Dan Le Batard Makes His Pitch Clock Debut! | Pitch Clock

0:00So it seems like we're quite the pipeline. Yeah, where's Ethan? Alright everybody's about to find out. 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. It's the final week of the regular season. And just like the Tampa Bay rays, we're making changes. Oh yeah. That's a great point. You know what? Hey, guess what? We're going to have Dan Levittard on this show to talk about his Tampa Bay rays and a whole lot more because we are in the final week of the regular season. But as Chris said, some changes made here. New uniforms. Yeah, essentially a new uniform. And for the third time, we have a new uniform. And by a new uniform, we mean a new producer sitting at the helm because Ethan got the call up to the show. Yep.

1:00And by the show, we mean he's talking football now. Right. Ethan's over on Football America. Ethan, congratulations. You are in the big chair over with Dave Damace. Football America. Check it out. Check out Football America. But now folks, what that means is you get to meet the man behind the editing requests that we have so eloquently thrown out there. Game. Yeah. Gabriel. Welcome, Gabriel. Sir, do you want our pitch clock fans to refer to you as Gabriel? I would best for you. All right, perfect. Awesome. That's the type of vibe that we want here. Ethan would have definitely chosen a name. Yeah, he would have been like E-money. Or can you refer to me by my friend's name? Or can you refer to me as a Cubs fan? Oh, important. Do you have any friends that you want to camp with that we need to shout out? Yeah. Great. And you have your favorite team that you can shoehorn into like every trivia game. Yes. I have. Awesome. Terrific. All right. So hopefully he's a Marlins fan. Dave, let's get started. We got going in our final regular season matchup. Wow. Here for pitch clock trivia. Well, we're going to celebrate the unsung heroes and

2:02those are the catchers. Ooh. All right. So what do we got? What do we got? Caught me off guard with them. Game is called Who Caught Him? Ooh. I'm going to give you a list of 20 pitchers and you're going to tell me who caught for them. Oh, boy. OK. So is it Who Caught for them in this particular season? Is it Who Caught the Most Games for them ever? No, all time. You name one catcher that's caught for them. Oh, I like that. OK. All right. There is bonus points. You get a point for each correct answer. There's six of them who threw a perfect game. If you name the catcher that threw the perfect game, you get a bonus point. OK. Awesome. OK. All right. This is going to be terrible at it. But I like it. No, this is fun. OK. All right. All right. So who goes first? You want Chris? Who won last week? So I'll go first. Well, I was going to say we're going to throw that away. And I'm going to throw a movie question here. And where it gets it right goes first. Whoa. That. Oh, boy. OK. All right. All right. All right. All right. What's the movie question?

3:02I'm going to say a line from a movie. It's the first one to tell me the movie. We'll see. OK. The line is see how it works is the train moves, not the station. The train moves, not the station. Oh, yeah. Working of the year. Is it a baseball movie? Yes. Is it the natural? No. Damn it. Is it a, I'm just going to keep you a league of their own. Yes. Yeah. All right. All right. I'll take it. All right. That means I got to go first. Yeah. That's exciting. All right. Your first picture is David Cohn. Jorge Pesada. Correct. One point. Did he did David Cohn on a perfect game? He did. He did. But Jorge Pesada didn't catch the perfect game. No. It was Joe Jero. Damn it. So like, in that instance, do you say any catcher or do you right away have to be like, I know he threw a perfect game? I should have slowed myself down and done that. That's what I would need. So I only get my one point. That perfect game is now off the board. OK. Chris? Yeah. Randy Johnson.

4:03Randy Johnson. Wow. Let me just relax everybody. Relax. Oh, this is easy. You can't think of a catcher. I can. Jorge Pesada. God, I hate you. Yes. Right. I was trying to think of this one. I was trying to think of the diamond backs catchers. I was trying to think of Robbie Hammock caught the perfect game. Robbie Hammock caught the perfect game. Geez. I definitely would never have gotten that. How scary. All right. One, one. Greg Maddox. Greg Maddox. Havi Lopes. Yep. All right. It's Lopez. But Havi Lopez. All right, Chris. Yeah. Matt King. Who? Who caught his perfect game? Or did he have a perfect game? I don't think he did. Buster Posey. Double points. He caught the perfect game. He caught the perfect game. Our final 2026 MLB expert of the season.

5:05I've been waiting to get him on here. Well, all season long, because Dan, I know you love to flex your baseball expertise. And we'll get to your Tampa Bay race in just a second. But I want to talk to you about. No, I'd like to get to the race now. I'd like, I don't want to talk about anything other than the race. All right. Frank, you have a schedule. What do you have that you want to do here? I mean, normally we go for about, you know, 10 minutes. We could talk about, you know, the Yankees. We could talk about the playoff race as the the White Sox and Guardians go. But why wouldn't we talk about the team that's been 128 days atop the A.L.E. As everyone talked about the Red Sox all season and the Yankees all season. And Chandler Simpson is out there just hitting the ball on the ground all the time. And they've got a short stop who can't hit the ball at all. But what he does is when Max Fried falls to his left a little too much in the scouting report, he bunts with a runner on third and one out all season because they bunts more than any team in the home run league. And they do that because the bottom half of their lineup stinks, but they spent 128 days atop the A.L.E. As everyone has talked about the Red Sox and Yankees because they're the most fascinating team that I have seen in baseball since the money ball A's in terms of exploiting market inefficiencies

6:12because they steal bases and they play great defense and they use later relievers like disposable razors. And nobody knows that Drew Merasmussen is the top five pitcher over the last three years. And that all they do is throw a bunch of strikes and have extraordinary plate discipline and Kyle Snyder, the pitching coach and Kevin Cash, the manager. They actually teach players how to get better and you see that they could lose Brandon Lau 33 home runs 100 RBIs in Pittsburgh. And they can lose by this Spanish for walls they kept the stinky walls, but the Spanish walls who can actually hit they let him go and it doesn't matter. Their lineup kind of stinks, but the Red Sox win games because you know if they don't allow for runs, they're going to win the game because they keep the games under for runs, but the the raise are doing something that is more fascinating in architecture than anything else. They're not teaching plate discipline. You can't teach it. They just go get guys who all make contact and so they don't strike out at all and they bump more than everyone and how absurd is that to be winning that way in the modern age when everybody else and they've got a top two MVP candidate in junior coming arrow, but I really don't want to talk about anything other than the raise.

7:27I don't find anything what's happened with this team that's totally unfair. This has been the quietest excellence that there has been in sports for the last 10 years because they don't have any money. They have to be smarter than everybody else organizationally and the Dodgers have all of the money in the world and all of their same principles and this team yet is still smarter, but because it hasn't won in the playoffs the same way the money. All right Jeremy Mike Musina Mike Musina I mean I can just keep saying the same answers, but I just don't know. Yeah, I'm just going to just for say I don't want to get it wrong. So Jorge Posada. Correct. Yeah. Chris don't throw with us. This is tough. Shut up. Which one do you want to go with? I know. There's so many fun ones. Pudge. Yeah. Why would you go with Pudge? Jeremy Mark Burley. Mark Burley.

8:28Who was the catcher for that's easy. Hold on. Just give me a moment. Oh. AJ presents Eve. Yeah. Correct. Okay. I would have gone with Ramon Castro cut the perilla. Yeah. Damn it. Damn it. With the Marlins. Wait. No, he threw a perfect game with the white socks. I think he's going to throw a dickie. All right. Mets catcher. I will say I'm also like losing it a little bit. Mets pitch. I'm a catcher. I don't frickin Ramon Castro. And he was a man at some point. He wasn't met. Yeah, but he I don't believe he caught. All right. Dickie. I had nothing. Was Russell Martin one of our A Dickies catchers? Correct. Yeah. Toronto. I didn't think Toronto. That's good. Five for me. All right. Here we go. Clayton Kershaw. I'm going to go ahead and say the same name. Russell Martin. Correct. Yeah. Real difficult one there. Game stars. Hey, can you give me a hall of a scene? Please. Roy Holiday. Thank you. Well, that's right. He had some perfect games.

9:34Carlos Ruiz. Double points. Oh, you mother. All right. We're tied at six. You're picture Dan Herron. Dan Herron. Old. I throw 88. Who I mean, he pitched for like a thousand different teams. Um, oh, man. So he pitched for the Marlins. He pitched for the Cubs. He pitched for the Diamondbacks. Uh, appreciate that. Is there a chance Russell Martin also caught him? No. Damn it. A lot of lists. I was a lot of look through there. I know. Well, I did because I. All right. It was John Baker one of his. Don't I get a chance to steal? Oh, yeah. Right. He gets a steal. Damn it. The Marlins. Jared Saltamakia. No. What? John Baker? No. JT Real Muto. That's what I know. So this is my issue. I wasn't sure how long Aaron stuck around. Wasn't he right before? What's saltamakia right before? Yeah. I said. So who pissed that was making? I was making. I wasn't here and here with like the burly. Wasn't either the burly. No, he was there after Chris got this wrong. David Wells.

10:41No. This is going to eat me up inside forever. Passata. Yep. Double point. Yes. I was like, I knew it. Damn it. No. Oh, Dan Heron. Felix Hernandez. Miguel O'Levo. He was one of them. All right, but not the perfect game. No, John J. So. All right. I wasn't going to get John J. So he looks like a pirate. You get Geogonzales. Okay. JT Real Muto. No. Really? No, it was later. I'm up one. You're up one. Ben Sheets. I'm picturing. I'm just going to pick a name. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. And I'm going to accept it. Chris, I ain't edda. No. No, he wasn't a catcher with the brewers. Is he a catcher? Yeah, he was. He was with the Rockies. He was with the Rockies for a long time. I thought he caught with the brewers for a little bit. Man. Damn it. Salvador Perez. Did he play for the Royals? No. I couldn't find him. I like that you went with a lifelong catcher in a certain place. My turn. That's all right. All right. I'm down one. There's five to go. So I really need Chris to miss this.

11:53Your hand sentana. I mean, I know I played for them. I don't even want to say it. I know we played. Remember when he threw like 145 pitches? Oh, wait, my bad. Damn Joe. I was trying to keep you on the mess. I was trying to keep you on the mess. Who were some other options there for him? Who do you got? I just like these names. AJ Prasinski, Mike Redmond. Really? Ramon Castro. Ramon Castro, of course. Brian Schneider. Nice. Oh, there's a lot of like, man, he's probably a lot of guys that like a big career. Brian Schneider. I've thought about for every pitcher that's swear. Geogadal. I was like, he's a Schneider. Maybe Brian Schneider. And the playoffs. This team has not gotten the credit. It deserves outside of baseball of anyone caring or believing that it can actually beat the Yankees when they've spent 128 days atop the A.A. And everyone was talking about, isn't it amazing that the Red Sox fixed their season after starting slow? And isn't it amazing that the Yankees without Aaron Judge can still be around and a team that's bunting the ball and has an actual player who is not hit but one professional home run.

13:03I think it was in a spring training game. It might have been in a minor league game. He's just hitting the ball on the ground because he will not hit it. He's hitting it in the air as a failure. And they're just making contact all over the place. And as I mentioned, they're an organization where you watch the players get better. This second half of the raised lineup isn't any good, Jeremy. It might be a problem in the post season that the second half of their lineup isn't any good. They got a couple of former Marlins in there. They trade for former Marlins. They're borrowing from the cheapest franchise in the league because they have to have major league players in uniform in the back half of the lineup. And then they just peck you to death and it's paper cuts to death. And you're just dying by pitches on the corner. All of them in the strike zone. At the end of a series, they've got 27 strikeouts that they have administered and you've walked you one time because they don't allow free base runners. The Brewers are better. The Brewers play similarly, but there are no other teams in the big leagues that play the way that the raise do.

14:04And everyone should love this raised team the way that I do because they brought me back to baseball by being more quietly excellent than anything that you have seen in the sport that can run on efficiencies and maximizing what little small advantages. There are in defense and stealing bases and using relievers correctly. Do you have any other questions? No, I think I'm good, Dan. Thank you. I can keep talking about this if you want. How much time does pitch clock go? They've got the fewest strikeouts in the league that defense all over the place is excellent. You have again, I'm going to say this again because the way they clinched was just perfect at Yankee Stadium Yankees have max freed the raise have someone at bat who can't hit major league pitching and nosy can't hit major league pitching. So he goes up there with a runner on third baser one out and says I'm not going to hit it to the outfield. I'm not a good hitter. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take advantage of the fact that max freed can't help it. He falls off the mound. I'm just going to bunch it over there and the run's going to score because I am not a person that anyone should want up if they're a fan of the team in a situation where a baseball has to be hit.

15:17I am someone that you would actively say is one of the worst hitters in all of baseball, but he knows what he is and what he is is someone who could bump and take advantage of max freed is going to fall off the mound this much and I can just tap the ball over there. That way I don't have to hit it all the way to the outfield. Thank you for having me on Jeremy. It was fun. Thank you for the efficiency. All right, I'm down to and there's only four to go. Four to go. And this is tough. All right. I'm in trouble. I don't know if he pitched. I feel like you might. I'm going to say a name because I want to say his name because I think maybe he pitched for this team at the end of his career, but I don't think it's going to be right. Did Gary Carter ever catch him? Yes. Yes. Yes. How was it going to say Mike Piazza? Yes, Gary Carter. He ended up with the mets at the end of his career.

16:18Mike Piazza would have worked. But that's crazy that Mike Piazza caught him. Am I getting his era completely wrong? He was early 90s as well. That's what I mean. He was like a Jamie Morgan. He pitched forever. I thought man. I mean, he may have gone in the late 80s. Yeah. I think he came up in the 80s with the Dodgers because I was trying to think of Dodgers catchers. That's fine. I'm going to go ahead and take it. So where are we at here? So now I'm down Europe one and we've got three to go. Okay. Kenny Rogers. Jesus. Good chicken. If you know anything about good old Kenny Rogers, you know he and I, somebody go. So he's the absolute. Yeah. Okay. He would look at this card again and have some words. Yeah. Brandon Inge. What? I don't know. I don't know what catchers. Brandon. I don't know. Brandon. No. Did he catch some too? Pudge. Pudge or real points? Double points. Ah. Woo. Pudge. Pudge.

17:18Rangers. Baby. Pudge. Kenny Rogers. You and I. Simpat to go. That's where I was confused. I was like, let's go. Oh, right. You have anything you played as the Tigers in his prime. No, that's not the problem. I'm not the problem. I'm the problem. That's 10. All right. 10.9. Oh, boy. Let's go. All right. Two left. I thought I was up one there. And I got double points. Double points. I got to keep track here. So somebody just took the lead and can clinch with the correct answer if I get it right. But this is not going to be. There's two more. No. I can already tell by Gabe's stupid face. There's two more. You cannot clinch here unless you get double points. But I may be because that guy, I don't know if I got whatever it doesn't matter. Let's better be tough. Let's lock in. Who do we got left? Kevin Millwood. That's another. Brewer. Oh, no. Oh, but he also. Pitched for like 12. Yeah. He pitched in a million places. I'm trying to lock. I'm locking in right now on the Phillies in the 2000s and just trying to think of who that catcher was.

18:23Oh, Mike Lieberthal. Yes. Wow. I don't need the wow from a cheeky. I like that. Wow, can we do me a favor? Can you do me a favor, Gabe? Can you just boost that wow in post? Thank you very much. Appreciate that. All right. Did this next player throw a perfect game? No. So it's over. But that's go ahead. Take your cute little guest. Carlos Zambrano. The Giants. That's a callback. Yeah, nice. God. Oh, that Giants team and MVP baseball. I believe his catcher was. Up. Cubs catcher. I will go with Michael Barrett. Yeah, dude. That's the name I was just thinking of. Hey, I know that you're not happy right now because I know you didn't win. Check this scoring. But we got Michael Barrett on the show. And I think that's all that matters.

19:23Yeah. Also did he pitch to Rumiuto? One was he and was it salt. Tomakia. John. Bach. All right. John Bach. Jared Saltamakia instead of saying JT was where I lost this. And remind me what did you do today? You did what? Lost. Yep, that's right. That means I have a 15 to 12 advantage as we wrap up the regular season. The playoffs are going to be highly contested folks. We've got probably it's five to six games left on the board before we are officially done with our competition. Chris needs to go on a hot street. Gabe. Tremendous first job man to ship my friends. All right. I really enjoyed it. I love that game. Good work. We got to say Michael Barrett. And that's all that matters. Baseball. See you on the playoffs.