Celtics Host Hornets in Potential Playoff Preview // Bill Chisholm on the Celtics Spending // Roman Anthony’s Throwing Issues - 4/7 (Hour 3)

I'm not sure what you think. I'll tell you something to rub me right. A 98 five the sports hub. Bruins Hurricanes potential playoff preview as a Bruins try and fight for the playoff lives and get into the postseason. Zach game at seven o'clock here on 95 sports. Yeah, Bruins here. Then we have Celtics Hornets over on 105 seven I would assume. Games at eight pre game at seven thirty also on NBC Sports Boston, which brings you the simulcast here where we beam across New England and the country. That's a potential first round playoff matchup. Do any of the potential first round playoff matchups for the Celtics give you pause for concern? This one a little bit. Yeah, yeah, a little bit. Look, I think the Celtics will win, but Charlotte has played offensively. They played really well here in the last few months of the season. Now, the last time they played, I thought the Celtics went to the rim pretty much at will against Charlotte. I think that's where the weaknesses. I think they'll beat Charlotte, but I could see the games. I could see the series stretching out a little bit because I think that look, the Celtics ultimately to me will be done in by a team that's going to sort of play physically with them and knock them around a little bit. I don't think Charlotte's going to do that, but they can score. And so now again, I think the Celtics will play running gun with Charlotte all night and they'll beat them, especially with Tatum and Brown starting to gel the way they are. But, you know, I could see Charlotte stealing a game or two of the Celtics. It's stupid and take too many threes. Well, that game here a couple of weeks ago, Charlotte look tremendous. Like, I mean, yeah, yeah, here in Boston. Yeah, I'm talking about the one in Charlotte. Right. That was the more recent one. The Celts then went down to Charlotte and avenged it quote unquote and took it to Charlotte. But the game here, I remember like even Scal saying, I got to rethink the Charlotte team. Yeah, Tatum wasn't back yet. If I remember though, he was back. I don't know if he played, but I think it was after he had returned. I might be mistaken. Okay, I'll check. Anyway, go ahead. Well, so the thing that I remember last year, that first round series against Orlando was tougher than a lot of people expected. It went five games, but they defended them on the perimeter really well. And I was of the mind that that series, because it was so tough defensively for the Celtics and frustrated them, they kept forcing those threes. They, that took a chunk out of them. And I think that was part of the reason they ended up losing that next series against the Knicks. Maybe looking at it like the brackets and the team that could potentially play in that first round, maybe the Hornets. Like I mean, again, that that first game you're talking about, Mike was defensively a few weeks back. I don't know how they play defensively. I'm not going to sit here and lie and say, are they like that Orlando team from last year? But if they can do that, I mean, they can again, maybe take a chunk out of them like the magic did last year and that trips them up going forward. But none of these teams, Magic Heat, Sixers, Hornets, anything that they could get in that first round, I think they're going to lose too. It was four days before Tatum came back. Okay. So it was. Well, be that as it may. I mean, don't lose in the first round. No shot. Don't lose in the second one. Don't lose to anyone. Don't lose to anyone in the East. But I, I'd say certainly other than Detroit, you know, anything you lose to anyone other than Detroit, that's a pretty massive underachievement. Can we all acknowledge that? I think not getting out of the East is a massive underachievement. And then at this point, you would have to say probably the whole East, although I do respect Detroit. I think when Cunningham went down in the middle of March, a lot of people thought, well, the Celts are going to catch them. And you've actually gained no ground. It was a four game lead when Cunningham went down March 17th. It's a four game lead now. So Detroit's got a little something going on there and they might be able to might be able to do that thing where they're just sort of a tough physical team and they can get up into you and you've got to sort of know you. They're going to punch in the Honker, as I like to say. And sometimes those teams are giving you trouble in the past. Can you punch back? You know, you should be able to do. They can't score on your level. So you shouldn't lose to anyone in the East, but certainly no one other than Detroit. So I do think the Celts are in a stage here where kind of it's kind of going to be perfunctory here for a while for weeks, if not a month or so. Feels that way. Yeah. Want to follow up quickly on a Bill Chisholm, the new owner or face of the ownership. The new owner is really a private equity firm. But Chisholm is the face of it. I did an interview with Adam Himmelsbach in the globe yesterday was quite the little tickly ass with a feather kind of conversation. My God. What a little ass tickle this was. I mean, wow, why even bother doing it? But I guess there are two things to glean. One is, I mean, just by the tone of the question where Himmelsbach is coming from here and where he's coming from is Chisholm's sack. But one of the questions here is Brad made it abundantly clear last summer that cost cutting measures were essential to get below the salary cap second apron and he's roster building restrictions. But the low hanging fruit was that the new owner was coming in and cutting costs. Were you sensitive to that perception? What's low hanging fruit about the fact that they cut a bunch of payroll? Didn't they cut a bunch of payroll? Yes. And was it a perception that they cut payroll or did they actually cut payroll? No, they cut payroll. And it wasn't the second apron. You're just a second apron. They also got under both luxury taxes. Correct. The taxes come with almost no basketball penalties. The aprons come with basketball penalties that I think are overrated, but fine. You can hide behind that if you want. The taxes are just money. So even the question is a giveaway of what a useless interaction this is. The low hanging fruit about the perception that they were cutting costs, even though they cut costs. Answer. It's so true though. What perception? What are we talking about? It's a reality that they cut payroll. They saved like a hundred million dollars. Around that, Jimmy, didn't they? Like between the actual salary and the taxes? Yeah, it was something like that. I believe they went from like 541 million to like 180 something. So is that a perception? No, they actually did it. Okay. So that's not a perception. And it's the luxury tax that frankly, I think is the one that you talk about. The aprons have basketball penalties. The taxes, not really. So you're just saving yourself money and the private equity guys that invest in your team money. But anyway, this is low hanging fruit. It's just a perception. Got it. Got it, Adam. I think it's out there, but ultimately I have to prove every day in the near term, medium term and long term that I want to win. I want to win desperately. And I'm a huge fan. I can understand where some short term decisions might feel like they're not necessarily headed in that direction. But I put hand on heart and know I'm doing and we're doing the right things to win. And that's what we care about. So you have to trust in that. I compare us to other teams coming into the season that looked a lot like us. We were completely aligned that we're about winning. We're going to compete, play hard, develop our talent, find additional talent. And this is not a gap year. We're just not doing that. I can put my hand on heart saying that I'll prove it and I'll continue to prove it every day that I just want to win. Did he answer the question? No, not really. Did he say anything there about are they going to spend next year? Because again, if you follow this closely, and I know most of you do, to get under the tax one year doesn't really do the trick. You have to get under the tax in two out of four years. Is it Jimmy? It's something like that. I'm offended by the gap year comment, but keep going. Yeah, I think it's you have to be under the tax two out of the four years to get out of the repeater taxes. So either next year or the year after, they have to, you know, do the exact same thing. Be under the tax for that really to make sense. So they aren't just doing this one year. They're doing it again. Whether that's next year or and I think next year is probably the year that they would do it again. Mas, don't you? Because if they add to their roster next year, go back into the tax next year, win at a high level, it's going to be hard to. Well, we brought in so and so want to champion chip with them. And now we have to take it apart. It's like sort of easier, I think. And also, again, they have the least discerning critical fan base in town and media. I mean, it's obvious. There's no scrutiny coming their way. If they do lose in the second round this year, they're not going to get they're not going to get belted by their media. No, or their fans. They're going to say, well, what do you expect? Tatum was hurt all year and they had to get under the apron. I hate that that's built in. And you know that, you know, I hate that. Well, they're going to this year is already a win. They've identified a group of young players. They've reset their books. Tatum will come back for a full year next year, fully healthy. And they're not going to get any grief from Celtics fans or Celtics media. Is Himmelsbach going to go after? No. If they lose in the second round, are you kidding me? Which is crazy considering how they look. Use your eyes. The season Jalen Brown has had the landscape of the East. And the expectations for me are now they should get out of this conference. They're owned by private equity guys. Chisholm is just a face. He doesn't even have the majority of it. It's this other group. What's called again? Oh, six street. Six street. Yeah. And this is why he didn't commit to spending money next year. Because they're not. I was going to jump in and say that when you said it. Because he's a board. Yeah, that's right. He's not deciding it. So he doesn't have the he's not. And even if, you know, he is out front, they're going to ultimately decide whether or not they spend it. What I was looking for while you were talking was that the line that bothered me in that comment. Develop our talent. Yeah. Well, so that's a tell to mass exactly develop our talent. That means again, so he's talking about Gonzalez, Shireman. Yeah. Yeah. He's talking about those kinds of players. Right. Cheap players. Right. And so look when, when, when they added to the roster to win the championship was Drew holiday cheap was whom I forgetting that they were saying is holiday. Horford. Right. That wasn't about developing talent. I sent them straight over right into the taxes and won him a championship. That was about fortifying the roster and bringing in big guns, winning a championship. Bingo. So the line develop our talent. Concerned me. There is no team in talent gets less scrutiny than these guys. We might be the only ones who mentioned this stuff. Thank God for us. Once again, Jimmy. Boston, you're welcome. Yes. Thank God for us. You can, you can email me gift cards if you'd like. There was one more Q and a in this hand. I mean, interview in, I could glean a little something question. You made it clear that you think TD garden is a good home and are in no rush to consider building a new arena, but you mentioned you were curious to hear fans is views. What has the feedback been? Where do you stand now? Answer. It's pretty much the same as it was at the beginning of the season. The philosophy there is the same. The garden is a great place to play. It's consistently ranked one of the best places in the league for player and fan experience. It is. I didn't know that either. I didn't know that either. Continuing. He says it's loud. A lot of energy. It's got a storied history. My starting point is if we make it work, we'd love to stay where we are and making it work means improving the fan experience and the player experience. If we can do those things and remain where we are now, that's great. And if that doesn't work there, we'll think about other places. But my goal here is to see if we ideally make it work where we are. And I think there's a commitment with us with the Bruins and Delaware North with all of that. That's where we want to end up and we're working on it as we speak. I don't think they have the juice to build a new building in town. If Bezos or even his brother or someone like this had bought the team and they could, you know, They'd be more open about talking about a new spot. Well, they could just financially bully their way into a building somewhere. I don't think he's private equity guys. I don't think that that's what they're about. I think they're about squeezing all the juice from the lemon and then selling the lemon. Probably right. And that's sort of where I think you're headed with these guys. Not that anyone's going to look at them like this. So I have heartedly also wondered whether that was some sort of message to the Jacobs about the future. Well, so they're clearly negotiating with the Jacobs on something. Their lease, their terms, whatever. Yes, whatever there is to negotiate, they're clearly negotiating. And if you think it's about quite literally the fan experience, then I'm, I hate to disabuse you of this notion. It's about the rent. They're squabbling over some sort of rent or concession or something in the weeds of that deal. They're not worried about the player or fan experience. They're worried about the deal, the contract. Unless you're trying to build a bigger locker room or something and the Jacobs to put the bill. Anyway, there's a Celtics minute for you. Back to your calls on everything right after these words. Now, it's not hyperbolic to say that if Boston with the championship this year, it is the greatest championship in NBA history. Seriously, it is the greatest championship ever because you don't lose what four or five of your top nine players through Cornet into that mix. Don't replace them with any so-called, you know, matches. You know, like, all right, we got, we lost this guy. We got this guy who could do the exact same type of things. They didn't replace them with any of these guys. Nobody was in the off season cheering the acquisition of Luca Garza and Josh Minot. They were not, they were not doing that. This team, if they can go all the way with this group, it is the greatest championship. I certainly have ever seen, maybe you can think of one back in the 60s or something like that. I've never seen, maybe you can think of one back in the 60s, 70s and 80s, but I think this would be the greatest championship that was ever won. Gaspar and I talked about this on Saturday on the Celtics hour. So he said it's not hyperbolic to say. Right, not an exaggeration. Hyperbolic. That this would be the greatest championship in NBA history. Yes, correct. Not Celtics, the whole league. The whole league. Is that kind of the definition of hyperbole? Yes. Yeah. I'm getting that clear because I'm not great with the language. What did you say on Saturday about it? That, I mean, it's hyperbolic and even, you know, we took calls from old timers too, like, because some of these ones in the 60s, especially one of the ones that they won. The last one, 69. Yeah, where Bill Russell is the player and coach. Like, isn't that maybe one of the most unbelievable championships in Celtics history? And for the league, a few that immediately come to mind from me, that 11 Mavericks team, whereas Novitski and a bunch of hired guns that. Great one. That beat the, you know, the heat when they first came together with the LeBron threesome of him and Bosch and Wade, like that one was one of the craziest championships ever. It's just, I wouldn't use that wording. Given what the expectations were, where Tatum was at, if you wanted to say it would be one of the more unexpected championships ever, fine. It'd be on a list of other ones. The 95 Rockets, I'd put them on there. Like, I just would, I would just say that you may say it's hyperbole. But it is hyperbole. I mean, you can't say it's not hyperbole. It's not hyperbole to say that I'm the greatest human being that has ever lived. Well, it is a matter of opinion. I mean, it's just, that's the very definition of hyperbole, I would say. Yes. And again, the one Murray brings up is a good one. I would even tell you that I'm not even sure it's the greatest championship in Celtics of ever won, if you want to start. No, definitely not. Because again, it's so, don't you have to look at the team and what the 86 Celtics are the best Celtics team ever? Like they are. Come on. So that's their greatest championship, I think. And I think most rational people are with me too. You have to look at the construction of the team, the superstars that you had on it. This would be incredibly impressive if they won the title this year. I expect them to get to the East. Will they probably lose to Denver or OKC going back to back probably? But if they did it, it'd be impressive. But the greatest championship in the history of the league, like, that's ridiculous. It's a little much. OK, it's just hyperbolic. But it would be a great, great achievement. Yes, it would. It would really say something about everybody there, for sure. No doubt about it. Yeah, and look, I mean, you know, it's possible I would change my mind on where it stands in history after they play Oklahoma City, if that's what it is. Like, and see how that series looks and how they were to pull it out. But no, no, this year would be a good achievement. I just, I just say, I'm sorry. I'll say this too, sort of cut you off. If they won this year, it would mean a hell of a lot to me than the last one where they had the easiest run like ever. I was just about to say, if we call this the greatest in league history. What does that make 2024? Can I call 2024 the most useless in league history? Am I allowed to do that? Just don't say it's not hyperbolic. I just want to know. I would say it's the definition of hyperbolic to say that that would be the worst championship in NBA. I'm not going to make this offer to Manix. I'm going to make it to Celtics fans that if you want to call this the greatest championship in the history of the league, you have to allow me to say that 2024 was the most useless. I'm with Maz on this. Thank you. So that's the offer on the table. Okay. We can negotiate 6177790. If I won final basketball thought, Maz had a takeaway on jumping off from the, I guess the Yanis story in Milwaukee about tanking in the NBA. Yes. So look, I'll just make this quick because I don't know why it hit me today, the way it did. And probably because I was pissed off about the Red Sox game last night and where they're headed. But this whole idea, the tanking in sports, and we can make this about the NBA solely. To me, it's even bigger than that. Something has to be done. And I know you've talked about this in the past. Today it hit me and I don't know why, but it's got to stop. It's bad. What the bucks are doing with Yanis, holding them out on purpose so they might be able to improve their draft position, which frankly, they may not even be able to improve that much. I started to look at this the other day for like two minutes and my head started to hurt. I don't even know if I don't even get it. They have some pick swaps. So they're not even, it might not even benefit them to lose. Like I don't even get it. No, right. So this is what I'm getting at. So let me get this straight. If you are a box fan and you bought season tickets and the only reason to go to any game now is to see Yanis. That's it or whoever the visiting players are. You are now being deprived of that. So this to me is the crap they're getting away with that owners and teams and management is the crap they're getting away with is borderline consumer fraud. If not completely consumer fraud, it's at least borderline. And it's a disgrace that teams no longer take some level of urgency to try to win every game they play. That's the whole point of selling the ticket is that you are getting an honest effort from both sides at all times. So I think they should scrap the old formula of the draft order being decided by who the worst team is. Get rid of it. Take away any incentive to tank. Take it away. So if you quick, you know, if you open the idea that people sit out games that teams tank on purpose is a freaking disgrace to American sports. It really is. It's ruining the product in every game. There is only one path and they'll never do it. And this is not opening up to your calls with your cockamamie ideas. But there is only one way to avoid it. Religation. It's the only way. I'll tell you what, I'm for it. I would be so for that. Yes, I am for it. Like in all sports really. They have they have empowered organizations this approach in Europe. There's massive financial financial incentive to not finish last. Yes, you got it. There's got to be something, some mechanism put in or, you know, some sort of major tax. If you do that you end up finishing last, you are automatically hit with a $50 million fee. So if not relegation, which they'll never do, it's just not in the culture here. You penalize the last place. Yes, exactly. In fact, I'd even go so far as to penalize the last five. You finish in the bottom five of 30 teams, 32 teams. You really suck. And you know what? You got to pay for it. There should be a penalty for it because what's happening now is ridiculous. And I didn't spend a lot of time thinking on how you fix it other than maybe getting, getting rid of the draft order, you know, the traditional draft order. But some sort of penalty is got to go in there because this is a joke. Really, it's a joke. People, you know, go buy their tickets with the idea that they're going to see competition. That's it. Competition, both sides trying to win. That's what the deal is. Something has to change. This is bad. It's ridiculous. Sorry, I know that you've felt this way for a while. Oh my God, it's a huge problem in baseball. So, but really it is. And it's, basketball is always, basketball, the biggest, one of the biggest problems with the sport is that there's just not enough competitive games. Oh, and there was a, there was also, there was a stat recently on Twitter I saw about the load management, like what percentage of load management games were lost in the NBA this year. And I tried to find it again and I couldn't find it. It's some astronomical and ridiculous number. And in the NBA, it's actually gotten better. Okay. But the point being is that if, you know, 65% of the games or whatever are affected by load management in some capacity, that is, that is stealing from the consumer. That is charging people full price for a flawed product. Okay. Everything is on the table. I promise. Write to your calls after Murray gets you updated here. Boston's best sports talk. You can count on it. A tour, a plus a tour is a fudge. Me zento papatiado, birchero, maya, alivanza. It seems the Red Sox might be headed to pork city instead of the playoffs because now they always find new ways to lose games. Your thoughts. Yeah. Well, the slow start combined with the fact that I don't think they're all that great is a bad combination. And they have forged no identity into, in other words, what I'm saying is, I don't know what their path, what their path is. I don't think they've really improved their starting pitching, meaning the ceiling of it. They've improved the depth on paper, but the quality of the pitching, I don't know if it's been improved. They don't hit for power. They don't hit for contact. They don't, the run prevention thing has been a complete fail. And we'll continue to be because I don't think they teach them proper defense in the low minors or they haven't come up. I mean, who's, where's the run prevention coming from? I guess is what I'm asking you. Yeah, good question. So I think they'll get better, but I don't see what the ceiling is. And I don't think the ceiling is enough to overcome the start. And so I do. I think they are port. It's hard to win in baseball. Now, if you don't have a requisite amount of power and they don't, and they're the worst of the worst because not only do they not hit home runs, but they strike out. I mean, that means you can't even get rallies with lots of hits. And again, I hate to keep throwing the brewers in your face, but they're in your face. They don't hit homers either, but they put the bat on the ball. Exactly right. Which is what you have to do to score if you can't hit home runs. And they run. So they draw contact, they run, they sacrifice and they run. And so there's an identity. There's their path. I don't know what your path is. You don't have home run hitters. You don't have contact hitters and you don't run and you don't sacrifice and you don't have play discipline. And this is not just like a this year thing. This is what you've been now for several years. You have the most errors in major league baseball over the last, was it seven years, man? Eight years? Yep. Well, all of a sudden that hasn't changed. Think about that. 10 years basically closing in on a decade. Were you f-up more than anyone else? It's insane. Let's play two questions with Scott or is it just one today? Scott, what do we got? What do you think is going to happen during the Celtics game tonight? I think they're going to roll. Win. This is what I think. Yeah. So I would, my gut tells me bet the over. Mark and Rockport on the Red Sox. Hi, Mark. Hey guys, how are you? Hey, Mike. The team is lost without Bregman. And, Maz, I want your opinion on this. I've been story fed off Bregman. There were two veterans in the infield. This team would be 500. They'd be playing 500 ball if they had Bregman. What a mistake. Maz and Jimmy, was it money? Jesus, they get all kinds of jokes. Pay for the guy. Of course it was money. Yeah. Never mind Trevor's story. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. I think he's got a good point. He's a baseball badass. He's a baseball badass. In fact he's not even as good as he used to be but he still acts like he's good and he's still got a certain thing about Bregman's approach every day that sets an example and allows everyone else to say he's going to handle it. A story is trying ... You made a comment earlier about how Contreras has not been available after some of these games to the media. A story from what I understand has been there routinely. A story fancies himself I'm not saying that he's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. He's been around the league and competitive fiery guy. Except I think. What I saw last night was just him scratching a personal itch. Yeah. Well as the team has been floundering. I've not seen him take a leadership role or a vocal role or stand up and face the music or protect some of the younger guys. First time I really noticed them. Was last night when he got. Again when he flipped out because of his personal beef with the Brewers. I haven't seen him. He's not going to be a champion. He's not going to be a champion. You know, he's a lot of talking about a guy like Roman Anthony is kind of thrown to the wolves. And you're asking a lot of the kid both on the field and off sort of the face of the thing. He's 21 years old. And he obviously still has a ways to go. He doesn't know how to throw a baseball. So they're in a rough spot when it comes all that mouse big time. Yeah, big time and they need someone there to protect those young guys a little bit because Roman Anthony's out there beating himself up now every time he really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really I want to get to the gossip. Everything you said is right. Belger and Mass, the sports club. Mitchell waiting on a 2-1. And a line, Robin left field down for base hit. Terral around, Anthony fires. Very good throw, keeps on rolling. Here comes another run. He'll let you wrap play at the plate, the tag. He's safe. Now play a third, but no throw. And it is 7-5 Milwaukee. This ball by Mitchell was hit out to Roman. He had a nice little break on it too. Caught it on that one hop, but just that this throw was way off line. But this is more about the throw here. To the plate in the first time. And right now ruled a base hit and an E-7. You know, Roman kind of D-Hed a few days and Corey was talking about working with Huddy, working on his throwing, trying to iron out some things. But you see where he catches this baseball, and he's got a good throw. Drake's not even in third base yet. This throw is low, way off line. What happened to him, Mass? Good question. Was it always this bad? No, I don't think so, no. And I'll tell you what, I did a, you know, I called around a little bit just to get a sense of, you know, what he was like in the minor leagues. I don't remember him throwing like this last year. And I'm told that he, when he was in the minors, it never looked like this, that the arm looked fine. So could this be a Chuck Knoblock thing? Yeah, maybe Murray. And when I say fine, I'm not telling you it's great. But I do, what I do find somewhat alarming is that, you know, nothing is ever reported on the specifics about these guys' defense when they're coming up through the minor leagues. Nobody said Christian Campbell can't throw and sucks defensively. They just said, well, they haven't figured out where they're going to play him yet. Or, and look, these are euphemisms, so some of it you can filter through. But in the case of Anthony, did anyone, anyone ever talk about his defense? Like, you know, and so I'm not telling you he's horrible, but he's not the most fluid runner in the world. He lumbers a little bit and now the throws. So how come none of this stuff ever comes up when these guys are coming through the minor leagues? I don't know. There was some actual scrutiny. So everybody wants to get all geeked up about these guys coming. And I'm telling you, when you look at all them, they all have flaws. Campbell might be done. Marcelo Meyer clearly, based on how Cora handled him in the spring, needs a kick in the ass. Roman Anthony defensively is, now we say, what? Like, what's going on with him and the throws? It might be the Yps, in which case, how many guys ever fully get over those? Like, it doesn't feel like a lot. So, you know, I do want, you know, early in the year, I said, this guy might be a DH when we saw him in spring training. And naturally, everybody started flipping out over it. And how could you say that at this date? He might be a DH. But his throws weren't this last year. Again, they weren't pinpoint-sharper or anything like that. But he's become a meme. I mean, they're calling him Roman Anthony online because of the noodle. I get it. Like, it's bad. That last night was atrocious. And as Maz mentioned, he's kind of wearing it. Jimmy, let's hear some Roman Anthony post-game please. If you could, we had to bump up the volume on this because he was talking so low. He was so distraught. Go ahead. Just a mix of everything. But in the other day, it's a simple play. And it's got to be at least competitive. And it wasn't again. So, it's terrible. Another one, please, Roman Anthony. It's like the fourth time I've done it now. And, you know, it's terrible. It's not even, it doesn't even make it competitive. And two run score, it's awful. It's awful to be a part of. And I feel like it's on me. Again, the fourth time it's happened, this really rolled the ball into home plate. Give me one more if you have it. There's a terrible throw again. So, didn't have a shot with that throw. And got to be better. It's terrible. When you hear this, what do you think, Mace? I think he's beaten himself up publicly. He's trying to do the right thing. Okay, so he's trying to be accountable. And I respect him for that part of it. I also think someone should be there to protect him a little bit. And this is part of the problem. They have a 21-year-old guy who's basically got three-quarters of a season in the big leagues. And, you know, who missed the end of last year because of injury on top of it. Now he's back and he has to be the team spokesman and answer for everything. Because what? Because he is the best player on the team, sadly. They've put him in a position to fail. Really, they've surrounded him with not much. Now he's, you know, I think... And there's no veteran leadership. No, none. And I think part of the problem that he's having is a result of all this being on his shoulders. There's no way he doesn't feel some of that. There's no way. There's no way he sits there and says, you know, if I don't play great, we can win. Because we have so many other good guys. He's not stupid. The kid knows. He can look around and see what the lineup looks like and where the shortages are. So he's probably putting undue pressure on himself. He signed a big contract, like all of that. And I think they've put him in a position to fail. I think they've done that now with a lot of these young guys, which is scary. John, in the car, your thoughts. Mike, can we send Durbin back to Milwaukee with the Brewers and an equipment bag tomorrow when they leave? Don't want them. Thank you. You know, if you want to be Milwaukee in Tampa, your player development has to be much better than this. That's what has to be top notch. And they suck, which, you know, if you want to talk about Anthony, they talked about him as the top prospect in baseball, Tony. Everybody did. Roman Anthony, number one, number one. But he can't catch or throw the ball. He's average speed. He's another one that, well, we, you know, we're not sure what position he's going to play. Guys like Arod, guys like Barnes, you know, Griffey, those were five tool can't miss prospects. I'm not saying the guy's not a good player, but we all bought into this Roman Emperor stuff last year. And I'm sorry, right now he looks like Caligula. So either they didn't, they, the baseball world didn't properly tell us about Roman Anthony's skill set, which is what you just referenced, or something's gone really wrong here with him. So I'm fearful that it's the second thing. Right. If he threw like that in the minors, what did we know? Yeah, it didn't be clips. I mean, Jaren Durand came up and we knew he can't throw. Correct. In fact, he couldn't track a fly ball either when he got here. Right. And so that was, we knew right, like right out of the shoot. We had, this is kind of a new thing with him. It feels it is, which is why it has me concerned about the environment. This is what struck me about it. When I listened to him and watch him, how's this happening with this kid? So it tells me something's going on between his ears and that's not good. Here's Alex Cora on the throw and the overall, while that play and Roman Anthony himself. Obviously it wasn't a good throw. We didn't back up. You know, that's happened, I think twice this week, you know, that we're just watching the play, you know, and when the boys hit, we got to go somewhere, you know, the only people that, you know, can watch is the people in the stands, you know, and obviously they're not too happy. Roman's throwing. Are you guys sure that he's healthy? 100%. Do you think maybe he's in his head a little bit about it? I don't think so. It's mechanics. Okay. So not a health issue, not a mental issue. It's a mechanic issue, which is a mental issue. That's what I think too. And even then, like, let's say it's mechanics. So nobody fixed it in the minor leagues. Right. Like, you know, or nobody saw it before, or it's just, it's just so, so he doesn't want to throw a baseball. Right. And the other thing is it's clearly worse. Right. Now, Anthony said four throws, I think three of them were worse than the other one. There was one that was like on a hop, but it was up the line. It wasn't accurate, but it wasn't as bad as the others. So, you know, to me, it's okay. So let's say it is mechanics. Well, then what created the change of mechanics? And I'm telling you, I'm only about its pressure. The weight. Yes. Of what's been put on his shoulders. Yes. That's what, that's what would scare me if I were them. And Cora also points out Whitman, excuse me, Whitlock didn't back up. Whit didn't back up the play like Chapman didn't back up the plays that this happened to us twice this week. It is true. And the whole thing was Fubar, Caleb Durbin did not sell out to, it was a whole lot of throw that Caleb Durbin would have had to leave his feet to stop as the cutoff guy or maybe dive to stop it as a cutoff guy. And he should have. And he didn't. He just kind of waved at it. Whitlock didn't back up. And somehow you would think it'd be geometrically impossible in that ballpark to have first and second and hit a hard single to left and have two run score on it. But you managed to pull it off between Roman Anthony's bad throw and your lack of. Fundamental baseball, which really gets highlighted when you play a team like a brewers, the brewers, which is like what all they do. Not very talented, but they do that thing. And so it's just sort of a star contrast when you play a team like that. That's how you lost because you couldn't throw the ball from left field and you don't know how to cut the baseball off. Yup. I mean, that is just, that's kind of gross. I mean, the basic stuff they don't do. How about Mark in Washington? Yes, Mark. Yeah, I think the key phrase in that clip you played where Maloney was saying that he's working with Huddy. That says it all. I mean, Kyle Hudson is their third base coach. And I mean, these mental mistakes, if it's mechanics or whatever, I have no faith that that guy is going to fix him. Why? Why? I don't know. I just don't see any improvement. I mean, the mental mistakes, the way he coaches third base, guys getting picked off at third. I mean, just last year we were talking about how that guy could just be taken off the field or moved to first base. So I mean, I was trying to refresh my memory. We have problems with Kyle Hudson last year. Yeah, there were some bad decisions at third base. Yeah. Yup. And he was, he's also the outfield instructor. He is. So I don't know enough about him as a coach. Me neither. But I would tell you that the way Anthony is throwing the ball right now, nobody would teach that. But this is, but I mean, so yeah, Kyle Hudson might suck. Like I can't tell you. I don't know. I know for eight years running, the Red Sox have led Major League Baseball in errors. They have brought up any number of outfielders here who can't play the position, whether it was Durand when he first got up here, when they didn't know how to track fly balls or he can't throw Roman Anthony, can't throw. When Roman Anthony got here, they immediately had him in the outfield doing drills on how to feel grounders in the outfield because he wasn't taught it in the minor leagues. Or a guy like Sidon Raffaello who now feels like he's backsliding defensive. And this is like, this has been going on for like eight, nine years now. Yes, it is. So I don't think Kyle Hudson's been here eight, nine years, unless he has been. No, looking against some. It's organizational. It is. Yeah. And some of some of its inherent. And when I say that, I mean, Sidon Raffaello's abilities as an outfielder are clear. He reads the ball off the bat. He's graceful. He can track it down. But you know what happens with him? He brain locks. He just does stupid things or gets too cool for school and doesn't chase a ball down after he misses it. Or so he brain locks. He makes stupid mistakes. And I was looking this up this morning out of curiosity because I wondered, Jaren Durand has made the second most errors in the outfield by any big league or in the last two years, 24, 25, and now the beginning of 26. So call it two plus. He's second on the list behind on how Pagan. Okay. You know who's third? Abril. Abril has got two gold gloves. Somehow people in baseball don't care about errors anymore. So Abril is pretty good, but that's how I would categorize it. He's pretty good. He's got a good arm. He can run balls down. Balls on the ground. He f's up constantly. It's got a little bit better at the end of last year, but he still makes mistakes that a gold glover should not make. So I don't know why people get so caught up in the modern metrics. But their outfield defense isn't as good as everyone thinks. It's pretty good, but it's not great. Meanwhile, someone's getting taken out tonight. We'll follow up on that story with your phone calls after Big Jermory gets you updated. 90 seconds, no commercials.