- 5 months ago
Felger and Mazz discuss some of the pitching struggles the Boston Red Sox have experienced with Jordan Hicks and Dustin May.
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00:00Last night, it was never even a contest.
00:03They were chasing, they were running uphill right out of the gate,
00:06and honestly, it felt to me like a hangover from the night before
00:09that the loss of Anthony, Crochet getting slapped around,
00:14they won that game, but it felt to me like they showed up the next day
00:18and were like, we need the day off.
00:19It was a throwaway night.
00:20It really was.
00:21I was there, too, and it wasn't just the bad pitching.
00:23I don't think they got their third hit of the night until the fifth inning.
00:26They were just dead.
00:26They looked like a dead-ass baseball team.
00:28Completely, yeah.
00:29And this is, so now look, the off day in that way comes at a good time.
00:32They get today off, they hit the road tomorrow,
00:34and they have Peyton Toley on the mound,
00:36so maybe there will be a little energy from that
00:39because there was so much energy the first time,
00:42although they'll be in Arizona, they'll be on the road.
00:44But, you know, I said to you after the game two nights ago,
00:48I felt like their season was coming apart.
00:50Nothing that happened last night changed my mind.
00:53That was kind of a no-show.
00:55It really was.
00:56It was kind of a no-show.
00:57They just, they had nothing right out of the gate.
01:01Zero.
01:02And a lot of that's because of the pitching staff.
01:04I get it.
01:05I would also pay attention to who pitched the last seven innings.
01:08One was Zach Kelly, who's, forget it, like, you know, a non-factor.
01:13The other was Dustin May.
01:15Bye-bye.
01:16He's another one.
01:17I think, Corey, you're not going to see him in any situation of consequence.
01:21You're not going to see, obviously, Hicks.
01:23But just real quick, so, like, May sucks, and I think he walked the first two batters that he saw last night.
01:27But if you're going to burn those bullpen arms, and I know he had the day off anyway,
01:31why not just throw May out there to start?
01:33I know he hasn't been good as a starter, but that felt kind of ass-backwards to me,
01:36the way that he handled that last night.
01:37So, because he doesn't trust him at all, Murray, he would rather go to the bullpen game.
01:41And put Hicks out there in the third inning, the human white flag?
01:45Yeah, I'm not sure he was totally planning on doing that.
01:47They got behind him.
01:48I'm not saying he wasn't.
01:49I'm just, you know, they were going to go expose everyone for an inning or two,
01:53and then they started falling behind, and he completely changed course.
01:56I didn't even pay, and I wanted my money back.
01:58It was awful.
01:59Look, I think it says something to you that a month after the trading deadline,
02:03Dustin May is a mop-up guy, and Jordan Hicks from the Devers deal,
02:08they obviously never wanted him.
02:09You've mentioned before, Mike, too, this May, and I've seen it before,
02:12but, like, in person, his body language sucks.
02:15Oh!
02:15It's a lot of...
02:16He needs help.
02:18Tight shoulders.
02:19I've got to try to untighten these shoulders.
02:21Like, oh, my God.
02:22He's got to talk to someone.
02:23But the, make no mistake, the Jordan Hicks thing.
02:26Oh, man.
02:28Embarrassment.
02:28Yes, bad.
02:29Who was I hearing?
02:30Was it Kravitz that said this, or are they talking about on Beetle and Zoe?
02:33Or Milken was saying it?
02:34Someone was saying this.
02:35That the Red Sox tried to get him before he went to San Francisco?
02:39Oh, I didn't know that.
02:40They've been in on this guy for years.
02:41They wanted to sign him as a free agent.
02:43Was this before last year?
02:44It was, yeah.
02:45Okay, so they were in on this guy.
02:47Cora loves this guy.
02:48Okay.
02:49Oh, my God.
02:50Maybe you know more than I do.
02:52I do.
02:52But I feel like he's an analytics darling.
02:55I would say yes.
02:56He throws bullets, and he spins the crap out of it.
02:58I mean, just, if you just watch him throw a bullpen session, or watch him throw on the
03:04side, and you don't actually watch the games, which I don't think the modern baseball analyst
03:10does, he just records the measurables.
03:14If you record his measurables, he checks a lot of boxes.
03:19Velo and spins the crap out of it.
03:22So, of course the Red Sox liked this guy.
03:25They liked him before the season.
03:28So, when the Giants said, well, we're taking all the money, but you've got to take this
03:32stiff back, they were more than happy to take him.
03:34And they wanted him in there.
03:37They think he's good.
03:39That's crazy.
03:40The guys upstairs think he's good.
03:42They do.
03:43They wanted him before the season.
03:47Jared Karabas did have this tweet.
03:49I did see this.
03:50Since July 1, there have been 122 relievers to make at least 20 appearances.
03:57Okay.
03:57So, basically, there's 122 relievers who pitch regularly in Major League Baseball.
04:02So, Jordan Hicks is one of them.
04:05Here is where he ranks among these 122 since July 1.
04:10Are you ready?
04:11Oh, yeah.
04:11This ought to be good.
04:12ERA of 8.66 ranks 120th.
04:162.09 whip ranks 121.
04:19His FIP, Fielding Independent Pitching, 6.51 ranks 120th.
04:27At least it's consistent.
04:2812.74 hits per nine innings ranks 121st.
04:36Opponent batting average, 333 ranks 122nd.
04:42There it is.
04:42Dead last.
04:43Out of 122.
04:44You'd be a batting champion if you faced him every night.
04:479.84 opponent OPS ranks 121 out of 122.
04:52Wow, he blows.
04:53Out of the 122 relievers.
04:55Worst reliever in baseball.
04:56He ranks in these categories 120, 121, 120, 121, 122, and 121.
05:04Consistent.
05:04And I am telling you, there are guys upstairs at Fenway who think he's good.
05:09He just hasn't figured it out yet.
05:10He just hasn't figured it out yet.
05:13They love his tools.
05:14They do love him, no question.
05:16And he's 28.
05:17What's he going to figure it out?
05:18This freaking stiff, they were more than happy taking him back.
05:21I'm sure they didn't like the money.
05:22I'm sure the old man was not happy with the money.
05:24But I guarantee you, the analysts that run the team were glad to get him.
05:28Yeah, I think you're right.
05:30Again, if they were trying to get him before the year, I think that tells you plenty.
05:34And then something happened, because I think this was after the game.
05:39So I'm reading from the Herald here.
05:41And they have some more stats.
05:43Since his arrival in the Devers trade, Hicks has now allowed 17 earned runs in 18 and two-third innings over 21 appearances.
05:50Including 25 hits, 12 walks, 4 hit batsmen, and 15 strikeouts.
05:56That's an average of nearly 2.2 base runners per inning.
05:59Hicks, one of the hardest throwers in baseball, was originally envisioned as a late-inning reliever,
06:04but has instead struggled to contribute even in low-leverage spots.
06:07Cora said they thought today would be a good opportunity to get him going, but that obviously didn't work out.
06:13Cora added that they will stick with Hicks despite his struggles.
06:18Quote, we've got to figure him out.
06:20We need him.
06:21That's the bottom line, Cora said.
06:23Because we've got Garrett, because we've got Whitlock as a setup man.
06:27We need righties in the bullpen to do their job.
06:30We trust the ability, but we have to execute.
06:35So, Stu, maybe you're right.
06:36Maybe he is a Cora guy on top of it.
06:38My goodness.
06:40What a joke.
06:40Oh, my God.
06:41Complete disaster.
06:42You couldn't be more of a disaster than that guy has been unless you want to include Dustin May.
06:47Then we have a real competition.
06:49And, oh, by the way, our guy Matt's got in there.
06:51He gave it up, too, by the way.
06:52Yeah, look, again, I think that these guys, and Matt's at least is, you know, left-handed.
06:58Not that that is so you can pick a spot with him and say, okay, we're going to use him in this spot and hide him a little bit.
07:04The other two, useless.
07:07Did they have two errors last night or three?
07:09Useless.
07:09I think three.
07:11One of them, I mean, what's his face?
07:13Duran and not the outfield.
07:14Oh, yeah, yeah.
07:15He had a horrible error.
07:15The 15th negative, his 25th negative play on the Stu scoring system.
07:20Wong had a catcher's interference.
07:22Yeah, there was an interference.
07:22Yeah, right.
07:23Up the first baseline.
07:23It was two of them.
07:25So, I don't know if that goes with their league-leading total of catcher interferences because it was kind of a fielder's interference.
07:30More of an obstruction.
07:31It was obstruction.
07:32So, I don't know if you can add that to that list.
07:34Oh, I would.
07:35He had that.
07:35Duran had a couple.
07:37That fifth inning was a good one.
07:39The fifth inning featured five hits, two errors, and they went down 7-0.
07:45Nothing after that second inning.
07:47Bernardino started off.
07:48He allowed a leadoff double to Stephen Kwan, who advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground out.
07:53And then in the second inning, on and on and on and on.
07:55So, the night before after Anthony gets hurt, that night, Alex Bregman says it was a gut punch.
08:01And then they come out the next night and played like they just got punched in the gut.
08:04Exactly right.
08:05To me, that's the most worrisome part of the whole thing.
08:07It's like they all showed up and they were still stunned from the night before.
08:11And they came out of the game.
08:12And, again, it was only 1-0 after the first inning.
08:15But then the second inning happened and they fell apart.
08:18They really did.
08:19They just completely came apart at the seams.
08:21And all kinds of bad stuff happened.
08:23And Hicks is just, you can't put him in any, even in the second inning of a bullpen game,
08:29you can't put him in there because the game gets away from you.
08:33So, if you can't pay, and again, and by the way, I looked it up, Cleveland's one of the five worst offenses in the game.
08:39So, Spitzberg.
08:41Brutal.
08:42You can't put him into that game that night.
08:44No.
08:44So, when Cora says it was a good opportunity, they looked at it and said, we're going to throw,
08:49we got a bad offensive team on the other side.
08:51We're at home.
08:52We should score.
08:53Let's get some guys going.
08:54Yeah, let's get them going a little bit and we'll see if we can ride the wave.
08:58And instead, it went the other way.
09:00I'm telling you, those two guys are as inept as I've seen the Red Sox put on the mound in a game of consequence in a long time.
09:09It's about Hicks and May?
09:10Yes.
09:10Because May's every bit as bad.
09:13They're horrible.
09:14And the only conclusion I can come to with Hicks, because Hicks' stuff is better than May's.
09:22He's got like a major confidence problem.
09:25There is something wrong with what his presence or poise or whatever on the mound.
09:31He must tighten up and the ball's not the same in the games or I don't care what the radar again readings are.
09:37He's in the middle of the plate a lot.