00:00Okay, guys, so I feel like we haven't even gotten to dive into the Sam Kennedy conversation that we had
00:06yesterday.
00:07Go ahead.
00:08Okay.
00:09Dan Shaughnessy in The Globe, one of many writers, pontificators who followed up on our conversation with Sam Kennedy.
00:18My favorite story follow-up, Chris Mason's in MassLive.
00:21I thought he did a wonderful job.
00:22But I'm talking about Dan Shaughnessy.
00:25And he said he spoke to one of what he calls the Cora Seven, the seven coaches who were fired
00:33earlier this season.
00:34And that coach told Dan Shaughnessy, quote, they cannot fire Craig because if they fire him, then why did they
00:41fire us?
00:42And it makes the organization look unstable.
00:45That last part is me reading into what he's saying.
00:47Yeah.
00:48Does anyone, like the jig is up.
00:50Does anyone actually believe the Red Sox are a stable organization right now?
00:55No.
00:56Anyone?
00:56No.
00:57Anyone?
00:57As a single person, can they actually say to themselves, this is a serious, focused, stable organization that is on
01:04the right track?
01:04So I think the best thing for the Red Sox to do is to take a page, is to take
01:10a page out of, other than that, because that's not going to happen, selling the team, take a page out
01:13of the Patriots book.
01:14Like when the Patriots were looking to move on from Gerard Mayo, and that was the conversation in the last
01:19two weeks of the season, there were a lot of people who said this is going to make them look
01:23unserious and unstable because they just fired Bill Belichick last year.
01:27They said that Gerard Mayo was the plan for years.
01:30Robert Kraft got up there and compared him to falling in love with his wife.
01:34Like, I, it just, it was not going to look good for the team.
01:40Didn't matter.
01:41They back-channeled with Mike Vrabel and they moved on and they were in the Super Bowl the next season.
01:46Like, they should be back-channeling right now, throwing a tremendous bag at someone to take that job, because that's
01:53the only way that they're going to get a serious person to take that job, and just cut their losses
01:57and not care about how it looks, because it can't look worse than it does right now.
02:01That is such a great point, Mago.
02:02Yeah, it really is.
02:03And I've heard people argue that they want to keep Craig Breslow around until the end of the season, so
02:11they are not blamed.
02:12They have a sacrificial lamb and a guy that you can blame for everything.
02:16But it's, Sam Kennedy was on here yesterday and told you that it is embarrassing.
02:22Like, this team is an embarrassment, and he says that that's on everybody.
02:28So keeping Craig Breslow around because he, you know, works hard or, you know, he's a nice man, like whatever,
02:35is not deflecting the focus on ownership, which ultimately is responsible for the team that you put on the field,
02:46which is full of guys that should be playing in Worcester.
02:50But that's why the crap thing is such a great analogy, because it wasn't fair to Mayo.
02:54They did not treat Rod Mayo in a fair way.
02:56They didn't, and they knew that they were about to have the fourth pick or third pick in the draft,
03:01and they had to get it right.
03:03And this Red Sox organization is entering a trade deadline between now, what is it, a month and two weeks
03:08or so?
03:10The end of July.
03:11Yeah, the end of July.
03:12So they have Arolvis Chapman.
03:13They have Whitlock.
03:14They have Jaron Duran.
03:16They have guys that they need to move.
03:18And if Craig Breslow is not a part of your future, if you're pivoting in your approach to the deadline,
03:23you can pivot with who you're approaching the deadline with, and you just got to stand in front of it.
03:29Kennedy began that yesterday.
03:31He said, I'm wrong.
03:32I've been wrong.
03:33But to Greg's point, Breslow is the guy who can take the majority of the slings and arrows moving forward.
03:38And I agree with you, Greg, that they probably, you know, if they do move on from it,
03:42it's going to be at the end of the season because it gives them a fall guy.
03:45But he literally, I mean, he kind of told us without telling us they've been back channeling Dustin Pedroia.
03:52Yeah.
03:52You know, and he won't, but he won't take the job.
03:55No, I know.
03:55But that's why, I mean, maybe for the right price.
03:58And you, because you think about, you brought it to, you brought it to Mayo Vrabel.
04:03So, what better way to swing the fans back in your direction than to hire a guy like Dustin Pedroia,
04:12the same way the Patriots did it with Mike Vrabel.
04:15If it was just another coach that they back channeled, I think people would still have been excited for it,
04:21but it wouldn't be the same when it's a former player who was such a pillar when it came to
04:27your organization
04:28and helping you win, and that's what Pedroia would be.
04:31Well, I don't want Breslow, Craig Breslow fired because I need a pound of flesh or whatever.
04:38I don't want him to be in charge of what they're going to do in a couple weeks or a
04:44month at deadline time.
04:45Like, you make a great point, is he's going to be, if he is told by them that he's all
04:52set and secure in his job,
04:54then he is going to be doing things to try to improve this baseball team that might not be good
05:01for the future.
05:02And so...
05:03But the difference, though, is that, if it's true, and I believe it to be true,
05:07that Craig Breslow and Cora had this huge argument that basically ended with a divorce,
05:13where the organization through Breslow was like, I need people loyal to me.
05:17In order for this to work, I can't have people under me that are undermining what we're doing.
05:22Then, so they get rid of everybody, and they invest fully in him.
05:26It's different in that way.
05:27Like, Mayo didn't have his own people.
05:29That was part of the reason they screwed him.
05:31I don't know.
05:32Who's going to be the person making the deadline deals?
05:34Yeah, I think that they're going to just be selling off pieces.
05:37Right, but who's...
05:38But anybody could do that.
05:40You brought up two people yesterday.
05:41Well, there's Brian O'Halloran, who's been there forever.
05:44Right.
05:44And Eddie, what's his name?
05:47Ramiro.
05:48Ramiro.
05:49And there's...
05:50Greg Bedard could get the job.
05:51But there's also...
05:52He's a softball guy.
05:54I keep telling you.
05:54But there's also Theo Epstein.
05:56Like...
05:57Yeah.
05:57And Theo's an owner.
05:58You know, and so Sam Kennedy was very careful to tell you, when you asked Curtis yesterday,
06:04that he is an equity partner in this baseball team.
06:07So, when people...
06:08And a billion people sent me DMs yesterday and said,
06:12Sam Kennedy's the one who needs to go.
06:14Sam Kennedy's not going anywhere.
06:17Yeah, he's an owner.
06:17Because he's an owner.
06:19So...
06:19But Craig Breslow can be jettisoned off to Mars, as far as I'm concerned.
06:25Get rid of him.
06:26You don't want him to be in charge of what you're doing, very importantly, when it comes to deadline time.
06:32I will also say this, and you know better than me.
06:35Sam Kennedy, the president of that organization yesterday, talking about how embarrassing and awful it was in the middle of
06:43a season.
06:44Have you ever heard that from a president of a franchise in Boston in the last 30 years?
06:52In the middle of the season?
06:54I cannot...
06:55It was legitimately...
06:57Shyme, Tom...
06:59I got texts from people across the street at our station in the middle of it, like,
07:04this is shocking.
07:05Yeah.
07:06It literally sounded like when I woke up and I heard my parents found my booze from the night before,
07:11and I had to walk down, I'd be like, oh, my bad.
07:13I own all of this.
07:14Yeah.
07:15Like, I just, I have never heard it, and I do think, I know Sam is not great at a
07:22lot of things.
07:23I suck at most, but, like, this, what you heard yesterday is a guy that has stepped in a pile
07:29of cow dung.
07:30Yeah.
07:30And he's like, okay, I'm done spitting this.
07:34And to me, the nadir was the correcting you about the injury.
07:39And all the self-inflicted wounds, like, it's okay, you can fire the wrong manager.
07:44It's okay, you signed the wrong guy.
07:46Like, that happens.
07:48The dysfunction with both Roman Anthony and Garrett Crochet is an organization that is in disarray.
07:54And I think that he began the process of owning it.
07:57They gave the keys, the entire keys to the headquarters to a guy who had never done the job before
08:08and was the 12th guy to interview for it, and then they just let him run wild.
08:15Right, but he, I think in his defense, he's going to say a lot of the guys that I acquired,
08:22you know, like Belichick swung and missed on certain guys,
08:25but you still have to give him credit for guys like Rob Gronkowski, you know, for guys like Greg.
08:30So when you look at it, you go.
08:32So wait, this argument comes up all the time.
08:35So you give him credit for Garrett Crochet.
08:38Yes.
08:38Okay.
08:38He is.
08:39Huge credit.
08:40Not going to be back for a month or whatever.
08:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:43That's an injury thing, but you give him credit for that.
08:45Okay.
08:45You give him credit for Sonny Gray and his performance.
08:48You give him credit for Wilson Contreras.
08:50Robus Chapman.
08:51You give him credit for Chapman.
08:53So, like, yes, he swung and missed on Durbin.
08:55I completely agree.
08:56There are other guys that you swing and miss on.
08:58His biggest failure, in my mind, he was unable to get you the bat that you needed.
09:04That is true.
09:04Unable to do that.
09:05That is 100% true.
09:07And that could be because John Henry wasn't willing to sign the check,
09:10or it could be because he was unable to get the deal done.
09:13I think his biggest failure has nothing to do with the roster.
09:15I think it's all this nonsense with Driveline that drove Alex Cora out.
09:19Like, I think Alex Cora is a good manager.
09:22And where you are right now, I don't think that Cora could have saved it all.
09:26But being totally and completely intransient as it pertains to actually working with someone,
09:31who that's a great manager is going to say, if Breslow's still here,
09:35Oh, yeah, I like Driveline.
09:37Yeah.
09:38Well.
