Latest / Foul Territory / Fair Territory: Ken Rosenthal reacts to Red Sox firing Alex Cora

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Fair Territory: Ken Rosenthal reacts to Red Sox firing Alex Cora · Foul Territory

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Fair Territory. I'm
0:05
Speaker 1: Ken Rosenthal, here with you for the next half hour
0:08
Speaker 1: or so. It was one week ago today I wrote
0:12
Speaker 1: a column about managers potentially being on the hot seat,
0:16
Speaker 1: and in that column I said that an early move
0:19
Speaker 1: with Alex Cora, who was in the second year over
0:22
Speaker 1: three year twenty one point seventy five million dollar deal,
0:26
Speaker 1: seems unlikely. I focused on Carlos Mendoza of the Mets,
0:31
Speaker 1: Rob Thompson of the Phillies, both of whom remain in
0:33
Speaker 1: deep trouble. Joe Spot of the Astros. Not sure exactly
0:37
Speaker 1: where that stands, but I should have known him better,
0:41
Speaker 1: and I should have known better with the Red Sox
0:44
Speaker 1: because they are the league leader in dysfunction, in overreaction,
0:49
Speaker 1: and in scapegoating. So what happened on Saturday about I
0:53
Speaker 1: don't know. Two minutes before we went on the air
0:55
Speaker 1: on Fox, Alex Cora was fired along with five of
0:59
Speaker 1: his coaches, and it's really six because you can count
1:01
Speaker 1: Jason Vertek in that group, and the Red Sox hired
1:05
Speaker 1: an interim their Triple A manager, Chad Tracy. Now Cora
1:09
Speaker 1: indeed was in the second year of a three year,
1:12
Speaker 1: twenty one point seventy five million dollar contract. He has
1:15
Speaker 1: basically almost two years left on that deal. The Red
1:18
Speaker 1: Sox will be obligated to pay that off unless he
1:21
Speaker 1: gets another job. We'll get to that, and this is
1:25
Speaker 1: a situation where Craig Breslow and the Red Sox. Craig Breslow,
1:29
Speaker 1: being the chief baseball officer, insisted that it was his
1:32
Speaker 1: decision and this was his push to make these changes
1:36
Speaker 1: at this time. Remember the date of these changes was
1:40
Speaker 1: April twenty fifth. That's remarkably early. The Red Sox at
1:45
Speaker 1: that time were ten and seventeen. Okay, yes, they had
1:47
Speaker 1: been struggling, but this move shocked the entire industry. It
1:52
Speaker 1: shocked the entire industry, not just because of the timing,
1:55
Speaker 1: of course, but because of who Alex Cora is in
1:58
Speaker 1: the game. He's one of the more spected managers in
2:01
Speaker 1: the game, and it shocked people because they thought, well,
2:04
Speaker 1: he was pretty safe. Breslow was maybe the guy more
2:08
Speaker 1: on the hot seat simply because he put this team together.
2:12
Speaker 1: He's the guy who didn't trade an outfielder, who didn't
2:15
Speaker 1: sign Alex Bregman, who stressed run prevention for a team
2:19
Speaker 1: that has not been all that good at run prevention
2:23
Speaker 1: just yet. So where do we stand here? Well, the
2:27
Speaker 1: first big question to me is going to be how
2:30
Speaker 1: the Red Sox played. But the bigger question in terms
2:33
Speaker 1: of the broader picture the industry is Alex Korra and
2:37
Speaker 1: what is he going to do now? He saw his
2:39
Speaker 1: Instagram post and he did this on Twitter as well.
2:42
Speaker 1: I'm happy whatever, he's happy. Okay, that's an odd reaction.
2:48
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I don't know what you
2:49
Speaker 1: expected to say. I don't know that he was going
2:52
Speaker 1: to rip anybody publicly in the wake of this, And
2:54
Speaker 1: maybe he's happy to get out of a place where
2:58
Speaker 1: they run through people left and right. And I'm sure Cora,
3:03
Speaker 1: being experienced in these particular soap operas, maybe was getting
3:07
Speaker 1: worn down by it. And you remember, he's no innocent here.
3:10
Speaker 1: As I wrote in my column that appeared Sunday morning,
3:13
Speaker 1: He's no innocent because he won a power struggle with
3:16
Speaker 1: heim Bloom to get heim Bloom out of there. That
3:18
Speaker 1: was the scapegoat before Alex Cora, and he also last
3:23
Speaker 1: year with ralphield Devers. This manager, who was supposedly known
3:27
Speaker 1: as a great communicator, was not able to get Devers
3:30
Speaker 1: on board with playing first base. Now, fans, some Red
3:34
Speaker 1: Sox fans at least, were not happy with the way
3:37
Speaker 1: the team has performed under Cora in recent years, and
3:40
Speaker 1: you can make a case that they should be or
3:42
Speaker 1: should have been better. Just two playoff appearances since twenty eighteen,
3:46
Speaker 1: and Cora was the manager for all but one of
3:49
Speaker 1: those years. Of course, he was also the manager when
3:51
Speaker 1: they won the twenty eighteen World Series. But none of
3:54
Speaker 1: that stuff ever seems the matter with the Red Sox.
3:56
Speaker 1: You win a World Series, you can be out the
3:58
Speaker 1: next year, whatever the case by We've seen that time
4:01
Speaker 1: and time again. Terry Francona, John Farrell from the managing side,
4:06
Speaker 1: Ben Sherrington, David Dombrowski from the executive side, and now
4:10
Speaker 1: of course we see Cora getting ousted as well. Now
4:15
Speaker 1: the focus here will be from this point on Craig Breslow,
4:19
Speaker 1: chief baseball Officer. And I wrote in my column on Sunday,
4:24
Speaker 1: Craig Breslow is next. And the reason I wrote that
4:28
Speaker 1: is because he now is under scrutiny. He now will
4:31
Speaker 1: be responsible for the successes or failings going forward. You
4:35
Speaker 1: can't blame the manager anymore. Can't blame the hitting coaches,
4:38
Speaker 1: can't blame all the other coaches you dismissed. No, it's
4:42
Speaker 1: on Breslow. And here's a guy that we have not
4:45
Speaker 1: seen yet put a really good team together. They put
4:48
Speaker 1: a team together last year that made it to the playoffs,
4:50
Speaker 1: ultimately lost in the first round. But then what happened.
4:53
Speaker 1: They lost the guy who was supposed to be the fixture,
4:57
Speaker 1: Alex Bregman. Alex Bregman was a big influence on their
5:00
Speaker 1: younger players. They don't really have that right now. And
5:04
Speaker 1: here's Craig Breslow again taking to this decision or making
5:08
Speaker 1: this decision. And then and here's the key part here
5:11
Speaker 1: in a way, the key part, of course is the dismissals.
5:14
Speaker 1: But the way they handled that clubhouse meeting yesterday, Breslaw
5:19
Speaker 1: and Sam Kennedy, the team president, what do they do?
5:22
Speaker 1: Did they open the Florida questions? Did they allow players
5:25
Speaker 1: to express their feelings? No, they spoke, No one else did,
5:30
Speaker 1: and the players were not happy. You might have seen
5:34
Speaker 1: Trevor Story's comments. Trevor Story, I can tell you from
5:37
Speaker 1: years of experience covering him, it's one of the more
5:39
Speaker 1: mild mattern guys in the game. Not a guy to
5:42
Speaker 1: make waves. And what he said was, Hey, this wasn't cool,
5:48
Speaker 1: and it wasn't cool. You got to let players have
5:51
Speaker 1: their say too. And I know they're the employees, these
5:54
Speaker 1: guys are the bosses. We all know that. It's obvious
5:57
Speaker 1: every single day who's running the show. But at the
6:00
Speaker 1: same time, if you have feel, feel for your clubhouse,
6:04
Speaker 1: feel for your players, feel for the organization, then you're
6:09
Speaker 1: going to handle this a little bit differently. And that
6:11
Speaker 1: is the biggest issue with the Red Sox. It's feel,
6:15
Speaker 1: it's Breslow's feel, it's John Henry's feel. We haven't heard
6:18
Speaker 1: from him in agency. He's the one running this show,
6:22
Speaker 1: and this is just a lack of respect for your players,
6:26
Speaker 1: and ultimately, in Henry's case, when you don't address anything,
6:30
Speaker 1: it's a lack of respect for your fans.
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Speaker 1: Breslow, he made a number of decisions here that were
7:40
Speaker 1: rather interesting. The coaching decisions. Clearly he wanted a new
7:44
Speaker 1: hitting department. We saw that the only hitting coach that
7:47
Speaker 1: remained is one with a background in drive line and
7:51
Speaker 1: we'll see how it goes with this. Now that Pete
7:53
Speaker 1: Fatcy's gone, and now that doing loss and is gone,
7:56
Speaker 1: you can make the case that a change in hitting
7:58
Speaker 1: coaches was warranted. They certainly were not performing offensively the
8:02
Speaker 1: way they should. But as I've written many times, said
8:06
Speaker 1: many times on this show and Foul Territory, this team
8:12
Speaker 1: was built in a way that put too much pressure
8:15
Speaker 1: on their young players. I've said this and I'll say
8:18
Speaker 1: it again. They're asking a twenty one year old Roman
8:20
Speaker 1: Anthony to essentially be David Ortiz Wilson Contrera's good addition,
8:25
Speaker 1: not Bregnan, not Pete Alonso, and I know Alonzo's off
8:29
Speaker 1: to a slow start, but that kind of presence for
8:32
Speaker 1: the younger players and for the team as a whole
8:34
Speaker 1: would have been welcome. Contreras's was gone for most of
8:37
Speaker 1: the WBC. Not his fault, of course, but he wasn't
8:41
Speaker 1: there to establish those kinds of relationships. And he's a
8:44
Speaker 1: different guy than those two guys. So that's one thing.
8:48
Speaker 1: The other thing here, let's look at the Dever's trade.
8:51
Speaker 1: For a second, Raphael Devers goes and they get Kyle
8:55
Speaker 1: Harrison back, Well, they'd send Kyle Harrison to Milwaukee for
8:58
Speaker 1: Caleb Durbin. Durbin struggling Kyle Harrison twelve strikeout game yesterday
9:03
Speaker 1: early to judge the Dustin may trade in which they
9:06
Speaker 1: parted with James Tibbs, who is now tearing it up
9:08
Speaker 1: at TRIPAA for the Dodgers. You can say early to judge,
9:11
Speaker 1: we'll see how this all plays out. There's the full
9:13
Speaker 1: trade right there. But at the same time they botched
9:17
Speaker 1: the devor's situation. They were unable to reach him. This
9:20
Speaker 1: is another guy who was ever a problem before. This
9:23
Speaker 1: problem arose with them displacing him a third and then
9:26
Speaker 1: wanting him to play first. Now he should have played first.
9:29
Speaker 1: I think we probably can all agree on that. But
9:32
Speaker 1: the Red Sox completely mishandled it as well. That's on Breslo.
9:35
Speaker 1: It was to some degree on Corps, and it is
9:38
Speaker 1: in some ways the start of this whole thing. Actually,
9:42
Speaker 1: you can go back to Mooky all those years ago
9:45
Speaker 1: when they didn't sign him long term and then traded
9:47
Speaker 1: him in another bad trade with David Price to the
9:50
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Dodgers. But no, now here's Breslo. This guy
9:55
Speaker 1: is in his third season on the job. As Jen
9:57
Speaker 1: McCaffrey has written in The Athletic Predecessors, Hein Bloom, David Dobrowski,
10:02
Speaker 1: and Ben Sherrington all were fired within their first four
10:06
Speaker 1: years so you got to think he's feeling the heat, right, Yeah,
10:11
Speaker 1: I'm sure he is feeling the heat, and this was
10:13
Speaker 1: his move to somehow make things right. We'll see how
10:18
Speaker 1: it goes. I am still not convinced they're gonna hit,
10:21
Speaker 1: even though of course they've changed. They're hitting coaches, which
10:24
Speaker 1: is another perhaps problem in the middle of the season,
10:28
Speaker 1: this kind of disruption where you bring in new coaches,
10:31
Speaker 1: you have this whole program change. We'll see how it works.
10:35
Speaker 1: It's the team that's tied for last in the Majors
10:38
Speaker 1: in home runs. They are down in the bottom and
10:41
Speaker 1: runs per game. It's early. I know. Well, if you
10:44
Speaker 1: thought they were gonna hit, well, we'll see because they're
10:48
Speaker 1: not hitting so far. And if you think they're gonna
10:50
Speaker 1: hit with your new guys, well we'll see how that goes. Now,
10:55
Speaker 1: John Henry the owner, and granted, even with Bresle, they've
10:59
Speaker 1: done some good things. Of course, the Garat Crochet trade
11:02
Speaker 1: other good things. It's not like it's been a complete whiff.
11:05
Speaker 1: But John Henry, well, this is a team that ranks
11:08
Speaker 1: eleventh in cash spending according to spot rack this season.
11:12
Speaker 1: You could argue that they could have spent more and
11:15
Speaker 1: you could argue, certainly that they should have got one
11:17
Speaker 1: of the big bats and Rangers Suarez if that's what
11:20
Speaker 1: they wanted to do. This emphasis on run prevention not
11:24
Speaker 1: a bad idea, but you've got to have run production
11:27
Speaker 1: as well. You see the payrolls right there. You see
11:31
Speaker 1: Boston down at number eleven, right ahead of Detroit and Baltimore.
11:35
Speaker 1: And I wrote that under Henry, the Red Sox have
11:38
Speaker 1: been incoherent, dysfunctional, and forever poised to overreact. Yet why
11:44
Speaker 1: should he operate differently When Fenway is filled pretty much
11:48
Speaker 1: every night, when the fans and the opposing fans who
11:52
Speaker 1: come in has tourists seem rather happy when the cash
11:56
Speaker 1: is flowing. In situations like this, honestly, the only ways
12:01
Speaker 1: for fans to express their frustration is by not going
12:04
Speaker 1: to games, not watching on TV, that kind of thing.
12:07
Speaker 1: I don't expect that to happen with the Red Sox.
12:09
Speaker 1: Red Sox fans like baseball. I understand that they love
12:12
Speaker 1: their team. But at the same time, I feel for
12:16
Speaker 1: Red Sox fans here because, as I wrote the other day,
12:20
Speaker 1: this team kareems from one team building strategy to another.
12:24
Speaker 1: There never seems to be this kind of coherent vision
12:28
Speaker 1: that you have, and granted that's going to happen from
12:31
Speaker 1: time to time, you're going to shift the way you
12:34
Speaker 1: operate your club. But this is a big market club
12:36
Speaker 1: that should be trying to win always. We can question
12:40
Speaker 1: their effort with how they've tried to win over the years,
12:42
Speaker 1: simply by the spending question. But it's beyond that. You
12:46
Speaker 1: can win without having a top five payroll. We know that.
12:49
Speaker 1: So the Red Sox and their operation is still in question,
12:54
Speaker 1: and I still wonder what this team is going to
12:56
Speaker 1: do the rest of the season, and I wonder as well.
13:00
Speaker 1: Will conclude with this what becomes of Alex Korra for
13:03
Speaker 1: this season. Obviously he has the ties with David Dombrowski.
13:07
Speaker 1: Remember they won the twenty eighteen World Series together for
13:11
Speaker 1: the Red Sox. Dave Dombrowski's in Philly, Rob Thompson's in trouble.
13:15
Speaker 1: We know that Phillies have, along with the Mets, the
13:18
Speaker 1: worst record in the major leagues nine to nineteen. Could
13:22
Speaker 1: Alex Cora Marritt manage that quickly? I sort of doubt it,
13:26
Speaker 1: but you're never know. In this crazy game, it's not
13:28
Speaker 1: unprecedented for a guy, a manager to change teams in
13:32
Speaker 1: the middle of a season. It's happened before a couple
13:35
Speaker 1: of times in baseball history, So we shall see what
13:39
Speaker 1: becomes of Cora. And by the way, if he does
13:42
Speaker 1: go to another team in the middle of the season
13:44
Speaker 1: or even at the end of the season, the Red
13:47
Speaker 1: Sox will be obligated to pay some of that money.
13:50
Speaker 1: But the new team will sign him to I wouldn't
13:52
Speaker 1: say a representative contract, but they'll pay him, say three
13:55
Speaker 1: million dollars a year. The Red Sox will pick up
13:57
Speaker 1: the rest, So they're not done with Alex or yet,
14:00
Speaker 1: at least as far as paying Alex Korra. All Right,
14:04
Speaker 1: enough about the Red Sox. Nough, we're gonna get to
14:06
Speaker 1: them in the next segment as well. We're gonna come
14:08
Speaker 1: up with the Inside Dish right after this Five biggest
14:11
Speaker 1: surprises of the first month and five biggest disappointments. Guess
14:16
Speaker 1: which list Boston makes. Right back, look at that our
14:27
Speaker 1: new introduction for Inside Dish. It looks rather tasty, and
14:31
Speaker 1: we hope this segment is rather tasty for people that
14:33
Speaker 1: are watching and listening. So the Inside Dish, if you
14:37
Speaker 1: are unfamiliar, is the segment in which we go inside
14:40
Speaker 1: a story I've written, or a trend in the game,
14:41
Speaker 1: or today we'll do something a little bit different for us,
14:45
Speaker 1: and it's five biggest surprises of the early going and
14:48
Speaker 1: five biggest disappointments. We will start with the biggest surprises,
14:51
Speaker 1: the positive first, the kind of guy I am. We'll
14:54
Speaker 1: start with the guy who is the dominant pitcher in
14:57
Speaker 1: the major leagues right now, Jose Sri of the Los
15:01
Speaker 1: Angeles Angels. Now here's a guy came into the season
15:04
Speaker 1: good pitcher, three point eight nine career era in about
15:08
Speaker 1: three hundred and twenty four innings, maybe two seasons worth.
15:11
Speaker 1: No one expected this. His era right now after six starts,
15:16
Speaker 1: not exactly a small sample is zero point twenty four.
15:21
Speaker 1: He is allowed one earned run oh No. One in
15:25
Speaker 1: thirty seven and two thirds innings. And Tyler Kepna wrote
15:29
Speaker 1: about this in The Athletic about a week and a
15:31
Speaker 1: half ago. He has a great sinker. He actually has
15:34
Speaker 1: reduced the use of his sinker with Angels pitching coach
15:37
Speaker 1: Mike Maddox advising him, and it's made him an even
15:39
Speaker 1: better pitcher. He's expanded his repertoire. He has been brilliant.
15:43
Speaker 1: He is biggest surprise number one. Number two, I will
15:47
Speaker 1: go to the Cincinnati Reds and team that I'm accused
15:50
Speaker 1: of ignoring. No, they're eighteen and ten. You can't ignore them.
15:54
Speaker 1: We've talked more about the Pirates because the Pirates have
15:56
Speaker 1: been down for so long. Red's made the playoffs last season.
15:59
Speaker 1: But this version of the Reds team has been surprising.
16:03
Speaker 1: Surprising because they've been without Hunter Green and Nicolodolo, two
16:07
Speaker 1: of their top starting pitchers. They've had other injuries as well,
16:10
Speaker 1: most recently a Johanno Suarez, which is going to be
16:12
Speaker 1: one that could hurt them. They haven't gotten much offense,
16:16
Speaker 1: at least in the early going. It was basically Elie
16:19
Speaker 1: Dela Cruz and salth Stewart, the rookie who is a
16:22
Speaker 1: strong Rookie of the Year candidate. Through April seventeenth, they
16:26
Speaker 1: were last in the majors in runs per game last
16:29
Speaker 1: and yet they're eighteen and ten. They're up to nineteenth
16:32
Speaker 1: in runs per game. They've gotten a great run out
16:36
Speaker 1: of their bullpen yesterday aside, they had a bad day
16:38
Speaker 1: yesterday with their bullpen. But that has been the biggest
16:41
Speaker 1: surprise within the surprise, I'm not totally convinced that the
16:45
Speaker 1: bullpen is going to be as good as it's looked,
16:47
Speaker 1: But Santi Ashcraft and Amelio Pagan at the end, they've
16:52
Speaker 1: been good. These guys have been good all around, and
16:54
Speaker 1: they'll get Green and Lodolo back at some point, Lodolo first.
16:58
Speaker 1: They're going to be an interesting team in what is
17:00
Speaker 1: become an interesting division. You could argue that the NL
17:03
Speaker 1: Central as a whole is the biggest surprise in the game. Okay,
17:07
Speaker 1: third biggest surprise, and actually this one ranks pretty highly too.
17:10
Speaker 1: The team with the best record in the major leagues
17:13
Speaker 1: that would be the Atlanta Braves at twenty and nine.
17:17
Speaker 1: Third in rotation era, even with basically an entire rotation
17:21
Speaker 1: on the injured list, including Spencer Stryder and Spencer Schwellenbach
17:26
Speaker 1: all spring I wrote and questioned on this show and
17:30
Speaker 1: others whether they would have enough for their rotation, whether
17:35
Speaker 1: they were just flirting with danger here, and it seemed
17:38
Speaker 1: to me they were, and it seemed that the alarm
17:41
Speaker 1: bells I rang were pretty justified. Well, look at the
17:45
Speaker 1: Braves now. It's not over, of course, we're only however,
17:49
Speaker 1: many games in, but their rotation has been brilliant and
17:52
Speaker 1: they deserve a lot of credit. Their bullpen is really
17:55
Speaker 1: good as well. Iglesia is currently down. He's their closer,
17:58
Speaker 1: but they've got Robert Suarez as well, who they signed,
18:01
Speaker 1: and they are first in the major leagues, first in scoring,
18:06
Speaker 1: first and runs per game. They've gotten great seasons so
18:10
Speaker 1: far out of Olsen and Drake Baldwin and Michael Harris
18:13
Speaker 1: the second A Kundrim really hasn't started to hit, Austin
18:17
Speaker 1: Riley really hasn't started to hit. And yet they've also
18:20
Speaker 1: done some good things around the edges. Guys like Dominic
18:23
Speaker 1: Smith and Mauricio Dubon have hit huge impacts for the Braves.
18:27
Speaker 1: So good for them. Great start and they look like
18:29
Speaker 1: they are back after such a disappointing season last year.
18:33
Speaker 1: Fourth on the Biggest Surprises list. Well, this guy has
18:37
Speaker 1: been amazing. Munataka Morikami. Now I know he's basically well,
18:42
Speaker 1: he's basically a three outcomes guy, home run, walker, strikeout.
18:46
Speaker 1: He ranks eleventh in the league in ops, though he
18:50
Speaker 1: has eleven home runs in twenty seven games. This was
18:54
Speaker 1: as advertised. People said he's gonna hit for power, people
18:59
Speaker 1: said he's going to strike out. People thought he would
19:02
Speaker 1: walk a lot as well. Now he's got the seventh
19:04
Speaker 1: highest strikeout rate, striking out about it one third of
19:07
Speaker 1: the time. He's got the ninth highest walk rate, so
19:10
Speaker 1: that's good. He's getting on base ops is way up there.
19:12
Speaker 1: As I said, the question is will pitchers adjust to him,
19:16
Speaker 1: and then how will he adjust? But we know now
19:19
Speaker 1: that the power certainly is there. We know he can
19:22
Speaker 1: hit major league pitching. The question is the cat and
19:24
Speaker 1: mouse game and how it will proceed. All right. Fifth
19:27
Speaker 1: biggest surprise, This one will be a pleasant surprise for fans.
19:32
Speaker 1: One that has kind of surprised all of us, I think,
19:35
Speaker 1: and it's ABS and the entertainment value that it has provided.
19:40
Speaker 1: It's been good for the game. We probably all can
19:42
Speaker 1: agree on that. Yes, it's slowed down the game just
19:45
Speaker 1: a touch from where it was with the clock in
19:48
Speaker 1: place and no ABS, but the challenges move very quickly
19:52
Speaker 1: and fans seem to get into it. The strategic element
19:55
Speaker 1: is a lot of fun. When do you challenge? When
19:57
Speaker 1: do you not? Why did that guy challenge there? Oh,
20:00
Speaker 1: he should have challenged this pitch. It's all been part
20:03
Speaker 1: of the new product of baseball and Rob Manfer, the commissioner,
20:07
Speaker 1: deserves a lot of credit for this, as well as
20:09
Speaker 1: the pitch clock. The esthetic changes to the games of
20:12
Speaker 1: the game in recent years have been fantastic, so ABS
20:16
Speaker 1: we applauded and certainly a great surprise in terms of
20:20
Speaker 1: the entertainment value for fans. We kind of knew what
20:22
Speaker 1: it was going to be, we just didn't know necessarily
20:26
Speaker 1: how much fun it would be.
20:31
Speaker 3: Todd Father, it's getting a little warm out. That means
20:34
Speaker 3: let's hit some concerts, let's hit some baseball games. And
20:37
Speaker 3: where am I going to go to find those tickets?
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Speaker 2: Going to seek Hey, listen. Ultimately, at the end of
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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21:32
Speaker 1: Let's move to the five biggest disappointments, and the five
21:35
Speaker 1: biggest disappointments are all going to be teams, and we'll start,
21:39
Speaker 1: of course with the New York Mets, the New York
21:42
Speaker 1: Mets who were swept by the Colorado Rockies over the weekend.
21:46
Speaker 1: You remember the Rockies, they lose a zillion games every year.
21:50
Speaker 1: They mocked the Mets on X last night with this
21:53
Speaker 1: amazing tweet asking essentially for the Empire State Building to
21:57
Speaker 1: be lit in purple Rockies purple for the sweep of
22:01
Speaker 1: the Mets. Probably not gonna happen, but my goodness, how
22:05
Speaker 1: the mighty have fallen, or I should say, how the
22:08
Speaker 1: expensive have fallen? Because the Mets have not been mighty,
22:12
Speaker 1: except in twenty four when they made it to the NLCS,
22:15
Speaker 1: but they've been rather expensive. As I said earlier, tied
22:19
Speaker 1: with the Phillies for the worst record in Major League
22:21
Speaker 1: Baseball nine to nineteen. They lost Soda earlier, Soda comes back,
22:26
Speaker 1: they lose Lindor. These are problems, obviously that any team
22:29
Speaker 1: would face. But here they are in the middle of
22:32
Speaker 1: a make or break home stand and they're two and
22:35
Speaker 1: four against the Twins and the Rockies, with the Nationals
22:38
Speaker 1: now coming in off day today. Will Carlos Mendoza make
22:42
Speaker 1: it till tomorrow? We're going to find out, and certainly
22:46
Speaker 1: the Mets there are a myriad of problems. As Will
22:48
Speaker 1: Salmon writes in The Athletic Today, it's not just the offense,
22:52
Speaker 1: which has been really bad. It's also the rotation where
22:56
Speaker 1: you've got Peterson, Manya and Senga who have all underperformed,
23:00
Speaker 1: and really you have to stack all these guys in
23:02
Speaker 1: the bullpen now because they can't be in the rotation.
23:04
Speaker 1: It's essentially one thing after another. So let's go and
23:10
Speaker 1: continue with the other disappointments. The Phillies. Yeah, the Phillies.
23:13
Speaker 1: Of course, we talked about them a little bit earlier.
23:16
Speaker 1: This team, too has not hit bottom three offense Mets
23:19
Speaker 1: last in the Majors and runs per game Phillies third
23:22
Speaker 1: from the bottom. Phillies negative fifty four run differential worst
23:26
Speaker 1: in baseball. Dave Dombrowski summoned three scouts to Atlanta to
23:30
Speaker 1: evaluate the club this weekend, never a good sign. They
23:33
Speaker 1: had an outfield yesterday of Felix Reyis, Dylan Moore, and
23:36
Speaker 1: Adols Garcia. The Philadelphia Phillies did. They're in a bad place.
23:41
Speaker 1: The Red Sox. We talked about them. They are, of course,
23:43
Speaker 1: one of the biggest disappointments, tied for the worst record
23:47
Speaker 1: in the AL. Again, we don't need to go through
23:50
Speaker 1: this anymore. We know who they are and they have
23:52
Speaker 1: been Kansas City Royals now. This team, if not for
23:56
Speaker 1: the expensive teams falling all over themselves, would be right
23:59
Speaker 1: up there with the biggest disappointments and getting more attention.
24:02
Speaker 1: They made minor moves to fix their offense. They resigned
24:05
Speaker 1: Jonathan India, picked up Lane Thomas, traded for Isaac Collins.
24:10
Speaker 1: Hasn't worked. Pascalent Tweino and sal Perez off to really
24:14
Speaker 1: slow starts. They did score eleven yesterday. Maybe they'll come
24:17
Speaker 1: out of it. We'll see. But at the same time,
24:19
Speaker 1: huge disappointment and the loss of Steves in their bullpen
24:23
Speaker 1: has led to them having the ERA among relievers, next
24:27
Speaker 1: to last in the major leagues. Finally, the Houston Astros.
24:32
Speaker 1: Houston Astros are walking the world, leading the Majors in
24:35
Speaker 1: walk right. Of course they are because they have an
24:37
Speaker 1: entire rotation on the IL, including Hunter Brown their ace,
24:40
Speaker 1: and Tatsua in their big import this offseason, as well
24:45
Speaker 1: as Josh Hater being on the IL and Brian abre
24:48
Speaker 1: You struggling. They are sixth in the Majors and runs
24:52
Speaker 1: per game and yet they cannot get out of their
24:54
Speaker 1: own way because of the pitching. They too have been
24:56
Speaker 1: a huge disappointment. We'll see if Joe Spot has survived.
25:00
Speaker 1: He's in the last year of his contract. Dana Brown,
25:02
Speaker 1: the GM is in the last year of his contract
25:04
Speaker 1: as well. Okay, let's take a break here. We'll come
25:07
Speaker 1: right back after this with the final segment. Grillan ken A.
25:14
Speaker 1: Here we go with Grillan Ken back with another food motif.
25:18
Speaker 1: I kind of love it all, right, first question, let's
25:20
Speaker 1: get to it. This one is Bobby Whitt has gone
25:25
Speaker 1: from thirty two homers in twenty twenty four to twenty
25:27
Speaker 1: two in twenty twenty five to now so far only
25:30
Speaker 1: one home run in twenty twenty six. Is there a
25:33
Speaker 1: concern with his power decrease the last three years? This
25:36
Speaker 1: question comes from Sean Michael, who often has good questions,
25:38
Speaker 1: and this is a good one when you describe it
25:41
Speaker 1: like that, when you put it as Sean did, yeah,
25:43
Speaker 1: you have to be a little bit concerned. But it's
25:46
Speaker 1: early in the season. With like Pascuentino and Perez got
25:49
Speaker 1: off to a slow start, he seemingly is coming out
25:52
Speaker 1: of it. I want to see more this season before
25:55
Speaker 1: I passed judgment on whether he is in some kind
25:58
Speaker 1: of power decline. I tend to doubt it. Bobby Witch
26:01
Speaker 1: Junior is really good and I expect him to remain
26:04
Speaker 1: really good. All right, let's get to our other question.
26:07
Speaker 1: We're gonna have one more because I ran along on
26:09
Speaker 1: the previous two segments. This one is from Kyle Knapp.
26:13
Speaker 1: What is the lead? Kyle? The lead is the start
26:16
Speaker 1: of the show, and what it is in print journalism
26:19
Speaker 1: is the first paragraph. How you begin the story. Sometimes
26:22
Speaker 1: you write a good lead. Sometimes you write a bad lead.
26:25
Speaker 1: Sometimes the editor says, you know what, We're gonna rewrite
26:28
Speaker 1: the lead entirely because this ain't doing it for me.
26:31
Speaker 1: That happens, happens to all of us. All Right, With that,
26:34
Speaker 1: we're gonna say goodbye. We'll get back to your questions
26:37
Speaker 1: more on Thursday when I have the next show, the
26:40
Speaker 1: Thursday Show with Alana Rizzo. I want to thank everyone
26:43
Speaker 1: for watching and listening. Foul Territory coming up at one
26:46
Speaker 1: pm Eastern. That's a J. Prazinski, Eric Kratz, and Scott Braun.
26:50
Speaker 1: We're gonna have the Boston Globes, Pete Abraham. He'll have
26:53
Speaker 1: some insights on the Red Sox. I'm sure White Sox
26:55
Speaker 1: pitcher Davis Martin and former MLB and Red Sox executive
27:00
Speaker 1: Zach Scott stops By. Actually, Zach also worked for the Mets.
27:04
Speaker 1: He'll be an interesting liston as well. Again, we'll back
27:06
Speaker 1: Thursday with Alana. Talk to you guys then.
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