to be the experts and they can't get out of their own way. Do I have to show you what the Bulls have done for 27 years? If you hired me to be the GM, I would want full control over hiring. We are two boobs on the radio. How do we know better than some of the people who run these teams? They can't get out of their own way. Why are you accepting of that, Reginald? Why would you accept what the White Sox put out there? Why would you accept the last 27 years of the bulls where they've gotten to one conference finals one in 27 years they broke up the greatest dynasty ever do you not have higher standards than that i know i may not be very smart i know i can't be the general manager of the team but i do know an ass plan when i see one and what the reinsdorfs have given us on both the bulls and the white socks have been trash so you can go for the low hanging fruit and you can say well sylvie what kind of general manager would you be let's see you do the job tell you this i know what i don't know and i would hire the smartest people spending sparing no expense to get the best ones in house to help me something that michael and jerry reinstorf have been scared to do by the way i just want to to have this on the record i was against patrick williams second contract and especially his player option so if i was the general manager i want to be on the record for that that happened charlie you remember that i got you down we were all on the same page there that that wasn't a good decision so just for the record for the for everybody who thinks that if if i was the general manager i would not have re-signed patrick williams and that's not after the fact that was you certainly We wouldn't give him a player option for him to determine in the fifth year if he's not been that good. Oh, Patrick, feel free to pick up the fifth year at 20 million. I wonder what he's going to do, averaging six points per game. Maybe he'll elect to go free agency. He had 20 last night. Come on. 3-1-2-3-3-2-3-7-7-6. If you want to weigh in. It still ticks me off. I think it's dumb to – I think we as sports fans deserve better. And if you don't understand that, then enjoy. That's my only wish then is enjoy the crap that they continue to spoon feed you. It's Waddle and Selby. All right, Waddle and Selby back on the air. Sox lose today. They got swept by the Orioles. Cubs and Rays just underway. We'll keep you updated there. That's a bad race team this year, isn't it? They were bad last year, too. Yeah, but I mean, they had a long streak of being good despite very little spent on their team. Yandy Diaz, is that the guy? Their best player? Yeah. Is Junior Caminero. Is it? Yeah. But they've only got a handful of guys that are worth watching these days. They don't really have pitching anymore. They used to always have pitching, and they don't have that to lean on anymore. So go kick their ass today. All right. I hope they hit leg yesterday. Like you did last night. Your guy, Asad, I downplayed that. Five and two-thirds, one hit, zero runs, buddy. He had been doing that less and less last year. It was like every time he would go out there, he wasn't much help. Now it's Colin Ray's turn to take the ball. Hit like you do, and then you have a little more wiggle room, too, from a pitcher. 16 hits last night. That was good. That came alive. Love that. All right, Tyler, you have Aki's A-list, right? Yep. What do you got today? All right, so let's stick with the Cubs here. since you brought them up. Jesse mentioned that Seiya Suzuki will be back after the road trip, and Craig Council, I believe, confirmed some of that too. So how are you adjusting a couple things? Obviously, with Seiya coming back on Friday, you need to send someone down or move on from someone. And then on top of that, you'll have to somehow shuffle up the lineup as well because you'd imagine Seiya slots back in probably in the three spot, and then it's also the decision of who plays right field and who DHs. Well, we're sending what's-his-name Conforto away, aren't we, Tyler? I mean, that's the way I would go. He signed a minor league deal, right? Do they just send him down or does he have to clear waivers? I mean, I don't really care. I don't know what his options are. There are many Michael Confortos out there that you can find these days. What did he have, like three or four good years with the Mets way back in the day? He didn't even have that. He was with the Dodgers last year, wasn't he? Dodgers, spent some time with the Giants. Listen, I like Matt Shaw on right field. I don't know about you guys. Me too. Why not? I think Sia, especially coming back from a bad knee, especially knowing if you're – they're coming back home after this series, aren't they? Yeah, I'll play Pittsburgh here. So it's going to be – the temperatures go up and down. We're going to get some rain too, I think, over the weekend. I would – I'd make it easy for him and DH him most of the time and let Shaw continue to get better in right field. Seah's been used to it last year, too. Remember, at first, he didn't want to be the DH. But with Tucker last year, he was basically your designated hitter. I was surprised he played center field as much as he did for Team Japan. But I'd have no problem just continuing to use Seah the way you used him last year. And don't worry about the cold weather and oblique injuries or being on his knee after what he did in the WBC. Let Shaw play right. 388 of his at-bats were as a DH last year. That was the vast majority. I told you when I went to one game with Braxton, we were in the club down the left field line. I think it's called the W Club. And in there where they serve the drinks in the bar area and they have a little restaurant thing. That's where I would hang out. You have a viewing window of the batting cage that the Cubs go to in their clubhouse, or now it's like a whole thing. So we were watching as the Cubs were in the field. Sale would go in there between at-bats, and he'd work on his swing, and they have this pitching machine where you enter it. It like a computer program Whoever the pitcher they facing you enter who it is and the pitching machine pitches like them where it gives you the difference the speed, the break on the off-speed pitches. And he had struggled like in his first at-bat or two, and we were watching him when the Cubs were in the field really going. And I'm like, hey, Sale was working on his swing, and maybe he does this all the time. but sure enough I go let's let's play I said to Braxton let's play him to hit a home run and teaching the youngster to gamble early sure enough in his next at bat he hit a home run there you go so like as a DH you have more room to do those sort of things between innings because you don't have to play the field you know who else I think needs a trip to the minors Moises Ballesteros he did a home run yesterday but it was late it was when it was already decided I like he he is really struggling And I haven't been the biggest fan of him. I would have loved to have seen him use as a trade chip because he doesn't have a position in the field. I know they're going to try to tell you that he's a catcher or that he can play somewhere else out in the field. He can't. 24 at-bats, eight strikeouts so far this year. For a guy whose calling card is he doesn't strike out and he's a contact bat. And he struck out in a third of his at-bats. That would worry me a little bit. um this was so the dexter lawrence stuff too that's been flying around so obviously if you trade for him you got to pay him that's a big part of what his bone of contention is and why he's not showing up and why he's requesting a trade in the first place what is what is it's like in the neighborhood of 30 30 to 35 a year well i think it goes up against the jordan davis contract which i believe is 27 oh so it's not that high let me let me double check what jordan Davis got on his most recent contract. Obviously, he's a better player than Jordan Davis. Yeah, I'll check it. Three years, $78 million. So what is that? 25 little, that's about $26 million. Yeah. So it's going to have to be just over that. But trade compensation wise, what you'd be, we can figure the money part out later. Trade compensation wise, I was reading this from Connor Hughes, who does stuff for the Giants for SNY. And he was saying, think somewhere in the neighborhood of, he pulled a bunch of GMs and execs in the league. He said either a late first or think somewhere in the range of what the Giants gave up to get Brian Burns, which was a second and a fifth. Now the Bears seconds aren't going to be as valuable as what the Giants seconds were back when that trade was executed. You're going to be looking at back end of the second round for second round picks, which are closer to thirds than seconds. So I would say maybe it's a second and a fourth. If it's a second and a fourth, because I'm assuming you don't want to give up a first, are you doing that for Dexter Lawrence? I'm interested, but I got to know again. I got to understand why he was overweight and underachieved, especially as a captain for the team. That's not what you want from your captains, right? Absolutely. You don't want it from anybody. But especially a captain. So I need to know. I need to figure that out. I will say the one thing that is good about him and why I would probably trust it is that he's only missed, I believe it's eight games in seven years, and five of them came because of a dislocated elbow. So he's been a pretty durable player. And you said, didn't you, by looking into some of the stats, even though his numbers were down, his win rates was actually pretty decent. And that was a team that everyone ran the ball on. So, I mean, like there's enough negative that you could talk yourself out of it, but there's enough positive that you could talk yourself into it. Just listen to the way the Bears talk and how they solidify the interior of their offensive line because they knew the pressure up the middle bothered Caleb and bothers a lot of quarterbacks. It's a very, like we always talk about the edge from the pressure, but when you get the pressure up the middle, it helps your edges too. So, like, I wouldn't be shocked if Poles would really want some – like, he would love to have a guy who can pressure up the middle. Oh, I would too. Like, that's why I said – There's no push. I think a two and a four. Isn't that what you said, Tyler? Yeah, you probably have to ante up from what the last one was. I think I'd probably be cool with that. And it's why I said when we were discussing whether or not, hey, who could you find at the edge, I said, look, and people asked about the defensive tackle position. and I don't think there were a ton of difference-making free agents, but had Jeffrey Simmons been available, I've been just as interested in trading for him as I was Max Crosby. What if they said a 20-27 first? I probably would do it. Because that, like, a year away, that... You get to keep all your draft capital. It's known as, like, a second, right? Next year's first is, like, this year's second. Now, I will say this. They consider next year's draft class to be, like, bonkers good. Are there a lot of good quarterbacks, too? Yes, a lot of people diving in. So, no, I would definitely think about it. This would be your one big move, right? Because we know they have to pay Darnell Wright. They're going to have to pay Caleb Williams. A lot of people. Roman Burden. Yeah, so. The one thing I would say is. This is their big move. But next year you also would maybe. It depends on what kind of year Sweat gives you. But isn't there talk about maybe separating from Sweat next year? Isn't his dead cap hits only like five or six million, isn't it, next year? For next year, yeah. I think that if they're reluctant to spend money now because of how much they've invested on their D-line, whether it's Max Crosby, it's Trey Hendrickson, it's Jalen Field, whoever it is, they may give you the same answer about Dexter Lawrence than they did everybody else. But I would definitely be interested, for sure. Real quick, we mentioned a little bit earlier that the Sox demoted their opening day starter, Shane Smith. Who is back up to the major league club first? Shane Smith or one of the young, highly anticipated pitching prospects, Noah Schultz or Hagen Smith? Shane Smith. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think Waddell called that pretty good, too, that, you know, he was just destroying the bullpen as well. They're going to need him. I don't think they want to rush the other guys, but they're going to need guys to fill out innings. He's got to get the control and the command a little bit better. Don't you think they'd rather do that versus rush somebody? Well, they might not be rushing. Well, I mean, if you determine that they're ready, then fine. But I would say, like, if I've got to sacrifice somebody, it would be somebody that's already been in the bigs for a while in terms of bringing them up or getting them back involved. But if you're telling me that the young guys are ready to go, I mean, let's do it. By the way, the Cubs have taken a 1-0 lead. Did Nico lead the game off? Yeah, home run. So he led the game off with a home run. I love, like, every now and then I'll give you the pop. He's just, the last year plus, he's been a fantastic hitter, driving the ball. And I love him at the top of the order. I wanted to see more of that last year. Who did they lead off yesterday? Was it the same thing? It was Nico, yeah. Yeah, I like that. He'll steal your bases. He's a contact guy. He can still give you a pop every now and then. What is that, two home runs in two days or something like that? Or did he home run a couple days ago? Didn't he have a home run? This was Nico's first home run of the year. It was his first, okay. I thought maybe it was his second. But he's, you know, 297 batting average. He leads, I saw them, the stat was at 440 or 438. He was the highest on base percentage on the team so far this year. So he's doing Nico Horner stuff. I want to ask you guys when we come back about a suspension for a former White Sox pitcher. And if he deserves more for a fight because of something he did. And what you guys think about that. We'll get to that coming up next. Big brawl yesterday, Major League Baseball between the Angels and who else was the other team? The Braves. The Braves, that's right. Ronaldo Lopez still on the Braves, a former White Sox pitcher. And Jorge Soler, of course, is a former Cub. So this was a former Cub against a former Sox. And I guess Soler has had a great career against Lopez. I think he's hit five or six home runs against him. He homered against him in his first at bat. His second at bat, Ronaldo Lopez hit him. And then his third at bat, he threw one leg above his head. And that's when they sort of stood and stared. And Soler kind of took a few steps. And that's when Lopez waved him through. And then both of them came out throwing haymakers, as they described, on the air. But when you look closely, and I didn't notice this until Cap and Jay Hood brought it up. lopez had the baseball in his hand yeah and and he connected on a punch with the baseball like he used the baseball as as his fist and he connected in the head with so layer does he get suspended for longer because he used the ball as a weapon he didn't throw it but he did use it to hit him in the head. My guess is yes. Like what if it was his glove? Can't do as much damage with a glove. And if it was the bat, it would be even worse. Well, definitely if it was a bat. But I was too busy watching it was Walt Weiss, right? Isn't Walt Weiss the manager? That's what I had my eye on too. Tackling Solaire. How do you feel about that? I know he's trying to, but you like that he's tackling the opponent, the manager? He was protecting his guy. He was bringing him to the ground. You had to participate. You had his guys back. You never know what's going to happen. You want the opposing team's manager touching your guys, though? I mean, I know the benches are clearing. Not on my team, but as someone sitting on my couch, I think it's hilarious. Yeah, I thought it was good drama. You were like the catcher, weren't you? Yes, I didn't want any piece of it. He and Eli had part of it. It was just like. I was going to steal the beers. I'm going to steal your beer. You know what? You want to fight? Go fight. I'm going to steal your beer. Maybe they'll talk about that on the hockey show. I know they got their hands full as it is talking hockey. But like they know about fighting and stuff like that. Like what if someone used a puck to fight? They dropped the gloves. But then you had the puck in your hand. But you use that as like your knuckles. You know, like you're wearing brass knuckles. That's how we kind of use the baseball. So the hockey show coming up next. Wonder if that's ever happened. Has anyone ever picked up the puck and used it as a part of the fight? I'm not sure. I'm sure Boyle will have the answer. Kendra filled in for Charlie the last half hour, 45 minutes of the show. Charlie's off to Portland. Thanks to Tyler Aki. Thank you to Courtney Cronin who joined us earlier. And thanks for checking in on the YouTube show today. Before we run, after White Sox baseball. For Waddle, I'm Sylvie. It's ESPN 1000. Have yourself a great Wednesday night.
