00:00I mean, I feel more strongly about the Red Sox right now because, as we were talking about right before
00:06we came on the show, it's like we're in a time loop right now.
00:09It feels like 2025 all over again, except with maybe less talent on the roster right now because it's not
00:16just about the offense last night.
00:20Defense and pitching were supposed to be the strong parts of your team where you improved from last year to
00:25this year.
00:26You don't have Devers. You don't have Bregman. That's okay.
00:28Look at how much stronger you got. That part of the game sucked last night.
00:33Like, it was terrible to watch.
00:34Yeah, and Bregman has so far swung and missed through the first five, whatever it is, five games or four
00:41games of March where they were one and four.
00:44He has swung and missed on the guys that you thought were going to, Sonny Gray, you thought Oviedo, you
00:50thought Ranger Suarez.
00:52You're like, all right, these are going to be the guys that he added, and it's just like Baio is
00:55just.
00:55Well, I mean, even Baio last night, and I don't know, I can say this because I have the same
01:00issue.
01:00He was sweating like an absolute pig last night.
01:03Was he okay?
01:04It's hot in Texas.
01:06Is that what it is? It's hot in Texas?
01:08It is hot in Houston.
01:09Not in that stadium.
01:10Have you been to Houston?
01:12Nobody else was full lather mode, but I don't care about that.
01:15But he was awful.
01:20I, you know, as a texter was able to point out immediately upon me walking in this morning, I'll read
01:27it verbatim.
01:28Greg's boyfriend, Roman Anthony, is struggling.
01:30Yeah, he is.
01:31He is, I think Roman Anthony is four for 19.
01:36Yeah.
01:37And four Ks last night, and listening to Lou and Kevin Millar, like, you know, missing balls that are right
01:48down the pipe,
01:49and that he ought to be making contact with.
01:52Second year, so we might have set the expectations too high.
01:56The expectations is set too high.
01:56Tell him it's the World Baseball Classic, something.
01:59I don't know why you blame Breslow.
02:02Like, if you get –
02:03Because those are the guys you brought – those are the guys that he brought in that we expected or
02:08he expected that we're going to do better.
02:10Right.
02:10If Mike Thomas gives you a gift card to Long John Silver and says, go buy dinner, if the dinner
02:17sucks, it's not your fault.
02:18It's where you were forced to shop and get dinner.
02:21Like, I mean, I know this is like, you know, I don't want to do this.
02:25I don't want to know.
02:26I mean, who's accountable then?
02:28John Henry.
02:29John Henry, of course.
02:30Well, but Curtis is right.
02:32In the case of Ranger Suarez, right?
02:34He spent $130 million on the dude.
02:36Wow.
02:37And nobody who was – do you think that's who he wanted to sign for five years and $130 million?
02:43No.
02:43He wanted to go out and sign somebody who's an absolute, you know, horse for four years and $180 million.
02:52Like, I don't – if that's the road, you're going to go down.
02:56All right.
02:56Then we'll do this.
02:57Yeah, that's the road I'm going down, coach.
02:59All right.
02:59I'm just asking for you.
03:00Why is that funny?
03:00Well, then go down that road because he – when he signed Ranger Suarez, I don't think people were like
03:06– it's the same thing we did last year.
03:08I don't think people were like, oh, my God, why they signed that guy.
03:11Are you kidding me?
03:12Yeah.
03:12Do you listen to the radio station at all?
03:14Yeah, I do listen to the radio every day.
03:15Sometimes people don't make sense, but I still listen.
03:18I enjoy it.
03:19I think – probably Curtis and certainly Jones and Keefe.
03:26I listen to those guys over and over again talk about Ranger Suarez misses, I don't know, six games a
03:33season because of –
03:35Yeah, I heard Jones and Keefe.
03:36Because of quote-unquote injury.
03:37Like, I don't –
03:39I heard him say that.
03:40I don't know that you can blame this all on Craig Breslow, but if you want to, that's okay.
03:46Well, he's the one who added Sonny Gray.
03:49He's the one who added the tree, man.
03:50So you think if it was up to him and he had a choice of everybody that was available this
03:54offseason, he would have said, let me get Sonny Gray, Ranger Suarez, and call it a day?
03:57I mean, I guess we'll have to ask him.
03:59I know.
04:00I'm asking you.
04:01I mean, basically, those are the guys he got.
04:04We all know that.
04:05That is well established.
04:06So he couldn't have got nobody else.
04:08Right.
04:08I'm saying yes, if it were up to him.
04:10Yes, he could.
04:11If Craig Breslow had –
04:12So did he have got him?
04:13You could have traded for the Kelly with the Twins and given up some prospects and done what you did
04:19with Garrett Crochet your first offseason and do it with him.
04:22I was actually told by Red Sox fans, I won't say you, but the ball washers at the trade deadline
04:27said, well, they began the foundation of the deal.
04:29It's basically a fait accompli.
04:31He'll be coming here in the offseason.
04:32Well, then blame John Henry for not giving him, I guess, the money that you wanted because you signed Suarez.
04:39Now, listen, I will say, I've said it a thousand times lately, it's early, and this team started the season
04:47last season in nearly the exact same fashion, which is you win the opener because you got Garrett Crochet, and
04:56then your next win is the next time Garrett Crochet pitches.
05:00So I – you know, and that team was a playoff team last year, so I will keep some faith,
05:07but it's concerning, I think.
05:11And Sonny Gray, just to go back to the acquisition, the Red Sox traded my guy Dick Fitz and Brandon
05:16Clark to Haim Bloom and the Cardinals.
05:19Then they acquired Sonny Gray, and the Cardinals are paying two-thirds of his salary.
05:26St. Louis sent $20 million to the Red Sox.
05:29His salary is $31 million.
05:31They're paying $11 million of their own money for this guy.
05:34And tell me again why that's Breslow and not John Henry.
05:38Yeah, that's always a red flag to me with the Red Sox.
05:41If somebody else is footing the bill, it's similar to the way we talk about the Patriots sometimes when we
05:46say,
05:46oh, they just bring in this coach because somebody else is still paying the rest of the – from the
05:51place that they just got fired.
05:52Like, that is always a red flag.
05:55Okay, how much does this lean into the decision of bringing them here?
05:58Yeah.
05:59I mean –
06:00Just like you might have gotten Joe Kelly – not Joe Kelly.
06:03Joe Ryan.
06:04Joe Ryan from the Twins.
06:05If instead of demanding the full freight be picked up by the Giants when you traded Devers,
06:12you might have gotten a better prospect call, which would have improved your team.
06:16But John Henry wanted the full $300 million picked up by another club.
06:22Well, yeah, he saved some money on that deal.
06:24He wanted to save some money.
06:25He saved the whole deal.
06:26Yeah, he wanted to save money on that.
06:28And I get that.
06:29I'm just like – I looked at this and I – you know, especially these past couple of outings with
06:34these pitchers,
06:35the expectations, I didn't hear – I mean, other than you want to say Jones and Keefe and I'll give
06:41you that one,
06:42but I didn't hear anybody else bitching and complaining about Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez
06:47and some of these other guys.
06:48Oh, yeah.
06:49To Wiggy's point –
06:50I did not hear anybody else.
06:51Everybody going into the season was saying pitching is going to be the strong point of the team.
06:55Right.
06:55I didn't hear nobody.
06:57Okay, but is any of that on Sonny – if you want to go down that road –
07:00Right.
07:01Is any of that on Sonny Gray or is any of that on Ranger Suarez or is it all on
07:06Craig Braswell?
07:07No, no.
07:08So, unfortunately, I'm going to pile on the Red Sox a little bit here because yesterday Alex Cora joined the
07:14guys on WEI Afternoons
07:16and he was asked about the new ABS challenge system.
07:19The first thing he said was, it's good for baseball.
07:21The second thing he said was, we're being too aggressive with our challenges.
07:25And, of course, everybody watched the Reds game where Roman Anthony had a challenge early in the game.
07:32He said himself after the fact, it was bad timing, not going to happen again,
07:36and they had run out of challenges for later in the game.
07:39It was a turning point for that game.
07:41And then, last night, Sedan Raffaella blew a challenge on the first pitch of his at-bat in the third
07:48inning.
07:49And this is frustrating to me because I know that there are bigger issues going on with the Red Sox
07:53right now.
07:54We talked about the pitching.
07:55The offense is pretty much nonexistent outside of Williard-Breyu.
07:59But it's like, this is a simple thing that your manager was on the flagship radio station talking about.
08:05You've got to believe that he's talking to the clubhouse about it.
08:07And then you've got a guy who is a veteran trotting out there and doing the exact thing that the
08:14manager said don't do.
08:15By the way, ESPN is tracking ABS challenges for all the teams.
08:19Right now, the Red Sox success rate, and it's only pitchers and catchers that have been challenging for the Red
08:25Sox, is 40%.
08:26That puts them in the bottom third of MLB.
08:30Guess what the Yankees is right now?
08:31They're at the top.
08:32Weren't they like 10 of 11 or something like that?
08:34Almost 86% success rate compared to 40% from the Red Sox.
08:39This is kind of a marginal thing.
08:40But they've got to adjust way quicker to this system because right now it's bad.
08:45And the crazy part about it is that there's a couple that I saw.
08:51There's no looking over to the dugout and getting the manager saying, okay, go ahead, challenge that one.
08:59It's just players at their own will saying, I want to challenge it.
09:04I get it.
09:05It's a good thing, but it also is, to your point, Mago, a bad thing because now, guys, the couple
09:10of challenges that I've seen, I think Marcelo Maia challenged one, and it was a strike.
09:14And it's like, well, you start to challenge these, and you start losing them, and that becomes an issue without
09:20the manager even saying, don't do it.
09:22Right.
09:22Wiggs, as an NFL player, how many times does a guy jump up when a catch is rolled incomplete, and
09:27they're like, challenge, challenge, and then they show the replay, and it clearly hits the ground?
09:31Well, like in Mago and basketball, how many times do you see them going like this to the bench?
09:36And it's like, I thought that maybe the managers and the coaches and the dugout would be the only ones
09:43who could challenge.
09:43Yeah.
09:44It would be interesting, though, in the NFL if guys could do it whenever they wanted.
09:49You'd be out of challenges on the first drive.
09:51Right.
09:52Like you got a corner who's like, nope, he was out of bounds.
09:55I can guarantee you, out of bounds.
09:57I'm throwing my own challenge flag.
09:58Right.
09:59It's just the timing of it, too, guys.
10:01Like, the third inning, the first pitch at bat, like, to me, that shows a real lack of understanding of
10:08what Coors tried to impart his message, and they got to figure it out soon.
10:13They got other stuff to figure it out, but that was frustrating to watch.
10:16Yeah.
10:16No.
10:17I mean, if that didn't happen, then you get a guy on base, and hopefully you get a run, and
10:24you only lose 9-2.
10:25I mean, if that's true, I don't know.
10:25I don't know.
10:26I don't know.
10:26I don't know.
10:26I don't know.
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