Mazz’s thoughts on the Red Sox pitching so far in 2024
The Boston Red Sox have a 17-13 record through 30 games and Felger is wondering why. On Wednesday’s Felger and Mazz, Mazz discusses the Red Sox pitching so far in 2024 and how that has played a role in the Sox good start.
Mazz’s thoughts on the Red Sox pitching
Felger: 17-13 Mazz!
Mazz: Six shutouts.
Felger: What’s going on? What’s happening?
Mazz: Six shutouts. They had five all last season. The entire season they had five. Now they have six. So look, there are a lot of angles to this team at the moment when you look at them. And it’s easy to dump on them for lots of reasons, including ownership, all of it. And so no one’s protected in terms of what’s going on over the last five years. However, and this is shooting fish in a barrel, but doesn’t the Chaim Bloom era look worse and worse every time you look at it?
Felger: Explain.
Mazz: So the whole point they brought Chaim Bloom here was to find cheap pitching, because it was out there and other teams were doing it and find a way to pitch cheaply and pitch effectively while you’re rebuilding, and you can go out and win games. That was the whole idea. It’s what Tampa is built on. The whole thing is built on that. How is it that all of a sudden the Chaim Bloom is gone, and now all of a sudden they’re the best pitching organization in the game? They ranked number one in the major leagues in E.R.A. Number one in starting pitching. Tanner Houck, overnight since Bloom left, has become an ace. One of the best pitchers in the game. Cutter Crawford’s excelling. Brayan Bello’s pitching well. There are some injuries.
Felger: I was just gonna say, aren’t there arms all falling off?
Mazz: And yet they still win. Cooper Criswell, of all people, went out there and beat the Giants last night. Two games in a row now that he has pitched well. So they are making chicken salad out of chicken crap. 100%. How come this didn’t happen when Bloom was here?