Latest / Foul Territory / Matt Barnes talks 2025 Red Sox, Pitching takes, Informal retirement?

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Matt Barnes talks 2025 Red Sox, Pitching takes, Informal retirement? · Foul Territory

0:03
Speaker 1: Hey, we've got big league veteran pitcher Matt Barnes joining
0:06
Speaker 1: us right now on f going on in a minute,
0:08
Speaker 1: how you been.
0:09
Speaker 2: I'm good, I'm good. Was listening in. I love that take?
0:14
Speaker 1: Which one give it to us because because you've always
0:16
Speaker 1: you've always had strong opinions, and now you're getting to
0:18
Speaker 1: do some broadcasting too. I've caught you on some of
0:21
Speaker 1: the nets and allcasts and obstructed views.
0:23
Speaker 2: It's been great. So just for it.
0:25
Speaker 1: React to some of what you heard while you were catching.
0:28
Speaker 2: Out the Pirate the Pirates Marlins without a doubt with
0:31
Speaker 2: those pitching staffs. But you have to spend money. You
0:34
Speaker 2: have to, without a doubt. For me, every team that's
0:38
Speaker 2: one of the last fifteen years starts with young talent
0:41
Speaker 2: that's come up together, supplemented with big league veterans that
0:45
Speaker 2: you bring over and sign. End of story, Braves, Red Sox, Dodgers, Nationals,
0:52
Speaker 2: right like anybody who's done it has done that, and
0:55
Speaker 2: to me, that is it is, without a doubt the recipe.
0:59
Speaker 2: I like, good take.
1:00
Speaker 1: All right, So what are you seeing with the Red
1:02
Speaker 1: Sox right now? Because I know you've you know, done
1:04
Speaker 1: some extra coverage on them. What do you like and
1:07
Speaker 1: not like about this team.
1:09
Speaker 2: I think they got a good team. I mean they're
1:11
Speaker 2: second in right second in the AL East right now
1:13
Speaker 2: going into a big series against the Yankees, who frankly,
1:16
Speaker 2: they played really well against this year. The pitching staff
1:19
Speaker 2: has been incredible, complimented obviously by Geary Crochet, Gilitos throwing
1:23
Speaker 2: the ball well, BeOS throwing the ball well. The two
1:26
Speaker 2: the two young young guys that came up early and
1:29
Speaker 2: totally have been been absolutely incredible and punched out eleven
1:32
Speaker 2: in your first game is unheard of. Chatting at the
1:36
Speaker 2: back end and and I think for the most part
1:38
Speaker 2: they've been healthy or healthier right now. I know you
1:41
Speaker 2: have a bred you and Anthony on the IL with
1:44
Speaker 2: a couple other guys, but Story being healthy this year
1:47
Speaker 2: I think has been been a blessing for them. When
1:49
Speaker 2: he's healthy and on the fields, he's just he's a
1:51
Speaker 2: game changer, not only defensively, but in the middle of
1:54
Speaker 2: the in the middle of the lineup. And I think
1:57
Speaker 2: going into into the end of September, they're position really nicely.
2:00
Speaker 2: If they can get those two guys back healthy, you
2:03
Speaker 2: have a ton of guys in the team with postseason experience,
2:06
Speaker 2: which right now is critical these games, even though it's
2:09
Speaker 2: not the postseason, they start to feel like that games
2:12
Speaker 2: start to mean more. The pressure starts to mount a
2:14
Speaker 2: little bit, you know, especially playing They always kind of
2:18
Speaker 2: set it up where you play a lot of divisional
2:20
Speaker 2: games at the end, and I think all they got
2:23
Speaker 2: to do is get in, and they're in a great
2:24
Speaker 2: spot to get in. They kind of control their own
2:26
Speaker 2: destiny right now. So it's going to be exciting to
2:28
Speaker 2: see how it finishes up with the next three weeks.
2:32
Speaker 3: One of the things that was just constantly reiterated about
2:35
Speaker 3: the Yankees why they lost to Dodgers in the World
2:38
Speaker 3: Series and lose the Dodgers in like the Wildcar rounds
2:41
Speaker 3: so they made it to the World Series was defense.
2:44
Speaker 3: Is the Red Sox defense slash experience in the playoffs
2:51
Speaker 3: going to come up and bite them because of the
2:54
Speaker 3: fact that, in my opinion, they have Sedane Rafaela, who's
2:57
Speaker 3: playing goal gloves center field.
2:59
Speaker 2: He could be a goal glove second basement.
3:00
Speaker 3: So you kind of have like guys a little bit
3:03
Speaker 3: out of position, and with Anthony out, maybe they don't
3:06
Speaker 3: have their best defensive alignment out there.
3:10
Speaker 2: Yah. Yes, and no I think right now, there's so
3:13
Speaker 2: many analytics in the game where guys are positioned. Where
3:16
Speaker 2: obviously there's there's kind of ball reading and closing metrics
3:19
Speaker 2: and what not to get the fly balls and but
3:22
Speaker 2: but for me, a lot of that comes down to
3:24
Speaker 2: the coaching staff and making sure guys are in the
3:26
Speaker 2: right in the right position with Raphael and centerfield, having
3:32
Speaker 2: that guy lock it down in center field. For me,
3:34
Speaker 2: at Fenway is a very difficult, very difficult center field
3:38
Speaker 2: to play because of the angles with the monster and
3:40
Speaker 2: you've got the triangle and center. As long as he
3:43
Speaker 2: can control the entire outfield, I think that's gonna be
3:46
Speaker 2: fine with which he's done. And I think having Story
3:50
Speaker 2: up the middle really helps kind of carry that up
3:54
Speaker 2: the middle field. So genuinely, I think they're gonna be okay.
3:58
Speaker 2: In the Red Sox coaching staff has always done a
3:59
Speaker 2: really good job of making sure everybody's not only prepared,
4:03
Speaker 2: but positioned properly. So but again on the experience, they
4:08
Speaker 2: have a ton of experience. I know that relatively young, right,
4:11
Speaker 2: but they have a lot of experience with guys who
4:14
Speaker 2: have been in the World Series. In one World Series
4:15
Speaker 2: played in the postseason and those are the guys that
4:18
Speaker 2: you're going to lean on when you get to the postseason.
4:22
Speaker 4: Matt, you mentioned the coaching staff. What is the coaching
4:25
Speaker 4: staff done for Brian Bayo other than that a cutter?
4:28
Speaker 4: I mean, how have they Because he came up, he
4:30
Speaker 4: was amazing. He kind of had a struggle last year
4:32
Speaker 4: and this year he's been really good again. And then
4:34
Speaker 4: Lucas Giolito kind of the same thing coming off injury,
4:37
Speaker 4: struggled a little bit.
4:38
Speaker 2: What is Andrew Bailey and.
4:39
Speaker 4: The coaching staff done there to turn them around and
4:41
Speaker 4: make them forces? Because they're forces for him right now.
4:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think a lot of it is confidence, right
4:47
Speaker 2: So it's not only attacking his own, but it's putting
4:50
Speaker 2: these guys in positions. It's the preparation and how do
4:52
Speaker 2: we get to the pitches that are your out pitches?
4:56
Speaker 2: How do we set guys up. It's being on the
4:59
Speaker 2: same page the catchers. It's having the scouting reports. You know,
5:02
Speaker 2: when I was there, we would all kind of sit
5:05
Speaker 2: down and they show you where your stuff plays best,
5:08
Speaker 2: the trends, what you're you know, where you're trying to
5:10
Speaker 2: get to to put guys out, And for me, that's
5:13
Speaker 2: a huge part of it. When you get you get
5:15
Speaker 2: guys falling behind and they're not attacking the zone, you
5:19
Speaker 2: not only put yourself into bad positions, but then the
5:21
Speaker 2: confidence of the pitchers kind of you have a little
5:23
Speaker 2: bit of bad luck. And for me, really driving home
5:26
Speaker 2: that confidence and the ability to attack guys as an
5:30
Speaker 2: absolute game changer. You've seen it with them, and even
5:33
Speaker 2: Chapman taking it to the absolute next level this year,
5:35
Speaker 2: a guy who's been a perennial All Star for what
5:37
Speaker 2: is it twelve years? You even see it with him.
5:41
Speaker 2: So for me, it's it's a kind of a combination
5:43
Speaker 2: of those those couple of things.
5:45
Speaker 3: All Right, this team's in second place. Technically they're in third,
5:49
Speaker 3: you know, a little bit behind the Yankees. Would they
5:51
Speaker 3: be in first place if they had kept Raffi Devers?
5:55
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know. I don't know. Devers is
6:00
Speaker 2: an unbelievable player, and as long as I was with him,
6:04
Speaker 2: he was an unbelievable person. He played the game like
6:07
Speaker 2: he was in little league, which for me is such
6:10
Speaker 2: a rare thing to see at a level that is
6:12
Speaker 2: so competitive. But I don't know, it's so hard to
6:16
Speaker 2: tell what's going on inside the clubhouse. You have people
6:18
Speaker 2: reporting one thing and somebody's saying another thing. But for me,
6:23
Speaker 2: like I said, I don't know, I don't know. But
6:26
Speaker 2: what I do think is that despite all of the
6:30
Speaker 2: distractions that were surrounded Devers, whether it was prior to
6:34
Speaker 2: or after, I think the team has done a really
6:37
Speaker 2: nice job of moving on from the situation and still winning.
6:44
Speaker 1: Time for your weekly Arena Club segment where we see
6:47
Speaker 1: what AJ pulls from a slab pack. Andre we go
6:53
Speaker 1: pull Emerald pack this week. AJ looking for something big.
6:58
Speaker 2: Always, I'm always looking for the big thing.
7:00
Speaker 1: Big things got big money, big money.
7:01
Speaker 2: Baby. We've got a.
7:04
Speaker 1: Dave Winfield card from nineteen seventy four, seventy four tops
7:08
Speaker 1: card from this Emerald pack. Estimated value three hundred bucks.
7:13
Speaker 1: You could sell it back for two seventy sold sold.
7:17
Speaker 1: I feel like you are into more of the current players.
7:20
Speaker 1: Would that be accurate?
7:22
Speaker 2: Like legend in my showroom might have a Robin you out,
7:24
Speaker 2: I have a Griffy Rookie car. That's true, So I
7:26
Speaker 2: mean I have some older vintageer players. Bob Gibson, Oh yeah,
7:30
Speaker 2: you have Gibson, So I know.
7:31
Speaker 4: I disagree Scott, But Dave Winfield for that amount of
7:34
Speaker 4: money back, I'm reselling it.
7:36
Speaker 1: And if you want to get your own pack or
7:38
Speaker 1: new card, you can get twenty percent off your first
7:41
Speaker 1: slab pack or card purchase at arenaclub dot com.
7:43
Speaker 4: Slash foul you mean, Matt, Matt Barnes is saying right now,
7:46
Speaker 4: the raffie Devers doesn't play like Dustin Pedroya played. Dustin
7:50
Speaker 4: Pedroit didn't feel like he was in Little Are you kidding?
7:54
Speaker 2: Are you kidding me?
7:54
Speaker 4: I mean very similar personalities. I mean, you know, Devers
7:58
Speaker 4: was smiling, and I don't know if PD ever smiled.
8:01
Speaker 4: I was there for a few months, three or four months.
8:03
Speaker 4: I don't know PD ever Off the field. Yes, on
8:05
Speaker 4: the field, PD was all business right.
8:09
Speaker 2: I mean you would show up to the field for
8:10
Speaker 2: a one o'clock game right at eleven o'clock. P D's
8:13
Speaker 2: in front of his locker wearing full UNI and I'd
8:16
Speaker 2: be like, man, what game shrucks in two hours? What
8:18
Speaker 2: are we doing? And He's like eleven, he was there nine,
8:21
Speaker 2: He was there, glove going like this, Like I asked him, like, Pete,
8:26
Speaker 2: what are we doing games in two hours? He was like,
8:29
Speaker 2: am just in case we start early? But he was
8:36
Speaker 2: ready just in case that one time happened.
8:38
Speaker 4: Oh PD was a beauty.
8:40
Speaker 2: PD was a beauty. Yeah, but I can't imagine similar
8:45
Speaker 2: Yeah no, no, but but Devas but he was. He's
8:49
Speaker 2: such a good person. And and for me, and I
8:53
Speaker 2: think that there's so many different takes on this, right,
8:55
Speaker 2: but but for me, and this is kind of the
8:57
Speaker 2: way that I look at it. When you give Devers
9:00
Speaker 2: three hundred and thirty million dollars, you are establishing that
9:03
Speaker 2: he is your cornerstone player that you are going to
9:06
Speaker 2: build around for the next what was it thirteen year,
9:08
Speaker 2: ten years, thirteen years, whatever it was, right, And then
9:12
Speaker 2: you go into it and obviously Devs has had some
9:14
Speaker 2: struggles at third base defensively, But you go into spring
9:18
Speaker 2: training and you sign Bregman, and there must have been
9:22
Speaker 2: some sort of miscommunication, whether they didn't talk to Devers
9:25
Speaker 2: about potentially signing him to come play third base, or
9:28
Speaker 2: they didn't talk to him once they signed Bregman to
9:31
Speaker 2: tell Devers that they wanted him to play third base. Now,
9:34
Speaker 2: the way that I look at this is, do you
9:37
Speaker 2: think that they would have ever signed somebody to play
9:39
Speaker 2: right field? And now talk to Mookie bets about it,
9:42
Speaker 2: or would they have ever signed a shortstop and now
9:44
Speaker 2: talked to Xander about it and then just told them, hey,
9:46
Speaker 2: you're going to play this position. So for me, I
9:49
Speaker 2: feel like Devers thinks he was disrespected by the organization
9:53
Speaker 2: in that communication front, and once that happens, it's really
9:58
Speaker 2: difficult to get out of that. Right. So then they say, Okay,
10:01
Speaker 2: you know what, Bregan is gonna play third. He wants
10:03
Speaker 2: you to dh Devers doesn't want to do that, but
10:06
Speaker 2: ultimately that's what he does. But then all of a sudden,
10:11
Speaker 2: somebody gets hurt, Castle gets her at first base, and
10:13
Speaker 2: they want him to play first base, and he's like, Now,
10:15
Speaker 2: for me, it feels like Devers is getting thrown in
10:17
Speaker 2: twelve different directions. Now I understand the argument where hey,
10:21
Speaker 2: we need you to play first base. We understand that
10:23
Speaker 2: you're not going to be a goal glove first baseman.
10:25
Speaker 2: There are going to be growing pains. We're gonna work
10:27
Speaker 2: with you, but this is what the team needs and
10:30
Speaker 2: ultimately putting the team first to win a championship is
10:34
Speaker 2: what needs to happen. But on Devers's front, like, I
10:38
Speaker 2: kind of understand the level of disrespect that he felt
10:43
Speaker 2: as the cornerstone guy, like you're just gonna throw me
10:46
Speaker 2: out of my position and there's not even a conversation
10:48
Speaker 2: to be had. So I kind of get I get
10:51
Speaker 2: both sides of it.
10:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you definitely see that from Acs from Alice
10:56
Speaker 3: Kora's comment like, hey, hem Bloom signed to do that contract.
11:00
Speaker 3: Heim Bloom told you you're the third baseman, and that
11:03
Speaker 3: was kind of indicative of like, yeah, maybe they didn't
11:06
Speaker 3: really go to him, and you know, it was kind
11:08
Speaker 3: of a power struggle and hey, we are where we are,
11:11
Speaker 3: and good for the Giants they picked up their their.
11:13
Speaker 2: Supports super star back right now. But also in defense,
11:18
Speaker 2: like AC was there with him when all of that happened,
11:20
Speaker 2: So it's not one hundred percent on high like him
11:23
Speaker 2: and John arek and they give Devers three hundred and
11:25
Speaker 2: thirty million dollars without talking to Korra. That's not gonna happen.
11:29
Speaker 2: So well, yes, Heim was the one who ultimately right
11:33
Speaker 2: and John or with John's blessing, were the ones that
11:36
Speaker 2: give Devers the contract for me for him. I don't know,
11:41
Speaker 2: like AC was part of that conversation, so I don't know.
11:46
Speaker 2: It's a tough scenario regardless. But either way, I think,
11:49
Speaker 2: you know, like you said, good for the Giants because
11:51
Speaker 2: they picked up what I know to be a great
11:54
Speaker 2: a great person and a great ballplayer and a guy
11:57
Speaker 2: who's won in one of the hardest cities in the league.
12:01
Speaker 2: And you know, the Red Sox eloaded some money and
12:04
Speaker 2: the Giants got them for you know, and and the
12:07
Speaker 2: Red Sox got a guy out of their clubhouse who
12:08
Speaker 2: they thought was hurting them. So now it's a tough situation.
12:14
Speaker 2: But the Red Sox, like I said, have continued to
12:16
Speaker 2: win and put themselves in a position to be in
12:17
Speaker 2: the postseason, which is ultimately what matters.
12:21
Speaker 3: It does, and they opened up some payroll to really
12:23
Speaker 3: get into that pocket. Or John Henry will just spend
12:26
Speaker 3: it on his Liverpool soccer team where he's signing all
12:29
Speaker 3: the free agents there. But that's for another discussion. You pitched,
12:34
Speaker 3: You pitched with a pitch com did you ever hear
12:37
Speaker 3: curveball and say, no, what I'm pissed at this catcher.
12:41
Speaker 3: I'm throwing a fastball. I'm not sure if he's going
12:43
Speaker 3: to catch it, but we'll see what happens.
12:46
Speaker 2: Never in my life, what do you think about it? That.
12:48
Speaker 3: Could you believe that happened based on how I saw it?
12:52
Speaker 3: I saw it as an intentional thing. Maybe that's not
12:55
Speaker 3: your opinion, But okay, how that all played out, Could
13:00
Speaker 3: you believe you saw that at the big league level?
13:02
Speaker 2: No? To me, that's just it's not only reckless and dangerous,
13:08
Speaker 2: but but he loses his teammates. Now, like if we'll
13:13
Speaker 2: never know whether or not it was actually intentional. The
13:16
Speaker 2: clubhouse knows, in the in the staff and write all
13:18
Speaker 2: the players they know. But but the ketchup wants you
13:24
Speaker 2: to step off for one reason or another. You don't
13:27
Speaker 2: step off. You throw a fastball down the middle of
13:29
Speaker 2: the plate. It's not the catcher's wall. You through the
13:31
Speaker 2: ball down the middle of the plate and give up
13:33
Speaker 2: a grand slam. That's on you. So to come back
13:37
Speaker 2: and cross up your catcher is so mind boggling to me,
13:41
Speaker 2: cross them up intentionally. It's so mind boggling to me
13:45
Speaker 2: that it's hard to wrap my head around it. And
13:49
Speaker 2: to say that the pitch com couldn't hear now, like
13:53
Speaker 2: if we see him go up right, we don't know
13:55
Speaker 2: which side guys put it on. As a writer, I
13:57
Speaker 2: put it on my left side. So my glove could
13:59
Speaker 2: cover it. If right, I've ever got too loud you
14:01
Speaker 2: kind of go like this. We never saw him put
14:04
Speaker 2: his glove up to his head. We never saw any
14:07
Speaker 2: remorse once he did it. Mind you, I've crossed up
14:10
Speaker 2: bath Squez before and I pinned him with ninety seven
14:12
Speaker 2: directly in the chest back when we were using fingers.
14:15
Speaker 2: Finger got lost in the shadow and I didn't see it.
14:17
Speaker 2: Or we're going through forty five different signs with a
14:21
Speaker 2: man on second base and kind of got lost in
14:24
Speaker 2: the shuffle and small miscommunication and crossed them up. But
14:29
Speaker 2: the instant reaction isn't turned my back and walk away.
14:33
Speaker 2: It's like, man, you are right, Like hey, that sorry? Right?
14:38
Speaker 2: So I just and for the position that they're in
14:44
Speaker 2: trying to get to the postseason, like that divides a
14:48
Speaker 2: clubhouse and you lose one of your star pitchers. It's
14:52
Speaker 2: just that's not good. I bet Vaski was super happy
14:58
Speaker 2: with you, so but this and it's so funny, like
15:03
Speaker 2: it was like I think it was the second time,
15:05
Speaker 2: mind you, we were going. I think we were going
15:08
Speaker 2: like Chase to We're going was it Chase to two
15:11
Speaker 2: or Chase the one? And we used to do like
15:14
Speaker 2: this for a high fastball. Oh no, we were going
15:16
Speaker 2: chase to one and he did something like this this
15:20
Speaker 2: I and I for me, this is still a fastball.
15:24
Speaker 2: But we were following the one, so he that's what
15:28
Speaker 2: it was. He went here, here, here, so he was
15:32
Speaker 2: expecting curveball, but I was chasing the one which I
15:35
Speaker 2: thought was a high fastball and drilled him in the chest.
15:39
Speaker 2: It was awful, awful, But to your point is like
15:44
Speaker 2: after the second time that I did it, Purcella pulled
15:46
Speaker 2: me aside and was like, hey, this needs to be
15:49
Speaker 2: figured out now enough, and like that's it right, Hey
15:54
Speaker 2: that it's on me one hundred percent. But it got handled.
15:58
Speaker 2: So hopefully somebody had a conversation with him and they
16:02
Speaker 2: can figure out what's going on, not only for their
16:04
Speaker 2: team now, but but think about the guys or the
16:08
Speaker 2: catchers when he goes into free agency, Like, who's gonna
16:11
Speaker 2: want to deal with that? Like it's just such a
16:15
Speaker 2: selfish thing to do.
16:19
Speaker 4: Now, what about what happened in San Diego? Do you
16:20
Speaker 4: see what happened with you, Darvish, you Daris City. The
16:25
Speaker 4: catcher wanted to or you wanted a two steamer and
16:27
Speaker 4: the PitchCom wasn't working, So you just threw a curveball
16:30
Speaker 4: because that's what he heard, and he gave up a
16:32
Speaker 4: homer and then he called the catcher out and was like,
16:34
Speaker 4: I can't hear my PitchCom have you ever?
16:36
Speaker 2: Have you ever heard of it before? Or just too before?
16:41
Speaker 2: Why can't you just step off? You can't you just
16:44
Speaker 2: step off? I know there was nobody on base.
16:46
Speaker 4: Can't you just step off and start over?
16:48
Speaker 2: Yeah? If you if you just step off, you can
16:51
Speaker 2: the umpire is gonna give you, Like, if you step
16:53
Speaker 2: off and immediately point to your thing, the umpire is
16:55
Speaker 2: gonna give you a minute to figure it out. Now,
16:57
Speaker 2: if it happens three or four times, I mean it's
17:00
Speaker 2: at some point. I think it happened with the Red
17:01
Speaker 2: Sox not too long ago. I was watching the game
17:03
Speaker 2: and somebody was having an issue with the pitch calm,
17:05
Speaker 2: and after like the third time, they were like, all right,
17:07
Speaker 2: that's a ball, but like they work pretty well and
17:13
Speaker 2: you're gonna have issues, but the catcher's got one. You've
17:16
Speaker 2: got one. If you don't hears something, step off. The
17:17
Speaker 2: worst thing you can do is throw a pitch that
17:20
Speaker 2: either one of you a doesn't want or b doesn't
17:23
Speaker 2: know what's coming. I mean, nothing good's gonna come of that.
17:27
Speaker 1: Hey, Matt, I want to transition to or all this chairman.
17:30
Speaker 1: He's having just a gross year, unbelievable run for him.
17:34
Speaker 1: Finally gave up a hit for the first time in
17:36
Speaker 1: like a couple months yesterday, which is crazy. But the
17:39
Speaker 1: story I want to ask you about is the one
17:41
Speaker 1: that surfaced about him not thinking about spotting his fastball
17:46
Speaker 1: until this year. I don't know if you caught that one.
17:49
Speaker 1: We had brothers bias on the other day and he
17:52
Speaker 1: confirmed it and thought it was funny and interesting.
17:55
Speaker 2: So how does that happen?
17:57
Speaker 1: That's my question, Like to not even toy around with
18:00
Speaker 1: it and be like, wait, let me just try to
18:03
Speaker 1: spot it instead of just chucking it, you know, and
18:05
Speaker 1: aiming what down the middle or whatever?
18:06
Speaker 2: He is?
18:07
Speaker 1: Can you explain the inside picture lingo that goes on there.
18:12
Speaker 2: First off, To make it this long in the league
18:16
Speaker 2: and be as successful as he's had or as he's
18:19
Speaker 2: been and not try to command anything is so incredible
18:25
Speaker 2: that that I don't think people really understand, like his stuff,
18:28
Speaker 2: your stuff has to be so good to be that
18:31
Speaker 2: successful and not try to command anything. Just here it
18:35
Speaker 2: is you can't hit it. But but it's crazy to me.
18:42
Speaker 2: But the second part of that is he's evolving as
18:48
Speaker 2: a picture which at his age and what he's accomplishes
18:52
Speaker 2: is incredible in itself. And I think I talked about
18:55
Speaker 2: this a little bit on mess In the other night.
18:57
Speaker 2: But he can he can still go out there and
18:59
Speaker 2: just kind of throw a hundred and be dominant, but
19:04
Speaker 2: to get to the point where he's now trying to
19:05
Speaker 2: command it. And I think what the Red Sox are
19:07
Speaker 2: doing is they've recognized where he misses right, so as
19:14
Speaker 2: a lefty, his ball kind of rides up and rides
19:16
Speaker 2: down and in with the sinker. Instead of always trying
19:20
Speaker 2: to throw armside into a lefty away from a righty.
19:25
Speaker 2: If we work a little bit more glove side when
19:27
Speaker 2: you miss, you're still going to be a strike and
19:30
Speaker 2: be competitive. And his stuff is so good that all
19:33
Speaker 2: he has to do is get ahead and then guys
19:35
Speaker 2: are going to get put away. So and it's interesting,
19:40
Speaker 2: and I wonder how many guys in the league genuinely
19:43
Speaker 2: try to command stuff and transparently. For the first like
19:49
Speaker 2: five years of my career in the Big leagues. I
19:52
Speaker 2: was just like, here's my stuff. And then I got
19:55
Speaker 2: to a point where I was like, workmen started talking
19:58
Speaker 2: with me. I started struggling a little bit, and I
20:01
Speaker 2: started working with Brandon Workman. I didn't know much about,
20:04
Speaker 2: you know, tunneling pitches or kind of playing off of
20:08
Speaker 2: missus and kind of actually pitching, and workmen sat down
20:11
Speaker 2: with me and you started watching video and figuring out
20:14
Speaker 2: how all of this worked. And the biggest thing for
20:17
Speaker 2: me was playing off of what actually happened and not
20:22
Speaker 2: what you intended to do. So if I throw a fastball,
20:25
Speaker 2: or if we're trying to throw a fastball down in
20:27
Speaker 2: a way to a righty, but I miss up and in, well,
20:31
Speaker 2: two things happened. One, I now have a fastball up
20:33
Speaker 2: and into playing my second pitch off of But I
20:35
Speaker 2: also have the fastball down in a way that I
20:38
Speaker 2: can still go to because I never actually executed that pitch.
20:41
Speaker 2: So then that gives me an insight into Okay, well
20:43
Speaker 2: I can throw a front or a curveball off of
20:45
Speaker 2: that fastball up and in, or I can go down
20:48
Speaker 2: in a way right. So it kind of it just
20:52
Speaker 2: opens up a whole different level of thinking and the
20:55
Speaker 2: ability to tunnel stuff. And when you have stuff like his,
20:58
Speaker 2: if you tunnel it, it literally takes you from I
21:02
Speaker 2: don't always got a two and a half in his
21:03
Speaker 2: career to a one, and it goes from giving up
21:06
Speaker 2: three hits a month to none. But but what he's
21:10
Speaker 2: doing is nothing short of amazing. And the hard part
21:13
Speaker 2: for me is, and maybe this is the reliever bias
21:16
Speaker 2: in me, I don't think that relievers get enough credit
21:20
Speaker 2: towards winning a cy Young just because I mean, it's
21:24
Speaker 2: always been a starter's award for the most part. Uh
21:28
Speaker 2: And and I don't know if it's an inning sting
21:32
Speaker 2: or whatnot, but for me, what this guy is meant
21:36
Speaker 2: to the back of the bullpen for the Red Sox
21:39
Speaker 2: deserves to get him some sort of talk about winning
21:42
Speaker 2: a cy Young.
21:44
Speaker 3: They're coming out with a reliever Award, not the not
21:47
Speaker 3: the one that's the Mariano and Trevor Hoffman Award, but
21:50
Speaker 3: next year they're actually coming out.
21:51
Speaker 2: With oh so now that mimics the cy Young. That's yeah.
21:56
Speaker 3: So basically they'll probably get less votes for you and
22:01
Speaker 3: they'll get their Reliever of the Year award. It won't
22:04
Speaker 3: just be the closers, but it'll be Reliever Reliever of
22:07
Speaker 3: the Year award starting next year.
22:09
Speaker 2: Which is awesome, right, as long as it holds the
22:11
Speaker 2: same weight as a cy Young because winning a cy
22:13
Speaker 2: Young when you go into contract negotiations, if you have
22:16
Speaker 2: a cy Young under your belt, it's big money. So
22:19
Speaker 2: as long as the teams recognize that award as the
22:24
Speaker 2: reliever equivalent of a cy Young and even make the
22:27
Speaker 2: cy Young strictly your starters award, I'm fine with that,
22:29
Speaker 2: as long as there's an equivalent for the relievers and
22:32
Speaker 2: teams recognizing compensate appropriately for that perfect.
22:41
Speaker 1: Hey last one, Matt, we saw you're doing a little
22:44
Speaker 1: banana ball action and you didn't officially announced retirement stuff, right,
22:49
Speaker 1: Although you know our crew is not really into that.
22:51
Speaker 1: They just say, you know, I go off. What's your thing, ajaning?
22:54
Speaker 1: What do you always.
22:55
Speaker 2: Say stuff like I have PaperWorks not submitted officially, Okay, paperwork.
23:08
Speaker 4: I never submitted paperwork.
23:10
Speaker 2: I think it's I think it's a formality. Honestly, in
23:13
Speaker 2: this day and age, I think it's probably just to
23:14
Speaker 2: get your name up on an Instagram post. Don't do it,
23:20
Speaker 2: But no I haven't. I was trying to play earlier
23:22
Speaker 2: this year and genuinely, and this is what's kind of
23:25
Speaker 2: frustrating about it. I went through the entire process with
23:28
Speaker 2: Tread and I would do the whole six month thing.
23:30
Speaker 2: And I threw down at Tread's pro day and what
23:34
Speaker 2: was it, January tenth, I think it was. And this
23:38
Speaker 2: to me is how far the game has come, which
23:41
Speaker 2: is good but also crazy. Like in January tenth, I
23:45
Speaker 2: was ninety two to ninety three with great stuff and
23:48
Speaker 2: a bullpen inside, and I started talking to one of
23:51
Speaker 2: the Cubs scouts and I'm like, this is like, hey,
23:54
Speaker 2: this is like even when I threw ninety nine to
23:56
Speaker 2: a hot like I took ninety three miles an hour
23:59
Speaker 2: in a bullpen, There's some guys out there that can
24:01
Speaker 2: throw ninety eight miles an hour. They just flip a switch.
24:04
Speaker 2: I can do it in a bullpen. I've never been
24:06
Speaker 2: that guy. But so I ended up talking to the
24:09
Speaker 2: one of the Cub scouts and I'm like, this is
24:10
Speaker 2: such an interesting position to me. For like, if I
24:13
Speaker 2: was in this bullpen throwing ninety five today, I'd have
24:14
Speaker 2: a job at the end of the day. Not that
24:16
Speaker 2: I could have, but if I was, I'd be thrown
24:18
Speaker 2: I'd have a job at the end of the day.
24:20
Speaker 2: But I also know that if I tried to go
24:21
Speaker 2: out there and like only focus on trying to throw
24:24
Speaker 2: ninety five for the last four months, and I was
24:27
Speaker 2: throw ninety five in January tenth, by the time September
24:30
Speaker 2: rolled around, I'd be throwing eighty six. So it was
24:34
Speaker 2: such an interesting position to be in. And you know what,
24:38
Speaker 2: it didn't work out. I didn't end up getting a
24:40
Speaker 2: job offer, and truthful, it sucks. But when I look
24:45
Speaker 2: back on the last however many years I was, you know,
24:47
Speaker 2: nine ten years in the big leagues, I just I
24:51
Speaker 2: don't have any regrets. I was very fortunate to accomplish
24:53
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff and do some really cool things.
24:56
Speaker 2: And now I get to be home with my son
24:59
Speaker 2: and my family and and do some other fun stuff
25:01
Speaker 2: and kind of move on to the next chapter of
25:03
Speaker 2: my life, which has been incredible. I mean, do you
25:05
Speaker 2: miss the game and parts of it? Of course you do,
25:08
Speaker 2: but you know there's there's sometimes you just kind of
25:14
Speaker 2: the next chapter closes, and and you know, not many
25:17
Speaker 2: of us get to go out on our own terms
25:19
Speaker 2: or you know, exactly how we want to. So I've
25:22
Speaker 2: been fortunate enough to kind of do a lot. But
25:25
Speaker 2: now I'm now I get to go play band of
25:28
Speaker 2: ball every once in a while when I want to.
25:31
Speaker 2: That's cool, that's cool.
25:32
Speaker 3: Do you think teams are Do you think teams are
25:34
Speaker 3: missing the boat there because we have an epidemic of
25:36
Speaker 3: injuries and dudes wearing out? Do you think teams are
25:40
Speaker 3: missing the boat because they don't give a guy who
25:43
Speaker 3: has nine years ten years of experience in the big
25:46
Speaker 3: leagues a job just because he's not throwing ninety six
25:50
Speaker 3: to ninety eight in a bullpen in January, because I
25:53
Speaker 3: always said and I had to go to spring training
25:55
Speaker 3: to try to make the team. I never had a spot.
25:58
Speaker 3: I had to come into spring training ready to go.
26:01
Speaker 3: I couldn't have tried out for a team in January,
26:03
Speaker 3: like there's like a build up ready to go right
26:05
Speaker 3: the last.
26:06
Speaker 2: The season, right like I got dfaed by the Nats
26:09
Speaker 2: in May of last year, and transparently I had thought
26:12
Speaker 2: about at that point, I was doing one hundred and
26:15
Speaker 2: ten percent of the work to get seventy percent of
26:17
Speaker 2: the output, and I was like, I don't even know
26:19
Speaker 2: if I want to do this anymore. My son was
26:21
Speaker 2: four months old, but then after a few months off,
26:23
Speaker 2: I was like, man, I got the itch. So that's
26:25
Speaker 2: when I started going through everything. And I only wanted, honestly, God,
26:31
Speaker 2: I was trying to get a minor league, a minor
26:34
Speaker 2: league deal with an invite to camp to prove myself.
26:37
Speaker 2: I wouldn't expect it. I never asked for a big
26:38
Speaker 2: league deal either, Like I just wanted a chance to
26:40
Speaker 2: come show you that I was good. I never got
26:43
Speaker 2: single offer. But I think the hard part A lot
26:49
Speaker 2: of teams want the young guy that either a they
26:53
Speaker 2: don't have to pay a lot to, or they have
26:54
Speaker 2: control over. And for me, with my time, there was
26:59
Speaker 2: no control. If I was in the big leagues, then
27:01
Speaker 2: if you wanted to get rid of me, you had
27:02
Speaker 2: the DFA me so. And they want flexibility a guy
27:06
Speaker 2: throwing you know, I'll take four guys throwing one hundred
27:09
Speaker 2: and eventually one of them is going to click, as
27:11
Speaker 2: opposed to a guy throwing ninety five. But then again,
27:15
Speaker 2: I think the other part of it is how many
27:18
Speaker 2: teams are actually competitive, Because if you're not a competitive,
27:22
Speaker 2: if you're not competitive, why would you bring in a
27:23
Speaker 2: guy who's thirty four turning thirty five? This year, who's
27:28
Speaker 2: you know, ninety four ninety five when at this point,
27:33
Speaker 2: arguably my biggest asset is my experience to a help
27:37
Speaker 2: younger generation. But be in the postseason and having been
27:40
Speaker 2: there five times or whatever, four times, whatever it was.
27:43
Speaker 2: But if a team's not competing to win, then that
27:45
Speaker 2: doesn't appeal to them at all. And the teams that
27:48
Speaker 2: are in a position to win, have you know, ten
27:53
Speaker 2: guys that are throwing ninety seven to ninety nine now,
27:56
Speaker 2: So it's it was a super unique position to be in.
28:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good point. I mean a third of
28:01
Speaker 1: the league's like me, So I'm glad we got the insight.
28:05
Speaker 2: Matt.
28:05
Speaker 1: It's great catching up and obviously hope we do it
28:07
Speaker 1: again because I love your takes.
28:09
Speaker 2: So thanks for joining absolutely anytime, guys, appreciate it. Appreciate it, man,