Episode 27: Red Sox Sweep The Astros!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Red Sox Digest, the only. [00:00:03] Speaker B: Show where pain, sarcasm and a dash of hope collide nightly like a Trevor story strikeout. [00:00:09] Speaker A: We cover every loss, every meltdown, and. [00:00:12] Speaker B: Yes, even the rare win with brutally honest takes and zero front office fluff. Subscribe today at redsoxdigest.com or risk being left out in the cold like a home game in April. And now, here's the crew at Red Sox Digest. [00:00:30] Speaker A: Good evening, sports fans, and welcome to the most bipolar broadcast in baseball podcast history. I'm your host, Jim Delfino, and I'm the only man who can watch the Red Sox sweep the Astros and still find room to complain about Dustin May's elbow like it personally insulted my cat. If sarcasm were a currency, I could buy the Yankees and regulate them to the Cape Cod League. I am joined tonight, as always, by the immortal Nick Face, the only analyst who reviews deadline trades like he's grading failed math tests written in crayon. Also joining me tonight is Nick diamond, whose take on Babbitt once made a WI fi router short circuit. He's armed with a laptop, baseball savants website and an alarm that goes off anytime anyone praises era. Nick believes in three things. Defensive efficiency, hot dogs lined up by ops, and bringing a miniature whiteboard to birthday parties just to diagram the cake to frosting ratio in real time. In fact, last week he got into a heated debate with a balloon animal over expected velocity, and it didn't end well. Today's 6 to 1 win wasn't just decisive, it was diabolical. The Red Sox are now 62 and 51 on the season, undefeated in the month of August and three games back in the division behind only your Toronto Blue Jays. They are up plus two in the wild card standings and are currently in first position, which gives them some home field advantage. Lucas Cholito threw like he's read Houston's playbook backwards forwards and inside out. 8 innings, 1 run, and the aura of someone pitching just to spite Craig Breslow's trade strategy spreadsheet Framber Valdez. It's more like flammable Valdez. Fourth inning, six runs, a balk, a pass ball, a wild pitch, maybe a flying piece of pizza and a bunt that danced under his glove like it was avoiding a parking ticket. Roman Anthony sparked the chaos, hitting his 15th double of the season already. Trevor Story piled on, going 2 for 4, and Sedane Rafaela made it feel personal himself by going 3 for 3. The socks lit up Valdez like they were avenging Raphael Devers dignity. Now back to your regularly scheduled nausea. Reviewing the trade deadline debacle, Craig Bresl made two moves. That's it. Two. One involving Steve Matz, who hasn't thrown a fastball since TikTok was relevant, and another for Dustin May, whose elbow has been through more rebuilds than Downtown Worcester. Mat's 34 with a 3.44 ERA and has a whip that barely registers. He's been on the IL so often he's eligible for frequent flyer miles. He's a deadline upgrade, the same way duct tape is a fire extinguisher. Dustin May is 6 and 7 with a 485 and 97 strikeouts and 104 innings. His last start was against Boston where we tagged him for four earned. And Breslo watched that and thought, yep, that's our guy. It's like seeing someone slip on a banana peel and offering them a job as your balance coach. Let's get into it. Nick face, I see you smiling like you won the lottery. You gotta be loving the hometown team about right now. [00:03:40] Speaker C: I cannot believe what I just watched this weekend. I thought we were ready for the funeral this weekend after the deadline debacle where we hardly got anything to really help our team in Dustin May and Stephen Matz. Well, we saw Matz over the weekend. He looked fine. Just another weapon in the bullpen who's left handed. But I think the biggest thing we have to break down here, as I said this to Jim off camera, even before Nick came in, this series alone, was the biggest series win of the season for the Red Sox. I had them losing two of three. Jim, I think you were in the same boat. Nick, you probably were in the same as well the Friday night game. We need to talk about this big time here tonight because I don't get why Cooper Criswell does not get opportunities with this team. Cooper Criswell gave you 15. I think he's thrown 15 starts right now. 350 ERA has kept the team in it and everything. Where has he been? Witness protection program. He came up through a gem Friday night. Nowhere in America did we expect this to happen on Friday night. And then he gets exiled right back to Worcester. Last night, our or Saturday's game. Saturday afternoon, another one again. Bueller sucked. [00:05:05] Speaker A: Sucked. [00:05:06] Speaker C: I don't want to see Bueller again. I'm. I'm in the camp. I'm done. But I got to give credit where credit's due. The bats came alive, they delivered, they came back. And the bullpen got the job done big time yesterday afternoon. Today, Red Sox Are down early. One nothing. Giolito gave up the home run to Carlos Correa. But then the bats, in that fourth inning, they erupted, starting, of course, with Mr. Roman Anthony. I feel like anytime we want to say, hey, the bats are coming alive, I feel like Roman Anthony is the signal fire of getting everything starting as that catalyst. And then it just fell apart for the Astros with errors and framble. Whatever you call his name, Valdez falling on his face, not knowing what the heck's going on. And then Giolito was just outstanding today. It's strong. That's my number two, guys. There he is. I don't know. I guess I got to give him that title right now. I got to give it to him. But I am so thrilled for this team. They shut all of us people up about the trade deadline and said, you know what? Maybe we really don't need anything because maybe, maybe we're going to be okay. But you just took care of a premier team in major league baseball in the Astros. And I'm feeling probably the best I have about this team right now. [00:06:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, they got Carlos Correa and they got the left hander from Miami, Nick Diamond. Your opening takes on the weekend series. [00:06:34] Speaker B: You know, like, just like Nick said, I had the Red Sox losing two of three. I thought they had the best chance of winning was the middle game with the Walker Bueller start. And like Nick said, Walker Bueller was horrible. Horrible. I think he needs to be the guy out of the rotation. I think Richard Fitz is better. I think Cooper Criswell is better, and hopefully Dustin May will step in and be better than him. Walker Bueller looked awful. He got no strikeouts, very low swing and a miss percentage. He got hit hard all game. I think he had nine hits given up and he didn't even get out of the fourth inning, so. Or maybe it was the fifth inning, but he only went like four in the third. Yeah. Walker Bueller has no business playing major league baseball at the moment. If you want, you can phantom ielm. If you want, you could dfa him, get him off the roster. He cannot be put out there. He cannot be pitching quality or pitching big time innings. Down the stretch for the Red Sox, another take. Roman Anthony's an absolute superstar. I've got him right now as like a top 25 player in the game. I mean, he's only getting better. The on base percentage is over.405. He's, you know, he's hitting the ball hard every time he's up there. The only thing I would have to say that I would like to see him improve on is maybe swing a little bit more. He kind of does take to take a few pitches that I don't like, you know, borderline pitches that I feel like he can hit hard, that he thinks are just outside the zone and he, sometimes he gets rung up on him. You know, he's a 21 year old rookie. You know, he has to expect that's going to happen. Besides that, this is as high as they ever going to be on the Red Sox going forward. I think 11 games over.500. That's not something I expected to say about a month ago or a month and a half ago. But this baseball team, as low as five, six games under.500. Now they're 11 games over, sitting solely in second place. So if you want to be hyped about the Red Sox, this is the time to be hype. [00:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah, good points, Nick. You know, I want to bring up. Nick Face, you brought up a little bit about Cooper Criswell and I couldn't agree more. I looked at his stats yesterday and I don't remember exactly the numbers that jumped off the, off the page, but since 2024, he's only had two stinkers. One that he gave up, I think five runs. One was seven runs. Everything else has been, you know, within an era of three and a half, four. And you know, you highlight it with the game against the Astros here to open up the series and you kind of are, he's, he's definitely making a question to stay in this rotation. I understand bringing him down is all about options and so forth, but you know, you have to be sitting there as a Red Sox fan and say, why doesn't this guy get that shot as the number five guy or at least on this roster, 100% over someone like Aala or, you know, some other options. Because right now I think you got to consider him the best value in baseball. It was a one year, one year, $1 million deal last year was a one year, $1 million deal for this year. And I feel pretty good with him on the mound. I, you know, it's not one of those things where, you know, Hicks is coming in and it's like, oh, Christ, what is this going to look like in five minutes? I feel pretty good with Cooper Criswell. I'd like to hear a couple more thoughts on Criswell from you guys. [00:09:44] Speaker C: I know it's only been one start, but you know what? I already have confidence knowing that his repertoire, that's Going on in Worcester right now from what he's been working on absolutely translates to the major league level. And we saw from last season this guy can give you a steady presence, whether it's out of the bullpen, starting middle, middle, relief, long relief. You need that as a weapon, especially in your bullpen. And you also just sent Bernardino down as well too. I was not happy about hearing that. And I jokingly had a. I think Jim, you liked my thing when I said yesterday I want Alfalfa out of my life. I'm not even calling him Alcala anymore. I'm going to call him Alfalfa, get him out of here, ship him down and then heart attack. I think I called him, I think I nicknamed him Jordan Death Hicks. That's my nickname for him, Death. Because he is going to rip us apart and kill us all if that is the guy that you're going to see like you did. I think it was last night. Yes, he escaped the Houdini act, but my God, that guy, he can. He's like Charlie Sheen from, from major league. He's going to hit the announcer's booth at some point in this season. If we continue this. Just a bit outside is correct. He's going to hurt somebody. [00:11:04] Speaker A: Mercy Nick Diamond. Take me through Cooper Criswell. What's your thoughts on Cooper and do you believe that he should be part of this rotation moving forward? [00:11:14] Speaker B: If you're comparing Cooper Criswell to Walker Bueller, he absolutely should be going forward in the rotation over him. You know, he's kind of the opposite of Walker Bueller at the moment. Walker Bueller can't throw this, can't throw strikes, throws too many pitches, can't find the zone at all. And Cooper Criswell just pounds the zone with 86, 87, 88. He doesn't have very much swinging mid stuff, but he gets ground balls, he works fast, he gets the guys out quickly. He went seven strong innings, 84 pitches, I think 60, 65, 66% strike. So he's up there with the best. So I put him in the rotation over a guy like Walker Bueller. I know they don't want to cut the money and you know, admit it was a mistake, but you're just lucky he didn't sign that three year deal when he had the chance to. So I would get with Rock Walker Bueller. I'd let Dustin May have a few shots in the rotation, see what he's like. But right now Cooper Criswell is the hot hand so I would run with him. Going forward in the bullpen. I agree with you and Aaron Hicks, man, I think he, he needs to find the strike zone. I thought moving him back to the pen would do wonders for him. Yeah, I know the Giants try to make him a starter, which I thought it was a mistake. I've always thought that was a mistake. He always threw 101 out of the pen. He threw 95, 96 as a starter. So I thought moving him back to the pen would help him. It looks like it hasn't. The concern out there with the, the command is always going to be out there. So I think you have to find a way to develop another back end guy. I know we have our first Justin Slayton update in a while, maybe early September. He might be back. He started throwing again or threw a pen. So I think he's, there's a chance we see him again when we thought we will never see him again. Maybe thought he was headed for surgery. So we might have a chance to see a guy like Justin Slayton back during a stretch run. [00:12:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree with you. I think if we can get Slayton in there and he's effective, you know, it's just going to strengthen our bullpen. One of the things too with Walker, Bueller, I mean it would make sense if there's going to be some sort of phantom injury IL stint that might, that might be a way to go to get Criswell into that rotation and have him 5th or May 4th or something like that. I want to switch gears a little bit and I want to talk about Trevor Story and I want to talk about the Trevor story redemption tour. 2 for 4 today with an RBI. He had his fourth multi hit game in the last week and he's had zero errors in his last 15 starts. Nick diamond, what are you seeing with Trevor's Story this year, outside of health, perhaps that you haven't seen the last couple seasons? And is this for real or is he just having a lucky season? [00:13:46] Speaker B: You know, we really haven't seen him at all in the last few seasons, so there's nothing to compare him to as a Red sox besides that 1:22 stretch where he got really hot. I'm going to say it's for real. As long as he stays healthy, there's always concern that he's going to have a freak injury and be out for the season. And then I don't know what the Red Sox do if something like that happens. You know, if you look back to his Rockies career, Trevor Story's always been a guy that's going to hit 20, 25 home runs and steal 2025 bags. The swing and miss is going to come and go as you watch with him. He's a streaky guy. I'm surprised he's kind of catching up to these fastballs that he hasn't in the past. That was always his concern. He couldn't hit anything over 95, 96 miles per hour. He was always going to hit hanging, breaking balls up in the zone. That was his only chance and he swung out of the zone and got himself in the hole. So as long as he is just a streaky guy, plays decent defense, you know he's going to go his over 25, over 30 streaks. But he's also going to go 15 for 30 with six home runs or something like that and carry the team for a while. So as long as he stays healthy, he's going to be a valuable player for the Red Sox. But you never know. There's always a chance. [00:14:51] Speaker A: Nick Face similar question Trevor Story, Is he your MVP on this 2025 Red Sox? [00:14:57] Speaker C: Can't do that. I need to simmer down on the Trevor Story redemption tour here because I know what's going to happen. I know if I go out and I say I'm happy and I am overjoyed by how great Trevor Story has been right now he will go on an 0 for 50 streak and strike out 30 times. So I'm not going to do that. But I will talk about some positives. Number one, the biggest takeaway to me has been Story driving the ball the other way this weekend in particular, where he was dumping the ball onto the right side and doing it effectively to move guys along. I think that's been the biggest thing that stood out to me with the adjustments that have been made. And it doesn't mean it. I mean, it's coming from any kind of pitch, it's coming from off speed, it's coming from fastballs and driving it with authority over to right field. To me, that's when I look at when Trevor Story is on, I feel like when he's off, he's on the Pete Fatsy launch angle diet. That's what happens is when he's trying to tattoo it and take everything that he's worked so hard on on going the other way to. Granted he has been on a home run tour home run binge in the past couple weeks too, but the difference that I see in that is he's still being able to take the ball to the opposite field. That's a Clear sign to me that something's working with him. So the same rhythm and the same technique that's going where he's probably in the cage working with Fatsy or whoever it is with him. Use the same approach because that's when the most effective use of Trevor's Story is shown. And he's doing a great job of that. The other thing I want to mention is the glove. The glove is actually what stood out to me the most this season. Even when he was, what, hitting a buck 20 in May, we have seen consistency with the range in particular, and that is. That has been spectacular to see because you didn't really know coming off the injury how much of an impact this would be with arm strength and range and just moving around the diamond to see what he can do and his glove next to Bregman, that that's gotta be one of the best defensive alignments that there is in baseball. With Bregman and Story together right there. It's special. It is special on that left side of the diamond. So I don't know if it's sustainable. I have to tell you that right now because we've seen so much streak with Trevor Story. I want to see the same approach. If this same approach continues consistently, this will be a great season for Story. And then when September hits, hopefully it can lead the Red Sox into the playoffs. And then, Jim, I can say the redemption tour was a success. [00:17:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Look, you know, I have been a Story hater and I. I use that word really strongly. But, you know, he's driven me crazy for quite some time. I've wanted him DFA earlier this year, and, you know, obviously to the Red Sox credit, they stuck with him. And, you know, is he an all Star? No. But you know what, he seems to be just doing a lot of the intangibles and doing it effectively like a good quality major league baseball player. He's doing all the little things defensively. He's still got very good range. He may have a little tick lost in the strength of that arm, but he'd still be able to turn the double plays effectively. He also has really great, you know, skills that are still things that you can't teach. You know, being able to make that throw from, you know, short shortstop to home to nab a runner. And just a lot of those skills, even at the bat, you know, he isn't an automatic out this season, so he's had his issues back early in May, but for the most part, if there's runners on, I don't Know what? His batting average is off the top of my head with runners in scoring position, but I would say it's probably better than what we think it is. And it just seems like he's getting some timely hits along for the ride. So, you know, my hat's off to Trevor Story. I hope it continues because quite frankly, with the power that we don't have in this lineup, we're going to need, you know, his ability to drive the ball, get doubles off the wall, especially into October. I want to switch gears a little bit to the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays have a run differential of plus 16. The Red Sox have a run differential of 78. I'm not a big run differential guy, but I do want to have a little bit of a discussion on this because we are now three games behind the Blue Jays for first place, let alone the wild card. And I'm not a complacent guy, so I smell blood and I want to go after it. So, Nick Diamond, I'd like to open with you on this. You know, is there anything to this, to the fact that, you know, the Blue Jays run differential is not very good? Does it mean that their pitching's not good or is our run differential just inflated because of that 10 game winning streak that we had? [00:19:55] Speaker B: Well, I think it's a little bit of both. The Blue Jays, honestly, when you look at them, you look at their roster, you don't understand how they're 65 and 48 coming into the season. I thought they're a near.500 team and the run differential kind of reflects on that. It seems if you look at their expected win to loss rate record, there should be 58 and 55. That's only based on the run differential. And like you said, Jim, you're not a big run differential guy. I'm not either. But when it's that big of a difference, it's something to look at. And on the Red Sox side, you can look back at a few games where the Red Sox scored 16, 15, 13 runs and they won like 131 or 175 or something like that. So the Red Sox have a lot of blowout games where that inflates the run differential. So I think the Red Sox also play down to earth a little bit or play a little bit above their records. If you want me to be honest. I think the Yankees are probably still the best team in the league talent wise. And then the Blue Jays and the Red Sox are playing a little bit above their talent level at the moment. But I think the Red Sox are going to play around this level going forward, so as long as the Blue Jays collapse, we can actually have a chance at first place. [00:21:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't have a lot of faith in the Blue Jays either. I picked them to be a fourth place team this season. You know, when it went back in March, I just didn't see a lot there. So they are kind of a surprise. And you know, to your point, Nick, I'm wondering if they're just getting lucky on some of those games. Nick fa, similar question to you. You think we can catch the Blue Jays? [00:21:24] Speaker C: I do think we can catch the Blue Jays. Absolutely I do. And here's one of those statistics that you stat nerds are not going to like. What I have to say on it. I don't care, I don't care on run differential. I care about how many wins you have. And yes, right now the Blue Jays have three more or three more wins than the Red Sox overall. And you look in the standings. But I don't think this is sustainable for the Blue Jays. I just don't. Number one, they just don't have any guys that have experience when it comes to the playoffs. They always to me, feel like they're going to crash and burn. They always do. They always kind of tinker around and they kind of play a tease in a way and then they, they just disappear into smithereens. So that to me is one of the, the biggest signs here on the, on the Blue Jays still being atop the division. I think if the Red Sox continue on the streak that they're at, say they take two out of three for continuous series here. I mean, you really don't have any, any, any massively tough competition. You have the Padres series coming up. That might be a little bit of an interesting one. You have the Yankees a bunch of times, then you don't have played the Blue Jays till one of the last weeks of September. So you, you really have a, a good seat, a good rest of the schedule here to give yourself some separation, a little bit of a thump. And to me right now, the Yankees don't scare me. I mean, the Miami Marlins of all teams annihilated them and made them cry. And I'm sure that plane ride coming back home is going to be one of the most painful ones you've seen. Did any of you guys see what went down in the Yankee Series this weekend? I want to say one thing on one, on one particular player, on this, on the Yankees, and I am so thrilled that, that we don't have to suffer through this ignaciating player by the name of Jaz Grizzom. I am so happy that the Red Sox don't have to deal with that nitwit on their roster at all. Good luck to you Yankees, because that guy is going to end up costing you number one the division, but could make you very early one and done if you get to the wild card. That guy is a train wreck. And I am thrilled that we don't have to stomach watching that imbecile play baseball. [00:23:50] Speaker A: Yeah, he's pretty narcissistic in my book. I'm glad they don't have it. I'm glad we only have one guy like that in Casas that we don't have a time. [00:23:57] Speaker C: I hope you Yankee fans come after me for it because anybody that wants to back up that play, come and find me. [00:24:05] Speaker A: Dave Depari says no, you know they aren't. The Yankees lineup looks old, especially if judges out. Plus Boone will feel the heat on him. You know, it's interesting too. I mean, the Yankees without Judge is almost seems like you walk out of the house without your underwear on. So I mean, it'd be interesting to see what happens there. But you know what, the Red Sox got to capitalize on that. When another team is down some of their best players, that's the time where you got to, you know, you got to corner them and win those games and take no prisoners. Next thing that I wanted to bring up was Tanner Hauk. His season is over. We talked about this, I think last week that they shut him down. He was playing catch with his, with his dog or something like that. And the fact that he's got a couple more seasons left, he's arbitration eligible I believe at the end of this season for the start of next year. Nick Diamond, I want to ask you this question. Do you think it's possible that Tanner Hauk would be non tendered. [00:25:07] Speaker B: Eventually? Yes. I think they'll let him rehab and give him a chance. But yeah, there's eventually a chance that he could be non tendered. I just want to say this is a big mismanagement of Tanner Halk. I think that everyone knew, anyone who watched him, everyone knew there was an injury back in spring training. And you can even go back as far as like September of last season when he fell off a cliff. So this is a complete mismanagement. They should have had him get the surgery in spring training or in April. They waited until August and he hasn't even had it yet. So who knows how long it's going to be until they actually schedule the surgery and he gets it done. So they basically wasted two years of him, 2025 and 2026. At most we'll see 2027 and there's a chance if he's terrible, he doesn't respond to his rehab, that we never see him again. It stinks. Tanner Hauk has had a couple of good stretches in Boston, but there's a chance we never see him again. [00:25:58] Speaker A: Because you know, I was looking at, it was looking at his contract and if he's coming back mid-2027, you know the Red Sox are going to have to be on the hook for an arbitration number at the end of this year and then he's not going to pitch in 2026 and then they're going to be on the hook for an arbitration number for 2027. And if they're not going to get any anything out of them, I I'd almost be surprised that they would want to keep him on a roster spot. Nick Face, what's your thoughts on Tanner Hauk? [00:26:31] Speaker C: This has been something that I have suspected since the beginning when all these injuries were amounting for Hulk and his disaster of a spring, the beginning of this season. I said to myself, because he's got that funky, that funky arm motion. I always looked at that and said that is just a ticking time bomb for something to happen with the elbow. And lo and behold, here we are. Shame on the Red Sox medical team for not rehabbing and not doing their due diligence on this because this could have been something that was probably triggered, could have been March, April, who knows, who knows if something funky was going on at this point. But we heard in the past couple weeks from Cora that the rehab wasn't going great. They tried to get him up and going and nothing happened of it. And it was more of a setback. Now to your point, Jim, yeah, I would non tender him. I don't know what you're going to get when he even comes back to recover. Don't forget this guy has been injury prone for most of his career. Between the bad back now the arm problems. To me, I always like to look at what we've had over the years and think about here's somebody similar to who Tanner Hauk is right now and I have to pinpoint Justin Masterson. [00:27:49] Speaker A: I knew you were going to say. [00:27:50] Speaker C: That Justin Masterson was a guy that the Red Sox couldn't figure out what they wanted to do with. They put him in the eighth at the start and piggybacked him with Papel Bond. And then they wanted to fool around with putting him in as a starter. Kind of the same thing here that they're doing with Hulk. When Hulk first came up, he was in the bullpen, and to me, that was where he was the most dominant. He. He just looked very good in the. In the bullpen over a one inning span. I feel like so many hitters made adjustments and could figure him out as a starter. And he just. He almost felt to me like Frosty the Snowman when he was on. When he was on the mound. He's great in the first couple and then it just gets warm and, you know, springtime comes and your drippy snowman just melts right away. Well, that's what Tanner Hauk was. I was a fan, don't get me wrong. I like the compete. I like the aggressiveness that he had. He has all kinds of different, you know, things in his arsenal from pitches and pretty much got the job done outside of this season. But you're at a point here now where you got to come back from another major injury here. I just don't want to take the chance. Jim and Nick. I'm done with this whole Liam Hendricks, and I'm just done with the whole redemption tour. You know, I'm done. The Walker Bueller's of the world, You Corey Klubers of the world. I'm done. Go get a quality guy that can give you innings that has a proven track record. The mash. The MASH unit's done. It's done. It's song and dance. I'm done repeating it. Goodbye, Hulk. Goodbye. Sorry. [00:29:27] Speaker A: The Red Sox just try to find lightning in the bottle and needle and haystacks with all these guys. I mean, now we read that Pablo Sandoval is done for the year, so. Pablo. Excuse me. Miles. Might as well. [00:29:41] Speaker C: He was. He was done in 2015 or whatever the hell he was. [00:29:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But, you know, again, it's all these rehab guys. And you know, the other thing is too, is even our own, you know, Chris Sale, Chris Murphy, Zach Kelly, I mean, it just seems like everybody's elbows are blowing out under Andrew Bailey. And I think a lot of it has to do with the spin rate. And so, you know, it is unfortunate. I just think that when Hulk was, you know, just coming up and of course we had Garrett Whitlock, you know, that it was all about value with the two of them, you know, and getting them into the rotation, especially after they signed Whitlock to that team. Friendly deal about getting more value out of those guys and putting them into the rotation as opposed to putting them where they were going to probably be best suited and be most effective. And I said this on Twitter since day one. If you go back to my tweets, Garrett Wicklock should have been either an 8 or 9 inning guy and Tanner Hauk had actually closed for the Red Sox for a couple star a couple games and he looked really good doing that. So either one of them and both should have been in that late bullpen conversation. And unfortunately the Red Sox didn't want to do that again because it's all about value and it just blew up on them. So it's unfortunate. But I just think that when you look at the fact that he won't be back until the mid-2027, it's very possible that we may have seen the last pitch Tanner Hauk throws for the Boston Red Sox. But we'll see. Nick, you got a comment? [00:31:15] Speaker B: Yeah, one thing, I think there's a better chance just saying something I thought. I think there's a better chance the Red Sox non tender Tristan Casas over Tanner Hauck. Just because Tanner Hauck's a pitcher. We never heard of issues with Tanner Hauck. Anyone having issues with Tanner Hauck, I just think there's a way better chance. They keep Tanner Hauckenhouse, they let him rehab. They think he still has something in the tank. Whether you, like you said, bring him back to the bullpen, I think he's more valuable than a guy like Tristan Casas. If they have to choose between the one or the other, I think they'll choose Tanner Halk. If they have 40 man spot or something like that, I would be all for that. [00:31:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I totally agree with you, Nick Diamond. I mean, after all, I mean I'm not the best Tristan Casas fan. I've never been since day one. I just don't like his, his makeup and I just don't think he's a dirt dog and I like dirt dog players. So, you know, I'm not interested in. [00:32:09] Speaker C: Tristan Casas coming back to this team. I, I'm not. I really am not. I, I want that ship to sail. Sayonara, good riddance. [00:32:18] Speaker A: Kind of piggybacking off the injury train. We do hear a little bit more that Marcelo Mayer, his sprained wrist is more serious than envisioned. Which kind of brings me back to the Tanner Hauk thing. I didn't hear a lot on his elbow and the fact that it was possibly that he was going to Go for ucl. And then it just came out of nowhere. And now we got Marcella Mayer. It seems like the medical staff on the Boston Red Sox is. Is watching the Three Stooges because it doesn't seem like they know what the hell they're doing. So I don't know what's going on in Mass General or Bethany Deaconess, but. So you got to find some better doctors over there. He's done for the year, in my opinion. Nick Face, I mean, what is your thoughts on Marcelo Mayer? And you know, this. This is so much. It makes the Trevor story, staying healthy situation more important. [00:33:10] Speaker C: Oh, it's vital 100%. And I don't think this shot's going to take in the rest. I don't. I don't. As I said earlier on one of our earlier pods, the biggest concern to me, with any player in baseball who has a wrist injury, that is a long time to get back to being comfortable again with hitting the baseball. I don't want to repeat 2001 again. That was when Nomar was at his prime. Got jacked right in the. Right in the wrist. And it pretty much changed everything for Nomar in his career. The downfall just went there. He had a good 2002 coming back and same with 2003, but it just never was the same. And this is what really scares me here with the wrist. And you gotta get Marcelo Meyer healthy. The biggest question on Marcel Meyer in his career is durability. There's always something with him that, that he's getting hurt or whether it's his fault or not. I just don't know what. What's the DNA of him is composed of. Can he fight back? Can he get back to getting on the top? I don't want to give up on Meyer Mayer. I just don't want to do that. But you got to get him into a point where all this hype from being such a highly regarded prospect, you want the best for him. I just don't think that you're going to see him the rest of this season. And the seriousness of this is something that I question. Much like you, Jim, what is going on with the medical team here? You're supposed to be the best of the best here. And you can't diagnose what's up with Marcel Meyer. That's just not acceptable to me. It's not. And it just leads me to believe that there's not disclosing all the information and being transparent. Much like the biggest problem is at Fenway Park. There's no transparency. You don't know. It's like a big mystery on what's happening. So I just don't put much faith in this shot getting Marcelo Meyer back. [00:35:19] Speaker A: I don't either. You know, I see a lot of patients that have had cortisone injections and they're temporary at best. If there's inflammation that's still there, it's going to come back unless it's actually done properly. Big John Studd, I loved him as a wrestler. Big John Stud writes, mayor has a wrist injury almost every year in the minors. So you know, there's. And also too he wrote in that the wrist, elbow, it's always something. Guy's never been healthy in the minors and never played a full season. He's 100% right. Nick diamond, your thoughts on Mayer and where do we go from here with him? [00:35:55] Speaker B: My number one thought on Mayer is we 100% missed our opportunity to trade him. Once you bring up a prospect to the major leagues and he stinks, all of his value disappears. All of his value is at his highest point when he's in Triple A raking. They should have traded him then. They should have left him in aaa. I know they only brought him up because of necessity, but they should have left him in AAA and traded him because everyone knew he had a durability issue. Like this guy said. Big John Stud said, it's been like three or four years. Every single year has ended in a season ending injury. Whether he's played 120 games, 111 games, 80 games, 70 games, whatever it was, I don't know the exact games on my top of my, off the top of my head. But Marcelo Meyer has a durability issue and the Red Sox missed every opportunity to trade him. This is the guy we've been promised for five years that's going to be the savior of this Red Sox team. And he hasn't really done anything. He's come up at 220, played good defense. Wherever he's played, I'll give him credit for that. Besides that, he's not done anything besides get hurt. Hit a hit, mediocre at best. He can't play against lefties in the major leagues. So we missed every opportunity to trade him. And that's the biggest point I wanted to bring up. Unfortunately, I don't know where to go after here because you just got to bank on Trevor Story staying healthy, holding down shortstop and then one of the other guys can step up a second base because like you said, I think Marcelo Meyer is Not going to respond from the quarter zone shot. He's going to be out for the season. And I think the reason why they've disclosed all this information, at first I thought it was because of the trade deadline. There's a chance they wanted to trade them, but I don't think there was any chance they wanted to trade them. All these teams have seen them in the major leagues, they've seen them now they know what's what to expect. So I think there's no shot of that happening. And now I think there's just a lack of honesty to the fan base or even Marcelo Meyer. So unfortunately we're just going to be without him for the whole season. [00:37:47] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, Nick, very, very absolute points to brought up, especially with the fact that, you know, your prospect capital is going to be at his highest amount when they're in the minors. And if you bring them up and they don't succeed at the major league level, you've, you've ruined and tanked your, your upper hand. And they've done that with Mayor and you know, hopefully they haven't done that with Christian Campbell. That's very, very nerve wracking there because, you know, we've been shoved down our throats with the three of these guys for a number of years and frankly, right now it looks like Roman Anthony is the only one. Part of me thought that that could be true. And look, I've said it before with Mayor, there's a reason why he was supposed to go number one and Ben Sherrington, you know, passed on him and you know, two other teams did too and he fell in number four to you. So, you know, I'm really concerned that he's going to be wind up being, you know, a platoon player, you know, a defensive first guy that's always going to be hurt and you're. He's just going to kind of like fizzle out into nowhere. It's unfortunate, but again, you know, if my guy Dave Dombrowski was here, he probably would have already traded him for Matt Olson or something and you know, we'd be flying pretty high on that. The other thing that, the other thing that Big John Stud had written here and he said, you know, Mo Vaughn, Grissom and, and Christian Campbell, get him up. I mean, Nick Face, what's your thoughts? Should we give Grissom another shot? Do you think he's going to come up in September when we get the call ups? [00:39:19] Speaker C: First of all, I love that nickname. That was my first real love of a Red Sox player. When I was a kid. [00:39:24] Speaker A: The hip dog. [00:39:25] Speaker C: Nothing better than that. Nick, I'm probably aging myself when I say, you weren't around for Mo Vaughan, were you? [00:39:31] Speaker A: I was in college for Mo Vaughan. Let's talk about. [00:39:33] Speaker B: No, not really. [00:39:35] Speaker C: I was age 5 through 5 through 8 was my move on era. So Mo Vaughan was my first big take on a player not coming back. I was so devastated when 99 hit and he went to the Angels. But moving on from that and my whole trauma that I dealt with with Mo Vaughn, I'm ready for Vaughn Grissom to come up. The question is, where do you play him? That's. That's the biggest thing I said earlier on this, that the numbers that you see on Grissom proves 100% that he should be up. And I don't like to speculate, but one of the rumors that I have heard is that it's from insubordinate being insubordinate. And he came up and there was some tension that was going on between Fatsy and him. And I think that that's what he's being punished for. So, yeah, I do think it's a punishment sort of thing with Grissom not being up here. As sick as that is to say, I'd rather say the truth. And that's what I've heard. I've heard that this is what it's about. And it also is because the Red Sox value David Hamilton more with the speed off the bench. And so it's a matter of where is he going to play. They also like Abe Toro. They like him at first base. You've been fine with Bregman. You survived that. He was higher on the depth chart with. With Meyer when he was down. Right now, it's a matter of where's he going to play second base. Today they had Roman Gonzalez. You got Sedan Rafaela rotating in and out. I just don't think there's a roster spot for him, and I don't really think it's worth putting him on the roster if he's really not going to play. I really don't. So that's where my take is on that. And then Christian Campbell, Big John Studd also mentioned him. He's starting to really heat up. I'm all for bringing him up. It's the question of will the Red Sox make that change, and the change would be Abe Toro going back to Worcester and Christian Campbell coming back up to occupy first base. I don't think I'm interested in Christian Campbell playing second base again. I'M speaking for myself. Maybe Nick has a different take. Jim, you may as well. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in seeing Christian Campbell at first, but I kind of saw what he did at second base and I'm not comfortable with him playing second base in the major leagues. I'm just not. So I think this is coming down to a roster crunch here to, to. To make the point across to big. [00:41:54] Speaker A: John stud Nick Diamond. Really quickly. Your take on Grissom and Campbell. [00:42:02] Speaker B: Like Nick said, von Grissom, there's no spot for him and frankly, I don't want him playing second base or first base at the major league level. Defensively, he's not good. He looks scared to throw the ball just from second base to first base. I want no part of him. I think that Von Grissom doesn't do anything better than Romey Gonzalez. He doesn't do anything better than even Nick Sahelgaard. So at that point, let him get his at bats in AAA and maybe trade him eventually. With Christian Campbell, I'm open to seeing that first base. I want more than a 13 game hitting streak in AAA just to call him up off that. I want to see more of an extended period of success, more than just the, you know, a hot streak. So I'd like to see him go at least a month, maybe call him up in September and deal with it back then. I don't want to take Toro out of the lineup at the moment. He's starting to heat up again finally after being horrible for about a month and a half, two months. So I don't want to just send him down and ruin him. Roman Gonzalez can easily play first base and second base. I think that's the way to do it. And I think we have the roster spot not to bring up any of these guys. At the moment we're playing well. I don't want to really mess with it. I'm open to Christian Campbell more than Vaughn Grissom later on in the season, though. [00:43:15] Speaker A: Yeah, some, some great points in there. And just to parlay off what you said, my take on both of them, let me start with Grissom. I think at this point, we're so late in the season that I think you don't want to not only mess with what we're doing on the major league level, but there's really no room for him here. I think you do stay with Toro and Romy Gonzalez in this platoon situation, because unless there's an injury, okay. I don't think you want to actually mess with anything Grissom is doing. Let him rake in the minors because that's the only way I believe that you would be able to build on his value. If you bring him up and he tanks again here in the major league level, if you have any chance of trading him in the off season, it's going to. His value is going to go down. So I'd rather have him just tear it up in the minors and then maybe you can make some sort of trade that, you know, brings us something of value back. So that's how I'll. I'll let that go. As far as Campbell, I still have a lot of faith in him. I don't know if you'll see him this year, but we could see what happens for next season. But I do want to switch gears a little bit. Talk about the Kansas City Royals are up next. Coming into Fenway park. We have the lineup. That's going to be the pitching. Pitching probables are Brian Baio against Bailey Falter. There is Garrett crochet in Game 2 on Tuesday against Ryan Burgert. And then Dustin May gets his first start as a Boston Red Sox and he goes against old friend Michael Waka. Nick Diamond, Take me through this three game series and what are your takes and expectations for this? [00:45:02] Speaker B: You know, right off the bat I think the Red Sox are going to take two of three. I'll give you my reasons why. Bailey Falter is a guy the Royals just acquired at the deadline from the Pittsburgh Pirates. He's a left handed pitcher, synchro ball pitcher, doesn't throw over, doesn't throw super, super hard. I think like 93, 94, 95 maybe. We just saw what the Red Sox did to two lefties against the Astros, so I expect more of the same. They'll look to mash against the left handed pitcher. I think Baio would do enough and the Red Sox will take game one. Game two is the Garrett Crochet start. We haven't seen him in a while. The Red Sox deliberately pushed him back I think originally to Monday or even I think originally pushed him back to Sunday and then Monday and now he's going to pitch Tuesday. So I think Eric Crochet is going to go out there and dominate. I'm not going to pick against Garrett Crochet no matter what. Arguably the best pitcher in baseball. He's a joy to watch every time out there and the Red Sox will probably win game two in game three. I don't have much trust in Dustin May. I just hope he proves me Wrong. He goes out there and the Red Sox have a plan for him that do better than he has at the Dodgers. But like everyone's been saying, if the Dodgers cut you loose, there's a good chance that you're cooked. I don't have a lot of trust in Dustin May. I think the Red Sox lose the finale, but if the, if they take two or three, that'll put them up to a seven game winning streak. And I'd take that coming off. How frustrating. Yeah, you know, frustrating start to a deadline or after the break coming out winning seven games in a row here. I think that'd be really nice. [00:46:24] Speaker A: Nick, face your reactions to the upcoming Kansas City series. [00:46:30] Speaker C: Just to piggyback on Nick's thing with that whole when they lost last Monday before the trade deadline and everything, I think that if this team was last year, that's when you would have collapsed. That Monday, that Monday loss when we had the rain, the rain delay and everything there, we wouldn't even be talking about having this Astro Series be a three game sweep or going into this Royal Series now where you have the potential to once again sweep. I don't know what to expect with Dustin May. That is the biggest question I think all of us are still trying to ponder here on what is he going to provide? What's he going to do? Will he be an upgrade over a Bueller or a Fitz? We need to see that before I can come out and say it's going to be a three game sweep against the Royals. So that's the one that if you can give me five and then get to the bullpen if it's rested, I feel confident that you could get a sweep. I feel Monday and Tuesday though with Baio and then crochet, those are your slam dunkers to me. Slam dunkers. I actually have more faith right now and this isn't anything on crochet on Bellows tomorrow night. I think that's going to be a special one for him Tuesday. The only reason I have a little bit of a question mark. It's not a big question mark, but it's just more of a. He's been off for a little bit. Will he be rusty? Will the command be there? Those are things that I'm going to be looking for. I hope this rest has made him healthier and got him more strength and giving him the stamina to get a great start in. So overall I'm looking at at least two of three here from the Royals and if Dustin May can give you five, heck, if it's longer than that. You'll be smooth sailing here for a three game sweep. [00:48:18] Speaker A: Yeah, kind of piggyback on both of you guys. I feel very confident in the Bayo game. You're facing arguably a rookie or. No, I'm sorry, Burger's been around for a little bit. I'm sorry about that. But he's been kind of a journeyman guy. He was with what, Philly, I think for a while. That's Falter, right? I'm sorry, Falter. Burgert's the rookie, you know, and you know, he's one and oh and you know, a 278 era or something like that. But you know, not a lot of faith there. He's a young guy I think, you know, we can certainly take him in that crochet game. And then as far as Michael Waka, that's the kind of one, the flip coin. If Dustin May has a pretty good start, we can get him deep into that game. You know, maybe the offense comes alive and surprises us. Waka still has a 338 ERA, still been a pretty good guy. So, you know, I feel good about game one. I feel great about game two. Game three is the question mark. So it's, it's, it should either be two out of three or maybe we can sweep them. So but obviously it starts with the first two games. So get those under our belt, get us to a six or seven game win streak and then hopefully we get some losses from Toronto, New York and we can kind of like end this, get, get out to that San, San Diego, you know, series maybe close to first place. Any final takes from either one of you guys tonight? Nick, Face, go ahead. [00:49:39] Speaker C: I don't want to hear the bitching and complaining on Tuesday night when Nessen has the all female broadcast. I just want to make sure that that is out. We are going to warn you here. Now, this is not to say that we aren't for the women. Women should have all equal rights and opportunities and all that sort of thing. I want to make sure I state that very clearly. However, when it comes to consistency and what you want to listen to with your home broadcast, I'm not a big Dave o' Brien fan. I've said that many, many, many times. But when it comes to what you want to listen to for your broadcast, for familiarity and comfort and all that, I think we should have a choice. I really do. I want to state that I think what Apple TV did on Friday, that was one of my first experiences with doing the whole you can choose the radio broadcast. You can choose whatever thing. I thought that was so cool. And I really want to applaud Apple for that quality of a broadcast. The cameras, the effects, all that were just top notch. And I feel we as fans who pay for the product, especially those that pay for NESN and Nessen 360 and all that, our voices should be heard as fans and we should be the ones that are selling the network. This is what we want. It's all great for other people. If they want the opportunity. That's why you have Nessen plus put them on that, that's fine. But when you have to take the consistency factor out within your game, that's not fair and that's not right. And for those that have to sit out this game, a Dave o', Brien, a Lou Maloney, a Will Middlebrooks, whoever the heck they want in there, to me, I'm sorry, that's not right. But if the women want the opportunity, they have every right that they want to do what they want. But we should be able to have the opportunity to still listen to what we feel is right. [00:51:26] Speaker A: Well, I think for, you know, my take on that is, is that we should just deal with the, with the, with the broadcasters that know the team. You know, unfortunately, you know, even with espn, you know, you get Eduardo Perez in there and so forth, and some of these guys are baseball guys, but they just don't have the pulse on that particular team because they're covering everybody and it's not their fault. But there is some really bad broadcasting on Apple TV and Roku and so forth. I mean, Dave o' Brien did today's game, so it wasn't that egregious. But there's been some Apple TV games that I've watched that have been just horrific to listen to. And it's not their fault. They just need to do a better job with either knowing the product, knowing the fans, knowing the players, or they need to, you know, just get the team's guys on that broadcast. Because I will agree with you, the camera angles and the K quality is excellent, for sure. [00:52:19] Speaker B: It's. [00:52:19] Speaker C: It was awesome and it was cool. It was cool. Listening to Sean McDonough and Will Fleming from the Apple broadcast on Friday night, that's something that I had no idea you could do. So that is something that I would absolutely entertain these other networks that do this sort of thing, make it happen, because that, that is listening to what your viewers want. That familiarity, knowing the team, it was great. So a plus on the product from Friday night. Not looking forward to Tuesday. [00:52:47] Speaker A: Nick diamond, your closing thoughts for tonight. [00:52:49] Speaker B: The Royals are the team that just took two or three for the Blue Jays, so they're coming in hot, so we can't take them lightly. I know we had a lot of low expectations for this series against the Astros. I thought the Red Sox would probably win on one, if not get swept. I thought there was a chance of getting swept, a pretty good chance of getting swept. So I just hope they stay up, keep the positive vibes up here. I hope Alex Bregman's in there leading the way, because it seems like that's what happened. I hope it wasn't just to get all the energy up against the Astros because he really wanted to beat the Astros. I hope he keeps the whole team focused going forward and we keep the hot streak going through this royal series and into the San Diego Padres series, who are going to face some good pitching and good players out there. [00:53:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's very important to win this series. I always say, listen, you know, go for the jugular, win all three. And I saw a tweet from Tyler Milliken who was like, oh, well, we won the series, so if we lose today, that's okay. No, it's not okay. It's not okay. I'm tired of the complacency of some of these Red Sox fans that just don't understand baseball. And if you finish. If you had lost today and you finish a game out of a wild card spot, you know, it's not okay. All right, you should. I don't like. I don't like second place. I don't. I'm. I'm not someone that gives, you know, ribbons and awards for 17th place. Second place is the first loser. That's. That's my. That's the way I look at things. So you gotta. You gotta do that. And that's one of the things, and we've talked about it before, with Alex Cora and his juggling of the rotation and the lineup. You know, sometimes it drives me crazy, but, you know, you should go for the jugular on all of those. And I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't want to see any B lineup in this series coming up. I want them to go and step on the neck of the Kansas City Royals in all three of these games, because I have a lot more faith that they could sweep Kansas City than taking three out of four from San Diego or a split. So I want to make sure that these games are in tow. Play it like it's a playoff game now and win these three, and then we can worry about San Diego later. But, yeah, that's my take on that. So I'd like to thank Nick and Nick for joining me tonight. Please go ahead and subscribe to our digital product@redsocks digest.com that's redsox digest.com we have daily articles and some history with Fenway Flashback from there. And he will be back from Alaska and overseas next week. He'll be back on the pod. So we will see you tomorrow night after the game, and then we will be back on Wednesday and Friday's game. Friday's broadcast will be before the San Diego game, but we'll be able to recap the entire Kansas City series. So have a good night, everybody, and we will talk to you tomorrow. [00:56:08] Speaker C: Sam.