Scott Miller Discusses Baseball Insights & Playoff Weather

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00:00Scott Miller is our baseball insider. You see his columns in the New York Times. You

00:08see him on coast to coast regularly talking baseball with us. And I got to tell you, Scott,

00:12it's good to see you in San Diego where my son is. I'm always jealous that you're there.

00:17But actually, I was just saying to Dane, my co-host, that look at that giant cat on him.

00:25That was awesome.

00:26The cat snuck in. I apologize. She's a baseball fan and she keeps me company. I can move her.

00:31That is awesome. Anyway, so I was just telling Dane, you know, we've had sunny skies here,

00:37literally cloudless skies, San Diego skies in New York for 60 days in a row. We haven't

00:43had rain in 60 days. We have had we have had sunshine in 60 days. And I mean, I have never

00:49seen that in my life in New York City where we haven't had rain or some kind of crappy

00:53weather or stretches of bad weather. It has been beautiful. All the playoff games were

00:58perfect weather at Citi Field and in the Bronx. And I'm hearing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,

01:03it's going to be more of the same in the boogie down in the Bronx Zoo for games three, four

01:09and five. So you've got nothing on us, San Diego.

01:14We'll take it, man. We need that. That'd be awesome. I mean, that's the one thing about

01:18the expanded playoffs, right? The season goes so late. The World Series may go into November

01:22again. And you're always worried because it's the top moment in baseball and you want

01:29the game. The condition should be for the two teams to be at their best in those years

01:34when it's 40 degrees. And remember the Chicago Cubs, Joe Maddon and company are wearing those

01:39ski hats. That's just not a good look for baseball, let alone you go back to six World

01:44Series. Remember how it was Detroit and St. Louis and the Detroit, it was rainy and raw

01:49Detroit pitchers kept throwing the ball all over the infield. I mean, that's not how the

01:53World Series should be played. So bring on the warm weather in New York next week. Let's

01:57have baseball weather. Let's get a good World Series.

01:59What did you think when you saw the Mets come back to Los Angeles for game six and the Dodgers

02:08still put 10 on them? And it was like every game in the championship series, there were so many

02:14runs and so many homers and big hits and massive blowouts. I mean, what did you think when you saw

02:21him do it to him again? Because the Mets had jumped out to a one nothing lead and they still

02:25got beat down. Yeah, I mean, it's always important, especially when you're facing elimination. You

02:31talk to any manager, they'll always say it's really important to score first. It takes a

02:37little bit of the pressure off of us. It gets us feeling good about ourselves. It gets us out quick.

02:42Mets did that and it just didn't matter. And yeah, I mean, it wasn't a very good series. You're right.

02:48I mean, all the games are decided by six runs, by whatever runs. And, you know, I mean,

02:56every series now we get bullpen games, which also is not a good look for baseball, but that's where

03:01we are. And the problem with bullpen games, I mean, sometimes like the bullpen game, the Dodgers ran

03:07against the Padres in game four or three of the four of, thank you, of the division series.

03:14Those pitchers were lights out. Padres couldn't touch them. But then when the, you know,

03:19Dodgers ran the bullpen game against the Mets in game two, the Mets clobbered them. And then,

03:24you know, Mets get into their bullpen, Dodgers clobber them. You just, two things are pertinent

03:30right now in modern day baseball. And we see it play out in the playoffs and in the World Series.

03:36The games are going to be decided by the bullpen because starting pitchers just don't go deep

03:41enough into games, mostly to where they have an effect. I mean, you know, a guy leaves a game

03:47after five innings or four innings and there's going to be more scoring. So it's bullpens will

03:53decide it. And despite six most valuable player awards in this World Series and Otani and Judge

03:59and Soto, it's going to be who has the best bullpen, I think, who wins the series. Secondly,

04:06bullpens are the most volatile part of a team because, you know, you just never know year to

04:13year and sometimes game to game what you're going to get. And when you run out six, seven relievers,

04:18one or two are bound to have a bad day. And also when I talk about volatility, just look at

04:24Cleveland against the Yankees. Emmanuel Classe, he was like the Mariano Rivera of this year,

04:30just for one year. He was the best pitcher in the majors. Closer. He was locked down. Nobody

04:36could touch him. And then the Yankees beat him like he was the brutalized him. They lit him up.

04:44They tortured him. He'll never be the same. Listen, I heard all I heard was that, you know,

04:50as this series was starting, was that Classe was better than Mariano Rivera.

04:56Are you kidding me? Like, don't get me started. Don't make me laugh. No one is better than

05:03Mariano Rivera. You cannot gauge one season of excellent bullpen closing to the career that

05:09Mariano Rivera had. It's not even worth discussing. They tortured him. And what did you think when you

05:15saw that Soto hit that three-run bomb in the 10th inning? I mean, you talk about clutch. In money

05:23time, that at bat, that seven pitch at bat, that was unbelievable. Yeah, it was. I'm going to pick

05:32up on the last thing you said. You're right. One great season as a closer doesn't compare you to

05:38Mariano Rivera. And I would add to that, Mariano also did it all of those Octobers. So it's not

05:46just season, but you got to step up in October too. If you're going to be a legend, if you're

05:50going to be all time, or if you're going to be legit, Classe didn't do that either. So that leads to

05:56the Soto home run against Classe. It was a classic at bat. It was classic Juan Soto, you know, watch

06:03the strike zone, don't go out of the strike zone, make the pitcher work, and then tee off on him.

06:08And you saw in that at bat why the Yankees have loved him all season long, why he's had the

06:16success he's had in his career other than his time in San Diego, which I, you know, but and also in

06:24that one at bat. It wasn't that bad in San Diego. He hit 35 home runs. And by the way, he hit it

06:30it was the Classe shots of Judge, the two-run shot off Classe, and then Stanton, the go-ahead home

06:38run. And they still lost that game with the ninth inning and tenth inning heroics of the

06:44Guardians bats. And then the Yankees went out and won the next two games and finished them off on

06:51the Soto shot. It was unbelievable. The Yankees tortured Cleveland's bullpen, that entire series,

06:58they tortured them. Exactly right. And that goes back to what I said about this World Series,

07:02Yankees-Dodgers going to be won by a bullpen, just like the Yankees-Cleveland series was won

07:10or lost by a bullpen. The Cleveland bullpen, really good all year, one of the best in baseball,

07:17no match for the Yankees. They teed off on the bullpen. So, you know, now they're in the World

07:22Series. We'll see if they can tee off on the Dodgers bullpen or vice versa. If the Dodgers

07:27can get to the Yankees bullpen. But it's interesting because, you know, both teams

07:32have had to shuffle their bullpens this year, right? Clay Holmes blew 13 saves. Right. Yankees

07:37had Luke Weaver in there. The Dodgers had Evan Phillips as their closer. He stumbled. They had

07:44to shift some things. They've had injuries. Now they got Michael Kopech at the trade deadline.

07:48Kopech sometimes is their closer. Sometimes he comes in in the third inning. So there's going

07:53to be a lot of pressure. He started the other day in game six. Yeah, it's like it's the opener.

07:59Yeah, yeah. It's back to old times for him. He was wild. Yeah, that didn't go well. I got 40

08:06seconds. 78-81 World Series are unforgettable. Here we go again after 40 plus years between

08:13these two. Who do you like in the series? And hopefully we can talk to you throughout the

08:17series. Yeah. I like, I'm going to say Dodgers in seven. I think it's a point flipper. I never

08:23liked you, Scott Miller, running on my Yankees like this. Backstabber. You and all your Southern

08:30California friends can have a sandwich. Go play with your cat. Stay away from me. Make sure you

08:35don't put him on the rest of the series, Mafia. This guy's a turncoat. I never liked him. We're

08:40going to talk all series long. Come on, man. We will. Scott, I love you, buddy. I'll see you.

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