RED SOX PROJECTED TO WIN 90 GAMES? SERIOUSLY?

0:00The Baskards of Boston Baseball Podcasts. Back to folk. Red Sox fans have won to hear it. The Boston Red Sox are World Champion. Game over, series over, and the Red Sox are World Champs again. Yes indeed. Here it comes. Another addition of the Baskards of Boston Baseball. You are listening to the one and only Baskards of Boston Baseball. I am Terry Cushman, joined tonight by Jeremy Schilling, Chris Fleeke, and we've got some projections to talk about.

1:01The Red Sox and the Blue Jays are expected, according to Zips, to be tied at 90 wins. Atop the American League East, if that were to actually happen, of course, there would be tie breakers and whatnot. Start with Chris. 90 sound with Jet. Can I ask you first, Terry? Oh absolutely. What group of nerds got together and created the Zips thing? Because I've never heard of it before. Do you know? It's been around for a while. I forget what the other one is. It starts with a P. Is it Pocosta or something? I don't know. I don't put a ton of stock into them, obviously, but. Okay. Sorry. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what's more shocking. I mean, the 90 wins seem somewhat plausible. I just don't understand how they have us at 90 and then the Blue Jays playing in the same space and then the Yankees below us.

2:05If we finished with 90, I mean, I think that would be a relatively good season for us. But I would say then if we're projected for 90, the, I mean, the Yankees should be projected for almost 95 in that world and the Blue Jays 97. So again, I don't know how the hell they came up with this math and a method for me though. So one is I don't have them at 90 wins. If we had like Tom Browski as a general manager, somebody that's going to improve the team in late July, I would say that we would eventually get to 90 wins with whatever's added at the deadline. But that's not what this team is going to do. Breath of Brezlo is completely inept. I do think this team is going to win 87, 88 games. I think they come in just under it. The only thing like you guys, I don't understand what the formula is and maybe tomorrow have some time to look into it, but maybe the explanation lies and the placement and value on pitching. Because the socks pitching, we have top end pitching, we have depth.

3:11We have some young guys that we really don't know how to project and I don't know what the formula is to say what Connolly early is going to do and told he's going to do. But I think with Crochet, Suarez and Ebeo still on the club, I really don't know what we're going to get at a sunny gray. And by the way, if you have a guy who's struggling or gets hurt, it's next guy up. There's seven, eight guys in the system that are going to be ready to start. So I would assume this zips formula puts a lot of importance on pitching because simultaneously, they say that we're not going to have anybody hit 20 home runs, but then they're going to project us for 90 wins. So I don't, you know, and I also don't love these formulas and these like AI things that, you know, just take metrics and don't account for a brave, hasn't been healthy story. We already talked about that. Cast is probably going to start at the big league club. I mean, injury concerns all over the place and then they trade for a third baseman, if it will walk you and how you know what he's going to be.

4:15So like Terry said, I don't place a ton of stock on it. And I think this seems a little high. So I guess the puzzling thing to me is, why do they think we're going to beat the Orioles and the Yankees? I mean, the Yankees are getting Garrett Cole back at face value. That should be, you know, a strong addition over what they had last year. You're going to have a full season of Cam Schletler. Rodon has been solid for the last two or three years. They've got a Belinger back. They've got Aaron Judge. I mean, they've got a pretty potent lineup. They're very well balanced and quite frankly, they know how to do it every year. The Red Sox are only doing it every third or fourth year. So I just don't trust that we're going to beat the Yankees.

5:17The Orioles got stronger today. They added Chris Bassett, who's probably a three or four at best, but a solid guy that's going to give them a chance to win every time out. He did sign Zach Eiffelon earlier in the year. I'm not thrilled with that, but. And so, and, you know, but they did add Peter Lonzo, and they probably have the best all all around lineup from first to ninth in the order, I would say. And I just don't think I just think this team, this Red Sox team is going to be a circus this year, and I think it's going to get in its own way. I'm not going to sit here and say we're below a 500 team because we've got probably. The first or second best rotation in the division, I would say, depending on health and all that. And very possibly you're right. Yeah, I mean, that whole central division looks like ass.

6:20And, you know, you've got the mariners that'll probably be pretty good. I don't know if Houston bounces back. I mean, they haven't really overhauled anything. It would help if they had their DH there. You were on Alvarez for full healthy season, which they haven't. So I just 90 sounds high. I don't think we get there. And I'm a little bit more worried about the ballpen than most people. I mean, we haven't really done much with it. Yeah, that's a fair point. So Terry, where do you have them? If you have to pick an over under on the wind total, what's your line? Gun to my head right now. I'd probably put them in the 83 to 85 window. So just miss in the playoffs. Yeah, if they align the stars, let's say the kid we just got Caleb Durbin is a spark plug hits for a little bit more power.

7:20Braslow spoke today that he thinks there's more power in there. So we'll see. Yeah. And then you get you get some contributions. Let's let's say story is about what he was last year. You get a full season of Anthony. Yeah, I'd say. Yeah, you could maybe maybe you're an 87 to 90 win team. But I don't know. I'm not comfortable with it. I put a seven wins in the last wild card spot third in the A at least behind Toronto and the Yankees. I didn't hear a funny. Funny. Not funny. Stacked because they were taught and I think it was 95. But they were talking about after Brezwell made the statement about we have seen him projecting a hit a few more home runs in this ballpark. So somebody went and put his home runs in the Fenway park and only four of them would have been home runs. So the fact check there and I, you know, maybe this guy made it up.

8:20I don't know. But the fact check if accurate is like just completely the opposite. So line drive guy that doesn't hit the ball on the air as much and so maybe Fenway takes away home runs and gives him some doubles and long singles. You know, it's Brezwell. I can't listen to it. It's all lies. It's all it's all just shoveling to the to the part of the fan base that's going to listen to it. Retweeted as gospel and not question what they're actually doing and how it applies to this roster. Here's the Orioles line up here. Real quick for Chris gives us take and I've got Toronto's two real quick. So they got this is the Orioles Taylor Ward, who they just got from the angels. Jordan Westberg, Gunner Henderson, Peter Lonzo, Adley Rushman in the fifth spot. Dylan Beaver's Colton, Couser, Blaze Alexander and Samuel Bessallo and Bessallo is supposed to be a stud catcher.

9:20They have him as the D H right now because obviously Rushman is the catcher. They'll just kind of platoon both of those positions for days off. But that is a really potent lineup. And man, I wish we could have had a crack at Taylor Ward because he would have been a one year rental. But that would have been a great second base for them. Second base is Blaze Alexander, who I don't know much about. He might have been a rookie last year. Did they move on from? Is it holiday? Actually, that's a great point. He's not he's not listed in here. And obviously he didn't trade him. They're not showing him on the bench either. So. Yeah, wow. This is on fan graphs too. With some warmer top prospect. Yeah, some I can look into that in a minute. Yeah. Um, they're there.

10:20Let's see their rotation real quick. Let's see is that the. Yeah. So Trevor Rogers. I thought he was. I'm getting my Rogers mixed up. Yeah. So Trevor Rogers, Kyle Brady, Chris Bassett, Shane Baz, who they got from Tampa. We'll see if they can do something with him. Zach Eflin and Dean Kramer. So that's like, that's a lot of number threes. So if they're going to have an Achilles heel. Perhaps it is going to be the lineup. And that's why I would have them the Baltimore below the Red Sox. That that rotation does not. Overly concern me. Yeah, it's a lot of number threes and fours. So we'll see Shane Baz is interesting to see if they can. Kind of get him over the hump in terms of health and production. The diamond backs really wanted him. I'm talking to him. He's a little bit of a sort of. But unfortunately. Baltimore was willing to give a better trade package. Toronto real quick here.

11:21So this is their lineup top to bottom. George Springer, Nathan Lucas, Latamir Guerrero, Addison Barger, who had a major breakout this past year, Alejandro Kirk, Dalton, Varsho, Kazuma Okamodo, who we were tied to. Over the winter, he'll play third base for them. who was an absolute spark plug this past season, and then Andres Jimenez is in their lineup. I wouldn't say that's an extremely potent lineup, but it will be a productive one. A lot of guys in that lineup that can keep the ball moving. Their rotation actually looks really good as well. Kevin Gossman, Dylan Cess, Treyish Savage, who had a connolly early type presence of presence late in the season for them, Jose Barrios, and then Cody Ponds, who had like a, I don't know, like a 15 or 16 strikeout per nine in the Korean leagues the last couple of years,

12:24got like a three year deal from them. So we'll see what he ends up bringing. And yeah, so anyway, I mean, those are two teams with balance. I feel like, yeah, I mean, you could make the argument that Toronto maybe took a little bit of a step backwards as far as pitching, and you can definitely make the argument that the Yankees are better, right? Because they're adding Garrett Cole. I mean, they're essentially running it back and then adding Sia Young Award winner or previous Sia Young Award winner. I don't see how they're going to be a worst team. As far as the socks, I mean, if all goes well, I've probably got them somewhere between 85 and 87 wins. For the life of me, I just, I don't understand how, I didn't even recognize, it's great call that Jeremy made is that the same people that are saying we're going to win 90 are also saying that they're projecting no one to hit 20 plus home runs on the red socks, which is just, it doesn't make any sense. So what I'd be interested is how,

13:25like what was the construction of the everyday roster and the percentage of splits? And then also, what do they have our actual rotation looking like to get to that 90 wins? Because I just don't see it, even if everyone stays healthy. You know, the only thing I could think about is in reflecting on, I mean, we are essentially the same powerless lineup post-devers. Because let's face it, after Devers was gone, we really didn't have Bregman. We still have a story who was the quote unquote power and we haven't added anything since. And like I said, Bregman didn't add much even after Devers was gone. Is would we go 52, I think in 37 endeavors absence down the stretch? I think we were 37 and 36 the day he got traded. So I don't know if these guys, and even if Craig Brezel's mindset is that, okay, somehow this is sustainable where you could do the 52 wins and 37 and try and replicate it over 162 games season.

14:26And maybe that's the case. Maybe you can win 90 games in the MLB feasting off of, a schedule where you're gonna play bag teams. But again, this team is gonna, if it gets to the playoffs, they're gonna have to face teams like the Yankees, like Toronto, like the Mariners, and there's just, there's no way they're gonna be able to outhit these teams. It's just, it's not gonna happen. I mean, we even saw it in the regular season. When they played teams with good pitching, they struggled to score runs and I just, I don't see this team scoring runs. Run prevention is obviously the main focus and good defense, but I mean, that's only gonna take you so far. I real quick. So Jackson Holiday has a broken Hamate bone, which is in your hand somewhere. He's gonna miss, let's see. Maybe he will miss about six weeks.

15:27And then, so I don't know if that puts him on track for opening day or if he'll need extended spring training, but perhaps that's why fan graphs doesn't have him in their projected lineup. So before you move on, guys, and I know what Garry Cole has been, can we not just go out in the assumption that he's gonna come back and be 31 year old Garry Cole coming off Tommy John at age 35? Like I think he'll, I think he'll give them a spark and he's gonna be a plus in the rotation, but do you guys expect him to come back and be an ace again? And if so, do you think it's gonna happen right away or he's gonna have to ramp up his innings and he may not be that player if at all until late July August when he's fully healthy? I mean, I'm not making the assumption that Garry Cole, we all remember, is coming back. I kind of look at him like a Justin Berlander type guy. He's a generational talent. One of the best pitchers of the last two decades,

16:28I don't know where I'd rank him, but no worse than probably the top 10. So at face value, I'll just assume he's gonna be effective. Berlander won, I think two Si Youngs after his Tommy John, for instance. That's a crazy anomaly. He might be the greatest pitcher in the last, probably since Nolan Ryan. But I mean, I would agree with you, Jeremy, as far as the not expecting to just come out and be the pitcher that he once was, I just look at it from what they could have added outside of trading for a top line pitcher going after one of the big free agents, which I mean, this was kind of a weak free agent class for all being honest. I mean, when you really look at it from the free agency standpoint, we kind of got the prize or one of the prizes with Ranger Schwartz. Most of the major acquisitions came via trade

17:28as far as on the pitching front of this offseason. I just think he's better than the alternative, and I think that their rotation with him in it, even if it's 65, 75% is better than the alternative, especially now adding Kim Schletler, if he's even able to replicate 70% of what he did in the playoffs. But I would agree with you. I don't think it's a sure fire. He's going to come back and be remotely close to saw young Derek Cole. But I also don't think he needs to with that lineup. And again, if I'm going to make the argument that the socks are going to be able to scrape away wins, feasting off bad teams in the regular season, I mean, I would imagine the Yankees it's going to be that much easier for them because they're going to be able to take teams out of the ballpark and a night in a night out basis. If he can throw 94, 95 and then has a slider and then one more pitch, change up, whatever, I think he'll be okay. They'll probably have to manage his load a little bit. I also didn't mention Max Fried earlier. And if he's healthy, he's obviously going to give him

18:30a good chance to win every fifth day. So I just, I try to count the Yankees out, but they're automatically 87 to 90 wins, it feels like. And another thing too, I saw this somewhere. I think it was on Millican's feed. Apparently, IKF mentioned to the Red Sox media that when he was in the post season last year with the Blue Jays, they were waiting for the winner of the Red Sox Yankees. And apparently they would rather face the Yankees. They just thought it was a safer matchup for them. I don't know what they based that on. That sounds insane to me, but they felt that the Yankees were the better matchup. So Aaron Boone was asked, you know, when he was meeting with reporters, how do you feel about your ex-player, saying that the Red Sox were more dangerous than you? And you could kind of see, he did say like, why'd be surprised if IKF said that, but and then he went on his take about it.

19:31And you could tell he was a little peeved. You know, my take would have been like, listen, you know, we have to be the best team by the end of the year. And if we're not, we're not. That's, that's how I answer it if I'm Aaron Boone, but he did seem a little peeved by the question. I don't assume it's true. That could be a little bit of the player, you know, coming to the fan base. Same thing Sonny Gray did when he said he wanted a pitch here and the Yankees stadium wasn't, yeah, being a Yankees wasn't for him or something like that. Then he goes back to the old press conference and it was exact opposite. These players are adept at saying what, the fan, they think the fan base wants to hear and I kind of put this into that category. I'm not saying he's lying. I'm just, I don't, I don't assume it to be true. You know, saying that it's not something these athletes typically do in my opinion, but you know, if that's real, I mean,

20:34they would have beat both teams. So I don't know that it would have fundamentally changed anything. Yeah, they were the best team in the American league. Yeah. But, you know what, I mean, we both went five and eight against the Blue Jays in the regular season last year, the Yankees and Red Sox. I think the difference was down the stretch. We had a late season series against them. When things still mattered and they were trying to lock up the division and I think, I believe we actually won that series and then ultimately they ended up beating the Yankees to clinch the division and then they ended up beating him in the playoffs. So maybe that played a role in it, but it could just be IKF trying to basically appease Red Sox fans and get on our good graces because I'm pretty, it's pretty apparent that role disappointed that we handed him $6 million and I'm sure he's aware of that. It's also funny your point to Terry as far as with the reaction of Boone. He almost seemed to meft in the sense where he wanted to say like, he couldn't believe that IKF would say that, not because he couldn't believe it. It's like of all players, like who gives a crap what IKF says, like the guy sucks.

21:36Like he was nothing when he was on the Yankees level on the Toronto Blue Jays. So I don't know. I mean, it's also meaningless because if he doesn't hit and he doesn't feel at a high level, he's gonna get crucified. So not to mention, I'm a little bit curious as to where his at bats are gonna come from, but not at all. Right. I mentioned on the other show, I think Chris was on with us. Where are Myers bats gonna come from? You know, it's like in the war room that there's Mads on 98.5 came out and said, he doesn't think it's a guarantee that he starts in Boston. Which for me, not me. But then I started thinking about it and it's like, well, injury history didn't finish last year, hit about what, 220 something, not great on base. It's possible. He was being pretuned. And he's not agreeing to a contract, you know,

22:36on the right side. I would did this last year, they promoted Campbell and they kept Roman Anthony and the others down because they didn't sign a contract. So maybe this is another message from Johnny Boy Henry, saying, well, you don't want to sign our contract, all right, we'll go play the Worcester for a couple of months. I would not sign him to a contract. I would need like, yeah, just let him, I'd rather just be wrong about it and get six productive years out of him and then figure it out. If it's gonna go to him. You can't do it with that player. I'm just relating, I don't know that. It's just a guess. And maybe that's not a factor at all, but we saw it happen last year. So I got to consider that it's a possibility if they want to extend them. Yeah, I would agree with the sentiment of obviously not resigning him, or he's sounding to an extension from the Red Sox perspective. But if that's the stance that we're taking that's really why they're not doing it or why they're going to quote unquote somewhat punish him, it makes it even that much more of a head scratcher, like why were you so resistant to trading him

23:38if that was gonna be the difference between getting Kettle Mark Day, Marcella Meyer and you're like, nope, not gonna trade him. Also, he's in the dog house because he won't sign an extension. We're just gonna stick him in Worcester. You can't live in both those realities if you're Craig Breslow, makes no sense. I was gonna mention this separately, but I haven't had a chance to read the article, but Chris Cattillo posted something about could connolly early and Peyton Toley be this year's extension candidates. And having gotten burnt on Raphaela, having gotten burnt so far on Campbell with their extensions, I wanna see a full year of these guys first. Like I get why teams wanna do it early, but I think teams after one year, and even possibly after two years, in a lot of cases, still have a ton of leverage over the player. It just, it feels kind of reckless.

24:40That's just pictures. Especially pictures with the propensity to break down. Yeah, exactly. I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, the only picture they've really done that with is Crochet. Well, they did it with Bayo, but Bayo had to pitch to a year and plus. He pitched at least a couple of things. I agree with you, Terry. And I also think the organization does as well. So I'm not really worried about that. In the Bayo deal wasn't bad. I mean, we'd seen enough at the time. And I think we're all resigned to, he's never gonna be a number one or number two, but it's still a sustainable contract. Yeah, it's a very reasonable contract. It's a very reasonable contract. The disappointing is the fact that we were all sold like he was going to be the next Pedro. But I mean, we're not paying him like he's the next Pedro. So it's all fair. I also think that if he's on the roster to start the season, and I don't think that's a guarantee, but if he is,

25:40I can imagine a scenario with Crochet, with Sonny Gray, with Suarez, where he's the four or the five, where the pressure can be off him a little bit, and maybe you get a little bit more out of him with less required. Remember, two years ago, he started opening day. He had all the pressure on him in the world. It's gonna be the opposite this year. And I wanna see with his mindset and his personality, if that gets to the point where now we're actually getting the best out of him by taking the pressure off. So Jeremy, when you say not on the roster, like you still think there's a possibility, Bayo gets traded? Yeah, I don't rule out another trade happening. I don't, I first of all, don't think it will happen. Okay? But if, for example, someone gets hurt that they're expecting to play every day, that's a guy that you would potentially have value in to go replace somebody. You know, if somebody goes down with like Cassis,

26:42who's not even gonna be ready, but let's say somebody blows out a knee, and I'm not rooting for this, and I'm not even gonna mention any specific names, but it's silly to not have an understanding of where you can go to fill that need if something does happen. So if somebody does go down, it's not a quick injury. He's a player that you could go package him and plug a hole so you don't lose a season over not having a key guy. That's what I mean by that. Okay, that's fair. I mean, you could even make the opposite. I mean, you could even say in other teams, number two, number three pitcher goes down with Tommy John or an injury, with the luxury that we have. And all of a sudden they're willing to overpay for him. Right. Yeah, you could see that too. It's a good point. Just, I mean, I have the package. Or go ahead. Well, I was just gonna say, I mean, I hope he pitches well right out of the shoot and for Myers for that reason. Whether he's pitching for you or not, at least increases value and, you know. Just think of the trade package return you could get

27:42if you put Bale and Durand together. Like you should get a pretty decent player back. You know, someone from another team surplus. And just today I shared this in the war room. Dave Dombrowski, apparently, or someone from the Phillies, I'm just assuming it was Dombrowski, told Nick Castelanos don't bother reporting the camp. And I'm like, what a boss move by Dave Dombrowski. And if you remember towards the end of the 2015 season, he got hired in August, right after the trade deadline. So he had a couple months left in the season. He just sent Handling Ramirez home. He's like, dude, just get out of here. We'll figure it out this winter. And then he became a first baseman. And I was pleasantly surprised at how good he was at first base. But I just love that. And just imagine what a Dombrowski type guy would do to fix this roster. Just to clean it up, do a little bit of housekeeping, address one or two needs.

28:43And so, but there was someone that did post something that said, there could be some uncharacteristic trades from teams in spring training because of the way the free agent market behaved this winter. It was slow and kind of volatile, unpredictable. And who did the daughters get? They got Tucker, right? They weren't really in on them. They just let the other teams mess around. And then at the last second, they came dibombing in with the best offer, you know? And so, you know, a couple of teams missed out on him. And so I don't know. I think something unforeseen could happen in spring training more so than other years. As a Red Sox fan, you're so used to it because you're never satisfied with an aspect of your team. Like, this is going back a ways, but I wanted to call Hamill so bad going into that 2015 season.

29:44And there were a lot of rumors. The fillies wanted Swayhart as part of that deal. And then I think they wanted one of Devers and Betts. You know, and I don't know how that would have worked out. Hamill was still very good for another three or four years beyond that. So our rotation would have been a lot more solid. But, you know, we'll see how it goes. The other thing too, I mean, I think we kind of touched on it a little bit, but according to Zyps, we do not have a 20 home run hitter on this team. I think we do have one or two. I think Roman Anthony will probably hit more than 20. Trevor's story, as you guys pointed out, pre-show hit 25 last year. And I think Abreu is hit at least 20 or more the last couple of years. Contrarily. He could as well. Yeah, absolutely.

30:45I think he's typically a 15 to 20 guy, but I just think Fenway Park could end up suiting him a little bit, being a righty. Yeah, Abreu in a platoon role, I believe, the last two years hit like 20 flush home runs. And the interesting thing, there's another article that came out that basically said the Red Sox are working on trying to make him a better hitter against lefties, right? So, you know, your point Terry, as far as picking him back on the whole idea of like Doran and being somewhat expendable in these potential trades, you know, another interesting thing that was reported is Arizona Diamond Backstar Outfielder, Corbin Carroll broke his hammock bone in his right hand, his undergoing surgery today. So, what if, if we're not high on Marcelo Meyer or we're just hoping it's keeping for five to six years and hope it pans out? What if you packaged him and Jeren Doran for Kettle Marte? Put him in second, slide our new guy over to third.

31:46How would you guys feel about him move like that? Wait, who enderan one more time? Marcelo Meyer. Oh, Meyer enderan. Honestly, I would do it. I would absolutely do that. How do you feel, Jeremy? I'm not as down on Doran as everybody else. I think he provides a certain level of chaos to an offense that's not gonna hit the ball out of the park and creates runs, you know, by putting pressure on the defense. I like Doran, I especially like Doran at DH, which is where I think he's gonna get a lot of the bats this year. And I think he'll be a little bit more appreciated, not kind of flubbing a couple of flyballs here and there. He's under a lot of scrutiny for some reason, and I actually I know why, because he keeps doing stupid stuff on the field and swearing and getting suspended for a day for this and that. But so I don't know, Chris, it's a cop out of answer,

32:50but I'd want to sit down and look at the numbers a little bit more. I'm not ruling it out, and obviously we need that at that in the infield where we have a surplus in the outfield. So from that perspective, I probably lean, I'm okay with it. So you just, you maybe think of something else interesting, then if you would like to keep Doran as far as in, oh my God, what can I think of it? Not playing in the field. DH. DH. You kept him as DH. If we were willing to really actually trade Marcelo Meyer, I would venture to guess there's other teams other than the Arizona down the back that wouldn't expect us to put him out there, that if we made it realistic, maybe you could package him and you get a team that maybe was looking to take on a young potential star, quote unquote, and if you could eat some of Yoshi to his money and then offload him and open up that DH spot, I mean, that would be kind of good, right?

33:50You put Doran and even a brand you, one of them at DH, you keep the other one in the field and it opens up a ton of flexibility from the problem. The problem with moving Yoshida and why I think he hasn't moved is you're gonna have to give more than one high end prospect and maybe a big leader to just get rid of him. Like there's no one out there looking for Mazataka Yoshida. So, you know, I mean, I'm not necessarily comfortable with that. What I'm comfortable with is, I don't care about John Henry's money, just DFA and that's why it has to happen. He's got two years left. I'm boldly, I keep saying this and I'm gonna say it all year long. I'm boldly assuming there won't be a 2027. So that would make it one year left. You have to move on from Yoshida because you use the Doran example. It doesn't really make a ton of sense to platoon him with Yoshida

34:51because they're both lefties who can't really hit lefties. So it just doesn't work. It's not a compatible platoon. And so, yeah, so DFA him because he's gonna cost you games by jamming up your roster. And not only is he duplicative from the perspective that he's a left hand stick with similar lack of power numbers, the only thing he probably does better is put the ball on play. Doran is a dynamic offensive player when he's going. And like I said, he is, it can be a difference maker. Yoshida's maybe at best a move, move the lineup type of guy. So, I mean, those at batch, both of those players are on the roster have to be Doran. So, I mean, unless there's an injury, Yoshida just does not fit the roster. And again, I can't say this enough. I would be furious if they gave away

35:52big league talent and prospects just to move that contract when you can get rid of him tomorrow by just DFA and him and eating the money. I think at that point, you kind of have to really, you're gonna need other guys in the game, not named Yoshida. So, it just, he's not as a proper placement. And he's not gonna go in and pinch run. He off, he, he, not only does he not offer you roster flexibility, he makes it significantly worse just by being there. I'm pulling up Doran's numbers right now. I have him against left-handed pitching, not spectacular. I mean, he's a 232 hitter with a 284 on base. But that's not an automatic out either. Like I can live with that. A bra you can't hit at all against lefties. And I've said time and time again

36:53and I'll say it for the rest of spring training. I don't believe for one second, he's actually gonna face lefties all year. So, if he was gonna play every day, he should have what, 500 at bats at least. I think it's 600. Well, I was being very conservative. Yeah. Okay. I'm in a plus. So, I don't think there's any chance that's gonna happen. I think they'll pull the plug at some point, probably late in the month of May at the latest. And he'll just go back to being a platoon guy, which is probably what he is at this point. And I can live with that. But Doran could play every day. He's not the same defensively as a bra you is. He's not gonna, you know, pull an upset and win the gold glove for left fielders. But I just think you can do more with his bat and he's adequate enough in the field. I think you win more games with Doran.

37:55Yeah, you can put him in the field. If somebody goes down, you can put him in, for 15 games, you can put him in center field and get away with it. Same with left field. I mean, he's not gonna win a gold glove, but he offers some flexibility. You know, Matsus, she offers not no flexibility. And I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm gonna run out of patients really quick with the proyoshita propaganda coming out of Alex Korsmouth. Like, don't tell me what he's gonna be. This is the same thing we dealt with with Cassis for two and a half years. I see the numbers. I see what he does. I see the body of work. I don't need to be told he's gonna be a 280, 2080 guy. Like, if he is great, but stop just, it's just, it's Red Sox lying. And maybe they're just trying to prop him up and get the most out of him because they know Henry's never gonna authorize eating the money, but it's nonsensical and I don't buy it. I'm already sick and tired of hearing about it. And then what do you do when Cassis comes back?

38:56He's probably gonna be the D.H. Well, what you do is he rakes in Worcester, you get his value to something and you just move on from him. That's what I would do, yeah. Yeah, I mean, he has no value right now. He can't move him. So I was gonna say, you know, Worcester and in the first two months hit 15 bombs, then some teams dumb enough to take a shot at him that they're gonna get the back end of 2023 out of him again. Yeah, because I mean, people were interested in Cassis. I think it was the reason why we never traded him to the Mariners because we were trying to unload Yosita just like I was trying to do 10 minutes ago, but. I think what, which is drives me absolutely nuts with this team is, you know, out of anyone realistically that can really elevate and take that next jump to being that 30 home run guys. Obviously, I pray you, I just don't have the confidence that he's going to play every day and be able to get to that point. And it's like, he's our ticket realistically to getting that power that we kind of

39:57covet and needed at this point. And then you have players like mayor where it's like, what are we gonna do with them? And then we got Christian Campbell. He's never gonna play. He's blocked by like five players on this roster. And these are just diminishing and wasted assets that are either never going to be realized or we're gonna hold on to too long. And it's gonna be like the cost of situation where either via injury or just piss poor play, they're not gonna be worth anything. And it's like, you could trade Marcelo Meyer and Christian Campbell today in a package and get yourself a superstar player close to it that could provide serious power to this lineup. But we're reluctant to because all when they got a future, they're cheap, they're this, they're, but they're never gonna play. So it just, it makes no sense to me. Well, Campbell's still really young and he also has very little value right now. So whether it's in Worcester or wherever, he's gotta go back to being a projected big league player. He does no chance to make him a team.

40:58Man, he's the same situation as castuses, except castuses like four or five years older. The thing with, I don't disagree with what you're saying. The thing I would say though with Christian Campbell's, if you have a team that saw value in him prior and thinks that they could somewhat fix what we screwed up, because his contract is so damn reasonable and you have him for such a long period of time, there's an added value there versus castuses that exists with him because he's controllable, he's young, and you're gonna have him for almost a decade. So if you have a team out there that sees the potential and thinks, all right, well, the socks just kind of screwed him up, he can come here and he doesn't need to be the guy. I think there is a little bit more value. I respectfully disagree, I think he has no value. I think the way they manage that beginning of last year, the constant position changes, it's, he's fallen off completely with regards to the projection he was on before he signed the contract.

42:00I don't think he has any value. I'm not saying that, you know, because castuses has no value and both could have value. They're just gonna have to, but in their each individual case, they're gonna have to rake in Worcester. Johnny was pointing out this morning in the war room. He would just woke up, I hadn't been to bed yet. I was still off at 6am. But he was talking about driveline and driveline's kind of been a controversial thing with the Red Sox, you know, some of the fan base. I haven't done deep dives on it, but some of the fan base thinks that they actually ruined players. Christian Campbell was a big driveline guy, so is Tristan Cossus, and we've seen how streaky Cossus can be when he's healthy. You know, that whole first half of 2023, he was just ass. And, you know, and then Campbell destroyed in the minors and then hit for a month up year

43:01until the pitchers got ahead of him. And, you know, we haven't really seen him since. So I'm just wondering if they're putting too much stock in that, you know, I prefer just an old school approach. It's like that line and money ball. Nobody reinvents baseball, you know, everything's a trend until opposing pitchers figure it out. And then you're cooked and you and then your offense has to pivot to something else. Well, you're actually wrong, Terry. Dodgers reinvented baseball with deferrals, but other than that, I would agree. You look, look how proud he is of himself coming up with that. Terry's like, that's who's sitting there thinking he's like, yeah, kind of maybe. I'm not an attorney like one of us is, but, you know, I'm trying to, I'm trying to rebut that. And, you know, that's like an off the field thing. Like, they've reinvented roster building, but, you know, I don't think they, they, they have that.

44:04Technically, Chris deferred money was years ago in the famous instance, as we know, is Bobby Bonilla Jr. That was the first real instance of a team deferring money and get an absolutely bowling by it. Yeah, no, no, I know it existed, but doing it with literally every single player you have on your team for the foreseeable 50 years has never been done until the top. Sticking with it, Chris, okay. I'm dying on this hill. All right, well, I'll tell you what, let's just go ahead and wrap where almost 45 minutes in. So, first week of spring training, we'll probably be back on Sunday. Hopefully we don't get any serious injury news, especially with our pitching staff, but... Jesus, don't say that. Yeah, I think we're kind of, you know, more fortunate than so many other teams. Tommy John season has started. The number of pitchers have gone on the 60 day

45:04on other teams. Spencer Schwellenbach was one of them, who I've been super high on. And I, the other names escape me, but a number of guys already on there. So, we'll be back probably Sunday night to discuss more of what's been going on if any developments happen. Any nuggets from Brezlow, Kora, will be right on top of it. So, everyone have a good rest of your week. Take care.