Hour 2: AWWWWWWWWWWW! (feat. Elle Duncan)
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This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugatz Podcast. Oh, is that Fox? Oh, shit. What up, Fox? Hey, Al. Fuck.

What's up, bud? Hey, homie. I had to come on Dan's show to see you. Oh, she sounded so much happier to see you than to see us. No, no, no. This is offensive to me. It was shocking. I expect to see Dan. This is hurtful to me. What just happened there is I was just going to greet her. I was getting ready in my head. I'm going to greet her with everything.

Hell yeah. But instead, she just gravitates immediately to Foxworth and greets him with more enthusiasm than she's ever had to see me, us or anyone around here. It's so not true. It's the fact that I fully expect I'm going to see Dan Levitard on the Dan Levitard show, not Fox. And Fox never invites me on his podcast anymore. I think him and Charlie clearly have something that they're doing where they just want to ban me from their show.

And I don't have a show anymore to invite him on. So this is a fun surprise. Smart redirection right there. You knew I was coming for you and say that you rejected us the last couple of times we invited you. So you preemptively blamed us. The best redirection since Mike Ryan still hasn't answered for your golden cane criticism. I'm hoping we get it at some point before. I didn't answer. When's the last time that I golden cane did? When we get to pitch clock before we get to pitch clock.

I need to play this sound that proves to the audience and everyone listening to this that not only is Elle just thrilled to see Dominique and less thrilled to see the rest of us, she doesn't even know who Chris Cody is. Oh, hey, what's up, Greg? I was just telling her, people do this to me at Panthers game now. I'll walk by someone, oh, hey, what's up, Greg?

And what did I say? You need to just go by Cody. Like, I think that's probably like the fail safe there. Or learn my name. Either way. Learn his name. There's already a Cody. Wow. Jesus. Because that won't be confusing. Just learn his name. This is what happens. This is what happens. I know Chris is a tough one. Oh, hey, what's up, Greg? Hey.

If it makes, I've told you this, it makes you feel better. Everyone calls me Ellie and I don't correct them. It's just like, it's fine. I'm a big fan, Ellie. I'm like, clearly you watch my show on mute. Um, your thoughts last night on all things Pacers here, because I understand that two to one doesn't mean anything and that OKC has been better all year, but

But it is fair to ask, I think, hey, OKC, when have you been tested by somebody who has proven to you that they can beat you and now is up to, you know, you're in trouble. OKC is in trouble and needs to...

needs to win your thoughts on what happened yesterday because I think it's – Indiana's not merely a surprise. I think that also last night was a surprise. No, I think everyone predicted it would be the Benedict Mathering game. What do you mean, Dan? Yeah, I think – I'm actually in Indianapolis covering this for SportsCenter. And by the way, I was today years old when I found out

Naptown, their nickname is not because it's a sleepy town, which is what I assumed, but short for Indianapolis. So I'm learning all kinds of things. I think honestly, it was all of the things that we had said. The Pacers had only played one good quarter in this entire series and led for two minutes in this whole series. And they needed to fix everything. Their turnovers,

needed Tyrese Halliburton to like step up and assert himself you know um because a big part of their issues was his passivity and like you want a great facilitator that's he always says that's what he's like his first goal is just to dish but he also needs to assert himself and he did that and then they needed help from like everyone not named Tyrese Halliburton and the pendulum really swung because in game two the thunder bench scored like 48 points they shot 51 from the field like they were ridiculous and it

completely went the other way yesterday. It was the Pacers bench that was great. They kept that pace that they had not been able to do particularly well. Tyrese was finally driving and then they turned OKC over a ton. So yeah, I think like if you're the Thunder, you're feeling some kind of way. I did think the Pacers would win this game. I thought that it was their best opportunity for this series to go at least six or seven games. And the energy and the, you know, it had been 25 years and all those other storylines that went into it. Yeah.

But yeah, like the Thunder are certainly in trouble. We did Dan do, you know, on SportsCenter, the whole thing that everyone does, like the winners of game three and a tied series in the finals have won 33 times compared to just eight losses. But in recent history, that's not really been the case. And so the Thunder, absolutely. I think we're still going to be the favorites to win this thing. It's just that it's not going to be in five anymore. It's going to have to probably be in seventh.

Who was that person with the shoulders? What is that thing that we do? What is the... That's an anchor. Yeah, that's a broadcaster using all the same signals that we all have. Okay, so 33 and 8 in these games, but it doesn't mean anything. I'm just doing my happy anchor dance.

I think that Chris Cody had the best take I've heard, and I haven't heard a better one off of last night's game, which is the following. That someone named Benedict Matherin looks like T.J. McConnell, but someone named T.J. McConnell is more likely to look like Benedict Matherin.

100%. If you just hear Benedict Matherin and you have never seen him, you would think it would be like some French dude, you know, or like some guy that looks European. And in fact, I can confirm he is a black person. So Solomon the Flash. Excellent. Confirmed. Thank you, Greg. It was a great point by you. It was. But the Pacers winning this part, right? We did not spend this season talking about Curry and LeBron and

And the idea that this would all get toppled possibly in two games by T.J. McConnell, Neesmith, Nembhardt, like perimeter defense, like and Halliburton, a very nice star, according to everybody about six months ago, maybe three months ago. Yeah.

I think like part of, I was actually really confused by this idea though, that nobody was going to want to watch this series. And I know the numbers have not been fantastic and that these are two small market teams. Like, like a lot of times, and you know, this, it's our job to sell storylines, even if there isn't really any, we just have to manufacture them, but it feels like there are really good storylines. But this also goes back to the,

The ultimate point that I try to make whenever fans air their grievances about how all we ever do is talk about the Lakers, even if they're not good. We only talk about the Cowboys. We only talk about... I'm like, you all control that. And the idea that you've got these young superstars, the youngest team we've ever seen in the NBA Finals, this Canadian, this like...

hood slash Canadian kid, which just the polarity of that alone is wild to me, who is this MVP, who is like this otherworldly star. And then you've got the Pacers and the Reggie Miller sort of history, and they've never won. They've only won ABA. Like it's supposed to be prime for all of those fans that say we don't show love to anyone else, that we're not building towards the future, that what happens when LeBron and Steph retire. And then you guys are watching in the same way that you would watch if it was

LeBron, you know, or Steph Curry playing in the finals or the Celtics or any of these sort of legacy teams. So I go back to the point of like, this is what we're talking about. Like, this is why we always try to push those teams on you because that's what you consume. That's what you like. And if you really want to usher in a new era of

the NBA, then you need to embrace this series and watch it. It has not been largely competitive outside of the end of game one. Game two was a blowout. Yesterday was a good game. Like it was a competitive game from beginning to end. It was good. It's fun to watch these teams score and they run. And I don't know.

I don't know how else we sell this. You know what's good and fun to watch? L-yes or L-no. Are you ready to play it with us? Because I have other sports questions, but first I want to play L-yes or L-no. Do we have any fanfare? Does this have any accompaniment? Or we've done no imaging on this? A little heads up on this would have been nice. Okay. Well, she was joining us. She provides it by saying L-yeah. Okay. All right. I've got some fanfare here. I don't know. All right. Socks with sandals. L-yes.

or El No? El No. And I will add on, if you are a man, I don't want to see your toes unless you're walking into water. So I just say El No to socks with sandals and El No period to men with their toes out. It's so gross. Hell yeah. Thank you.

I have nice toes. No, you don't. Walking into water, walking into the pool, walking out of the gym. Fine. I don't want you at work with your toes out. It's disgusting. It really bothers me. It's gross. Stop.

Roy, this vigorous applause by you, this vigorous applause in support of against male toes? What are you doing? I hate man feet. He's so anti-man feet that I think there's something going on there. Do you have bad feet, Roy? What are you accusing him of? I think he really likes man feet. Whoa! What? No, I do not. Whoa! I am anti-man feet. What kind of accusation is that from you? You don't know that he's a closet of man footer? You're a foot guy.

Roy, answer the question. L-yes or L-nah? I feel the same way about Sidney Crosby. That's how much I hate him. Wow.

So Elna. That's a sentence that's probably never been said before. It's just strange. The whole thing is strange. I feel the same way about my men's feet as I feel about Sidney Crosby. I'm with you. That's the first time that's ever been uttered. Words have never been put together in that order by anyone before and spoken. That's the first time. That's tough to do in this day and age. I did it. That's why I'm a hockey writer. That's why I'm in the association. It is.

L yes or L no. You can be a voter and a writer in a writing association if you have not yet written an article. L yes or L no. Ooh, L no. Like what? Don't you have to put in like a little bit of work? Don't you have to just like try like a touch, even a fluff piece? Like if you're going to have an opportunity to vote and represent the Writers Association, you should write.

probably right yes which has happened hell yeah she's see you guys are poorly framing the question he wrote it after he gained entry did you do this did you do this that was a wonderful answer let me just say elliot to you it's good to have you on the show thank you so much

I write all the time. Oh, Roy, you're a writer now. Aww. That was dismissive. No. That was cute. That's adorable, Roy. Oh, they had us in that first half. They had us in that first half. But we came back. Roy, let me pinch your cheek, you little writer. Come here, you're so adorable, you little writer. Come here, you little writer.

What a comeback. No, it's just usually people start with writing and then they like expand to producing. Yeah, no, no, no. Perfectly logical. Yes, you're absolutely right. Usually, typically, they start with writing and then they're granted. You know what? Perfect answer, Al. Thank you.

Wow, the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead. Listen, I was invited into the Professional Hockey Writers Association by the chapter chair in the region. Oh, the chapter chair. Well, never mind then. L, the sound of pity. I'll take it. Take that L. Spelled E-L-L-E.

Get up that chapter chair! I will take the B and the W. Thank you very much. It was very condescending. I'm sorry, Roy. I didn't mean it that way. I kind of did, but oh my bad. I wrote an op-ed. It just was like, I'm proud of you! An op-ed sounds impressive. Yeah.

It does. It is so impressive. It does sound cute. It's very courageous to give your opinion, Roy. You're so brave, Roy. It was a political opinion, too. One person that showed courage on this show today, let it be known, it was Mike Ryan Ruiz, and he has been justified.

I'm horrified by everything that's happened here. Most horrified at all by you bellowing into the screaming something about a committee chair. He was invited by the committee chair. I know people. Sounds impressive. Really, it is.

If it makes you feel bad, let me self-own. If it makes you feel bad, I am still a member of SAG, and the only thing I've ever done with my acting career is be an extra in Ride Along. So there you go. So I'm not really befitting of that honor either. Well, you still get your SAG card.

Yeah, and I still pay that check. Yeah, that's true. L-yes or L-no, cold pizza. The show. The show. Not the show. Nobody even remembers the show. We all remember the show. No one remembers it. I remember cold pizza. Jay Kropp? Jay Kropp?

- Jay Crawford, yeah. - That's not how you play L yes or L no. - What's he up to? - I'm not... - Jay Crawford? - L no, yeah, L no to Ed Cold Pizza. I love Jay Crawford, he's a good dude. L no to Cold Pizza. - Isn't that the birthplace of First Take, right? - He is, living his best life. - What a hit, this has been great. - It was, that was the first... - Yellow Divers look like people? - Yeah, it birthed that.

Cold pizza. You're going, El, no. Pizza has to be warm for you. Yeah, I have a thing. I hope this doesn't make me sound like a two percenter. I've always been this way. I don't like leftovers. I don't like them. I think they're disgusting and I won't eat them. So that would involve cold pizza as well. Put it on the poll at Levitard Show. Do you hate leftovers? This is a bit of a shocker. Is it not? Who hates leftovers? El Duncan.

L a L yes or no. The real housewives series. Ooh. So I was actually on the real housewives a couple of times and I was like somewhat trying to be recruited, um, to be like a friend, you know, not a cast member, but a friend of the cast member. Uh,

And for Cynthia, this is 15 years ago when I was still living in Atlanta. And I remember saying to them specifically, like, I want to be like a sports broadcaster. Like, I don't really think that this is the way to do that. And they were like, no, this is great publicity. This is great for you. People will figure out who you are. And I was like, has anyone ever gone from doing this to being on like ESPN? And they were like, no. I was like, then I'm all set. I'm out.

I'm out on it just because I know how fake it is. I've been on it a few times. I know how manufactured all of it is. Like literally takes. It's not just that they feed you lines and things like that. It's that if they don't like how it went, they'll redo it three or four or five times. And so, yeah, I'm not in on it. I don't watch it. You unmasked the entire industry right there. Christmas has been ruined. L yes or L no, Paige Beckers will win a WNBA title before Kaitlyn Clark. Ooh.

I love Paige Beckers. It will not be because of anything she's done, but have you seen Dallas play? El no. Like the Fever actually built to win a championship this year. They got derailed, obviously, with Kaitlyn getting hurt, but that's a championship caliber team. That is not what's happening in the wings. So I'll say el no to that. Coco Gauff will win 10 plus majors. El yes or el no? 21-22.

He has two in the, what, six years? So I'm just trying to do the math if she keeps up with her average. Ten. That's a lot. L-yes. L-yes. Look at that. Confident and positive. But it sounded like you were trying to talk yourself into it. It sounded like you're rooting for it, but if you had to bet on it, you'd better be too big. She realized that there was no winning in saying L-no. In our heart. In fact, I'm calling...

Elno bullshit on L. Yes. I don't want her after she wins her dense major to like pull this up and be like, you never believed in me. I believe in her. I really, really do. I just think that we're a little bit poisoned by Serena who was just rattling off majors all the time. And like I said, she's one, two, and she's been around for about six years now. So at that pace, like,

Uh, you know, um, maybe not, but I think, um, uh, based on what I saw, uh, at the French open, like if she can kind of pick up some momentum. Sure. Yeah. I'm hopeful. L yes or L no. A soup has to be warm. Oh, L yes. Ew. Like not warm soups are like a gazpacho. He eats that. No. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. Borscht. No, no, no, no. I'm with you. People think they're making me, they're shaming me about saying soup has to be warm or it's not soup. It's like saying a writer has to be a writer before they're a writer. It's crazy. I like you as the arbiter. You've done us no wrong. Uh,

No, if it's not warm, it's like baby food. It's puree. It's just like a smoothie. Of course it has to be warm. I don't understand how that's a thing. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, but we listed some cold soups and they make sense. Listen. No one disagrees. What are cold soups? I forget them. So they're memorable then. Chilled avocado soup, coconut curry soup, chilled saffron and orange.

almond soup, a curried yogurt soup. These were all out of Jessica's soup book. I feel like the yogurt's just yogurt, right? I mean...

Yeah, it's just yogurt. Cold yogurt soup. All right. She agreed with you. Take yogurt off the list. Elle, nice seeing you. Always nice seeing you. Very nice seeing you. I should tell people, by the way, she's the host of ESPN's Vibe Check, premiering exclusively on Disney Plus later this month. Vibe Check. Happy to see her voice in more places. Always nice seeing you, Elle. Thank you for making the time. Damn!

Thank you so much, Dan. Hi, Dan. I'm in for it. She's a fraud. She's a fraud. Pitch clock is next. Don Libetard. It sounds to me like everybody could use a hug because a hug is always the right size. Stugatz. All I have put in my body today. No.

is three cups of coffee and an entire cup of honey. Don't let him fool you. He said in the break that he's jittery. This is the Dan Lebitard Show with the Stugats. ♪♪ Welcome to the Pitch Clock. Here's the pitch, a two-part baseball segment combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game and an interview with an expert. This is the Pitch Clock. ♪♪

The Pitch Clock is back again here on a Thursday. Hi, everybody. Yeah, there's our typical intro with Chris Cody. We obviously... Has to be confusing to June. Yeah, of course. Well, and that's what I wanted to mention. Chris Cody's here. I'm here. June Lee is back with us for another week, except this time, instead of being our 2025 MLB expert, we are subjecting him to Taylor's trivia. Yeah. So Taylor is here. Taylor, please explain the trivia game we are about to play with me, Chris, and June.

- This is a new one. So you guys will be given five categories, one at a time. For each one, you just need to give one answer that you think fits. The number of points you get is based on what they did in the category. So if the category was 2024 home runs and you guessed Otani, you would get 54 points for that round. - Wow. Okay. This is insane. - The catch is if you guys write the same answer as another person, no points. - Whoa.

Okay, it cancels itself out. So unique choices here are important as well. At least it's not confusing for June's first time. Yeah, this is super not confusing at all. All right, Taylor. So let's do this. First category, first stat that you want us to look at. 2006 runs scored. Okay. 2006 runs scored. 2006.

I'm gonna go ahead. I gotta be honest here. This is like a ball went out on me situation. I saw what Jeremy wrote. You did? Yeah. So it's the name that I have. Well, wouldn't you think I'd want to put the name that you have? Anyways, we're getting bogged down here. I don't think so. All right. June. Let's reveal the names. Yeah. Do you have a name written down, June?

I have the name Ichiro. Oh, that's a good one. And then I have very little frame of reference for what number could be plausible here. So I just put down 157. I like that you put a number. I didn't put a number. I'm fascinated to see. I put Alex Rodriguez. And I put Derek Jeter, which is the name that Chris definitely originally put and then crossed out. Which is just helping you. That's fine. Yeah, no, it's good for everybody. Thank you.

So June is going to get 110 points for Ichiro. Chris Cody is going to get 113 points for A-Rod.

And then Jeremy is going to get 118 points for fair cheater. After one round. Those are three pretty good guesses. That actually helped me. That felt pretty good. If I picked cheater. If you had done cheater, we'd be down by 100 points. If I just see the papers in there, I'm going to glance at it. All right. I understand. And you circled it. I thought you said cheaters never prosper.

And now our 2025 baseball expert is here. We have Kylie McDaniel. You can follow him on Twitter at Kylie MCD. He's an ESPN baseball insider. Thank you for joining us. I'm very happy that you're here and let's just dive into it with the college world series. We finally got the eight teams set headed to Omaha for the final round of the college world series this weekend, kicking off action. So let's get started.

What have been some of your favorite moments that have led to here and who have been some of the teams and stars worth watching during this tournament? So you have two teams in Arkansas and LSU that I think two or the three teams with the most pro talent. They made it. Tennessee was the other one that was there. They would have made it, but they were playing against Arkansas. So only one of them could make it.

And so the rest of the field is then you have some of the the resourced mid majors. We have West Coast teams like UCLA, Arizona, Oregon State. We have maybe the Gonzaga of baseball in Coastal Carolina. All of them have won titles in the last 15 years. They're all back.

We had Louisville who was the surprise of the ACC teams to make it. They are one of those sort of second tier resource teams, but they weren't supposed to be here. They were fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth in the ACC. And then the big surprise, the Cinderella, which we didn't think they really existed in college baseball anymore is Murray state. We had oral Roberts two years ago who had some pro prospects. We have Murray state this year who has probably one guy on the whole team that will even be drafted. Uh, I had some tweets this week cause I was trying to figure out why they got here. Uh,

So in the postseason, Murray State has played Ole Miss, Georgia Tech and Duke. Those teams had a combined 24 players who sat 92 or higher with their fastball. Do you want to guess how many Murray State had of those 24? Zero.

- Zero. There were 17 players on those four teams that hit a ball 109 or higher off the bat. Murray State had one of them. - That's crazy. - They are completely overmatched when it comes to big tools and pro scouting and pro prospects, but they're here and that's why it's interesting. Like they don't really belong. They've already completely overshot the runway in terms of their expectations.

But that's kind of the beautiful thing of college baseball. These guys are here and they kind of shouldn't be. And who knows how far it could go? They only have to win a handful more games. We love a Cinderella story generally, right, in sports. But Murray State making the College World Series is truly like...

One of the biggest Cinderella stories, I think, this entire century in any college sport. It's really unbelievable given the stats that you just said. So in the same way that many of us are rooting for the Indiana Pacers, we should be rooting for the Murray State Racers. But let's move on to the MLB draft here because that's coming up in about a month. And that changes the fortune for so many franchises. We'll talk about a couple of guys who have been high draft picks later in this episode. But

We'll start with you here, Kylie, and try to bring in some more guests over the next few weeks to get people started. But I want to start with sort of a sampler here. So who are some of the players at the top of this draft that people should get to know ahead of the draft? And who's one of your favorite players in this draft, whether you think they're going to be a surefire superstar or maybe going to be a steal for a team as they drop to a different point in that first round?

The guys that I think are of most note to the audience here, there's a couple of high school players generally seen as the best of those is Ethan Holiday, shortstop out of Oklahoma High School. Another one of the holidays, obviously, is older brothers, Jackson. His dad is Matt. And then the other high school player of note is Seth Hernandez, a high school righty out of Southern California team. His high school, Corona, has two guys that are going to go in the top 10 picks, and then another guy that's going to get drafted later. There's an unbelievably loaded high school team.

Yes. From one high school. They have multiple, they have an underclassman going to LSU. Like they're, they are better than some college teams. Yeah. This high school team that has more talent than Murray state. Who's at the college world series. Um, so those are the two high school guys that I think are seen as, uh, candidates to go in the top two or three picks overall. Uh,

And then from the college side, there's three lefties. Probably the best of the group right now is Kate Anderson, a lefty at LSU that's in the College World Series that has been trending up of late. The other two, Liam Doyle, lefty out of Tennessee. It just feels like the Hells Bells are playing every time he comes in. Welcome to the jungle. It's that kind of guy. It's just hair goes back, throwing 100 all over the place sometimes, but also dominates at a level we haven't seen since like Paul Skeens, basically. And the last one is lefty out of Florida State, Jamie Arnold. Those are the three lefties.

that are in that conversation. And then I have Arquette, the shortstop at Oregon State, who's also in the College World Series, is the best college hitter. He's also in that group. And so that's probably like the top five guys out of that group of players that is in the mix for those top few picks. Second round. Let's do this, Taylor. The category is 2004 walks. Oh, this is some devilish work by you, Taylor, because we all want to put the same name.

But then what happens if none of us put that name? Just know I'm putting it. Yeah, you call dibs. I might just be saying that. Yeah, no, you got it. Or I'm putting down Barry Bonds. Right. All right. All right. All right. Does everybody have a name? Has everybody written down a name? Yes. Okay. I have. Yes. I'll start. I put A-Rod. Well, I put down Barry Bonds. Oh, no! No! Jeremy, you said you were going to do it. You said you were going to do it. It's your game. Oh!

So who'd you put? Nick Johnson. God, you're an idiot. June gets 232 points for Barry Bonds. Let's go. This is ridiculous. Just evil putting that one in there. Jeremy gets 80 points for Alex Rodriguez. We have no chance of winning this game now. Give me Nick Johnson. And where was Nick Johnson? Give me him. Nick Johnson, 430.

40 walks. All right. I think to Cody's slight defense, my natural instinct was to put down like a hipster pick, like Bill Miller or something like that. Oh, Bill Miller. Now you're tickling me. See, this is why we play the game for names like Bill Miller. Because he was a big OVP guy, but then I was just like, if I want to win, obviously the answer is Barry Bonds. Well, at this point, I feel like this competition is going to end up being over, but it's fine. Let's continue into round three. Couple canceled out.

for him in a row. We're going to be right back in it. Taylor. 2009 innings pitched. Ooh, I like that. I feel good about mine. I'm a little worried. There's so many guys that there's like a 15-year period. I'm like, was he at the front of the thousands? There's three guys on one team that I want to put on this list, and I'm not. I'm ready. Do you have your name? My name? I already regret mine.

What's your name, dude? It's Jamie Moyer. Oh, that's a fun one. Okay, I have Tim Lincecum. Johan Santana. That's the name. I'm so glad I didn't pivot because he was the next name I was thinking of. June, Jamie Moyer, 162 innings. That's not bad. Not bad. Not bad. Chris Cody, Johan Santana, 166.2. Wow. Wow.

Jeremy, Tim Lincecum was in the top 10 innings pitch that season. He was number 9, 225.1. Let's go. That's my boy, Tim Lincecum. Big time Timmy Jim. Let's move on to what's going on in Major League Baseball right now and some of those prospects that you've been looking at for years who have all just come up. It's been a really good month or so here for prospects coming up in Major League Baseball. So I'm going to ask for quick notes on actually Tim

Three different guys here. It's Roman Anthony, who's the Red Sox top prospect, who just came up, and it's a huge deal. We saw what a big day it was in Boston. Then there's Jacob Miziorowski, the Brewers pitcher, who can hit 103 on the gun, and he'll be making his Major League debut tonight starting for the Brewers.

And then this is just an excuse to show some of the greatest catches I've ever seen in his first 18 games. Denzel Clark is basically Torrey Hunter in center field for the athletics. So those three guys, really exciting time for baseball to have the three of them come up. Can I get a couple of notes on on each of them?

Yeah, Roman Anthony's an easy one to get excited about. He's been the top prospect in baseball since Roki Sasaki graduated. He was a guy that's been a multi-million dollar type player out of high school. He has a chance to hit 30, maybe even 40 homers, but currently he still hits too many ground balls, so he doesn't have that loft in his swing. But the exit velo suggests that there is, you know, home run derby type, multiple all-star chance to be an MVP kind of talent. But

probably like a i'd say a medium average maybe 250 260 hitter tons of walks really good plate selection uh and then he's also a pretty good athlete pretty good runner can fill in center field but is more of a good right fielder so

Denzel Clark is really interesting. He's been a slow burn prospect, came from a mid-major college, has been in the minors for a little while. The scouting report has kind of always been it's plus plus power, plus plus speed, plus plus defense. We'll see if he can put the bat on the ball enough for any of that to matter. And so the question is, does he turn into like a defensive replacement with unbelievable tools that doesn't really hit very much? Or does he turn into like Mike Cameron? Like that would be if everything clicks, he could turn into that.

And then I would argue probably the most fun. I think fans have the most fun watching these guys like Jacob Mizorowski that can just throw 103. He is 6'7", comes at you. He has a cutter, a slider, a curveball. Everything is plus to plus plus. It's all moving all over the place. And then this year, he just magically started throwing strikes to AAA. And nobody really knows what to do with this. And the question is basically, is this guy going to be one of the better closers in the league? Or is he going to actually turn into like Zach Wheeler and the whole thing's going to click?

And so this might actually be the hyped guy that they can turn into something. This is one of the craziest, most electric arms we've ever seen in Major League Baseball. And he takes the mound tonight. Let's move to our star of the week. And Kylie, you may not know this. We've been calling this a golden era in Major League Baseball for for for superstars. And I'm actually going to.

Throw three of them at you. Normally, we're making our guests choose between two, but it's been such a ridiculous week and such a ridiculous season for all three of these guys. I'm going to throw...

each of three players and a stat at you. And then you're going to focus on one of them as we move forward. So there's my guy, Tarek Scooble with the Detroit Tigers. He's gone six and oh, with a one six, one ERA 13 earned runs and 72 and two thirds innings pitched with 95 strikeouts and three walks across his last 11 starts. Is that, is that good? That's,

pretty good he might not even be as good as Paul Skeens because there have been 90 occurrences all time where an MLB pitcher has a sub 2.1 ERA and 80 plus strikeouts through 13 starts of a season Paul Skeens in 2025 is the only one of those to have a losing record in Pittsburgh he's four and six over that stretch this is a guy with an ERA under two in his first 37 starts in Major League Baseball

And then there's Cal Raleigh, who we've brought up the big dumper on this show multiple times, but he continues to lead Major League Baseball in home runs. And over the last 30 days, he's first in nearly every category. And that's as Aaron Judge is having one of his sickest seasons of all time. So Cal Raleigh, Paul Skeens, Tarek Skubal, pick one and let's focus on him. I would pick Tarek Skubal. He went in the ninth round. Like everyone thought he was just okay. Okay.

And we've seen it a couple of times in the past. It doesn't happen very often. Jacob deGrom is the one that I think of the most, where there are rules about baseball and pitching where this might sound counterintuitive, but velo essentially goes up until you're around age 25 and then it starts to slowly come down. And the trick for pitchers is you have to learn as much command to make up for the velocity you lose as you get older. Tarek Skubal's velo has gone up four years in a row.

and he's 28. He had really hit triple digits. And then this year he had 103 in like the 80th pitch of a game. Like he's defying all of these rules. And so like at age 27, he won his first Cy Young last year. Now he's hitting new heights in velocity. I don't...

I don't know how to explain any of this to anyone. Like all of the scouting that you do, all the history you create, all of the like, well, he does this and he's good at this. It's all presumed on, well, he's not going to start throwing harder at 26, 27 and 28 and then learn the best new pitch that he wasn't throwing that much. Like none of this stuff is supposed to happen and he's kind of doing all of it. And that's really fascinating to me because it just kind of blows up the entire like rubric of the way that I've been taught to like

Judge pitchers? Right. Tarek Skubal is the exception to the rule. And I appreciate that what you've done is basically spent this entire time giving us your expertise and then immediately undermining your own expertise by saying, I didn't think this guy who's the best pitcher in baseball was going to be any good. Kylie McDaniel, thank you very much for all of the analysis that you've given us. This was a blast. Hope to have you back sometime soon after the draft. We can catch up on all of...

the things that occur there and some of the prospects that come up in the meantime. But for now, let's get back to our competition with Chris and June. Taylor, what is our stat? 1997 home runs. Jesus. 1997 home runs. Wow. Okay. What a time for home runs. Cause there have been 10 different guys who came to mind, but I'm, here's where I'm going. Does everybody have a name written down? Oh,

I was thinking 03 for a second. You want to take a second? You can just go. Well, but you should probably write it down before we... Yeah. Okay, I got it. All right, I'll just unveil mine first. My name was Ken Griffey Jr. Oh, that's a good name. Does anybody have Ken Griffey? No. No, I have Mark McGuire. Great.

Chris, who do you have? I just crossed out Sosa, and I put Jim Tomey. That is one of the names I was just thinking of. Oh, that's pretty good. Him and Frank Thomas were a couple of the names. Just thinking 97 Orleans versus like that. Yeah, who they were playing. Chris Cody, Jim Tomey was eighth with 40 home runs. I stink. So you get 40 points there. Same amount of walks as Nick Johnson.

Mark McGuire, 58 home runs that season. Where was Sosa? And then Ken Griffey.

Right behind Mark McGuire in second, 56. Hell yeah. All right. This was pre-Sosa, right? That was a good cross by me. Sosa started. He had 36 that year. Good cross out. Sosa's run from 98 to 01 or 02 was the run for him. Good cross out. So, Chris Cody, you're within 200, and luckily for you, this category. I'm within 203 of June, so...

This category is 2000 hits. Hate you. Ooh, this is okay. Good. I like what you did there, Taylor. All right. So hold on to glory. The question that I have here is, do I want to put the name that I think was at the top of that list and potentially cancel myself out with June? Because I have a feeling everyone's thinking the same thing.

Or do I put a name that I just think will be on that list? I think you should do whatever your heart tells you not to do. You have a name? Yeah. You have a name, June? I'm going last. I do. All right. All right. June, you go first. My name is Nomar Garcia Parra. Okay. My name, second time used, Derek Jeter. Oh.

You have Jeter? No. Oh, thank God. I went Ichiro. We're really hitting at the core of the baseball culture wars. Who'd you go, Chris? Ichiro. Ichiro's 2001 debut. Dude, yeah, he had no hits. 2001 Rookie of the Year, Ichiro did not have a hit in 2000. Look up, look up, look up. In Japan. First of all, no one said we were talking about Major League Baseball. Chris Cody could take the asterisk 153 hits anyways because it's third on this list. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Derek Jeter, 201 hits. Nomar, 197. Two solid guesses, but it clinches June to win. June is victorious. Congratulations, June, on being a first-time champion in your first game. That's devastating because we play this every week and we both stink at it. So congratulations on your victory. Thank you for joining us for a second straight week on the Pitch Clock.

Yeah, thank you for having me.