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Wicked Sports Weekend · Newsradio WGAN

• 0:00
  John, how are things? Oh, they're going great.
• 0:02
  You just got a little taste. By the way, that was my old
• 0:04
  theme music for my Saturday show at Wei with Trendy, Koznerik
• 0:09
  Trendy and Tomasi TNT. We were dynamite, then we got
• 0:13
  dynamite. It happens.
• 0:15
  I get it. CT and T That's very funny.
• 0:16
  Well done. Do you think about yourself?
• 0:19
  Actually, she did. Yeah, Fairpoint.
• 0:21
  So, John Tomasi, I can't ask you about the Bruins.
• 0:24
  I can't ask you about the Celtics.
• 0:25
  They've, they've made sure that we only have the Red Sox and
• 0:28
  maybe a little Patriots to talk about here this morning.
• 0:31
  Let's start off with those Red Sox.
• 0:33
  You know, I saw a statistic this morning when I was scrolling
• 0:36
  around somewhere, which I think is right, but I haven't checked
• 0:39
  it, so you'd probably know. But the Red Sox have, I think
• 0:42
  the most shutout wins in the in the Major League Baseball this
• 0:46
  year. I think it's like 6 shutout wins
• 0:48
  in the season, but they're like 5 games under 500 or whatever
• 0:51
  they're at right now. So it's like this weird feast or
• 0:53
  famine with this team still obviously not playing how I'd
• 0:57
  love to see them play, but sometimes they show you flashes.
• 1:00
  What's your analysis of where we're at right now with Red Sox?
• 1:03
  Well, I mean, I would say there's no feast, it's all
• 1:05
  famine. I mean, they have to win by
• 1:07
  shout out because they don't score.
• 1:09
  Like I consider a good pitching performance of Feast, though,
• 1:12
  you know what I mean? All right.
• 1:12
  So they're they're, they're forcing famine on other teams.
• 1:16
  The only way they win right now, I just look at them, they're 18
• 1:20
  and 25. That is a pace for 68 wins on
• 1:24
  the season. The last time, I mean, Bobby V
• 1:27
  won 69 games in 2012. To give you some context, the
• 1:31
  last time they won fewer than 68 games was like 1965.
• 1:36
  I don't think they're going to finish there.
• 1:37
  But this is kind of what they've been all year.
• 1:41
  And it's incredibly frustrating to watch.
• 1:43
  And frustration being the word of the moment.
• 1:46
  I will just say you just finished a series where you lost
• 1:50
  two or three to Philly. And who was the star of that
• 1:53
  series? Kyle Schwarber hitting Schwar
• 1:55
  bombs. And it's just, it's a yet
• 1:58
  another reminder of how badly the Red Sox have lost their way
• 2:02
  over the last five or six years. 2021, They acquire him at the
• 2:06
  trade deadline. While he's hurt.
• 2:08
  We all kind of throw up our hands and say, this is the best
• 2:10
  you can do. And it turned out, yeah, home
• 2:12
  run by Heim Bloom. Kyle Schwarber was awesome.
• 2:15
  He was a perfect fit for Boston on and off the field.
• 2:18
  He was a throwback to one of those players that fans loved
• 2:22
  and made for appointment viewing.
• 2:24
  And there was just something about the guy.
• 2:26
  Big, burly slugger. Good.
• 2:28
  Burly field, but tried. Yeah, totally dirt dog and they
• 2:33
  don't sign him. He goes to Philly on kind of a
• 2:35
  nothing contract by baseball standards.
• 2:38
  You know what he's done in Philly since obviously 46473856
• 2:44
  and now eighteen home run. He was second in the MVP last
• 2:47
  year. So this just points to they have
• 2:50
  no ambition anymore to build a team that people want to watch.
• 2:55
  We've talked about the entertainment value being
• 2:57
  lacking the last few years. I mean, they're at the point now
• 3:01
  where it's like if they give up three runs, the odds of them
• 3:04
  winning are low and that's tough baseball to.
• 3:07
  Watch. Yeah.
• 3:07
  And a big part of that is obviously how much the offense
• 3:09
  sucks. So I'm actually looking down the
• 3:12
  season statistics as they stand right now.
• 3:16
  Let's see, we've got Trevor Story hitting two O 6, Caleb
• 3:20
  Durbin 172, Jaron Duran 178. Narvaez is at 2:14.
• 3:29
  I mean, it's just ugly is not even the right word.
• 3:31
  And then even guys like Roman Anthony, right?
• 3:33
  Who's now on the injured list and whatnot.
• 3:36
  You know, he was hitting 229 and whatever that great.
• 3:40
  But you know, World Baseball Classic experience of his was
• 3:43
  certainly didn't translate to the regular season.
• 3:45
  So even guys like that just are not stepping up.
• 3:47
  I mean, Marcella Myers hitting 2:30.
• 3:49
  I mean, is there any bright spot?
• 3:51
  Is there anybody, I mean your sheet is hitting 275 kind of.
• 3:56
  Yeah, Will your Brave, I mean William Brave and Wilson
• 3:58
  Contreras. Contreras has been a good pick
• 4:00
  up. He leads the team in homers.
• 4:01
  But yeah, otherwise they just don't have any offense.
• 4:04
  And this was always going to be the problem with putting it all
• 4:08
  on the shoulders of a 22 year old kid, 21 year old kid, Roman
• 4:11
  Anthony, you don't win that way, especially in a market like
• 4:15
  Boston. And you look back at Xander
• 4:18
  Bogarts, it took him 5 or 6 years to become the player that
• 4:21
  we all think of now. Spooky bets.
• 4:24
  It took him two or three 3-4 years to become the player we
• 4:27
  think of now. And the Red Sox and those guys
• 4:31
  at least had David Ortiz and, you know, go down the list of
• 4:36
  established stars. Dustin Pedroia was around.
• 4:39
  They don't have that now. So this was always going to be
• 4:42
  the problem with putting it on the young guys this soon.
• 4:45
  And I'm already hearing people say, oh, call up Arias, you
• 4:49
  know, the shortstop at AA right now who's killing it?
• 4:52
  And, you know, put him, you know, it's like, no, this, this
• 4:55
  is the problem. You need real established
• 4:58
  players and they just don't have enough of and they don't have
• 5:00
  any. Yeah, no, you you said, we
• 5:02
  talked about this several weeks ago and I think you made a
• 5:04
  really good point to kind of converted me a little bit
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  because I think I was thinking of like Dustin Pedroia kind of
• 5:09
  struggling out of the gate. But that first season his he
• 5:11
  really did put it together by the end of the season.
• 5:13
  But that team was just so full of other people to lean on.
• 5:16
  There was just so many veteran stars, people that were reliable
• 5:20
  people that were, you know, they hit well.
• 5:22
  I mean the pitching was good. I mean, like, you didn't have to
• 5:24
  have all that pressure on that one young guy who needed to pan
• 5:28
  out. And yet worth with a guy like
• 5:29
  Roman Anthony, like he's expected to be like the man,
• 5:33
  like he was supposed to be the meat of the order.
• 5:34
  He's supposed to be, you know, a superstar, Mike Trout or
• 5:36
  something like that. And that's a pretty tough thing
• 5:39
  to ask somebody, even with as good as he looked in the first
• 5:42
  year and in the World Baseball Classic.
• 5:45
  Exactly. I mean, they start the year
• 5:47
  with, you know, Roman Anthony hitting leadoff, and we're
• 5:51
  putting it all on you. And you go back to Dustin
• 5:54
  Pedroia's rookie year, he was batting 9, you know, because he
• 5:58
  had Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek and David Ortiz and
• 6:01
  Kevin Euclis and Manny Ramirez and even JD Drew.
• 6:04
  Just like a veteran laden team. Completely different now,
• 6:08
  Pedroia could struggle. He could come out and hit 100 in
• 6:12
  that first month in 2007 and it was OK because they have the
• 6:16
  support system around him. What does Roman Anthony have?
• 6:19
  Jaron Duran. That's his support system.
• 6:23
  Yes. And and I'm thinking too, by the
• 6:25
  way, if this team continues to solve and we get to the dreaded,
• 6:29
  you know, 60 something wins mark, you would you would think
• 6:32
  fire sale, you know, you think you would think that this team
• 6:34
  is going to get blown up and try to get some sort of pieces or
• 6:37
  whatever back, which is something that maybe you should
• 6:40
  have been doing a little bit this offseason with some people
• 6:42
  like Jaron Duran, who had higher value with the performance
• 6:46
  you've seen here. Who you going to trade?
• 6:48
  Like who'd even want it? Who'd who'd who'd give you
• 6:50
  anything back for any of this stuff like this is like bear
• 6:53
  basement stuff. There is.
• 6:55
  This is depressing, you know, I'm sorry to fill everybody with
• 6:58
  sadness, but. I mean seriously, like look it
• 7:01
  up and down lineup. So you're not going to trade
• 7:02
  Meyer or Anthony because they have more value to you in the
• 7:05
  future in Narvaez, OK Trevor Story, no one wants that
• 7:10
  contract. You know he plumped offensively
• 7:13
  and defensively. Caleb Durbin, good defender.
• 7:16
  I guess you know the one positive.
• 7:17
  Let's give the people 1 positive.
• 7:20
  Their defense has been awesome this year.
• 7:21
  Other than Story, he's been shaky and short.
• 7:24
  But everywhere else else, Contreras has been great at
• 7:27
  first base. That outfield is the best in
• 7:29
  baseball. Durbin has been great at 3rd
• 7:31
  defensively. He can't hit the save his life.
• 7:34
  So at least they're not. This is part of the reason
• 7:36
  they're winning games by shutout because they have been so solid.
• 7:39
  So that is at least one problem that they have fixed.
• 7:43
  The problem is it's been at the expense of their offense and you
• 7:46
  just I mean they're on a like record streak for futility at
• 7:51
  Fenway Park. They've they're averaging like
• 7:53
  two runs a game or something and their last however many contests
• 7:58
  at home, that's where they're supposed to dominate and it's
• 8:01
  just a struggle right now. OK, but on the pitching side, I
• 8:03
  mean, there is better stories to tell there.
• 8:05
  I mean, Ranger Suarez has been quite good.
• 8:08
  Connelly Early's turning into a pretty good little pitcher.
• 8:11
  Obviously Peyton Tolley. I love that guy.
• 8:12
  That guy's a lot of I mean, you want that's somebody who's fun
• 8:15
  to watch. Like that's kind of like one of
• 8:17
  those old school players that you're talking about.
• 8:19
  I mean, even Sonny Gray's been pretty good, decent.
• 8:21
  And Garrett Crochet is out, right, because of the the
• 8:24
  whatever injury. So the pitching at least is
• 8:27
  there. So they've got something to lean
• 8:29
  on, I suppose. But then again, if you're going
• 8:31
  to be looking for trade ships, I guess the performance of those
• 8:34
  pitchers would be one of those things that you trade, I guess.
• 8:36
  I don't know. It's yeah.
• 8:37
  I mean, Sonny Gray looks like a classic trade dump at the
• 8:41
  deadline, veteran on a one year deal, etcetera.
• 8:44
  So that's the name that I'm sure will come up and if they
• 8:47
  continue to play like this will be moved.
• 8:49
  The saving grace is the American League is at an all time
• 8:53
  terrible level right now. There's like what, 3, four teams
• 8:57
  with winning records in the Ali think 1-2.
• 9:01
  I'm looking now. There's yeah.
• 9:02
  So like 5 teams in the American League have winning records.
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  That's it. So you're only what, three games
• 9:08
  out of a wild card spot right now?
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  So that is a definite saving grace for the Red Sox right now
• 9:15
  that everyone else is terrible to.
• 9:16
  The problem is they trail so many teams.
• 9:19
  You can be 3 games out of a playoff spot, but if there's
• 9:21
  seven teams between you and that spot, you're not actually in a
• 9:25
  good position. Yeah, John Tomasi joining us, as
• 9:28
  he usually does on Fridays. Let's set aside to the Red Sox
• 9:31
  for a minute and think about maybe a high, a more successful
• 9:34
  team, although one with its own issues right now, Mike Vrabel
• 9:37
  and the Patriots. The schedule just got released,
• 9:40
  so you're looking at a pretty early season gauntlet to go
• 9:43
  through, including a opening game rematch against the
• 9:47
  Seahawks. Tell me a little bit about what
• 9:50
  you see in that schedule. Is this going to be a brutal
• 9:52
  year? I mean, that's all we heard
• 9:53
  about last year was that it was not really that great of a team
• 9:56
  and it was just the cupcake schedule.
• 9:58
  We're about to find out who they really are now.
• 9:59
  What do you expect, Sir? Yeah, So you know how I
• 10:03
  interpret this schedule. I look at the first month of
• 10:05
  this schedule as the NFL saying, you know what, Patriots, you've
• 10:08
  been such a pain for us, such a rock in our shoe, you know,
• 10:12
  eyelash in our eye, that we don't want to have to deal with
• 10:15
  you this year. So we're going to give you Week
• 10:17
  1, you get to watch the Seahawks raise their banner and then
• 10:20
  probably stomp you against zero. And one Week 2, you host the
• 10:24
  Steelers, who they are, what they are, but they're a playoff
• 10:26
  team perennially. They always have a good defense.
• 10:29
  And as the time of year when the offense maybe isn't cranking
• 10:32
  yet, Week 3, you go to Florida in the Heat and play the Jags.
• 10:36
  It's going to be 100°. They were a playoff team.
• 10:39
  That's a tough matchup. And then Week 4, you go to
• 10:42
  Buffalo right away. So it's like that feels like one
• 10:46
  and three to me to start. And then you're behind the 8
• 10:48
  ball and it's like the league saying this is what you get for
• 10:53
  embarrassing us with Brabel and Rossini, That story that won't
• 10:56
  go away and players slapping their chefs, allegedly, and
• 11:00
  whatever else. The Patriots, you know that the
• 11:03
  the league just doesn't feel like putting up with any more.
• 11:06
  There's one easy stretch in this schedule.
• 11:09
  Weeks 5 and 6. You get Raiders with a rookie
• 11:11
  QB. You got the Wobegon Jets and
• 11:14
  then my God, Bears and Caleb Williams.
• 11:17
  Even at Miami, you never play well there.
• 11:20
  You got the Packers. You have to go to Germany to
• 11:23
  play the lion. I mean it's yeah, it's a killer
• 11:26
  schedule. So if they can make the playoffs
• 11:28
  this year, then hat tip to them because the schedule is not set
• 11:33
  up in their favor, partly obviously as a result of their
• 11:36
  success last year. Other other, I guess, remaining
• 11:41
  questions here about the construction of the team and
• 11:43
  what we're going to see maybe before the season starts here.
• 11:45
  Any other additional moves? Obviously, questions about wide
• 11:49
  receiver. I've heard about Stephon Diggs
• 11:51
  as a, you know, reunite and reuniting the team back together
• 11:54
  now that he's clear of his charges and all that stuff.
• 11:57
  Tell me more about what we might see in the next several weeks,
• 12:00
  maybe in terms of more moves. Yes, so next month is when the,
• 12:06
  you know, there's there's a date whereby A.J.
• 12:09
  Brown can be traded without massive salary cap implications
• 12:13
  for the Eagles. And it seems clear everyone
• 12:17
  assumes in the league that he is coming to New England.
• 12:20
  So that's going to change the tenor of the offseason.
• 12:22
  You go get a legit #1 receiver when that's one of your biggest
• 12:26
  needs you. We know they have a good roster
• 12:29
  kind of top to bottom right now with that glaring exception.
• 12:32
  They could probably to use help on the pass rush too.
• 12:34
  But you had A.J. Brown and maybe that's the pivot
• 12:38
  point where we finally start moving on from the sprayable
• 12:41
  stuff and we get into the rhythm of training camp and now the
• 12:45
  season's approaching and you have that guy that can be Drake
• 12:50
  Maze number one. Got to have it.
• 12:52
  There's someone who can be tough coverage.
• 12:55
  That's the big shoe that's still waiting to drop.
• 12:58
  Indeed. All right.
• 12:59
  Well, we're going to have to stop there because we are out of
• 13:01
  time. John Tomasi, appreciate it as
• 13:02
  always. Thanks for being with us.
• 13:03
  And we will talk again next Friday, Sir.