7:17 listen. Two hosts, three stories, one running scoreboard.
The Ledger: RY 22-9 | Rylie 18-13
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RY: Twenty point four million AAV for a defenseman, and Colorado still had a year left on his deal.
RYLIE: Wait, what?
RY: Largest contract the league has ever seen by total and average. Makar just dropped a nuke.
RYLIE: Makar money bomb first, then a WEEI booth rooting for a beanball, then Jaylen Brown on Boston Common with the trophy and the key.
RY: Joe Sakic called him generational and said the Avalanche are beyond thrilled. Yeah. They should be.
RYLIE: Thrilled is free.
RY: Eight years. One hundred sixty-three point two million. Starts in twenty twenty-seven. First D-man to clear twenty AAV, and they did it early.
RYLIE: And somewhere Pat Brisson is smiling.
RY: Without lifting a stick. Because Quinn Hughes just became the bill.
RYLIE: Hughes is on the final year of seven point eight five in Minnesota. That number is a museum piece now.
RY: Come on.
RY: Leipold already said publicly they would re-sign him. Hughes said he liked it there after the playoffs. Open to staying.
RYLIE: Liked it is not ink.
RY: They traded a haul to get him from Vancouver last December. You do not flip that package and then get shy.
RYLIE: Before this, Dom had Hughes around seventeen point eight on eight years. Reasonable. Contending-team money.
RY: Then Makar hit send.
RYLIE: Exactly. Ceiling became the floor overnight. That projection is 2023 money.
RY: Seventy-six points last season. Fifty-three of them in forty-eight games after the trade. My eyes say franchise cornerstone.
RYLIE: Your eyes always say that.
RY: Because sometimes the eye test—
RYLIE: Sometimes the cap still exists, RY.
RY: [scoffs]
RYLIE: I hear you on the production, but Makar clearing twenty first forces Minnesota into cornerstone money or a walkaway. There is no soft middle anymore.
RY: So pay him.
RYLIE: Pay him and pray the rest of the blue line is on clearance.
RY: Nope.
RY: You lock the generational guy and you build out. That is how you actually contend.
RYLIE: Talks with Brisson had been quiet. Then this. Every number on their table aged poorly in one afternoon.
RY: Good. Quiet talks needed a push.
RYLIE: A push that expensive can wreck a summer.
RY: Says who?
RYLIE: Basic roster math.
RY: Okay, dumb-smart question from the cheap seats—why extend Makar a full year early if you are Colorado?
RYLIE: Kill the auction, wear the sweater, hand Brisson a market he cannot shop. Control and certainty in one breath.
RY: And Hughes rides the wave.
RYLIE: Untouchable money. That is the phrase. Minnesota meets it or the haul becomes a rental footnote.
RY: Gut says he stays. They pay.
RYLIE: Gut is not a term sheet.
RY: Never said it was. Still right.
RYLIE: We will see when the AAV lands.
RY: Moving on before I buy a Wild jersey on air.
RYLIE: Please do not.
RY: Will Flemming sat in the WEEI booth Sunday and asked a Red Sox pitcher to drill a Yankees catcher. Out loud. On air.
RYLIE: Hard pass.
RY: Yankees turning the finale into a sixteen-to-one demolition, Jazz Chisholm on third after two steals, and Flemming goes, would you sort of like to see Morán drill Wells right here.
RYLIE: Then escalated.
RY: After Wells went deep he said Morán should fight Chisholm. Called Jazz bush league. Plays the game the wrong way.
RYLIE: The booth was the bush-league seat.
RY: I mean—heat of a rivalry blowout, people vent—
RYLIE: No.
RYLIE: Venting is slamming the desk. Rooting for intentional violence from a professional broadcast chair is a different species.
RY: [exhales] Middlebrooks at least stayed near the old code.
RYLIE: He did. Up six in the eighth, defense not holding. He called it the white flag. Said normally you do not run. Called the steals selfish.
RY: That part I get. White flag flying and you keep swiping.
RYLIE: Selfish is a baseball argument. Drill him is a blood argument.
RY: Fair.
RY: I just still bristle when guys run up the score on the bases in a runaway.
RYLIE: Bristle. Do not request a beanball.
RY: I am not defending Flemming.
RYLIE: Sounded close.
RY: I am defending the idea that—
RYLIE: That Jazz somehow earned a fastball in the ribs? No.
RY: Okay. You win that one.
RYLIE: [laughs] Say it louder.
RY: The real tell is who looks worse in the transcript. It is not Chisholm.
RYLIE: Correct. Words say more about the booth than the bases.
RY: Rivalry week makes brains melt. Still not an excuse.
RYLIE: None offered that holds.
RY: Sixteen-one and they wanted more chaos from the microphone. Exhausting.
RYLIE: Next.
RY: Jaylen Brown stood on Boston Common with the twenty twenty-four Larry O’Brien, Finals MVP hardware, the ring, and a key to the city.
RYLIE: Two months after they traded him.
RY: For Paul George and a stack of picks. And he still threw a free five-hour block party.
RYLIE: Streamed two and a half hours. Crowd near ten thousand.
RY: That is rarer than the banner. Most stars get dealt and vanish into the next media cycle.
RYLIE: He booked the stage and the food trucks and signed both Celtics and Sixers gear.
RY: Mayor Wu handed him a Jaylen Brown Way sign. State rep gave him the key. Hands over his head like he did not see it coming.
RYLIE: Sentiment only lands if the production holds.
RY: It holds.
RYLIE: Drafted third in twenty sixteen. Ten seasons in green. Career line around twenty points, five point five boards, two point nine assists. Five-time All-Star. Two-time All-NBA.
RY: Champion and Finals MVP. Averaged twenty point eight, five point four, and five in those Finals.
RYLIE: Last season career highs—twenty-eight point seven, six point nine, five point one. Then Boston flips him.
RY: And he leaves with the trophy in his hands anyway.
RYLIE: I hear the love, but the franchise still chose Paul George money and picks over another decade of Jaylen.
RY: Their spreadsheet. His streets.
RYLIE: Roughly fifty-four point one million on George is not a vibe decision.
RY: The hardware was the receipt, not the goodbye.
RYLIE: Clean line.
RY: Decade outlasted the trade sheet. That is my whole take.
RYLIE: Production outlasted it. The party just made it loud.
RY: Ha!
RY: We can share that one.
RYLIE: Ledger time. You rode the Yankees last night.
RY: Sixteen to one. Boston got wiped. I am glowing.
RYLIE: [sighs] I took the Cubs. Cin seven, Chicago five. Ugly.
RY: One excuse. Go.
RYLIE: Bullpen melted and I trusted the wrong night. That is the whole eulogy.
RY: Running records. I move to twenty-three and nine.
RYLIE: I sit at eighteen and fourteen. Fine.
RY: New pick. Give me NYY over LAA.
RYLIE: Give me SD over CIN.
RY: Tomorrow we chase whether Minnesota blinks on Hughes money.
RY: That’s the Rundown. Same time tomorrow — bring your takes.