Rice on the Mics

Giants rise, Jets sink

• Ian • Season 1 • Episode 33

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New York sports put our nerves through a blender—so we leaned in. We kick off with a jolt of hope as Jackson Dart energizes the Giants with smart throws and fearless runs, then face the gut punch of losing Malik Nabers for the season and what that means for Brian Daboll’s play sheet inside a roaring Superdome. Across town, the Jets unravel in a pile of flags, fumbles, and baffling decisions, raising real questions about discipline, identity, and how to simplify a defense that looks a step slow.

Baseball brings its own referendum on pressure. The Yankees advance past Boston, but not before a stark reminder that postseason baseball demands feel, not just a spreadsheet. We break down the lineup choices against a dominant lefty, the redemption arc from Ben Rice and Jazz, and the night rookie Cam Schlittler carved his name into October with 12 strikeouts and eight scoreless. Then we rip off the Band‑Aid in Queens: why the Mets’ philosophy on pitching depth and late call‑ups set up a September collapse, and what a smarter winter should prioritize to fix it.

Around the league, we hit the NFL’s biggest swings—Pittsburgh’s edge chaos, Philly’s clever tush‑push counter, and Mahomes back in inevitability mode against an injury‑riddled Baltimore. And a listener sparks our favorite idea of the week: reclaim fourth‑down drama by changing the geometry of the uprights—narrow them or raise the crossbar to make 60‑yarders special again and force real game‑theory decisions.

We close with honest betting talk (4‑15 and owning it), clean edges for the next slate, and a lively mailbag on Knicks optimism, Penn State’s big‑game ceiling, and why Mahomes still isn’t getting enough respect. If this mix of sharp analysis, fan emotion, and smart fixes is your vibe, follow the show, share it with a friend, and drop a review—what should we tackle next?

SPEAKER_00:

I guess there's only one way to find out was to do it to it, right? Five, four, three, two, one, zero. All engine running. Good people. Hello. Welcome. Welcome back to episode 33 of Rice on the Mics. And the sports gods have blessed us with so much to talk about this week. Not gonna do what everybody thinks I'm gonna do and freak out, man. But the Mets got eliminated. Bad. They needed the Reds to lose and they lost. And the Mets got shut out of Miami anyway. They're going on to keep Carlos Mendoza. We'll get into all that. Yankees across town are gonna fight for their life in a game three. Going on right now, actually. Game one, crochet shoved. Game two, Yankees pulled it out. After Jazz getting benched, pretty much sprinted their season back alive. We'll discuss if Boone went to the binder or he should have trusted his gut. NFL's no slouch either. Giants rookie Jackson Dark comes in and lights it up, but then the gut punch Malik Neighbors is done for the year with the torn ACL. And the Jets on Monday night made sure to embarrass themselves too. Penalty after penalty after fumble after penalty after fumble. See where I'm going here? We'll talk about the wild card series going on around the league in the MLB. We'll touch on the mailbag, and I got a great NFL rule fix for the kicking game that I actually got from a listener. Can't even take full credit for it. But man, is it a smart one? Then we'll bounce into the roll in the dice with Rice segment, try and put our money where our mouth is, go over last week's picks, and I'll give you a couple games this week, too. Whole bunch to cover. Stay tuned, you're gonna want to watch. Well, let's start with the only New York football team that's actually making some noise right about now, and that would be the New York Giants, because they gave the kid a start over the week. And he didn't disappoint. Uh he was filled with adrenaline and definitely filled with a lot of scare. There was a lot of runs that he had that you're like, come on, kid, just get down, stop, don't take that hit, don't be RG3. We watched it in our own division, right? But the kid delivered, man. He made the throws he had to make. He made the reads he had to make. I mean, he goes 13 for 20, 111, respectable, throws a touchdown. 54 rushing, though? That's that's a new look. That's not Russell Wilson no more. They go for a 90-yard opening drive just to punch it in. And you got Scatabo, who the other rookie that was so touted that everybody loved. Well, yeah, he's making his name now, and he's showing them exactly what the hell he's about. Pass blocking, run blocking, doesn't matter. He is dominating. Anybody in front of him, he does not care. He literally did an interview and he was talking about yeah, it's fun to score a touchdown, but it's a lot more fun to run two people over before I score a touchdown. That's the guy you want on your team. Now, the gut punch, if you will. It's nice to beat the three and oh Chargers who had to travel a lot, and this and the other. Maligue Neighbors goes down with an ACL and he's done for the year, and probably going to be a little bit of compromise next year, too, unfortunately. That hurts the young rookie because, you know, not to throw shade at Wandell Robinson or Darius Slayton or anybody, but neither one of them are Malik Neighbors. And if you got a rookie quarterback that's trying to figure out if he can throw the ball or try to call friendly plays for him, I guess, Malik Neighbors is the guy that you want. So with him done the rest of the year, look, you're going into the Superdome. Doesn't matter. It's going to be loud, even if they are 0-5. That city loves their football team. They always show up. So it's not exactly going to be, you know, home cooking at MetLife with uh the fans being quiet for the offense and this, that, and the other. So we're going to see how the kid does in a hostile environment against, you know, Cam Jordan. And I guess that's really it for their defense. But Saints are winless and they're itching to get a win. Giants, they're one and three. Congratulations. That win is nice, but the Saints are still looking to crack their teeth on you guys, too. They're looking at you guys like a get-right game. So this is actually a big test for Jackson Dart. And you know what? I actually got to give Dayball a little bit of credit to. It uh before the season started, I talked about how hard the schedule was and how there was no easy path to get the kid in until probably week eight. They might have nailed it. Because if you go out against the Chargers and he loses, but he looks alright, okay, fine. So then it's a soft landing against the Saints. But he wins. Now you're going into the Saints with renewed confidence, looking good. Let's say you get the win, now you're two and three. Now you come back home against the Eagles, and the building's gonna be packed against if you come back home two and three and you got the Eagles, Eagles fans are gonna buy tickets, but it's gonna be packed with Giants fans. And yeah, you got them in two more weeks again, but you could find maybe a path where the Giants end up three and three. I can't believe I'm gonna say that, but it it might be possible. Now on to the Jets. Because if there's one thing that they know how to do, it's embarrass themselves. And what a barn burner for ESPN, by the way. 0-3 Miami versus 0-3 Jets. I'm sure that they loved to sign up for that. They were definitely banking on Justin Fields being a little bit better than he is now. But the Jets, man, this was a winnable game, 100%. But it was just penalty after penalty after penalty. They fumble on the they drive, they get the ball back and they in the first drive and they drive all the way down the field to fumble on the third yard line. I wasn't even I was on my way to the bar. And I literally, I'm listening in the car. I go, no way that just happened. That's the most jet thing that ever happened ever. Okay, fine. It happens, they figure it out. Then another penalty. Then another fumble. Then they're catching uh a punt, waving, waving fair catch on a punt on the two-yard line. Aaron Glenn, we were sold on a bill of goods that you were here to clean up and be disciplined and get these guys in shape and no more bad penalties. And the one Tua is the most fragile quarterback in the league, and he gets every call because they know he's the most fragile quarterback in the league. One of the D-linemen, I I don't even know who it was. He slide all the way down and he dives his whole body at him on the ground. Even the other linebacker looked at him. He's like, Dog, what are you doing? And yeah, it's all good and fun that, you know, Glenn, you can chew people out on the sideline for their mistakes, but it it it I don't care about you chewing them out in public and trying to demoralize them in public. What's going on behind the scenes? What's going on in the film room? Like, Sauce Gardner doesn't look good. Quinn and Williams doesn't look good. This defense doesn't look good. You're a defensive coordinator from a vaunted defensive team in the Lions. I can't believe I'm saying that out loud. And you were brought here instead of Rex to be the defensive guy, to be the disciplinary guy. And what has it turned into? 0-4, same old Jets. Oh, we're not the same old Jets. Yeah, you fucking are. You're the same old Jets. Now you got the Cowboys staring you in the face, looking at a potential 0-5, and I can't believe it. The stats back it up. The Jets have never started in their miserable franchise. The Jets have never started 0-5 in their entire franchise history. So Aaron Glenn, congratulations. You have a chance to make history. And I saw people comparing uh Aaron Glenn to uh Adam Gase when they started 0-4 and then they beat the Cowboys in week five and the script is lining up. I don't see it, man. I don't. The way this defense is going. I don't care if you're home. I don't care if Justin Fields is playing, it does not look good. You might be staring 0-5 in the face. The worst part is, too, halfway through the game, the Dolphins lose their best offensive weapon in Tyreek Hill. He dislocates his knee. He's done. He's done for the year. So what do you do? Oh, okay, we're good. No, now you start backing off with Jalen Waddell, and he has a night. And then A-chan has a night. What is this defense doing? What is this offense doing? You can't rely on Justin Fields running 43 yards every game for a goddamn touchdown. Not to mention Braylon Allen goes out. He's your change of pace back. Honestly, it's probably better. He's got an MCL now. And look, I was high on Braylon Allen before the season started, and I really thought that the Jets might have been on the track to trade Brees Hall. But with Braylon Allen out and Isaiah Davis fumbling left and right, it's now going to be the Brees Hall show, which by the way it should. He is Christian McCaffrey. He's just not being utilized. So maybe Braylon Allen going out is a blessing in disguise. But I just I don't see any path for success for this Jets team. I don't see any hope for this Jets team. It's it's gotten ugly quicker than I thought it would. I thought they'd be at least one and three at this point, or maybe two and two or something. Good God. It's it's I can't believe how fast it's gotten ugly. Alright, now that I got the uh locals out of the way, let's do a little recap from a couple games you might have missed this week, too. Uh Brighton early, Dublin breakfast, Guinness and Eggs. 9.30 in the morning, Steelers Vikings. Steelers pull it out. 24-21. Rodgers to DK proves to continue to be a good mess. Metcalf goes 80 on a crossing route, just breaks the defense, which we kind of saw this coming. You know, Rodgers always picks a receiver that he likes, that he trusts, and just feeds the hell out of him. Uh Kenneth Gainwell had 99 yards on a late scratch from Jalen Warren, too. Almost screwed my fantasy team, had 99 yards and two touchdowns. Uh and TJ Watt tipped INT right at the line, flipped the script. That's how it goes. TJ Watt's that guy. That's why you paid him. On the other side, Carson Wentz held his own, too. I mean, 350 with two touchdowns, but threw two picks and had six sacks. That's not gonna win you a game. 350, two touchdowns, every time should win you a game, but two interceptions and six sacks in late moments, not a great recipe for winning the game. The other game of the week that I posted on the Wednesday mic checks, which you guys tapped in, it was between the Chiefs and Ravens and the Eagles and the Bucs and who had the better win. And it was about split. So I'm gonna cover both. Eagles 31, Bucks 25. I think the Eagles might have tipped their hand too early. They did that fake tush push. If you missed it, you know, all the controversy about the tush push, whatever. Eagles lined up for a tush push on fourth and one from about, I don't know, the 15 or so. And they fake, tush, pushed it, and handed it off to Saquon, and he could have stopped, opened up a table, made a sandwich, ate the whole sandwich, asked the bartender for another beer, and then walked into the end zone. That's how much time he had to stroll into the end zone. Uh not to mention another special team score, too. And Baker, no slouch, threw some bombs, a 77 yarder and a 72 yarder, but through that back breaking Tony Romo interception in the red zone. Chase McLaughlin drills a 65 yarder outdoors. That's history, by the way. That's insane. But the Eagles still remain undefeated, and despite an ugly second half, Hurts going over eight. They get the job done. On to the other game. Chiefs 37, Ravens 20. What is going on in Baltimore? I'll tell you what's going on in Baltimore. A miserable schedule to start. Ravens have had no breaks. The league is hurting them pretty bad. But Mahomes looked like vintage Mahomes. 270 yards, four touchdowns, Xavier Worthy back in the mix, making space for everybody else. Just that speed alone, you have to respect it. The Ravens were duct taped on defense. And Lamar left the game with a left hamstring. He might be back. He might not be back for this upcoming week. Rokon Smith is hurt. Marlon Humphrey, Nate Wiggins, they're all banged up. The defense is not good. And Ravens with no Lamar Jackson are not the Ravens. Derrick Henry can only run the ball so many times. KC scored on four of their first five drives and never looked pressed for a moment. They just did whatever they wanted to. So you guys voted. It was about split between who had the bigger win of the Eagles versus the Bucs or the Chiefs versus the Ravens. You guys were right. Split is right. Both huge wins by their team. Last game I want to talk about, Sunday night football. Been waiting all day for Sunday night. Packers at Cowboys. Micah coming home to Jerry World. And everybody had the Packers. Everybody had the Packers. In fact, the Mike check was like 100%. I think it was like 25 votes all Packers, minus six and a half, whatever it was. Yeah, has a 40-40 overtime tie sound. Seven straight lead changes. Marquise Bell returned to block PAT for two points. Then short field goals in overtime. Dak throws for 319 and a rushing score on top of it. George Pickens with Lamb out, which he might be back soon. He might not be. Goes eight for 134 with two tutters. Yeah, that's exactly why they got him. And Micah Parsons back home in Jerry World where he still has his sweet. He gone after Dak, but Dak was just quick enough to get away from him. I think he got one, maybe two sacks, something like that. But Packers remain unbeaten in the building, technically. Ties like kissing your sister. The uh Dallas reporter made sure to ask Dak and Jerry that question. It was a little bit of a fun tidbit at the end of the game. All right, couple injuries to go over for this upcoming week. Uh Jaden Daniels is medically cleared and ready to go. So Washington this week will have Jaden Daniels. The Browns have benched Joe Flacco. Which, I mean, only it was only a matter of time, right? But they're starting Dylan Gabriel instead of Shador Sanders, which they drafted Dylan Gabriel over Shador Sanders. So they must know something. And Shador did the whole mute thing. I don't know if you didn't see it, they asked Shador in the locker room and he pretended to mime. He was like speaking out loud, but just mouthing his words, not having anything come out of his mouth because he didn't want to be taken out of context. That's the kind of shit that got you passed up until the fifth round. He's got a lot of talent. He comes from a great pedigree, but it's that mental shit. It's that kind of shit. You know, there's 32 of these jobs, really 64 if you want to be a backup. And every team just saw you do that. Every GM just saw you do that. It's not bad, but it's definitely not good. You know, if you got out there and s had some tape that was good, maybe they could overlook it. Talent cures everything. Winning cures everything. But you have no tape. You have no actions on the field to prove that you can do it. You know, Jay Cutler was an asshole, but he got the job done in Chicago when he needed to, for the most part, at least. And teams were willing to take a chance on him. It's not a good look for Shador. Dylan Gabriel also marks the 41st starter for the Cleveland Browns since 1999. Not great. What else we got? I mentioned before Braylon Allen, MCL, he's probably out for a good while. Jermaine Johnson, his ankle, is trending day to day. Eagles, uh AJ Brown has not been getting the ball, and wide receivers are divas, so he's definitely been semi-vocal about it. He posted something on Instagram and then quickly clarified that it wasn't about the Eagles, I swear. Yeah, we'll see how that goes. And Thursday Night Football, 49ers are literally just a schoolyard playing of a shell of themselves. No Brock Purdy, no Ricky Pearsall, no Juwan Jennings. Uh George Kittle is hurt still. Brandon Ayuk is hurt still. It's Mac Jones and Christian McCaffrey. So let's hope for the best there. I'll tease the picks before the roll in the dice with rice segment. I like the Raiders. The Jets Cowboy game might be interesting. And maybe the Browns game might be interesting. But I have the solution that the NFL is looking for, or maybe not looking for, because they love points. But I have the rule tweak of the week, I'll call it. Okay. Kicking in this game has become an epidemic. You are now, if you're a team that has a kicker that is good, not good, great, but you are now regularly hitting 50 yard, 55, 60, 65 yard field goals in this league. That's insane. And I think a lot of it is to do because of the new kicking balls that have been implemented this year. So how do you fix it? What do you do? Well, why don't you take a page out of the MLB's book? Why don't you lower them out? Why don't we bring the goalposts in a little bit? Or maybe even raise the crossbar a little bit. Kickers are constantly drilling 60 plus yard field goals. Not only will it raise the difficulty of the kick, but now you might have some more action on fourth down. And not so much more go into the analytics of, well, it says kick from here, or it says punt from here, or should we go for it? Should we not go for it? Maybe some more aggression. Maybe some more turnover on downs. Restore some balance in the game here of actual strategy and gamesmanship. Not just, well, the ball got kicked in the end zone, so we get it at 35, and now we just need to run three quick slants to get to the 55, and now it's a 65-yard kick, and we win the game with two seconds left. That's what I'm looking to see. And I'd love to see it implemented. Lower the mound, shorten the goalposts, raise the crossbar, something. Look, I got Chase McLaughlin on my fantasy team, so I love him hitting 62, 65-yard field goals regularly. He's giving me 21 and 22 points the last two weeks. It's great. But for the good of the game, for the betterment of the game, might be time to uh start rethinking bringing in the goalposts, making the kicking game a little bit harder. Alright, well, that kind of covers it for the NFL. Uh that's all I got, at least. MLB is gonna be a doozy next. I got wildcard matchups, I got the Mets collapse, I got the Yankees advancing. Lots for me to cover. Enjoy the music. Stick around for some MLB. See you in a bit of Well, let's kick it off with the only New York team that's still alive in the playoffs. New York Yankees still kicking. And not by any help from their manager in game one, at least. Not by any help from their manager in game one, at least. They beat the Red Sox at home. Uh big series considering the Red Sox owned you throughout the regular season. But the crowd was electric and it pulled you guys through. Game one was a boon mismanagement, if I have to say so myself. So crochet, dominant lefty, probably gonna win the Cy Young. It's between him and Max Fried or Scoobyl in the AL. So actually probably Scoobyl, but you know. So game one, hard lefty. What does Boone do? He sits Jazz and Ben Rice, two key guys that I've been talking about all year on this podcast that have been dominant. But it was uh analytics, analytics, right? So what does Boone do? He sits jazz, sits rice. And so Crochet ends up dealing, ends up killing. He gave up a little bit to start, and then he retired the next 17 batters he saw. And then what happens? Uh you don't want jazz to face a lefty. You got bases loaded or second and third, whatever it was, and you sub jazz in to face Chapman in a lefty, and it's Stan, strikeout, jazz, strikeout. Exactly what you didn't want in the first place for Jazz to face. And then on top of it, you know, Crochet is dealing, and Freed is dealing, and Alex Korra is looking across at you from the other dugout, and he's saying, My guy's not gonna come out until your guy comes out. And what do you do, Boone? You pull your guy. It's a three-game series. Freed isn't gonna pitch again in this series. You gotta let him just go. You gotta let him stay. Because Cora was letting his guy stay no matter what. So you pull Freed and you end up losing the game. Then postgame, good reporting. They asked Freed, you know, did you have more? Did you could you have kept going? And he simply says, Yeah, you know, I uh I felt alright, I could have kept going, but when the manager asked me to come out, that's when I'm gonna come out. Kind of throws his manager under the bus a little bit. Kind of shows Boone leaning towards the analytics binder, then the gut feeling of the postseason. Look, during the regular season, sure. Read the binder all day. Read read the script, read whatever the GM is giving you from up top, because that's kind of what it's turned into. Once it hits the postseason, wipe yourself with it. Get rid of it. Analytics mean nothing in the postseason. You have to have a feel for the game, have a feel the heartbeat of the game, I should say. And game one, Boone didn't have that. And even Jazz after the game, you know, he was all pissed off. He the reporters were asking him, how do you feel about, you know, not starting the game? And he just turned his back to the reporters, pretending he had some shirts in his locker to uh organize, I guess. So fine, you lose game one, right? Let's go game two. They don't have Giolito, they have to throw Brian Bello, but you got Rodon. You're a guy. You're a guy who was supposed to be your ace behind Garrett Cole, that has excuse me, that is prone to blow ups if something goes wrong, but has been better with that the whole year. So what does he do? Well, he goes out and shoves, and the players that you sat in game one get the redemption arc. Ben Rice hits a big two-run home run. Jazz makes the defensive play in the seventh, and then on first, Austin Wells hits like a I don't know, down the line single. And you can see if you watch the replay, Jazz, as soon as the pitch was thrown, he was taken off. He rounds second, he takes off, he hits the Jets, and you could have had a full stop sign with a semi-truck. He wasn't he was blowing right through that stop sign. He blows through it, comes through hot, and then the outside slide on the plate from the throw from right, and he's safe. They end up winning game two. Awesome. Now you're on to game three, and you're worried. They got a rookie going, he can kind of shove, he's got some good pitches, not a lot of tape on him, not a lot of analytics on him, whatever you want to call it. And you got your rookie going. Cam Schlittler. Not Schittler, Cam Schlittler. And let me tell you something. He was anything but Schlitty tonight. He absolutely dominated tonight. In fact, I he broke a rookie record for most strikeouts in a postseason game. Twelve strikeouts for the kid. Throws the game of his life. Eight innings, five hits, zero earned, no walks, 107 pitches. It's exactly what you needed for this game because the whole worry was if he got tatted early, Bednar has pitched the last two days. Williams has pitched the last two days. Your bullpen has been taxed. These guys are gonna go for three days in a row. That's a recipe to give up some runs, especially with Williams. Nope. The kid comes out and dominates. He's throwing 101 in the first inning. And it's a shot of adrenaline. I'm sure he's got his own uh smelling salts in his pocket, too. But then he settled in, and by the fifth inning, sixth inning, he's still throwing 97. He's throwing dirty sweeper sliders. I as a Met fan, I hate to say it. Schlitler might be the real deal for them. So with Cole coming back next year, and Freed, and Rodon, and now Schlittler, and maybe Louise Hill. Yankees might uh they might find a way to go on another run here. The only criticism I will make look, they won the series, so it doesn't matter now. But the criticism deserves to be put out there, I guess. For Boone in game one following the book, and Not playing the players that got you there the whole time. I mean, Jazz was visibly upset. Ben Rice is a rookie, so he's not going to say anything, but I'm sure he was pretty pissed off too. And Free didn't do Boone any favors by saying, Yeah, I had some more left in me, but you know, when the manager pulls me, the manager pulls me. He's also too new to this team. To what? What is he going to be? Musina? He's going to be Andy Pettett? He's going to fight Boone? No, he's too new. Going forward, the question to ask is going to be, will Boone follow the book or will Boone stick to his gut? And I guess the other question is, too, if Boone is not following the book and he does follow his gut, is his gut good enough to make the right choice? Has he been proven as enough of a good manager to not follow the book and trust his gut? That's the question. Now we'll see where they go. They gotta go into Toronto. Five game series now. I think uh Max Fried is available for game two, so we'll see who they throw game one. Probably Luis Hill and maybe some bullpen stuff, but all the cards are on the table, man. And Judge has been hitting well. Good enough, at least. Stan, not so much. He's always been the postseason hero. We'll see how the Yankees uh make out going up into Toronto. At least they get a couple games at home, too. I think it's uh 2-2-1. That's how the uh five-game series works. Two in Toronto, two back home, last one in uh Toronto. So with the Yankees advancing now Unfortunately, it's time it's time for the Mets post mortem because they missed the playoffs in in an embarrassing fashion. Actually, hold h hold on, hold on one second. Let me uh let me just let me just put this on because it's probably the last time I'm gonna wear it for a little while here. So here you go. And it's uh, you know, it's it's uh you got a little little uh little soto little Soto 22 jersey here. The Mets embarrass themselves not just on the last game of the season, which again them making the playoffs came down to the last game of the season, what game 162 and 163 With the new rules, everything comes down to a tiebreaker. And during the year they gave up the tiebreaker to the Reds. The Reds who were garbage. And all you needed was the Reds to lose, and the Mets had to win. And guess what happened? Exactly what every single Met fan knew was gonna happen. The Reds lost Game 162. And now the Mets are in control of their destiny. The game is going on. And what do they do? They get shut out for nothing to the Miami Marlins, who have been playing better as of late. But it's the Miami Marlins. It's fitting, honestly. It's hard not to be romantic about baseball. It's fitting that the Marlins are the ones that end their season. They go oh for 18 with runners in scoring position during that game. And not to say bad luck, because it's always whatever, it's whatever, but that's how baseball is. You had runners on second and third, and Alonzo hits a ball the hardest he's hit all year at 118 miles per hour, and it was a liner right at the second baseman. So fine, you get unlucky there, but God boys, you you get shut out? You get shut out. You went from 45 and 24 through June 24th, and then 38 and 55 the rest of the year. In August, you literally set a franchise record for the most runs scored in a month, and you were under 500 in that month. How is that possible? Well, I'll tell you how it's possible. It's on David Stearns. His whole thing is oh, we don't pay for pitching, we trust the pitching lab, this, that, and the other. Yeah, how's Scuba looking? How's Skeens looking? How's uh Max Freed looking? Yeah. I understand overpaying for pitching and it sucks the last couple years, but you pay for it. So guys, get the job done when you need it. Whether it be postseason, whether it be late September. Max Fried this year, uh after a Yankees loss and he pitched, I think his ERA was a 0.97. That's why you gave him eight years, 100 and fucking whatever million for that moment. That's why they gave Garrett Cole that contract. That's why they gave Carlos Rodan that contract. Because you're gonna have ten great starts, you're gonna have ten bad starts, and you're gonna have ten semi-starts. You just need to make sure you leverage ten of those good starts towards the end of the year. Mets Mets severely dropped the ball when it came to pitching. And then honestly, even in the deadline, too, everybody thought the deadline moves that uh Stearns made were good. You know, uh the submariner from San Francisco, the um closer from the Cardinals, the flamethrower, and then pair them with Edwin Diaz. Yeah, this looks great. This bullpen is monstrous with Gregory Soto, too. Yeah, we're gonna kill. They all sucked. They all killed it, they all shit the bed. And don't get me started on Cedric Mullins either. Cedric Mullins, defensive guy, you know, can hit the he was a waste of talent. And then you brought in Jose Siri back from the I. And he was your defensive specialist with a home run power aspect to him. Guy looked like he never played center field in his life. Honestly, I would investigate him for gambling allegations of how bad he was in center field. He ran in on a line drive that is literally Little League three steps back first. The Mets really uh they really hurt my feelings this year. I uh dedicated my whole summer to them. I went to way more games than I usually go to, and Steve Cohen at the beginning of the year made a little uh offhanded comment that, you know, if we're gonna be good, you gotta make sure we're all in the ballpark, whatever, whatever, whatever. Yeah, how about uh the last game of the year they announced uh 3,900,000 people came to the ballpark? It's the second highest grossing crowd that they've ever had, or maybe the highest grossing crowd. Either way, it was one or two. And what happens? What do you do? You let this idiot that you trusted run this team into the ground. Lindore, 30 home runs. Pete almost 40 home runs. Soto, 40 home runs and 40, almost 40 stolen bases. Nimmo found his power. McNeil did good. Alvarez, for as much as he was hurt throughout the whole year, did great. Vientos coming up. Beatty, I never thought I would say it, but Beatty getting hurt was a huge loss out of the lineup. The kids that you needed to perform performed. Don't even get me started on the pitching staff that you called up way too late. McLean and Tong and Spro. Tong needs a little more seasoning. He needs to get better a little bit, but McLean is an all-star ace stud, and Spro looks just as good, but you called them up too little too late. Why the hell were they not up? There's only so many bullets in the gun for pitchers. There's only so many throws that they can make. Stop wasting them in the minor leagues. When they're good, call them up. Skeens came up immediately. He pitched a month into his rookie season and then came up immediately. And then this year comes up and continues it and finishes it with like a sub-2 ERA. He's the NL Cy Young hands-down winner. Alright. I'm doing what I said I wouldn't do, but it needed to be done. The Mets are in bad shape. They're probably going to lose Pete Alonso. They need to move McNeil. Nimmo's contract is going to be impossible to move. They need to call up the kids with Jet Williams. You hope Mania can figure it out. Sangha was great to start and then just couldn't pitch. There's so many things to fix with the Mets this next year, and I don't even know where to start. But season's over. Mets are dead. Yankees are still in. So business is still good. We'll see how they uh fare against Toronto. Now, let's uh let's get off the locals and talk about what else is going on in the baseball playoffs right now. So, first things first, 12 o'clock game, AL Central, because baseball's regional and who cares about the AL Central. The Guardians, who stormed back and took the division from the Tigers, who held the division for probably 90% of the season. They get the home games. Detroit has to come into Cleveland. Game one, Scoobyl shoves. Detroit gets the game, and you're thinking, oh boy, here we go. Then Cleveland storms back, game two, gets the win. We go to a game three elimination game. Tied 1-1 into the sixth. Detroit breaks it open, goes up 5-1, 6-1, whatever it was. Cleveland tried to get it back. They end up losing the game 6-3. So for all that effort, Detroit still moves on. They go on to face Seattle and the ALDS. Dodgers and Reds, it should have been Dodgers and Mets. Reds get embarrassed. Game one, Dodgers break it out early, and the Reds kind of climb back. The final score is 10-5, but it was never, it was never close. And then game two, Dodgers just bully them. I think they won 10-3 or 8-3 or whatever it was. So Dodgers sweep, great. They go on to face the Phillies. We'll see how that goes. Padres and Cubs. This was the series to watch. This was probably the most competitive series. Padres get game one. Their bullpen, which was the vaunted thing that they did in the uh trade deadline. They traded for Mason Miller, the whole works. I think their starting pitcher went four and two-thirds, and then their bullpen went five and a third, scoreless. Game two, Cubs come back. They win. Game three, back and forth, and then they get two early off U Darvish. He gets the quick hook. Michael Bush hits a solo home run. Jameson Talion looks Jameson Tal. Jameson Talion, Talion, Talion, I think it's Talion, is solid. Andrew Kettridge comes in for the save. San Diego also goes 0 for 8 in runders and scoring position. Cubs advance. They go on to face the Brewers. Another divisional matchup. Gonna be interesting. Brewers are the team that kind of has to prove themselves. They got knocked out by the Mets last year early, and it was kind of a heartbreak, but they've been playing super hot as of late. But so have the Cubs, and they're division-hated rivals. That's going to be the series to watch. Phillies and Dodgers, also the series to watch. I uh Dodgers are good. They have great bats, right? But their bullpen is terrible. And Phillies' bullpen has been better as of late. Phillies have had a bad bullpen for a little while, but it's it's started to really turn into something. And Kyle Schwarber hit 56 home runs a share. Bryce Harper is a dog. Cassianos is getting it done. Trey Turner has speed on the bags. I'm not a Dodger hater. I am a Philly hater, but I think Philly takes a series. And I think the Cubs take the series over the Brewers. Until the Brewers can prove it to me, I think the Cubs take the series. And as far as the AL side, Seattle and the Tigers, it's going to be pitching versus pitching. We'll see how Cal Riley does in the playoffs. See who else is hitting. Julio gets a chance to shine. Julio Rodriguez gets a chance to shine in the playoffs. And Yankees Toronto. Toronto owned them all year. Yankees are going to be out for blood, but Toronto's not playing around either. Vladdy finally gets a chance to shine in the playoffs. Couple other notes around the league here. It was uh Black Monday for MLB coaches. For those of you that don't know what Black Monday is, Black Monday is usually referred to for the NFL season when that last Sunday of the regular season gets done, all the coaches get fired on Monday. Same thing kind of happened this year with the MLB. The last day of the season happened to fall on uh Sunday. So Black Monday happened for a lot of coaches. Here's who got knocked out uh Bruce Boci parting mutual ways with the Rangers. There's a little speculation because he might go back to the Giants, he might retire. Buster Posey's over there now, and that was his coach, and he might want him to run baseball operations or something like that. But Bruce Bochi's out with the Rangers. Uh Twins fired Rocco Badelli. No surprise. They started off great and then they absolutely collapsed at the end. Uh let's see. Buster Posey fired Bob Melvin, playing even into more of the Bruce Bochi firing or mutual parting ways in Texas. So listen, where there's smoke, there's fire. I it it's not impossible that it happens. Uh and the surprising one, who's been there for 10 years, but I guess maybe a change of voice is needed in the locker room. Brian Sineker gets uh moved, not fired, moved up to an advisory role with the Braves. So we'll see who they bring in. It's uh, you know, Braves were really snake-bitten with injuries, and they were probably not probably, they were supposed to be better this year. I was actually more afraid of the Braves than the Phillies this year, and I was wrong on that. But uh we'll see what happens with that. Anyway, the theme going forward for the postseason is gonna be feel for the game versus uh spreadsheet of the game. Teams are clearly seeking a better blend between the two, but the better managers stand out of who can differentiate between the two. And that's gonna wrap it up for the MLB. We'll see where the Yankees end up. Uh next episode, maybe they might be out. Maybe they're going to the ALCS, and we'll keep an eye on the uh Cubs and Brewers series, along with the Dodgers and Phillies. Coming up next, we got the rolling the dice with rice segment. We're gonna go over my picks from last week and our record on the year, and then we'll give you some picks for this week, and we'll cover a little bit of the mailbag too. A couple people wrote in and we'll give them their shine. Enjoy the music. Stay tuned. I'll catch you in a bit. Well, not a new segment. The next segment. Uh, this is rolling the dice with rice. Our gambling segment, our picks segment, just to, you know, have a little fun, keep ourselves accountable. And if you've been following me, we are definitely not having fun. Last week we went 0-3 on the non-locals, and we went one and one on the locals. So, unfortunately, that brings our card to 4-15 on the season. So, if you've been fading me, you've been doing great. If you've been tailing me, sorry. Don't worry, we're gonna get better. We're gonna get back to 500, just little by little, right? Gambling's a roller coaster. Ups and downs, ups and downs. Packers last week. I thought that was a layup, minus six and a half. They ended in a goddamn tie. Who had that? Uh Colts Rams over, finished at 47. Uh, over under was 49.5. I think somebody missed a field goal. And Vikings Steelers under 42 and a half. It was 44 and a half or 44 to finish. So, you know, we're close. We're right there. We're just we're getting killed by a couple points. Anyway, here's the games that I like this week. Uh, first off. Raiders, plus six and a half at the Colts, buy it up to seven and a half, get that touchdown. Indy's good, but Ganty is starting to figure it out. Three touchdowns this last week. Uh, this number's fat, and Vegas loves an ugly game. Trust the variance here. Hold your nose, take the hook, buy the extra point. Seven and a half, not six and a half. Next game, local. Jets at Cowboys. I'm sorry, Cowboys at Jets over 47.5 right now. Take it. Cowboys score at well, as they have shown. Uh, and they also have no defense. And the Jets are bad, but they might be good enough to score at least a little bit against that defense. And their defense, the Jets, is not good. So I expect Dak Prescott to have a big game here over 47 and a half. I could see 30, 21, something like that. Last, uh, Browns, Vikings in London. Okay, Vikings have stayed in London, so they're use, well, doubling to London now, more travel, still overseas, but the time change is still messed up. Uh, Browns' defense is pretty good, and the Vikings' offense is pretty bad, even with Justin Jefferson. Minnesota's offense keeps getting lost in the sauce. This looks like a field goal game, back and forth, maybe, low scoring, maybe even take the under, but Browns plus three and a half sounds great to me. Now on to our mailbag segment, where you guys write in and I answer your questions. It's your chance to be part of the show. Whether you want to leave a voicemail and I get to play it on the air, or you just want to DM me and talk some smack, we go back and forth. So, first on the list for the mailbag today is who do we have here? We got Justin in Jersey, and he says, uh, Yankees are making a move with the Mets out, Giants are one and three, and Jets are 0-4. Sports are pretty much dead for New York, so it's time to bring back the team that unites everybody. The Knicks. Knicks are winning the championship this year. Just, I love I love the energy. And the path is real. Everybody's hurt. Knicks are the favorites. Come out of the Eastern Conference Final. They're probably gonna go up, have to go up against a Bear from the West, but no time like the present and no year like right now. This city needs a championship. Please, Knicks. There's so much pressure on you, please. God, I'd love to see him do it. Okay, who do we got next? Who do we got next? Next, we got uh Cluz in Jersey. He says Penn State can never win the big game, and LSU's program is a sham. Yes and no. Okay, so Penn State can never win the big game, but it's more their coach. He's terrible against high-ranked programs. He took over for Paterno, so he gets a little leeway, but his uh his ass is on the grill, so to speak. And as far as LSU, I wouldn't say they're a sham of a program. I mean, they pump out receivers left and right, you know, Joe Burrow, Jaden Daniels, but they made a big mistake getting rid of Ed Augeron. Kotagas. Brian Kelly is the uh the worst, in my opinion. And I'm an LSU fan. Okay, lastly, we got Joey from down south. He says, Mahomes is getting disrespected. Well, the facts are they started off slow, right? But he's missing some receivers. Kelsey's old in age, their running backs all stink, and Mahomes is still putting up huge numbers. If you go back and look at his stats, he's got some monsters. A couple Super Bowl MVPs under his belt. Mahomes might be getting a little bit disrespected. Not a lot, but enough that it might not be warranted. Okay, that's it for the mailbag. That's it for the uh pick segment. Let's uh let's get you guys out of here. You stayed here long enough. Stick around for the outro, I'll plug the socials where you can find me, and we'll uh land this plane. Alright, here we go. Let's land this plane. That's uh episode 33 in the books. We hit the locals. Uh Giants, Jackson, Dart, hype train rolling right along, bittersweet though, with league neighbors tearing his ACL. Uh Jets Monday nighter in Miami, flags, fumbles, and a whole lot more to clean up. Uh week four recap highlights, Dublin game vibes with Steelers and Vikings, Eagles and Bucks, and a fake tush-push bag of tricks. Mahomes and the Chiefs handling a banged up Raven squad. And Micah's big return to Jerry World. Ending in a 40-40 tie. Who had that? We also floated around the rule, tweaking NFL kicking. Bring in the post a little bit, raise the crossbar, maybe. Something to think about. Far as MLB, Yankees advance. We'll see how they make out against Toronto, and I lost my mind on the Mets. They deserve it. We also did our roll in the dice with Rice pick segment. Again, if you've been fading me, you've been making a lot of money, but we're gonna start turning around here. And the mailbag. It's just important to hit you guys too. You guys write in, it's important to shout you guys out. Without you, I am nothing. Lastly, we close the show with a gentle nudge, a gentle reminder. If you like what you've been hearing, rate the show. Subscribe, smash every button you can. Tell a friend who needs better sports takes in their life to come listen to me. Come listen to Uncle Rice. I'll take care of you. Hit me on the socials for the picks, for polls, for fantasy advice, whatever you need. It's gonna be at Rice on the Radio wherever you scroll. And most important, tell someone you love them and spread some good energy in this world. I am Ian Rice. This has been Rice on the Mics. Thanks for tuning in, thanks for listening. And I'll catch you on the next one. Take care of the money.