This One Detail Changes EVERYTHING For Boston… | Daily Red Sox News & Rumors

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Oh, Mickey, you're so fine. I I just could not resist. We we do it a lot on the WooSox broadcasts. It is a Monday edition of Red Sox Now. Call She's our sponsor. If you use the code fanarchbaseball, you'll get $10 when you trade 10. So, the Red Sox had a tough weekend. They lost a game which will be made up the day after the All-Star break, which is a very weird time to do that, but they have to.

[00:00:25]With all of the the schedule is different now. They only play the Rays twice this year at Fenway.

[00:00:31]So, the rules are when you play a team for the last time, you've got to do the double-header the first day in. So, a day-nighter the day after the All-Star break. But, Mickey Gasper had three hits including two doubles and knocked in the lone run as the Red Sox dropped two of three over the weekend to the Rays.

[00:00:49]Boston is still eight and six over their last 14, but they've not played great at home and some offensive struggles as well, but I'll talk about more of this in just a minute.

[00:01:00]Please subscribe to the channel. Leave your comments. Like the channel. We like all of that. We really do. Okay, I'm looking at this completely as not a fan of the Red Sox. And I talked about this Friday. I told all most well, I told all of you, this was going to be a tough series. I was hoping for a split.

[00:01:22]Losing two of three, is it disappointing? Yeah, but in reality, it's not surprising to me.

[00:01:29]This is me actually not being a homer.

[00:01:31]Rays are good baseball team.

[00:01:33]You know, we I get the I hear the constant snarky remarks about them all the time. You know, when you do things like the Rays do. I mean, since 2008, the Red Sox and Rays have both been to two World Series. Now, you won both of them.

[00:01:47]You've each had six losing seasons.

[00:01:51]And the Rays have not, you know, done this a bunch of times because they stick to one plan.

[00:01:57]It's the same every year. They bring in guys that everyone makes fun of and they somehow figure it out. Nick Martinez is 35. He's got the best start through eight games ERA in franchise history.

[00:02:11]And you can say whatever you want.

[00:02:14]You know, like I think some people yesterday uh and I get it, you're mad about the offense, but this guy has given up two runs this year twice.

[00:02:25]Against really good teams. So, I'm just looking at this as not a fan of the Red Sox, trying to be realistic. I didn't think this was a good match-up for the Red Sox. I thought this would be a tough series and part of me wouldn't have been surprised if you lost three or four. I get the games are at home and and yeah, they got to play better at home. True. But, they're good.

[00:02:45]Right? It's okay to you know, to do this. We we and this is where people can be homers. It's like if they lose any games, it's not any of their fault. How do they do that? How do they lose to Nick Martinez? Well, have you followed Nick Martinez all year?

[00:03:01]I don't care how old he is.

[00:03:03]He has dominated all season.

[00:03:06]He's four and one. He's got a 1.70 ERA.

[00:03:12]The Rays do this all the time.

[00:03:15]He's pitched against Toronto, seven scoreless at Cleveland, eight innings against the Reds, one run against the Yankees, two earned runs against the Brewers in Milwaukee.

[00:03:27]He's given up nine earned runs, three have come on home runs.

[00:03:33]So, against your offense, which has not been great and it doesn't surprise me.

[00:03:38]You scored four you know, four runs on Friday. You You ran into a Contreras ran into that awful out that could have led to maybe a five or six run inning.

[00:03:46]You scored you know, four runs at home for me, but it's the Rays.

[00:03:51]Right? And and yeah, I mean I of course I wanted the Red Sox to to to play better and win, but I'm not going to sit here and go it's all on them.

[00:04:00]The The team across the diamond played better than you.

[00:04:04]Story made an error, I get it. They gave it a base hit and an error, and when you replay the inning, the hits the error didn't factor anymore. Now, I don't know I I keep going back and looking at the play, and I know that they factor in a lot of stuff.

[00:04:20]Uh Simpson, the runner, who is a world-class runner, by the way, was about 50 ft You I could I could I can watch it from high home. I stopped it. He's about 50 ft when it hits the glove of the back end of Story, and he's running in. Does he get him at first?

[00:04:37]That was the scorer's discretion. I don't know, but they factor in I mean, he home to first in 4 seconds.

[00:04:45]So, I think that they're able to calculate, and then they can do all of this now with all this advanced analytics. Would Story have made that play in like 1.5 seconds?

[00:04:55]Regardless, it was a bad look. I thought he played it wrong, and we'll never know.

[00:05:01]But, all the runs ended up being earned uh totally.

[00:05:05]But, yeah, you know, the the we we do know the offense has struggled, but I'm not surprised, you know, I don't think it's a I look at it like Well, yesterday you're facing one of the one of the best pitchers in the American League. So, I didn't see a three or four or five run uh outing by him. I mean, I know it's it's probably due, but if most teams and good offenses have struggled against him, it didn't seem like a great matchup for the Red Sox. And they had eight hits, and they had left nine, and they were one for 10 with runners in scoring position. They had chances.

[00:05:39]And this is what they're doing a little bit more now as the calendar has turned, is they're getting more base runners.

[00:05:47]They had, let's see, 10 yesterday and scored uh just one run. But it's, you know, it's kind of what I I talked about like after the Detroit series, you know, people start getting up here. It's kind of got to stay in the middle and you got to see it play out. And I was really hoping for four and three home stand.

[00:06:06]Rays are the second best team in the American League. They don't hit a lot of home runs. They don't strike out. They pitch their, you know, what off near the top of the of Major League Baseball in the ERA.

[00:06:19]They're not great defensively and they're near the top of the league in batting average. It's kind of how they're built. They're never going to be They They have their defensive things.

[00:06:28]They don't value that like other teams do, but they don't strike out. They take the extra base and they've got a really good hitter in Kevin Kiermaier. They don't have a ton offensively, but they figure it out. And they figure it out every single year.

[00:06:41]For the last 18 to 19 years, you know, the the the poking fun at them I think needs to stop.

[00:06:47]You know, like uh they're doing a lot of good things. I get they haven't won a World Series, but they're they're using less money than a lot of teams and won a crap load of more games than teams that have scored uh that have spending ridiculous amount of money.

[00:07:08]And I'm not saying that I want the Red Sox to be that way. I'm just, you know, looking at how they run their thing.

[00:07:15]And it's it's to me it's always been impressive.

[00:07:20]The Red Sox in some years have spent seven and a half to eight times more than the Rays and have lost way more games.

[00:07:29]Not everyone can do what they do because they have the people that come in there.

[00:07:32]And um So now you have to you turn the page.

[00:07:36]But I I just I don't think like for where you're at, you know, I don't know what people are expecting. They They wanted a series win. Yeah, I get it. You're at home. I get it. But they're 26 and 13 Tampa Bay. They've won a lot of games.

[00:07:56]And you still have it been in a pretty good run here eight of 14 since April 25th. And now you have to worry about the Phillies. You got an off day and concentrate on them. Win that series three and three home stand. You don't love it, but you know, you're 600 you know that you're that's kind of how teams with that record play. So need a little bit more. I I thought that the Red Sox were doing some good things to start May.

[00:08:26]Um pitching's been solid. 2.85 ERA. It's pretty good. Hitting about 246.

[00:08:32]Um 33 runs in nine games. Offense still could deliver more and it's some of the same characters.

[00:08:39]Right?

[00:08:41]Not getting much from Story.

[00:08:44]Anthony's hurt. He was off to a good start.

[00:08:47]Um Duran's been slumping with the bat, but plays a great third base.

[00:08:52]Myers had a tough eight games. You know, it's just a little inconsistent.

[00:08:57]But the offense doesn't need that much more to win with the way they've pitched.

[00:09:03]But they're just not getting it at times. And again, the team you're playing, nobody gets a lot of hits or runs off.

[00:09:11]You know what I mean? That's That's what I'm trying to say that you have to have perspective here. The Rays are beating everybody.

[00:09:18]So you have to kind of look at it like you know, we're not losing to a bad team here.

[00:09:27]So I get all of the clichés. You got to play better at home. I I do. I understand that. You're not going to win every series at home. The Houston series is more disappointing. Getting swept by the Yankees is more disappointing and overall, yeah, I agree.

[00:09:40]One, four, and one at home in series, that's not good.

[00:09:46]But you're going to lose a few and and um I'm not surprised that the Rays won two of three. They've won eight of nine, 14 of 16.

[00:09:59]But now you got to concentrate on those Phillies that are coming in.

[00:10:03]They're going to be angry.

[00:10:05]Wilson Contreras keeps getting hit by pitches and this time we're not sure what the deal is. He'll be off Monday.

[00:10:11]Chaim Bloom says the scans the Red Sox did on his hand came back negative, but he's sore.

[00:10:17]They'll re-evaluate with the off day tomorrow and go from there. I mean they don't want to have Anthony and Contreras out.

[00:10:28]Um Monasterio went in and had two hits including a double.

[00:10:36]But that, you know, that worries me, right?

[00:10:39]Eight hits yesterday for the Red Sox.

[00:10:40]Casas and Trevor Story had a double.

[00:10:43]Yoshida had a hit.

[00:10:46]Duran had a hit as well. But Duran's still under 200. Story is right at 200.

[00:10:52]Core guys. Duran's, you know, I he's a core guy too, right? Everyday player.

[00:10:56]173.

[00:10:58]But good at third base.

[00:11:00]Will Mickey Gasper play more?

[00:11:02]They love Mickey. I can tell you this from being in Worcester.

[00:11:07]Chaim Bloom said it's one of the best left-handed hitters he's been around.

[00:11:11]And he had Anthony.

[00:11:13]Iggy Suarez, our manager in Worcester, said the steps that he has taken in his development in catching, but in hitting has put him in a in a different uh tier, different light than what they saw him a few years ago. He's 30 years old, too, but they love the bat.

[00:11:32]And we'll see what happens. You have three catchers up there.

[00:11:36]Now, was it will he play Tuesday? Probably not, right? I know he caught Tolly, but he can hit, switch-hitter. We'll see.

[00:11:49]We love Mickey, too. We're happy that Tolly I thought was okay. Five innings, seven hits, three runs. Didn't have any walks.

[00:11:58]I mean, that's not, you know, three runs, five innings.

[00:12:03]And that bullpen, too, of the Rays, Kelly, Clevenger, and Baker, who they of course they reinvent the the closer role every year, and Baker's got 10 saves, Brian Baker.

[00:12:15]Brian Baker, I think I've I've seen him Yeah, he was a former Blue Jay. He has been around and around and around, and of course last year, he wasn't great when they got him, and then they turn him into a closer, and he's got an ERA of 2.30. It's amazing they do this with so many guys.

[00:12:38]Really is.

[00:12:40]And tip your cap to that common era home run. I mean, that that was on the ground. All right, Kalshi.

[00:12:48]Kalshi.

[00:12:49]Kalshi, we love him. Baseball season's here.

[00:12:52]Red Sox will be off Monday, but you can still trade every game on Kalshi.

[00:12:58]It's a prediction market, all right? So, you can you can pick any game. So, guess what we're going to go to.

[00:13:04]You guessed it.

[00:13:06]Baltimore to beat the Yankees.

[00:13:07]Baltimore's trading at 44%.

[00:13:10]That's meaning uh if a $100 trade pays out 223.63.

[00:13:15]And baseball can be random, right? Those heavy underdogs, this isn't the NFL, you see on any night.

[00:13:24]All right, so that that's my pick for you, 44% get it in. Don't have to do 100, but if you do 100, it pays 22363. If you do $10, 2263. Right?

[00:13:37]Kalshi, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house, and as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. For a limited time, download the Kalshi app. I have it. Use code fan arch baseball, get $10 when you trade 10. Kalshi, trade on anything.

[00:13:56]Anything.

[00:13:57]Even politics. I mean, they got if you're into that, all kinds of stuff.

[00:14:02]Great to have Justin Slaton back.

[00:14:06]And before you ask, I'm rocking my WooSox quarter-zip. They give this to you. It's really nice.

[00:14:12]Uh we like Slaton. We we saw him pitch uh in Worcester a couple times.

[00:14:18]You know what he did, by the way? So, for I don't like to assume everybody knows everything. When big league rehabbers come down, they usually pay for what the spread, the food.

[00:14:29]Um what totally uh excuse me, what Slaton did for a he pitched an 11:00 game.

[00:14:36]He paid for everybody's coffee at this stand called Creative Cakes. That's where I get my coffee before the game at Polar Park. And he did that.

[00:14:46]And I don't He dropped a lot of money.

[00:14:47]But good to have him back. It's going to, you know, be part of that back end of the bullpen. They used him differently yesterday because it was kind of high not It's not high leverage, but you're trying to keep the game where it is. You want to get him some work in that game. So, you go Chapman, Whitlock, Slaton.

[00:15:05]Um Sam Eneglio, I would think, would be in that mix.

[00:15:09]And Morán.

[00:15:12]And then, you know, pushing Weisert down.

[00:15:16]And we'll see what happens with more guys getting healthy. You know, when Crochet, who's not going to pitch in the Philly series, when he's healthy, what happens?

[00:15:30]Does Tolly go down? I don't I don't know.

[00:15:35]Right? It's a tough situation because I wouldn't want to see that.

[00:15:41]But would they put Bello in the bullpen? Would they do that? I don't know.

[00:15:47]There are politics to this, you know, he's got the contract.

[00:15:52]If he goes out and throws seven innings again, he's going to he's going to be the They're going to do the the whole bulk thing again, but it's not really bulk.

[00:16:00]You know, bulk reliever to me, and I'm talking about Bello's next outing.

[00:16:05]They're just using an opener for him.

[00:16:06]Usually what they do, an opener will pitch, but the next guy that comes in is not usually a starter.

[00:16:13]The reason they're doing this with Bello is to try to get him right. But when the Rays traditionally do this, it is a one-inning Sometimes they've used their closer, and it could be a guy just for three or four innings.

[00:16:25]The Red Sox would could have him go the rest of the game. It could be one inning, it could be two, and then seven from Bello.

[00:16:33]If he goes seven again and does really well, and Crochet's healthy, would they bump still bump Bello out?

[00:16:46]I I mean, I think you have to, right? I That's what I would do. I mean, it would be hard for me to take Tolly out. You're not going to put Tolly in the bullpen.

[00:16:54]He's young. You You He's a starter.

[00:16:58]He was 60 of 81 today for strikes.

[00:17:01]That's unbelievable for someone his age.

[00:17:05]Like, he's barely scratched the surface as a pro. A lot of strikes.

[00:17:11]What, you know, and the Rays don't strike out as much, but um Yeah, so like my mind goes how do the baseball people, you know, it's like the story situation. Story's got a contract, so they're going to live with him more. Would they do this to Bello? If they made Bello a bulk reliever or just put him in the bullpen, how would he react to that? I mean, you do I I understand like I I get what people are going to probably think and say. I understand like they're big boys and you have to roll with things, but things don't work like that all the time. Like if he really is dead against that and it turns into a bad situation, you have to kind of make it work because you did give him all you gave him the commitment. Be interesting. Would they trade Bello?

[00:18:01]What if he goes out and does great again?

[00:18:06]I would.

[00:18:09]Right? I mean, if I I I don't know.

[00:18:14]I don't know if he would be a good reliever. We assume things. I don't know.

[00:18:20]You know, you're asking him to do it's completely different. What he's doing now, he's still starting in his mind. He's still pitching every four days.

[00:18:28]If he went even to a bulk reliever, he's not going to know when he's going to pitch and when would he pitch?

[00:18:33]Like think about this.

[00:18:37]His starting pitching is is been pretty good. He's he's he's so he's going to pitch like an in hoping that you have a blow-up game? Someone goes four, someone goes five? Like a bulk like for his kind of role, it would be like blowouts or limiting Tolly and having him piggyback. You could do that.

[00:18:57]You're going to probably start limiting guys innings.

[00:19:01]This is an interesting thing to see what they think and I'm fascinated by it as you can tell.

[00:19:08]All right, let's get to your comments.

[00:19:11]Uh Bruce Bickford, was glad to see moved up. He's been awesome so far.

[00:19:15]Maybe he gets a shot at the end of the season, but probably will have too many innings. Well, that's good, Bruce. They could um I'm talking to you, Bruce. I'm I'm looking right at the camera. They could limit him.

[00:19:26]But it But it happened last year. With the right? With with Houck and Whitlock and Winckowski.

[00:19:34]Kid is unbelievable.

[00:19:36]I know like I and I got a few comments, which is fine. I understand and I was talking about the Greenville guys and and a few people said, "Hey, I don't care about the Greenville guys." And I said, "You should."

[00:19:48]Because that that's where Houck and Whitlock and Winckowski were. And look what happened. This kid is really good.

[00:19:55]He's on a strict pitch count. He threw 68 pitches on Sunday in his Double-A debut. He was drafted last year.

[00:20:01]Four innings, three hits, one run, one walk, four strikeouts.

[00:20:05]Didn't have great command.

[00:20:07]Okay? Give him a break, right?

[00:20:11]Um Let's see. Can we get the He topped out at 94.

[00:20:22]Oh, they don't have the pitch type here in Double-A.

[00:20:25]Um Yeah, topped out at 94. That was his hardest pitch. But he's a spin rate guy.

[00:20:34]I mean, who knows? I think he We were told in the off-season that don't be surprised if some of the Greenville guys ended up in Triple-A by the All-Star break. That's what we were told by someone I I cannot tell you who told us. It was not Breslow.

[00:20:50]That would be crazy.

[00:20:54]All right.

[00:20:57]All right.

[00:20:58]Uh SN500-N4V, great show, Mike. Red Sox do more with less than almost any club in the MLB.

[00:21:06]Yeah, I mean, and have forever. Like if this is three or four years, but we're going on 18.

[00:21:11]Why should it cost us a few games missing Slater and Urías and starting starting staff that needs to get healthy? Well, I think the starters have been pretty good.

[00:21:20]But I get to I get your drift, you know, getting them back.

[00:21:25]But Tolly's a fill-in. He's one and two with a 2.78 ERA. Bennett won you a game.

[00:21:33]But yeah, I mean, no doubt.

[00:21:37]I mean, the the the two again, I I it's making me bore boring of like I'm getting sick of saying this.

[00:21:47]Feyo Croche.

[00:21:51]Right? 13 games, 12 starts, five and seven, ERA of almost seven.

[00:21:57]Anthony, 229. Duran, 194. Story, 200.

[00:22:01]Irvin, once to you know, like core core guys here.

[00:22:06]All right, we're at the 25% of the season.

[00:22:12]You're 17 and 23, so you've you've been 500 since that start.

[00:22:18]And the way it works with all the extra wild card teams, you're still in, you know, it's so early.

[00:22:25]But at least at the 25%, you're not San Francisco or the Mets. They're seven and a half out of a wild card.

[00:22:33]You're still like within a couple games.

[00:22:40]I like this from David.

[00:22:42]This is good. This is weird. David, you must have been eavesdropping. Uh Jim Cain and I were talking about this off the year.

[00:22:48]What are the actual chances of a trade for Yordan Alvarez due to his two years left not really fitting with Houston's long-term style? Well, that's interesting because I looked I looked at this the other day. I was thinking the same thing.

[00:23:01]Because I really believe if you added just him, that would change everything. Here is the issue with that, what I think.

[00:23:10]I'm trying to pull this up.

[00:23:12]Um I know the cash is different than the tax.

[00:23:17]You've got Altuve on the books for 30, right? Um but Alvarez is really good. He's 29.

[00:23:28]So, if you're going to try to rebuild and win, and they don't have as as ton of resources, right?

[00:23:39]That might be a tough guy. That might be a guy you you don't want to pluck out because he's such a game-changing hitter, you know what I mean? I think they'd want to move on from other stuff.

[00:23:49]Lance McCullers, this year, would they want He's an unrestricted free agent. He's got 17 on the books this year.

[00:23:58]Christian Walker, I know he's hitting.

[00:24:01]But he's due 20 next year.

[00:24:07]Uh Altuve's deal is I mean, Altuve's deal is a lot, too. 33 next year.

[00:24:14]Then it drops to 13 and 13, but it's a lot in the luxury tax.

[00:24:20]So, it's interesting. Like if they're talking, you know, if they really want money off the books, with someone. This is where it's going to be kind of the opposite.

[00:24:35]Like if they're shopping Walker, Altuve, or or whoever, someone's going to say, "Well, if you give us Alvarez, we'll pay for all of that."

[00:24:43]I would do that.

[00:24:45]I don't know.

[00:24:48]But yeah, that's an interesting thing. I think the Yankees are absolutely going to be in on a batter at the deadline. I do.

[00:25:01]I really do. We'll see.

[00:25:05]Yes, and we uh we had an unbelievable game the other night. If people saw that extra inning games were position players pitched.

[00:25:17]I thought Bennett was okay, but probably could use more seasoning in Worcester, but he has lots of potential. Weiser is not good especially when overused. He should pitch uh two times a week, but that's not always possible.

[00:25:28]The split is good. We'll see how it works out. That was the Rays series and it didn't happen. Yeah, I know I agree with you on Weiser. And they've worn they've worn out guys.

[00:25:36]They have. Watson, too. I mean, jeez.

[00:25:39]They lead the league in appearances.

[00:25:41]Yeah, I mean there's a reason guys aren't used in certain spots.

[00:25:48]Daniel Bard is a guy.

[00:25:51]The Red Sox always knew there was something there that could go south with him.

[00:25:59]The stuff that happened to him there was some signs of that before he became a starting pitcher.

[00:26:06]There's a lot of things people don't know, and you wouldn't know. I was there for all of it. I was there when Bard came back down. I spent a lot of time with him.

[00:26:14]Frank Cooney got killed a lot for not if you remember, he never used him to close games.

[00:26:22]There was a reason for that.

[00:26:25]There's a reason.

[00:26:26]There's been guys in the minor I I remember being on a team and I asked our manager one time "How come we never let that guy close?

[00:26:33]Look at his numbers." And he goes, "We're going to use him today. Watch what happens." Gave up like six runs.

[00:26:38]And I said, "That's why you guys know everything."

[00:26:40]There's just there's reasons.

[00:26:42]They don't punish players.

[00:26:49]And if you want a quick story about Daniel Bard, the Red Sox did not make him a starter. He wanted to do that. I know a player that I'm really good friends with, they share the same agent. The reason Bard wanted to become a starter, money.

[00:27:04]He got the big contract.

[00:27:06]Bad decision. I always said the Red Sox should have told him, "You're not doing it.

[00:27:10]You're not going to become a starter."

[00:27:12]But, I really like Daniel Bard. He's fantastic fantastic person, too. When he came back down to Portland after being in the big leagues, he lived with the same host family that he lived with in double-A after he was in the big leagues for all that time. But, a really [snorts] really good person.

[00:27:26]Um and so are all of you. Love all of you guys and gals. Thanks for watching Red Sox Now, it's presented by Call Sheet.

[00:27:33]The the the code Fan Arch Baseball gets you $10 when you trade 10.

[00:27:37]Sox are off on Monday.

[00:27:39]We will preview that big series.

[00:27:43]Will Dave Dombrowski be here?

[00:27:45]He travels a lot. 6:45 on Tuesday.

[00:27:50]They'll face Zack Wheeler.

[00:27:52]Things don't get any easier. All right, thanks for watching as always. Go Sox.