Hour 2: Mike Lupica

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This episode is brought to you by Facebook.
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**Michael Kay** (0:31)
This is The Michael Kay Show Podcast.

**Michael Kay** (0:34)
I gotta get more Kay.

**Michael Kay** (0:35)
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**Michael Kay** (0:41)
Welcome back to the show. I am always really nervous when it comes to hard throwers.
I love Jacob Mizorovsky. How long can that arm withstand throwing 103 miles an hour?
How long? So far, he's been great. But is that a long-term answer for career? So you look at Paul Skeens.
Everybody loves Paul Skeens. Everybody in baseball has wanted their team to trade with the Pirates to get Paul Skeens. Big guy throws hard. Well, have you seen what's happened to him? In the past 15 games, this is 15 games, so that's half a season for a starter. A starter who makes a start every five days in the big leagues makes 32 starts. So essentially half a year, 15 starts. Paul Skeens, unhittable last year, Cy Young Award winner, has a 5.2 ERA.
The Pirates almost have to win every single game. They're on the periphery of the wild card. He gave them five innings yesterday and 65 pitches. So his average fastball velocity for the year has been 96.9. Well, yesterday, in a start where he lasted just five innings, 95.7. So even 96.9 is down from his rookie year of 2024, down from last year as well. He says he's healthy, but his velocity has mysteriously disappeared. Why? So it begs the question, and this is for all people that throw really hard, how long could you do it? How long does the arm stand up to that kind of abuse? And Kurt Schilling, whether you like him or not, said that he looked at skeins and said that that delivery would lead to something like this. He has a post on X. Kurt Schilling knows pitching. And Kurt Schilling used to be a guest on our show, Me and Don's Show, a long time ago. He is whip smart when it comes to baseball. He knows exactly what he's seeing.
And he said that you could see that this is not sustainable.
So I get nervous when people burst upon the scene and they throw as hard as they do, where it's all about velocity, can it be withstood? I hope Paul Skeens is fine. It's a great story. It's great for baseball. But a 5.2 ERA over half a season? What happened to him? What happened to him? I don't know.
You see the Lakers got sold a year after they got sold? And it makes you wonder Mark Walter, the point guy who bought the Lakers and also owns the Dodgers, and he's under investigation for tax fraud. And he turned around and sold the team to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner for an evaluation of $12.5 billion.
In one year, now he made money, I think he bought it for $10.
Now he sold it for $12.5.
But you do wonder what's going on with Mark Walter, and will that have an effect on his Dodger ownership as well?
Iger and Kushner were in line to buy the expansion franchise in Las Vegas, but they got smart. The expansion franchise is going to cost maybe $7.5 to $8 billion. They have no history. You're not buying a legacy. You're buying an empty roster. Instead, they paid more and got the LA Lakers, who have history, who have championships, who have a legacy. It's a smart pivot by Kushner and Iger. Now, if the name Kushner sounds familiar, he's the brother of Ivanka Trump's husband. He's the brother of that Kushner, Jared Kushner. Thank you. And he's an investment guy. Tried to buy into the World Cup as well. So that's what he does. He invests in sports properties, and now he paired with the former head of Disney, Bob Iger, to buy the Lakers. Now, speaking of the Dodgers, I talked about this earlier. So I'm talking to people yesterday before the game at Yankee Stadium, and we were talking about the Dodgers' acquisition of Tarek Schubel. And when you look at the players they got, right, you do wonder why they were able to make that deal with the Tigers, because the players that they gave up for Schubel, they don't seem like the type of players that would be like the greatest prospects in baseball. I mean, River Ryan, who's a very highly thought of pitcher, he's going to be 28 years old. He'll be 28 years old.