Episode 338 - Crochet and the Kids Shine; Sox are 1-0!

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The rest starts hard to move the pile.

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This game is time.

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Strike three calls.

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20 and it's three points over.

The rest starts up on the world championship.

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Sammy's here.

Gordo's here.

Pat had a little fender bender

over this car.

Pat's not here.

He's okay.

He's okay.

We checked.

We checked.

He's fine.

Just annoyed.

We did check a couple of times.

Not his fault, either.

Crash was not his fault.

Of course it's not.

No, Dr. P.

That could have been his fault.

He could be lying.

I got all the faith in the world.

You believe him?

I believe.

I stand with Pat.

I stand with Pat, too.

Pat wouldn't lie about who's fault the car crash was.

No, we also have no clue who the other person was.

So I believe Pat over that.

But you believe Pat or some random person.

That random person could be anyone.

It could be Aaron Judge, who's we'll be taken.

We also don't know if the random person is claiming

that the random person could fully agree

that it was their fault.

And our next interview is the random person

for tomorrow's episode on what would that be?

A fourth straight day of play Tessie, right?

We have to just some,

we completely blank the person's face

and give them like a...

Or wash their germs like this.

And just have them explain their side.

And we are, we're the legal process.

Play Tessie.

You and I were like, were the judge and Jerry?

Yeah, you should know how to do that.

Yeah, I know how to do it.

Great, cool.

Let's see you guys tomorrow.

Yeah, all right.

Two minute pod.

Pat, I'll be back tomorrow.

We'll get his set of story.

Yeah, it's a shame there's nothing else

to talk about.

Yeah, no regular season baseball,

like meaningful games or anything like.

Socks don't have them played in ages.

I don't know when the next game they're gonna play is.

Certainly not tomorrow or today if you're listening

on drop day, they certainly do not play a game on drop day.

Drop day, Friday.

Friday is filled with baseball games typically,

not for the Red Socks.

I hate that.

Before we get into how awesome today was

in the opening day and just the season beginning

and everything, like, and I get why they do it

because if there's a rain out, you wanna give the people

who had opening day tickets a chance to go to the opener.

Is that why?

Is that why?

It's for rain out purposes, yeah.

So do dome teams not do that?

Oh, we should check on that.

I have heard that, but it could be wrong.

It could just be like a weird off day after like the first day,

but I've heard it's for rain out purposes.

If that is true, then thank you

because I have learned something new.

I did not know that.

You know what they say, Sam,

you learn something new in this game every day.

You always see something you've never seen before

today.

Well, you've probably saw something today

that you didn't see before.

Oh, well, other than ABS.

Okay, other than ABS, yes.

That also, that also.

I have never seen a player hit a line drive to first base

and the first basement get drilled

and just not even try to feel the ball

because they're in that much pain.

And that's what happened with Roman Anthony

hitting a 110.2 mile per hour missile at Sal Stewart,

who thankfully just like Dr. P, he's okay as well.

But there you go.

That's everyone always says,

are you always see something in baseball?

You've never seen before

and it's kind of like a tongue in cheek

like baseball is weird sport.

But it really is true.

Have you ever seen that?

I can't recall a single instance

where like that specific play has happened.

No, I was watching and my wife was sitting behind me.

I go, look up.

This guy just got smoked.

He's not even trying to get the ball.

Risk is definitely broken.

The fact that, I mean, don't get me wrong.

Like, understand, I'm sure he was in a ton of pain.

I'm sure it killed.

But if your wrist is not in pieces,

you have to get the ball to touch the base.

Dude, I mean, come on.

He was probably in shot 110.2 miles an hour is...

I'm not gonna knock the guy.

It's Sal Stewart, right?

I got the name.

Okay.

I'm not gonna knock the guy for that.

That is a missile.

It does not.

You don't really see balls hit much harder than that ever.

Get the out.

Listen, I remember when I was a kid

watching a random Yankee game,

it might have been Sox Yankees

and Hideki Matsui ran into the wall trying to make a play

and he broke his throwing wrist

and yet still picked the ball up and threw it in

with his broken wrist.

So Sal Stewart, get the out.

But listen, Joe, I see you here.

I'm gonna get to you.

But the thing that I saw today that I'd never seen before

was a 21-year-old reaching base four times on opening day,

which had only happened 13 times beforehand.

Kevin McGonagall did it today too.

So, oh my God.

But it had only happened 13 times prior

and nine of those 13 guys that did it prior

to Roman Anthony or Hall of Famers.

So that's something I'd never seen before

that I saw today.

Wait, what was the last part?

Nine of them are Hall of Famers?

Nine of them.

Oh my God.

I thought you said none of them are Hall of Famers.

I was like, why would you throw that in at the end?

That completely douses the thing you were trying to talk up.

Yeah, I mean, there's not a lot more to say about Roman Anthony

that hasn't already been said.

He looks unbelievable, three hits to start us off

and then the ABS call, the challenge might have been

the most impressive part

because that was a two run swing.

You get, he gets punched out in the ninth inning

or yeah, in the ninth inning,

it's one nothing heading to the ninth

in great American small park where the reds play.

It's a run scoring paradise despite the score today.

Big difference, three nothing, one nothing, impressive.

Yeah, and maybe the most impressive part about it

was how confident he was.

You could tell 100% certainty

and it's not like that ball was like three feet off the plate.

No, I mean, it was a ball, it was definitely a ball.

But a lot of guys, you could see it today.

There was some tentativeness.

I think a story, not the one where it was above the zone

that he probably should have challenged.

It was another one where he lightly tapped his head

and the hump was like,

no, you didn't do that.

You didn't do it profoundly enough and in time.

Roman, on that one was like, that's a ball.

Yeah, stories was an inside pitch following at that,

I believe, and he was kind of too tentative.

That's one thing I didn't really take into consideration.

You really have to declare I am challenging.

You can't be like, give me a second to think about it.

You got two seconds and I love that.

It just means that guys aren't going to abuse it.

I want to say that ABS barely impacted the game

but it really did in the end.

It didn't make the game feel differently though,

if that makes sense.

Like the flow of the game was all the same

even though it did impact in the end in a pretty significant way.

It didn't feel very different though

and that's same thing with the pitch clock.

That's what I was worried about.

I didn't want it to feel like a different game.

We've only watched one with ABS, with Red Sox,

but good reviews from me so far.

Yeah, like we'll wait till it hurts us and then we'll talk.

But the truth of the matter is you're right

in terms of flow of the game,

didn't feel any differently.

And in terms of what we actually saw overturned,

like there was one, the first one that our Vias got right,

it was nice, you know, it was a strikeout,

I think it ended the ending, but the one with Roman.

That's the big one.

And in previous years, that's a low ball called a strike.

It ends the ending, we're frustrated,

but it's like, okay, you know what, like it's still one nothing.

Like let's just hold our breath here in this ninth inning.

We know a role this is good,

but we haven't seen him this year, yet this year.

And that's what's going through our heads now.

It's you got two guys on base,

you got a chance for Trevor's story to drive in a run,

you got a chance for Jeremy to ran to drive in a run.

So it definitely changed the game,

but it changed the game for the better

because what should have happened happened.

Right, right.

And it didn't feel invasive at all.

It felt like, you know, Roman was rewarded for having a good eye.

He wasn't, you know, punished for taking a pitch

that was too close.

That's something that has been said

since baseball's been around.

Oh, that pitch is too close to take with two strikes.

Well, that's kind of out the window now,

a little bit out the window now, I should say,

because now Roman takes a pitch down,

it's called a strike, technically a ball, very close.

Historically, you would have said you have to swing.

It's too close.

A nope challenge to run swing, Red Sox win.

I like it, man.

I like it.

I reserve the right to change my mind, though.

I will say that.

We certainly will at some point.

This is going to, this is very much going to be a,

if it helps us, I love it.

If it doesn't, I hate it type situation for a while.

Well, I, I'm not saying I won't be saying it's good

for the game.

I think it's good for the game,

but I'm just saying, like, if that happened to us

the other way around, like, I'm not saying I would,

I would be arguing to get rid of the thing,

but I'd be saying, fuck this shit.

What would we, no, what would we actually be saying?

Because I think I would say, God, that's painful,

but like, I'd probably say what you just said.

If it happened to us, I'd be thrilled,

probably looking at the other argument

from the other argument.

Yeah.

Joe, we, we cut you off before.

You came in for a thought,

and then we just kept going for a little bit.

What were you about to say before

at the risk of this being from something like five minutes ago?

Well, I mean, it is relative to Roman.

Yeah, he had a great day, four hits, the ABS.

What do I mean, that line drive hit a guy

he played with in high school, South Stewart.

Yes.

If you were listening to the radio broadcasts,

Will Middlebrooks pulled the ultimate flex

and got a text from Anthony Anthony.

Say that he and South Stewart were playing each other

in high school, so they go way back.

That's crazy.

I didn't know that travel dollar something.

God, the kids today, man, I mean, South Stewart,

I mean, I know he got roped in the wrist,

but he showed out today too.

He looked good, Marcelo looked awesome.

Like, we can get into him in a little bit,

but like, South Stewart, I don't think,

I want to say almost nobody knows who South Stewart is.

I don't know about that, isn't he?

Second best thoughts to win NL Rookie of the Year behind McLean?

He's a good prospect, but it's tough and Cincinnati.

Yeah, I don't know.

Like, I learned about South Stewart mostly

because I was preparing for like fantasy baseball stuff.

I don't think I'd heard anything like any hype on South Stewart.

I maybe I'm just missing it,

but I hadn't really heard anything

until I like actually researched kids

who could be like good rookies for this year.

I remember last year he made his debut,

and I don't remember if it was for any specific reason,

but they pan to his dad and South Stewart,

very Italian.

His dad was tearing up in the stands,

and it was a beautiful moment,

very, very Italian moment.

Like, hey, it's my boy, are you doing it?

Hmm, yeah, very Italian.

Very Italian line drive off the wrist.

That double Italian, that's Italian

on Italian crime right there.

It's an Italian baseball right there.

Send it to the Italy baseball hall of fame

along with Greg Weissert's jersey.

Maranera Rivera.

You know, I swear, Lew, I thought Lew was gonna say it on the broad,

because we talked to Lew about that, right?

It's spring training.

You can pick that nickname at some point.

Like he talked about Weissert and the Italian stuff

on the broadcast today briefly,

and I was like, oh my God, is he gonna pull it out?

Maybe, maybe when Weissert actually pitches.

Like, we gotta blow him up on Twitter

if he doesn't when Weissert's in.

Like, Lew, Maranera, Maranera Rivera.

It is, you know, not to toot my own horn.

I feel like that's a solid nickname.

That, like, listen, I love the NARV,

and I will continue to use the NARV.

Maranera Rivera is definitely your best work, easily.

Thank you.

Because like, I love the NARV,

but it's funny because it's stupid.

Maranera Rivera is good for actually being good.

Yeah, the NARV is just a play on the Noid,

that my brain, for some reason,

connected to Carlos Narvae as poor guy.

The NARV is, the NARV is,

it's only funny because it's so dumb and makes zero sense.

Like, the Noid, like, what does the Noid have to do with anything?

Oh, it just fits.

Just fits, dude, it just fits.

Sometimes it just works.

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Works.

Okay, two things I want to talk about,

they're kind of interconnected.

First off, I guess we can go what's the thing

where you said in the right order in what?

Chronological.

Chronological order, thank you, Sammy.

When they released the lineup today, people...

Okay, you me and Pat on a previous play, Tessie,

we talked about who we thought was going to start opening day

and I think the three of us had all different answers.

I said Marcelo Meyer, even if it's a lefty,

just as kind of like a salute to him for winning the job,

like let him face a lefty on opening day,

even if it's not ideal match up rising.

That is not what happened.

And Pat said Monasterio because he is the guy

who should be the lefty,

they were the left-handed pitcher, Platoon.

I said I thought it was going to be IKF

because I thought they would give the veteran the nod

and then eventually, and then like soon,

it would just become Monasterio's Platoon.

I don't think any of that's true.

It kind of seems like IKF is going to get,

I should say, the lion's share of the second

these are up against left-handed pitching.

Yeah, the bulk of the weak side, Platoon, you could call.

Which like, okay, if you want to get upset about the lineup

because IKF was in there over Marcelo,

I've got a problem with that because first off,

they do this with every rookie we've talked about this last year.

We talk about it every year when a left-handed kid comes up

and they don't play against lefties and people freak out

because they want to see the kid.

The Red Sox do this with everybody.

They certainly should be doing it with Marcelo

who struggled mightily against left-handed pitching

in the majors last year granted.

I think it was only 27 played appearances.

Well, Miners is good.

Miners too.

Yeah, struggled against lefties in the minors

and if he's an obvious candidate for,

let's let this guy figure out right-handed pitching

at the big league level before he figures out,

before he has to figure out left-handed pitching.

I think it makes a ton of sense.

The IKF versus Monasterio thing,

that's where the discussion starts for me.

It's really hard to think of a reason

because you can look at the splits

and it doesn't take a genius to see that Monasterio

has had success against left-handed pitching in the past

whereas IKF is not really good against lefties or righties.

Defensively, IKF may be a little bit better

but it's negligible on my opinion.

I don't really get the obsession with IKF.

I'm willing to let it play out before I start to say,

like, get this guy out of here.

I don't want him on the team.

I'm trying, I tried not to freak out today

when I saw the lineup.

You will not catch me freaking out

about the opening day lineup order.

I think that's, I'm so far beyond that.

At this point, I've seen way too many opening days

and I know how long of a season it is

to complain about the first lineup of 162.

That said, I was a little bit surprised to see IKF

hitting seventh as well,

which I have a theory as to why he was seventh

and we'll get to that later.

But I just think it makes so much more sense

to put Monasterio in that spot against the left team.

No, I mean, listen, for me, like,

if the thought was IKF's getting opening day

because he's the guy you paid $6 million to,

which I would love to know if they knew Monasterio

was coming when they signed that contract

which the trade happened I want to say like four days later.

It was like within a week.

There's no way they knew

that they were going to be able to get Monasterio.

It makes no sense like they create,

intentionally create another log jam.

What does IKF do that Monasterio does not do?

Shortstop, I mean, I know Monasterio can play shortstop

but I'm sure there, like if Trevor's story went down

and they don't want to play Marcelo there,

IKF is probably like the guy you would trust

a little bit more, like if you needed him

to just be your starting shortstop for a month.

Little bit, but I think that's so ticky tacky.

Like if you're getting decent defense from Monasterio,

it's so, it's such a small boost.

You're probably right, Gordo.

If, well, I'm not sure that's the reason.

But to me, like, it's, if Trevor's story went down,

the way I would look at it is,

oh, this is a perfect excuse to get Marcelo Myers feet wet

at shortstop.

And I understand you don't want to platoon shortstop

and you don't want to play Meyer full-time against lefties.

So I get that, but at the same time,

I mean, if Trevor's story went down in April in May

or whatever, like I guess you just cut your losses

and you play the kid, or you platoon the shortstop

with someone you'd rather not be playing the position

like Monasterio, but in the end, you've got both guys.

And one of them, you paid $6 million to get.

So he, as the veteran, he's going to get first shot.

How is Monasterio a shortstop?

I know he's solid at second and third,

but shortstop, as we know, is a different beast.

We've seen this before.

I'm going to look and while I pull it up,

yeah, I mean, he's definitely his third best position.

Yeah, I mean, when he got here, here, I got it.

He was old as third and second for the most part.

Utility of a third and second.

Like it's shortstop was not a selling point

to the people that were like,

hey, check out this Monasterio guy.

So just strictly speaking, Major League level,

he's played 671 innings at third base,

which is by far the most he is a positive defender there

ever so slightly.

So he's a little bit above average.

Second base, 392 in a third inning.

So that's his second most played position.

He's got a mixed bag.

D.R.S. really likes him.

OAA does not like him.

You know, take those with a grain of salt always.

And then shortstop, he's only played 236 innings,

but he's pretty much neutral there.

Hard to say in these fielding metrics,

they're not perfect.

I think that of all the baseball stats

there are fielding metrics are the least reliable.

They're still useful.

I still look at him.

I still encourage people to use him,

but yeah, I mean, how much better could IKFB

than Monasterio at shortstop?

Because IKF historically has been good,

but not incredible.

Yeah, and certainly last year,

he, the recent data says that IKF is good at third and second

and not particularly good at shortstop anymore.

I know he's been there, been good in the past,

but like, this guy's a vet.

He's been around a while.

Yeah.

I mean, he's not old, 31.

That's not like, oh he's 31.

Yeah, story's 33.

That's like, I could see a guy kind of declining defensively

and I know it's only a two year difference,

but think about how many games

if you're playing every day,

how much time you're spending on the field

the wear and tear on your body.

That's a lot of time at that age to be playing what?

That would be 300, what's 162 times two?

Three, 20, 14.

Four, yeah.

It's a lot of games, man.

It's a lot of games.

Yeah, but in the end, like whether it's Monasterio or IKF,

like we're gonna have that conversation a bunch.

Like we'll see, I mean, I think you mentioned on radio

that they face only a couple of lefties

in their first few weeks of the season here.

So I don't know how much we'll be having

that conversation coming up, but what we will,

what we do know is that Marcelo Meyer

is not gonna be getting those starts against lefties

and I'm sure that latent games

if lefty relievers are in there,

which I think against the Red Sox, you're gonna see a lot.

You saw Terry Francona do it today.

He went to his lefties.

All these teams are gonna be going

to their lefties against the Red Sox.

There's no part of the lineup

where a left handed pitcher can't have the advantage

against the Red Sox versus a righty.

Like, is there a pocket of three

where you would say, oh, let me go to a righty here

over a lefty if you outside of like the righty

just being significantly better?

I guess you could argue.

Now I was gonna say the top four of the lineup,

but even then you'd rather Roman have his tougher endedness.

Yeah, there's really not a slot where you would go to a righty.

Like you said, unless that righty is a star reliever,

but in most cases, I think teams are gonna be saving

their lefties for the Red Sox.

The only place you could argue is story, Durand Contreras,

but even then, like story and Contreras

can kinda hit both Durand and Durand,

obviously significantly better against righties.

So you could even make the argument there

that the lefty is better for that spot.

In the end, like what most teams will probably end up doing

is leaving their, leaving their righty for story

and then switch it for Durand.

So it's just that you're gonna see a lot of lefty relievers.

That's what I'm trying to get out here.

And Marcelo Meyer is gonna be coming into the lineup late.

He's gonna be starting games and exiting them early.

Today, he didn't start the game,

but he was one of the most impactful players on the field.

I mean, it was really the two buddies attached

at the hip, Marcelo and Roman Anthony,

and stayed on with the big RBI too,

but Marcelo and Roman, to me, the two stars of the game

and Marcelo coming off the bench

and hitting that double to lead off the inning,

really put yourself in a position to soar run

at that point of the game when you needed it.

I mean, he set it after the game.

He never, he's never pinched.

Yeah.

So I have a theory about the lineup

and what you just explained just now, Gordo.

There is no pocket in which I think a righty

would serve better than a lefty.

However, it looked like Alex Cora was trying to lure

Terry Francona into putting a righty in the lineup

by stacking those three right-handed bats

at the bottom of the order, IKF, Narvaez,

Cedon Raffela, so that he could then pinch hit

with Marcelo Meyer, and I tweeted before the game,

I think Yoshida is gonna have a pinch hit moment

for that reason.

I got the player wrong.

He ended up going with Meyer,

which in retrospect makes more sense

because he plays the same position as IKF.

So Fui on me, but it worked.

What do you think about that theory?

Am I way overthinking it?

Or do you think that has legs?

Well, I'll ask you this is which one of those guys

would you rather be hitting higher?

Like to me, those are your three bottom of the order hitters

if they're all gonna be in the lineup.

Right, yeah.

I just think he likes to split them up most of the time.

True, but I think against the left-handed starter,

you're trying to limit, who hit left-handed in today's lineup?

Was it just Willie and DeRan?

That was it.

Roman.

Oh, Roman too, okay, the three of those guys.

The thing, it's just so frustrating.

And I want to give DeRan a shot,

and especially since he, and he did get a hit

off a lefty reliever today.

He was hanging in there.

He wasn't chasing those outside pitches

like he often does, little credit to him.

Yeah, but it just, for me, it is frustrating

where it's like your three-hitter,

when there's a left-handed starter,

you don't feel particularly confident

when your three-hitter comes up to the plate.

Yeah, that's not good.

Again, I want to give him a chance,

but it's just what I'm feeling in the moment.

At least start the game, Roman gets the hit.

And actually, DeRan got two hits off the lefties

because he had the infield single two off the habit

in the first.

Yeah, two hits, but he didn't, you know.

Thank you.

That's a quote unquote hit.

He didn't hit the ball hard.

He didn't do what he wanted to do with that ball.

The result was good, but yeah, it's not ideal

to have a guy hitting third with such extreme splits,

especially when it's the weak side split

for the majority of the lineup, almost the entire lineup.

But I think that's what a lot of the games against left-handed

starters are going to look like for the Red Sox.

It's going to have to be a lot of good defense,

good pitching, scrape across runs when you can't

or get to the bullpen.

That was the whole thing with Andrew Abbott today.

You got him out of the game, Cincinnati bullpen,

laps, bunch of lambs.

Yeah, I mean, you said it.

And I tweeted it right after the game,

but particularly against left-handed starters,

and to be honest with you,

maybe even against a lot of right-handed pitching too,

just because, I mean, again, like this team

is shorthanded offensively compared to other Red Sox teams

that have been playoff caliber teams in the past.

But we'll stick to lefty starters here.

That's the formula.

Whether it be Crochet or any of these other guys,

like I know with Crochet,

you're incredibly confident that you're going to get

six really strong innings,

and you can get you to the bullpen.

But with all these guys, you can get six strong innings.

And that's really what you need to do is

have the starter give you a good start,

and you go to Slate and Whitlock Chapman,

and you hope your offense got you three, four, five runs

at some point throughout the game,

and you close it out with your big guns at the end,

and today it just happened to be your offense scraped

them across late, and Crochet put up a big fat zero.

But let's be real though, you can't live like that.

I feel like this is going to be an issue all year long.

Oh, 100%.

Yeah.

And hitting against lefty, I mean, it was your biggest concern.

And honestly, it could have just as easily been mine

in Pats too, and we talked about it on radio with Rob Lake.

It's a thing.

You saw the lineup today, Jaren Durand,

who you could argue should be a platoon bat,

based off of what we saw last year.

Again, I want to give him the chance

because he had a good spring training against lefties.

But based off of the last major league data,

we've seen he and theory should be a platoon bat

against lefties, and he's your three hitter.

You don't have Rob Reff Snyder.

You don't have Roman Gonzalez.

You don't have Alex Bergman,

although you replaced him with Wilson Contreras,

like the guys that made your lineup adequate

against lefties last year, they're not here,

and it's a completely different group,

and you're relying on guys like Story and Contreras,

and Roman, even in a lefty-lefty matchup,

those are gonna be your damage guys,

and I know Durand's the right-handed hitter,

but he's not necessarily a big,

extra-base-hit-power-who-one.

Neutral.

Damage guy.

Yeah, I mean, the power would be great,

but that's not the only way they can,

I'm not gonna say solve this issue,

but mitigate the issue.

Small ball and a stealing basis.

They did both of those today.

Narvae is holy shit.

What a bun.

That was, you rarely see that nowadays.

Stuff like that, Durand ran.

Is there a second stolen base they am for getting about?

It might have been just a ran.

No, didn't Seidon end up going?

Seidon went, but there was a ground ball directly

up the middle, and the guy filled it, yeah.

But those, that's the way around.

When you have a weaker lineup against left-handed pitching,

and you're facing a guy like Andrew Abbott,

that's an all-star, that's a very good left-handed pitcher.

You gotta steal bags,

you gotta play small ball if the home runs aren't coming,

and I like that, at least we saw the Red Sox willingness

to do that today.

Well, that's a stain over a full 162.

I am not 100% sure.

I hope we don't have to find out.

Oh, there's a little bit more power

than we saw an opening day way too early to tell, of course.

But there is another option,

and I do think that's a nice thing to have.

I trick up the sleeve, if you will.

I do wanna do some push-ups this year.

Dude, I can't believe we're only doing 15 at home now.

Give me a break.

It's a small thing.

I might do 16, I might do 16, yeah.

All right, I'll do 16.

And then at the end of the year,

we'll count up all the home runs.

I'll be like, Gordo, look how many more push-ups I did.

You could have been this much stronger.

No.

I had some people saying that they were gonna,

someone in my comments said they're doing 20.

I was like, okay, you big dogged me,

but I like it because you're buying into the movement.

I saw a guy say he was gonna do,

I think it was like kettlebell squats or something.

Oh, yeah, were you swinging them up and down?

That, what are they called?

I don't know.

Kettle raises.

This is why we need Pat.

I've done, I've done these before.

I've done these before.

Yeah, kettlebell lateral raises, kettlebell forward,

front raises, kettlebell swing.

Kettlebell, just do kettlebells.

Get the ones that have like a gorilla face on it.

It looks really cool.

You'll feel cool while you work out.

And you'll be fit just like Gordo.

Yep.

Well, I'm not fit yet, but I will be if they hit some home runs,

that will be very fit.

But it feels like a lot of those home runs

can might come against right-handed pitching.

So I'm gonna hit the first home run of the year

for the Red Sox.

IKF.

That would be, I mean, that would be

legitimately hilarious if I came.

I don't think IKF is gonna pay, nope.

It's late for until Monday.

So we're just not gonna see a home run until Monday.

There you go.

I'm just excited for some classic IKF infield singles.

So when he came up at some point with a guy on first base

and I was like, you know, I watched this guy

a fair amount in spring training

and I've seen some of the data from the past

where it's like he just, yeah, he hits the ball,

but it's weak and it's in the ground.

Nothing I got you all coming up with less than two outs

of a man on first base.

I kind of like, I feel less locked in as a fan

when I came up with hitting.

Like when Rowan, when Rowan's up by chance, dude,

I mean, does he deserve the chance?

I'm not, I'm, I'm, I'm, I will give him a shot.

I'm just saying, I think we know who we're getting.

That was his 919th MLB game and his 3,112 at bat today.

We saw it.

So listen, dude, we haven't seen him hit

as a member of the Red Sox with the monster

and left though, dude, dude.

Fenway Pock, IKF, dude, I can't even get the joke.

Kind of a leopard, dude.

It's like falafel, huh?

So my friend of mine calls him kind falafel.

There you go.

He's a kind falafel.

Bootruck, welcome to kind falafel

where spreading cheer and Lebanese food.

But yeah, I feel, I feel bad for him

because like before the game even starts,

he's just getting crushed on Twitter for nothing.

He didn't do anything.

And then during the game, the socks start scoring

as soon as he's out of the game.

And you have mutt tweeting the Red Sox

have scored in every inning that that IKF

has not put in the game.

He doesn't, he didn't do what he got when he was off.

He took the best offer and he's playing

when the Red Sox choose to play him.

But it's gonna be a whole year thing.

For $6 million, I would walk the stands of Fenway

every single home game and just let people

throw rotten tomatoes at me.

I do basically anything for $6 million.

So I don't feel that bad for him.

Plus his legacy is already cemented.

He, he, wait until I think of something.

He has one.

I thought of something.

I wanted four, four different jersey numbers.

That's, that's something.

Sammy, his legacy is not taking the long enough

lead off third place in game seven.

Oh my God, dude, we're gonna meet IKF

and he's gonna be so nice and we're gonna feel terrible

about all this.

Oh, I've heard amazing things about IKF, the person.

You talking about, is he?

Yeah, you're talking about Hawaiian hustle, right?

Yeah, yeah, him.

Yeah, that's, that's like the, oh,

we lost Rob Refsnider.

We need another veteran in the clubhouse.

It's bringing Izzy.

We're bringing Izzy, the 20,

21,594th big leagueer of all time.

Wow.

Yeah.

So, so yeah, go IKF.

This is a pro IKF pod.

We definitely have talked more good about him than bad.

Definitely, hold on, here, ready, spin zone.

That's just not true at all.

You're right, that was, that was a lie.

I'll let you try, but I'm gonna tell you something

that is true.

On this podcast, this, this 30, we're 32 minutes in.

We, a higher percentage of our conversation

about Isaiah Kiner-Fileffa is positive

than anyone else who's talked about him online

or on other podcasts like we are certainly the most positive

outside of Bradford.

Bradford was definitely the most positive

about the Kiner-Fileffa man.

Second, most positive, Izzy pod.

Yep.

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To transition to someone that definitely impacted

the game a little bit more today,

Gare crochet.

I know we have a tendency to just kind of,

and we did this all last year where crochet

would go eight shut out,

and we would record a pod that night,

and we would barely talk about it.

Because it's just the truth with Gare crochet is,

he steps on the mound,

he shoves it up your ass, you go home.

And that's basically what it was all year.

Sammy.

I have to admit something embarrassing.

This is actually a little bit embarrassing.

Before the game, I was slightly, slightly worried

about today, just about today for crochet,

because he was very, not like he was bad in spring training,

just weird, very weird spring training for him.

And I wanted to say that on the pod,

because it was embarrassing,

and I should know better that these spring training games

are not how he's gonna pitch in the regular season games.

He's gonna go with what he trusts,

and he did in two strike counts.

He was going to the fastball,

or he was bearing the slider sweeper, whatever in the dirt.

So again, for the second time this episode,

fully on me, I should have known better.

Please continue.

Yeah, I mean, I think you'd be lying to yourself

if from the outside you didn't have it.

And again, not for like the full season.

I think we all thought Gare crochet was gonna be great

all season, but if you, if you didn't,

there was a part of anyone who saw the spring training

that crochet had and thought to themselves.

Okay, like let's see how it goes a little bit here first,

because we just hadn't seen it.

But you hear Alex Kora talking about,

yeah, I mean, in two strike counts and spring training,

he's trying all this new stuff.

Like it's spring training for a reason,

you're working on stuff.

And it's like, we always understand that

when we get to the season.

But to me, when I see dudes struggle in spring training,

I always wonder, like, could it leak into like the first week

of the season for a pitcher for start maybe two?

With crochet, I definitely, I mean, he was,

he's gonna be Garrett crochet.

But yeah, I mean, in the hitters ballpark that,

what is it, what's Cincinnati's ballpark called?

Great American ballpark.

Great American ballpark in the great American ballpark.

Small park.

Yeah, the great American small park.

Would it, would it have been the most shocking thing

in the world after that spring training that he had

to see him go like four and two thirds, four runs?

And then you see him kind of get it together

in a second or third start and then he's well off and going.

Would have been the craziest thing.

No, and he didn't have a great first start in 2025.

Wasn't bad.

If he had an outing like he had in Texas last year

to kick off the season, we're like, all right, yeah,

he looked fine, not his best, he kept them in the game,

whatever they won.

That wouldn't shock me whatsoever.

But this was, this was like mid season,

classic, classic Garrett crochet.

And I have to ask, what do you think he yelled

when he came off the mound?

Cause I have a theory.

So you texted that, but I didn't see it.

So I didn't, I didn't get a chance to read his lips.

This is up the last K.

This is the last K in the sixth.

Yeah, to get out of the jam, hold on,

I want to try to find a video because he definitely,

I'm like, don't even worry, we're,

so for YouTube update, I want to say we are back on YouTube

either a week from Monday or maybe even for the later

in the week episode next week, we'll figure it out.

But I'm going to try to pull it up so I can see it.

Yeah, try to find it.

I am, let's say 85% sure.

He said something, something, you pussy.

All right.

Pretty sure that is exactly what it looked like.

Did you find it?

Oh, the video, the video I posted on it

cuts off beforehand.

It, it looked like he said something like that.

I got a few people texting me saying like,

did he just call the batter a pussy?

I don't know if he did, he looked like it.

But either way, I love seeing crochet get fired up.

I'm sure there's going to be a John Boy

lip reading about it at some point,

probably like tomorrow or so today, if you're listening.

I'm going to probably be checking all day

because I really want to know what he said.

Either way, crochet scream, walk, walk.

Yeah, I reminder, you guys need to hold me to this.

I got to put that crochet where he said

last year, good spring, bad for a start.

This year, bad spring.

Yeah, that's got to be on the board.

That's got to be on the soundboard.

And all I could think about,

I think by the time he'd finished his third inning,

that's what was going through my head.

And I was like, okay, I'm not going to post this

until at least he gets through five.

And he got through five and I posted it

and some people were telling me I was jinxing it

and he loads the bases in the sixth.

It's, oh God.

All right, wait, it looks like we've got video.

That's why we got Joe.

Oh, it's slow mo, okay.

Sit down, you pussy.

It looks like he said, let's see.

Joe, can you send that to Gordo so we can see it?

Cause it's a little grainy on the screen

and I'm like dying to get to the bottom of this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe said it to me and we'll get to the bottom of it.

But either which way, crochet?

Oh my God.

I love when he looks like he's, go ahead.

And on the day that his play Tessie,

second appearance podcast guest appearance dropped,

if you haven't listened to that,

the episode either right below this one

or right above it, I don't know where it is,

but it's right next to this.

You just look around, you'll find it

and it's really good so you should click it.

Do some digging.

It goes a bit off the rails in the best way.

I think it's awesome to see the personality

of a guy who, as you saw in opening day,

is absolutely dominant and terrifying on the mound.

And then when you interview him at Spring Training,

he's like the nicest guy and he's super cool

and he's telling Gordo to get mental health

for his clothing choices.

What he said, he said, did you seek help?

Did you seek help?

He's looking out.

So not only is he dominating for the Red Sox,

he's looking out for the fan-based, the podcasters.

He wants us all to have strong mental and physical health.

God.

All right, before we get to enough said,

actually, I got to pull up the quote.

I know, actually, I think I quote tweeted,

Ian Brown posted Alex Cors, quote,

I want to talk about the outfield a little bit

because it hit me a little bit today.

When they announced the lineup and I thought about Durran,

he's actually D.H.ing, like that we're actually doing this.

Durran is actually D.H.ing, Masa Yoshida is actually not playing,

he's on the bench and he's actually not playing.

Fifth outfielder.

The fifth outfielder.

Okay, Cora on the outfield D.H. equation.

We'll see how it plays out.

I don't want Roman to become a D.H.

I don't want JD to become a D.H.

Like I said before, when Seidon doesn't play centerfield,

JD will play centerfield.

When Willier doesn't play rightfield,

JD will play leftfield, Roman will play right.

And then we have to mix in Masa.

So I know it's going to be a topic throughout 162 plus

and I respect that, but there's nothing behind it,

analytic wise, information wise,

they're all good at what they do, all of them.

So taking care of them physically is very important.

Throughout the seasons, Willier hasn't been able to post

every day, JD has been able to do that.

Seidon towards the end of the season has tailed off.

So having five is going to help us

make sure everyone's fresh when it matters.

So I guess it's sort of just like a disbelief factor

in my head that like, how are they actually going to do this?

Because he's right.

Jared Durran is not a D.H.

And we haven't talked about this much on the podcast,

but a guy who is definitely very tough on himself.

Like Durran, I think more than anyone on this team,

very tough on himself.

And now you're saying, if he has a tough strike out,

he's now going to marinate in that on the bench

until his next A.B.

Now, obviously Seidon is not going to D.H.,

Abreu is not going to D.H., they're your goal-glovers.

So it's either going to be Roman or Durran.

And Roman, we've got people talking about

as a potential MVP candidate this year.

Like, this is the next great Red Sox superstar.

And as Korah said, they don't want him to become a D.H.

They want him to be able to show out and be himself.

How the hell, and obviously Masa factors

into all of this too, not even playing.

Like, we talk about it all off season

because we're looking at the bigger picture.

What I'm getting at here is how,

like we talk about the five outfiters singing

in all off season, oh, Durran's going to D.H.

They'll make everyone a D.H. at some point.

How is it, like, on a day-to-day basis?

How is this actually going to work?

I think Roman's going to get the bulk of the left field time.

I do think Korah is going to rotate Durran

in a good amount.

I don't think it's going to be 50-50.

I think it's going to be 65-35 for,

in favor of Anthony and left field.

So fair share for Durran, but he's going to be the primary D.H.

Yoshida, like we've been talking about him not fitting

for the past three seasons now.

It has never been more true than it is right now.

I don't see a way he fits into the starting lineup.

I don't see many pinch hitting spots.

I won't even get into the hypotheticals.

I don't see many pinch hitting spots.

It makes no sense that he's on the roster.

And I still have no faith in the Red Sox getting him off the roster.

The only thing at this point that I could see happening

is if some team out there has some catastrophic injury

and the Red Sox eat a little bit of money

and or a lot of money, I should say.

And they ship off Yoshida for basically zilts.

Like this is, talk about bad roster fits.

You can't really have a worse profile for a bench guy

than what Yoshida has right now.

I just, I think it's going to be a story every single day

that there's a lineup card that drops

because there's always going to be someone at D.H.

that shouldn't be D.H.ing.

And there's always going to be someone on the bench

firing like a routine off day, but like with Yoshida,

he's going to be on the bench a ton.

And he was their best hitter down the stretch.

And it's like, you want to give to Ren

and Abriu off days against lefties, right?

Like that would be the perfect time

to give those guys off days.

But Yoshida being inserted into the lineup

against lefties, he was awful against lefties last year.

Yeah.

So the lineup fit, like the roster fit makes no sense

outside of pure insurance factor, which is what I've argued.

Like I don't want to just get rid of this guy

for nothing, at least until Tristan Cossus is healthy.

It's just, it is going to be a story every single day.

That's just where I'm at with it.

Wouldn't you rather Nate eaten on the bench, though?

Righty, a little bit of speed can play a bit around the field.

He just does more.

And I feel like the insurance thing, like,

you still have four other outfielders like this.

There's four other guys.

I think if you could guarantee me health, I would say yes.

But let's say you shipped off Masa,

you D.H.A. to them for nothing.

Nate Eaton's now on your bench.

And now any of the four outfielders gets hurt.

Cossus isn't ready yet.

Who's your D.H.?

You just rotate the D.H. based on who's pitching

for the other team that day.

I don't think that's that bad.

Like, give me names.

Okay, Eaton, if there's a lefty, you could use,

well, Monasterio, if there's a lefty,

your whole outfield is all left-handed already.

So you could, if there's a good righty on the mountain,

you put in I.K.A. for giving someone an off day,

have I.K.A. play the field.

There's, there's so many options in any box.

All of that sucks.

No, it sucks, but is it worth having like insurance

for your insurance and wasting a bench spot?

I, I think yes.

But again, only, only for a small period of time

because as soon as Tristan Cossus is healthy,

you can D.F.A. Masa or trade Masa or whatever

and have Eaton be on the roster.

And if you have an injury, like, let's say,

Jaren DeRan snaps his leg in half.

You can call Cossus up the next day.

Now your outfielders are all playing the outfield

and Cossus is your D.H.

With Masa, the problem is he's also not optionable.

Yeah.

I just don't know.

I'm fine with it for a little bit, like early on

if they do it, but over the course of the full season.

It's not going to last.

It's essentially wasting an entire bench spot

and for a manager who likes to manage, like Alex Cora,

like that's not nothing.

And it's not even just wasting a bench spot,

like the D.H. thing, I think in theory,

like right now it's like, okay, this is,

but you've got to remember,

Jaren DeRan hasn't gotten that second contract.

Like there's no way.

If I were Jaren DeRan, I would not be happy

that they are going to, like even if they do what you said,

67% will actually be 33% of the time in the field.

Like I would not be happy with that.

Like my calling card is my athleticism.

I got to be able to show that off

and earn that next contract

or earn that extension if you're trying to get an extension

with the Red Sox.

Like Jaren DeRan, D.H.ing, that's not a recipe

for success for his career.

Yeah, I agree, but the fact of the matter is,

he's the fourth best defensive outfielder

and probably the third best bat

of the four outfielder.

So, no, it's what you have to do.

Yeah.

Just like to me,

like can I see this lasting a full season?

Like that's why when we have the prediction episode,

then what we're talking is Masa going to be

on this team the whole year.

I just, whether it be Masa or one of the outfielder's to me,

I just, I cannot see it lasting.

It's like a flimsy stick

and you're just putting more and more pressure

on it every day.

Unless there's an injury,

it's going to, at some point, the dam is going to break.

Yeah, it feels like they're almost relying on an injury

to happen to clear up the situation

that they're not able to clear up on their own,

not to say they're rooting for an injury, of course,

but like they're inevitable.

They happen so often

and that might be their get out of jail free card

for the situation, this log jam

that they've clearly mismanaged for multiple years now.

Yeah, I mean, it really has been going on forever.

It's crazy.

Since we started this podcast,

we've been talking about it.

Since play Tessie has existed,

we've been talking about this frigging log jam

or if Yoshida should be on the team at least.

Yeah, and guess what?

Coming up soon by the end of the month,

or sorry, by the end of April,

the same conversations are going to be had

about the rotation.

Like right now,

we don't have to have these conversations

because they've got six starters on the roster

and totally obviously could use more development.

Like that's fine that he's in the minors.

Some point soon,

you're not going to have six starters on the roster.

You're going to have to pick one of earlier Oviato

and I still think early has won that job.

But now you're going to have Oviato

on the outside looking in Cutter Crawford

and Patrick Sandeval are going to be ready to go.

Those are three.

You still have Peyton Toley.

Like that's a lot.

Like that talk about outfield log jam.

That's a rotation log jam and I understand starters

go down with injuries,

but like coming up soon,

that's going to be a thing too.

Yeah, I mean, I'm very high on Yohan Oviato.

I've spoken about that multiple times,

but he's been in the league.

This is his now.

This will be his fifth full season

and he has never shown an ability

to be a consistent big league starter.

So I think that he,

not that he should be on the outside looking in,

but if he is, it's not crazy and he will need to understand

that he hasn't separated himself.

Early won the job.

I think Yohan had the upper hand coming

to spring training and early still won the job

because you could option early as a lot to work on.

Like we said,

still good can work on stuff,

but no, he lost that job.

So Oviato will have to be okay with that.

Crawford and Sanival have not pitched in over a year

if they're in the bullpen.

What are they going to do?

Complain about that.

How do we know how they're going to look

after these major injuries and long rehabs?

Like guys are going to have to be humble

and they're going to have to be okay

taking on roles that they're not thrilled about.

And this is the price of having,

quote unquote, too much talent.

We talk about how that's a good problem to have.

It is, but it's still a problem.

And it comes with the issues that Alex Korra

is going to have to manage the bulk of

and that is not an easy job.

Yeah.

And the thing is like I agree.

It is a good, both of these are really good problems

to have.

Like you'd much rather have four really good outfielders

and a, and a DH slash outfielder than two good outfielders

and you're trying to figure out who to play for the third spot.

But my problem with it is just that like we spent

the first part of the episode talking about how

against left handed pitching,

they're going to have to find these creative ways to win

and they're going to have to pitch their way to victories.

And it's like you've got all this excess outfield.

You've got all this excess starting pitching.

It's like you really couldn't find a way to use it

to get a really good right handed bat

so you can feel a little bit better about yourself

against left handed pitching.

Like again, it's something that they're

going to be a good team.

And if they, if this is something

that they can address at the deadline,

then it's going to be a moot point because to me,

all that matters is that, hey, you make it to October

and be your setup for success when you get there.

But right now, like if they rolled this line,

this team in to October, the way it's constructed,

I mean, you would see it.

And I know the Yankees last year,

they didn't have a ton of good lefties out of the bullpen,

but any team you face is going to throw as many lefties

as you as they can.

And they've got to find a way between now and then

to make it so that you have something.

And Romi will come back.

But you're going to need more than that.

I keep going back to the trade concept of Yoshida

to Atlanta for, you know, forget about the money.

We could talk about that later,

but in a deal for Sean Murphy and the Red Sox

would be technically carrying three catchers,

but Murphy would more so be there

because he's a right-handed bat

who just happens to be able to play catcher

or send down Wong, call up someone else.

They would have options.

So that, I feel like that is the only thing

in my head besides a straight DFA

that I could kind of see happening

and working for both sides.

Cause like, yeah, I'm sure Atlanta would like to have Yoshida

in Atlanta, but just the contract isn't great.

Agreed.

It really is all the contract.

And from the Red Sox perspective, it would be perfect.

Cause you'd swap Yoshida for Murphy.

You now don't need Connor Wong anymore.

You can option him and bring up Nate Eaton.

Now you've got another good right-handed bat

or another right-handed bat against lefties.

He's not that good, but like it would help.

Yeah.

Well, and Romi comes back eventually and...

I mean, that'd be a good bench.

You have Murphy as your catcher

who you actually feel pretty good about.

If Romi, okay, crushes lefties, Monasterio, and then Izzy.

Or no Izzy.

You probably send down Monasterio at that point for Eaton.

Cause if you've Romi...

Yeah.

You're right, you're right.

You're a good bench.

You're a good bench.

That's a bench.

I'd include other things to get Atlanta to take that.

That's actually, you know what?

I shouldn't say it kind of sarcastic.

That is a good bench.

If you have Nate Eaton, Sean Murphy,

I-KF or Monasterio, probably I-KF because he's getting paid.

And then who am I forgetting?

The Murphy.

And Murphy, kind of Falefa, Eaton, Romi.

That's not bad at all.

That's actually a good bench.

I shouldn't poo poo it like that.

And it fits the team.

It's like, okay, we want a second good catcher

because we don't want to murder Narvaiz's knees.

We need guys who can...

That righty and hit against left-handed pitching.

And that's Romi and that's Eaton.

And we want a guy who can play good in field defense

at several positions.

That's Isaiah, kind of Falefa.

It would be a pretty functional bench

if you could get Atlanta to do it.

Let's do it.

Let's do it.

Yeah, throw another stuff.

Give them some prospect that looks okay.

It's exciting.

Atlanta has a really weak farm.

Atlanta also needs pitching.

Like, they should be begging you for Patrick Sandoval.

But they can't take Yoshida and Sandoval's money,

but maybe you can eat some of it.

Or take back some veteran who's making too much money

from them.

Maybe that fits better.

Which I guess is Murphy, actually.

So it's not like they're eating a ton of money

taking Yoshida for Murphy.

I'm sure Yoshida makes more A, A, V, Ys, right?

Can't be bad that much though.

I don't know either way.

I like the concept of this.

Let me figure out.

Then we'll go to enough said.

But let me figure out what Murphy's earning per year.

12 in change and Yoshida's 18 in change.

So 18.6, yeah.

So it's 6,000,000 more.

Redsox eats 6.6 million of Yoshida.

And then they just give Sandoval to the Braves.

Contract and all.

It's only one year deal at this point.

So that's who cares?

That is.

They just cleared pro-fars money too.

So.

Yeah, congratulations.

I don't know why they wouldn't just sign Lucas G. Lito,

but I've been saying that for,

we've all been saying that for a month.

So shame on them.

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All right.

Enough said.

Sammy, I want to give you the chance to go first

because I have two enough sets,

but if there's a chance you could take one,

so I'm gonna give you the chance.

And if you don't, then I'll go to.

Is yours about the Nesson score bug?

That was one of my options.

Okay, here's my take on the Nesson score bug.

I don't hate how it looks.

It's just way too big

and the advertisement attached to it is also way too big.

If they shrunk it and I'm saying,

like, almost cut it in half,

like they got to shrink it a lot

and maybe make the advertisement a little bit smaller

because I don't really give a fuck about whatever,

like Vanguard or whatever they had up there.

They kept changing.

Then I don't even think it would be that big of a deal.

And I know people like to complain,

but I feel like this deserves some complaints.

Okay, I'm trying to find Red Sox,

okay, here it is.

Red Sox Payroll had a really good tweet.

He literally measured the score bugs

from this year and last year.

The old score bug,

and this is really just, we're digging into this.

This is really nerd Red Sox crap here, but I love it.

The old score bug took up 2.75% of the screen.

The new one took up around 4% of the screen,

which is a lot bigger.

It is a lot bigger.

But a big chunk of that is, as you said, it's the ad.

And it made me think about a time last year,

coincidentally, against the Reds

is when I took the screenshot last year.

But they had a Fubo ad under the score bug

at some point last year.

And I was thinking to myself, damn, this score bug is huge.

But it really was, like that score, or sorry,

the ad was only there for maybe that one game,

maybe just a few games, and it wasn't there the rest.

My hope is that this is just,

oh, it's opening day.

We're gonna sell these extra ads for opening day,

we're debuting all this new stuff.

We're gonna sell these extra ads.

It's the whatever second inning.

What was that company like the surf and turf,

whatever second inning?

I don't know.

Surf shark, or I don't know.

I don't know, say it didn't work.

We don't remember traditional advertising.

The thing is, there was one point

where I was watching, and you had the score bug

with the ad in the top left.

They were playing the surfy whatever ad at the bottom,

and they had their own ad for the Boston

has entered the chat show on the top right.

There was a triangle of trio of ads

on the screen at the same time, and I was like,

damn, this is overkill.

I, all I'm at right now is I just hope

that it's an opening day thing,

and it's not gonna be like that.

The whole year.

The trio of ads on the screen,

you got ads behind the batter sliding consistently,

ads on every facade of the stadium,

all the way around the bowling and the outfield

and on the walls of the outfield.

You also have ads on the players, on their jerseys now.

That's capitalism, Gordo.

Welcome.

There are a lot of ads in this game,

and if they get to the playoffs,

you'll see it on the helmets too.

Dammit.

That said about the Nesson score bug.

There may never be in the history of score bugs,

a worse score bug than whatever the hell Netflix

put out the other night.

Oh my God, that looked like a joke.

First of all, off center, the shadow that they had

on the thing was completely off center.

I couldn't stop looking at it.

The font, it looked like it was someone whispering,

like pitching Logan Webb.

Barely here with, barely read what the thing says.

And then the logos were like half of each team's logo

and faded out, like it just awful, awful.

The worst score bug I've ever seen in my life

and I was trying to think if there's ever been

a worse one out there, it is just unbelievably bad.

Look how small it, I feel like the screenshot

doesn't do it justice.

You have to see it in the bottom corner of the TV

on the top photo that we're looking at.

It is so bad.

It kind of looks a little bit like a bird.

It looks like a face.

That's what Brad Foes said.

He said it looks like it's staring at you.

These, the O's, if go find yourself

a screenshot of this online, we're looking

at a Yahoo sports tweet.

If you want to search it, it says,

how do we feel about Netflix's MLB score bug?

Brenda's.

Gordon, looks like you, the two zeros are eyes

and then the top of the first or top of the second logo,

like the carrot that says it's the top is the nose

or the beak.

I was just gonna say, Gordo, can you like lean back

in your chair like you were watching TV

and just try to read what was on that score bug?

Like without leaning in and looking at the screen

and squinting, is there any way you could possibly see?

Like it's very frustrating.

So I hope Netflix, I don't understand

how these things get approved.

That's always my question.

Like did nobody look at this and say like this thing sucks

because everyone in America thought it sucked?

Well, the problem is I feel like all of these broadcasts,

it happens with football every year

and they debut the new score bug.

I think like usually in the Super Bowl for a lot of these

and they just have to make it look like

they're developing something new when in reality,

it's score bug.

Do you know how happy everyone would be

if Nesson brought back one of the old score bugs

from like 2013 or you can even go back to like 2007?

Everyone would be thrilled.

Nobody would be upset about that.

Joe.

So let's just go over it like the regular score bug.

Like what on the display do you really like actually need?

Do you really need to know the exit velocity?

Yes.

Yes.

100%.

Okay, I like those new things.

I like the new stats.

Joe, I'll give it to you.

I'll give it to you right now.

I don't need to see the logos of the team.

I don't need to see that in the score bug.

Just give me boss versus sin.

Give me the score.

Give me the count.

Tell me how many outs there are.

Show me the mouse power of the pitch when it happens

and then after that flip the mouse an hour of the pitch

to the exit velocity if the ball was hit.

That is all I need to see.

And then I like having the box behind a home plate as well.

And then you got to mention like there's pitch clock.

There's the challenges.

There's the ABS.

Yeah, all that stuff.

There's a lot to cram in there

and you can't fault these programs

for at least trying to be able to squeeze it.

It is, it is a tough balance.

And you're right about that, Joe,

is because a lot of these broadcasts get a lot of crap

for not giving enough information.

And then if they try to give a lot of information,

now it's all the score bugs big.

My problem is that the score bug is big because of the ad.

If the ad was cut off,

I don't even think the score bug would be too big.

So give me all the info that I liked

that they were giving a little bit more info today

than they had in previous years.

I know it's not like that there's a lot of money

in these ads.

So like I get it, I'm just like a fan screaming

into the void and so are you.

But I mean, I'd like to be able to see the game.

That's all.

I think they could just add like an extra box

for like the challenges and like, all that, you know.

All right, my enough said before we get out of here.

What?

Jordan Hicks is White Sox debut.

Oh, baby.

Yes, let's get into it.

He recorded two outs.

He was lucky that he only led in three runs.

He in two, he got two outs.

He led up two hits and he walked four.

He walked four guys.

He got two outs.

He led up six base runners.

That is, that is,

he is one of the pitches of all time as I tweeted.

I'm not going to comment if it was good or bad

and saying that's what he did.

And he is a major league pitcher and major league baseball

on one of the 30 major league baseball teams.

Wish he, wish he was a play Tessie alumni.

Alas.

Well, I wish I'm the best.

I agree, I agree.

And I should do wish I'm the best

because if Jettics and Pires is ever going to come back

to this organization,

we're going to need some other White Sox relievers to be good

so that none of them get DFA'd or optioned

if they want to bring in someone else.

So go Jordan Hicks.

I think Pires will come back regardless.

We'll see, dude.

White Sox, man.

Yeah, that's true.

We'll see.

Although, I don't know.

He's a single light pitcher.

You want to dig into the White Sox bullpen real quick?

No, I really don't.

Thanks for tuning in to episode 338 of Play Tessie.

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Again, we'll be doing a podcast at the end of every week

with baseballs and boring.

You can catch that.

I think this one's going to drop on Saturday.

And you can find us on the radio.

We will be on radio.

That's the next time you're going to be able to hear

from us is Sunday morning on radio

if you're looking for Red Sox talk.

So tuning in to WEI Sunday 10 a.m.

You'll hear us with Brad Fo.

Till then, and we'll have another one dropping on Monday.

But this has been episode 338 of Play Tessie.

I appreciate you guys tuning in.

Opening day was great.

It's making a great season.

I hate that there's an off day on drop day.

But we'll be back soon.

And the Red Sox will be back tomorrow.

Thanks for tuning in to this one.

Peace.

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Potential savings will vary.

Discounts not available in all states and situations.