00:00Super weird night for South Florida sports, Miami sports.
00:07At the heat, what the hell?
00:09We're going to get into it with Solana's in a bad mood.
00:11Any Heat fan is in a bad mood.
00:13We'll get into it.
00:14But the Heat, what the hell, is the only thing I can say.
00:18The Marlins, what the hell?
00:20Clayton McCullough, what the hell?
00:22I mean, listen, I don't want to go off on a little tangent,
00:27but this is the guy, and Clayton McCullough,
00:30he had them in wild card contention late last season, so I'm not hating.
00:34This dude shadow banned Matt Mervis.
00:38He's shadow banning Davis and De Los Santos,
00:42and he can't, this Owen Casey can't get in the lineup.
00:46I saw somebody on Twitter say, hey, you got a guy who can mash.
00:51Hey, I'm calling him the Maple Masher because he hits singles.
00:54Guy wrote on Twitter, back in my day, a guy who can mash like that
00:58was in the lineup all the time.
01:00Owen Casey can't get in the lineup, regardless.
01:02Get in the box.
01:02Put him in the box.
01:03Regardless, he pulled Sandy last night in the nine.
01:07Was that thing I heard real?
01:09I heard somebody read the lips of back and forth where Sandy was cussing.
01:17They were going back and forth.
01:18Well, Sandy wasn't happy because Sandy said after the game,
01:21Mike Cugno is going to join us today.
01:22Mike Cugno was in the clubhouse last night, but Sandy said after the game,
01:27I wish he would have asked me if I was ready to come out.
01:30Because what happened was there were two runners on base.
01:34Alcantara had a two-nothing lead the ninth, and he was trying.
01:37I give McCullough all the credit in the world.
01:40He was trying to get him the complete game.
01:42A lot of managers don't even let them take the mound on the ninth.
01:45Now, there's a caveat to that, though.
01:49Their closer is on paternity leave.
01:53That's the guy who we talked about.
01:55What's his name?
01:57Fairbanks.
01:58Fairbanks.
01:58Yeah.
01:59We have a first name?
02:00Peter.
02:01Peter Fairbanks.
02:01Bunch of kids are born every day.
02:03So, I believe if Peter Fairbanks was available last night,
02:08Sandy never even gets the mound in the ninth.
02:10Fairbanks is your closer.
02:11You've got a two-nothing lead.
02:13He pitched a complete game, his second outing,
02:15and they're going to bring in the closer.
02:18I think McCullough, because there was no Fairbanks,
02:22allowed Sandy to go out there for the ninth.
02:24He gets two runners on.
02:25I think there were two runners on with one out, if I recall correctly.
02:28That's when McCullough made the mound visit,
02:31and before he got to the mound, he motioned for the bullpen.
02:35And Sandy said after the game,
02:37I should be asked if I'm ready to come out in that situation.
02:41Like, or I should be asked my opinion.
02:43So, he was not happy.
02:45He shouldn't have been.
02:46A guy like Sandy, let me know if I'm wrong with baseball.
02:49A guy like Sandy, you don't take him out.
02:52You ask him.
02:52Like he said, do you, you good?
02:54You got two on.
02:56One out.
02:56Are you good?
02:57I believe, again, we can ask Cunho or someone who knows baseball better.
03:01I believe if you're established closer.
03:06Cy Young winner?
03:07But if, no, no, no.
03:08If you're established closer is ready to go,
03:11you don't need to ask him any kind of permission.
03:14But if you're going to, who'd they go to, Jimmy?
03:17Who'd they bring in?
03:18Bender.
03:19Bender.
03:20If you're going to Bender, in that instance,
03:23I give the Cy Young winner the ability to say,
03:28hey, keep me, even if you don't think he's right.
03:31Which, you remember that happened years ago
03:33with Grady Sizemore and the Red Sox.
03:35And it was, I mean, may have cost him his managerial job.
03:39But I think last night, a lot of stuff went wrong
03:45because the closer wasn't available,
03:47which is probably a different story
03:49and a different conversation to have.
03:50I spoke with my baseball people.
03:53And it's not so much about...
03:57I got to know.
03:57I'll bite.
03:58I'll bite.
03:59I was going to let him talk.
04:01Yeah, I'll bite.
04:03Go ahead.
04:05Juan, at the JCC, coached Danny Berry.
04:09He coached at Danny Berry Baseball.
04:10Okay, all right.
04:11Yeah.
04:12Really, it's Coach Juancito.
04:15Coach Juancito.
04:16He coached Danny Berry Baseball for years.
04:18Now, Danny Berry Baseball, to be fair,
04:19has been defunct for about a decade.
04:21But that's neither here nor there.
04:23This guy's a Kendall baseball legend.
04:25If you know, you know.
04:27It's not so much that McCullough took him out.
04:30It's more so that before getting to the mound,
04:35he had already signaled.
04:38Right.
04:38And even if McCullough had made up his decision,
04:41you talked to Sandy about it.
04:43Hey, how do you feel?
04:45Sandy responds...
04:46I'm going to take you out, though.
04:47I think you...
04:48Yeah.
04:48And then McCullough says what he believes.
04:50Hey, here's what I think is the best decision for the team.
04:54And that's the proper way to handle it.
04:57With an ace who's gone nine and a third
05:00with potentially his third complete game of...
05:03I'm sorry, his third shutout of the season.
05:06Right, and second complete game.
05:07Yeah.
05:08And you don't show him up by calling to the pen
05:10before you get out there to just give him
05:13that moment of visibility that he's part of the decision.
05:18And that part, back-to-back,
05:20it's not just a good night.
05:21It's Sandy Alcantara, Cy Young winner.
05:23It's Sandy Alcantara, just went nine the last start.
05:27It's not like he's having a good night.
05:29He is this dude.
05:30He's him.
05:31Let him decide when him has to come out the game.
05:34I'm not saying to take the...
05:35It was his worst inning.
05:36But I'm not saying to take the decision away from the manager,
05:40but also you have to know what you're dealing with.
05:42And that's Sandy Dam Alcantara.
05:44Now, I will tell you this.
05:47Tommy Hutton went crazy on the television broadcast.
05:52And you know, Tommy Hutton doesn't hold back
05:54because I was getting texts,
05:55because I was at the game last night.
05:56I'm getting texts.
05:57Appel was texting me.
05:58Like, Hutton is going crazy.
06:00Tommy Hutton was saying,
06:01if you're taking out Sandy Alcantara,
06:06you better be damn well sure
06:08the person you're putting in
06:10gives you a better chance to get out of that inning
06:13and get out of that ballgame.
06:14And if you're not certain that the guy you're bringing in
06:18is a improvement over whatever Sandy's got left.
06:22And by the way, Bender wasn't an improvement.
06:25Tommy Hutton was like, you're making the bad decision.
06:28You're making a bad decision.
06:29100%.
06:30Now, again, if it's Peter Fairbanks
06:31and you know he's your closer
06:32and the dude, that's the guy who slaps himself and stuff.
06:35Yeah.
06:36If you're bringing in that guy,
06:38listen, if he's the established closer,
06:40you go to your closer.
06:41But if you're going to Bender,
06:44you better make damn well sure
06:45it's going to be better than whatever Sandy has left.
06:48And Tommy Hutton seemed to believe that it wasn't.
06:50And obviously it wasn't.
06:51What's the boy from the Yankees?
06:55Mariano Rivera?
06:57Are we pulling him in?
06:58Is Bender him?
07:00Well, no.
07:02No!
07:02But that's apples to oranges.
07:04You got it.
07:05No.
07:06The answer is no.
07:07They don't have anyone.
07:08They don't have anyone that's as good as Fairbanks as their closer.
07:11See, I disagree with that, though.
07:13I saw a lot of people saying,
07:15I'd rather ride or die with Sandy
07:17than go to the bullpen.
07:18And to a certain extent, I understand that.
07:21Like, hey, Sandy's clearly the best guy you have on the roster, period.
07:24He's gone nine and a third.
07:25If he blows it, he blows it.
07:27Eight and a third.
07:27Excuse me, eight and a third.
07:28I understand that logic.
07:30You know, die with your best players out there
07:33and they'll give you the best chance.
07:34But I also understand a manager saying,
07:36hey, we have a bullpen.
07:37You gave us eight and a third unbelievable innings.
07:40Let us close this out for you.
07:41I understand that, and I understand why Bender's not Peter Fairbanks
07:45or Mariano Rivera or any elite closer
07:48and why maybe that wasn't the best decision.
07:50But we're playing the result.
07:51To me, the infuriating part is that you're disrespecting your ace.
07:56I'm with that.
07:57And that's what upsets me.
07:58Because, you know, Clayton McCullough is protecting Sandy there as well.
08:02He's got those two earned runs on base.
08:04But if Bender gives up the home run, Sandy doesn't get an L.
08:07And if Sandy's out there pitching
08:10and he gives up a ding-dong,
08:11or puts another runner on base,
08:13now he's got a potential L coming at him.
08:16So Clayton McCullough is also protecting Sandy there.
08:19I do think, though, you owe him the mound visit
08:23and make it seem as if it's a mutual decision.
08:26But to that point, Hawk, let Sandy decide and explain it to him.
08:29They walk out there all the time and talk to him.
08:32Hey, if he gets on, you know you're going to get an L and all that stuff.
08:36Sandy has gained the respect to be able to say,
08:39no, I got him, coach.
08:40By the way, it was Grady Little, not Grady Sizemore.
08:43I said Grady Sizemore.
08:44Somebody points out on the text.
08:45It was Grady Little from the Red Sox.
08:46Even if it was Uri, Uri's a puppy.
08:50Sandy Alcantara's a Cy Young, 10-year guy.
08:52Exactly.
08:53Let him decide if he wants to go out there with two on
08:56and see if he does it.
08:57And I think it's a bad decision.
09:00It's fair.
09:01Even Fairbanks was there, Hawk.
09:04No, I got you, coach.
09:05Okay, good, Sandy.
09:07Well, tighten up.
09:07Well, you don't know what transpired in the dugout, though.
09:09It could be, hey, you want to go out there for the ninth?
09:12The conversation could have happened in the dugout.
09:15If Fairbanks was there, I think there's a conversation.
09:18Hey, I think I'm going to bring in Peter for the ninth.
09:21Give me two batters.
09:23Give me two batters, Skip.
09:24And then you don't know how it would play out.
09:26So there could have been a conversation in the dugout.
09:30Now, obviously, there wasn't a conversation that let Sandy know
09:34which scenario was going to get him yanked from the game
09:36or else he wouldn't have said that after the game
09:38where I wanted to be out there.
09:40And he's not as upset about being taken out from what I read.
09:43He just wants the conversation to happen because he believes he's owed that conversation.
09:49Yeah, he's owed that.
09:49He's a shy young winner.
09:50Should have tweeted him or DM'd him.
09:52That's what these young people do.
09:54So I have a hot take on last night.
09:58And while I am upset that Sandy was disrespected or Ace was disrespected,
10:03I'm glad last night happened.
10:05Because I haven't seen this much passion about the Miami Marlins on social media
10:11after a game, on radio the next day, podcasts, shows in South Florida,
10:17people who are covering sports about the Marlins.
10:21I can't remember when.
10:22Well, that's a direct correlation to how boring the Heat are.
10:27I'm not kidding you.
10:28The fact that the Panthers aren't in the playoffs,
10:31so we don't need to break down the game,
10:34and the fact that the Heat are the same exact movie that we have watched for four years,
10:40it gives the Marlins a little bit of an alley here
10:44to take some eyeballs.
10:47And you're right.
10:48It happened.
10:50If they were winning, you know, like, they had a chance to get two in New York,
10:55had a nice little comeback in game two.
10:57Would have been nice if they were able to hold on to a 2-0 ninth inning lead last night.
11:03So, yeah, there's a little pathway there.
11:05I'm going to say it is positive that there's so much attention to it
11:08because this is like, and we're not a huge baseball market,
11:11is this like sitting Wade in the fourth?
11:15Is this like taking out Jason Taylor in the fourth quarter?
11:18No.
11:19Ask him if he can keep pitching.
11:22That's the respect he has.
11:23Sandy is one of the best pitchers in the world.
11:25Why would you disrespect him?
11:27But the attention he's getting means that people are watching,
11:31and that means something for our baseball community.
11:33There are literally a handful of times.
11:35Now, this is done every game in New York, every game in Boston.
11:40There are a handful of times in my 13 years
11:43that we could discuss for this long a pitching change.
11:49And people care.
11:50And people care.
11:51That to me, that's what I felt this morning
11:53because I'm listening to the morning show.
11:56I'm listening to the midday show.
11:57But I'm also just kind of scrolling through social media.
12:00All the Miami-based shows,
12:02they're talking about that move yesterday,
12:04and people are outraged.
12:06Last night, people are outraged.
12:08And it's the first time, I'm not kidding,
12:10in a long time that the conversation about the Marlins
12:13wasn't, oh, that's so Marlins.
12:15Oh, of course, that's so Marlins.
12:18Or we're talking about the attendance.
12:20Or we're reminiscing about Jose and talking about,
12:22if Jose didn't pass away, who knows what would have happened.
12:25And people were passionate yesterday about a Marlins game
12:30for all the wrong reasons.
12:32But I don't know.
12:34Like, I can't remember the last time that that happened.
12:36It's cool.
12:37It's cool.
12:37It's not the wrong reasons.
12:39It's passion.
12:39Passion is passion.
12:40Right or wrong, passion is passion.
12:42I know Dan Ugler.
12:45How's CB?
12:47CB?
12:48Yeah, I hit Volstadt.
12:49Yeah, we all got it.
12:50I'll hit Volstadt in a second.
12:51Let me get it and put him up.
Comments