Felger & Mazz: Red Sox lied about going ‘full throttle’
On Wednesday’s Felger & Mazz program, the guys criticize the Red Sox for their lack of spending this offseason.
Red Sox Pitching Prospects Stink!
Parts of conversation abbreviated for clarity.
Felger: Red Sox payroll is down 30 percent, but attendance is only down eight [percent]. So why would they spend 90 more million dollars, inflation-adjusted? All they’re going to get out of that is a few more people in the stands if that. What’s the point? And so that sort of drives that point home.
Mazz: Yeah, they’re doing a wonderful job managing their roster on a lower payroll.
Felger: Real quick, Mazz, you’ve got a nugget with the Red Sox that I love.
Mazz: People keep talking about their farm system and the farm system rankings. I don’t think their farm system is as good as everyone thinks it is. And the primary reason is they have no pitching.
So, I actually asked the question on Twitter today. I threw a general question out there. In fact, I even put, “Question: Does anybody out there rank the minor league systems based only on pitching? And if so, where do the Red Sox rank?”
Question: does anybody out there rank the minor-league systems based only on pitching? And if so, where do the Red Sox rank?
— Tony Massarotti (@TonyMassarotti) January 17, 2024
Felger: So, they have the 10th rank system, but they are fifth in position players and whatever in pitching prospect.
Mazz: Right. In other words, you don’t have pitching. It really is a fake number. When you make a deal, what does everybody want?
Felger: Young pitching.
Mazz: Young pitching. Particularly if you want, as Craig Breslow has said, a veteran pitcher who has years of control. Well, if you’re going to do that, if you want to get Dylan Cease from the White Sox, you got to give up a good, young pitcher. They’d have to give up a young arm that could theoretically turn into Dylan Cease. That’s what happened with Chris Sale. The Sox gave up Michael Kopech. I did get some replies to the tweet, though.
Felger: Oh, so good.
Mazz: One of which came from Zach Scott, former general manager of the Mets, who was in the Red Sox organization under Theo Epstein. In fact, I was reading his Wiki bio, and he’s the guy credited for identifying Dave Roberts as a trade candidate back in 2004. So, Zach Scott replies, “I did some independent work on this and had the Sox ranked 29th in pitching and third for position players.”
Felger: I love it.
Mazz: Scott continues, “Overall, that worked out to be 13th combined compared to the MLB pipeline of Baseball America.”
I did some independent work on this and had the Sox 29th in pitching and 3rd for position players. Overall, that worked out to 13th compared to 16th for MLB Pipeline and 5th for Baseball America. #RedSox https://t.co/UOgnXvCWxr
— Zack Scott (@ZackScottSports) January 17, 2024
Murray: Their pitching sucks!
Mazz: The Sox are 29th in pitching. Murray, how many teams are in the major leagues?
Murray: Thirty.
Mazz: You know, I don’t even care who the other suck bag team is. 29th?! This is the problem. Your minor league system isn’t as good as you think it is. So good! Fine! Wait for Marcelo Mayer and Kyle Teel. You have nothing coming from the minor leagues and pitching zero. Zero!
Felger: There’s your Red Sox minute. Did you enjoy it?
Segment Audio
Ryan Beaton is a producer for 985thesportshub.com. You can follow Ryan at @ry_beaton on Twitter.
Listen to Felger and Mazz from 2-6 every Monday-Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with hosts Mike Felger, Tony “Mazz” Massarotti, and Jim Murray “Big Jim”. You can listen live in the Sports Hub App and subscribe to their podcasts here. Follow @FelgerAndMazz on Twitter to keep up with the show!