Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 135 | The Red Sox Received Their Punishment

Episode Date: April 24, 2020

MLB finally punished JT Watkins for his role in poisoning the Red Sox organization from the inside. Jomboy, Jake, and Plouffe provided their thoughts on the investigation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to talking baseball. The Red Sox have been punished. One of their employees has been banished. Let's talk. I missed it. Missed the beat. What? What's going on, everybody?

Happy Friday. Welcome to talking baseball. Mickey and the Duke. We have a ruling. We have a punishment. We have a statement on the Red Sox. Cheating, investigation, wild conclusion. Pretty boring.

Except one piece that's very exciting, but first, Trev, Jake, how are you guys doing? Rock and roll on the day. It's a big time punishment for the Red Sox. It's huge. It's game changer. Jake? Look good, feel good. Got my draft day visor on.

I'll peel back behind the scenes a little. You muted yourself. Just as you're about to peel back behind the scenes, we can't hear you anymore. What about now? Now you're good. I think that was a good, good call by you just to get everyone even more juiced up for your peel. Yeah, that's how you bait them in.

No, we just did an interview for Monday that we're very, very excited about a little different, a little off speed, if you will. But yeah, I'm excited. huge NFL draft fan. I think I already said that, but I'm geared up, man. Geared up. Okay.

Geared up. We got big news that broke yesterday. The Red Sox punishment, MLB, handed it down the day before draft day, which at first I was like, MLB is too dumb to plan that, but they definitely planned it. And we're like, yeah,

we'll just put it there and then get on with it. I'm trying to get the Rosenthal tweet up, so I can read it for anyone that's listening that isn't fully aware of what the punishments were because there is a really hilarious aspect to this. Okay, so here it is. They lose their second round pick in the 2020 draft and the replay operator J.T. Watkins is banned from baseball for all of the 2020 and he's banned from all of baseball in 2020

and he's banned from being the replay operator in 2021, but he can still be part of the team in 2021. He just can't do the same job he was doing before. He just can do a different job. So they can just make up like a bullshit title, like quality control coach, and he can do the same thing, but have a different title. And they said Alex Cora is banned for all of this season

and the 2020 playoffs, But that is for his participation with the Astros and has nothing to do with the Red Sox. So in conclusion, they lose a 2020 pick and they ruined a guy's life when they didn't have to ruin his life. And that's it. Yeah, you know, his public life. I'm all over the place on this because one, I don't think they really did anything to deserve a punishment. Like I get that they were warned once with the Apple Watch. scandal. I don't even know what to call it. So like MLB, I guess, had to lay down some form of

punishment. But I will tell you this right now, you're going to use video to decode sequences from second base. Everyone does it. Yeah. Everyone does it. And it's not illegal to do it. Now, they're saying, yeah, it was during the games and he was doing it and giving it to players, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if I wanted to go on my own, and use the video that's on my iPad and look at the catcher signs from second base, you could do it. And everybody does it. Yes. So it's just a weird thing for me. And we're talking about J.T. Watkins here. Who was a former player? Okay. He's got a job. He does his job. I'm telling you this. The guy didn't do anything that he wasn't told to do or didn't do anything

like that was so egregious that he deserves to be banned for a year. He didn't do anything like that. It's just part of the game. You're in there. You're trying to help the team out. What I read was a lot of times he was just referencing the scouting report and say this is what they're using at second base. Yeah. Okay. So the report, I'll dive into it.

The report says, but first I want to pat ourselves on the back. Because when they said the Red Sox got in trouble for doing the same thing and using the replay room immediately, the three of us jumped on, did an impromptu episode. where Trev and I, and we all said, every team does this. This is completely different than what the Astros does. This is nothing. And basically, M.O.B confirmed that. Like this more exonerates the Red Sox than punishes them in any way.

Absolutely. Absolutely. What the statement said was that this dude, the replay operator, would build scouting reports like you're saying, Trev. And we said this way back in the day, anyone with a laptop who has YouTube can study the sequences of a catcher at home on their couch and you can build a report that you can go into the next game and do.

So that's kind of what he did. But what they're saying he did wrong was, say they're in the fourth inning and he's sitting in the replay room and he's like, oh shit, that scouting report isn't correct anymore. They switched. He would go tell them, guys, they switched. They're doing this now.

And that's illegal. because you're using it in game. The report also says it was only effective when there was a runner on second base and that's a huge game changer from what the Astros did where it was every single pitch, every single at bat. So the report says there's a huge difference.

There's my initial response was like, MLB realized they were in the weeds here and that they opened this investigation and now they did find wrongdoing, quote, unquote, but really kind of like decriminalized. wrongdoing because every team does it forever and they gave them like an easy punishment. I do not understand why they had to throw J.T. Watkins under the bus. If they didn't punish J.T. Watkins, there would be 0.0.0 people saying,

how come that replay guy didn't get punished? Like there would be no one. There was no need at all to throw that dude under the bus. But they did. So it's funny. Enough for him. Let's get a couple things out of the way. Let's not even bring up the Astros anymore. Because I mean, like we said, this isn't in the same realm.

This, these are in different worlds. I will say, I mean, I do think the Red Sox did something wrong. You're not supposed to do the live in game. And they did it, especially after the commissioner specifically told them and a couple other teams do not do this. So they had to get punished and they got punished. And part of it, which I thought was interesting from Rob Manfred slash also partially laughable, was they said that this year's draft pick was they only did the second round

pick because they factored in that it may only be a five round draft. So that was supposed to be in theory more than just a second round pick. But again, that's starting just to get into the weirds of this year. and yeah, I don't know. I understand what you guys are saying that it happens around the league, but no other team has been punished or caught for it, which leads me into my final thing about J.T. Watkins

or whoever got through under the bus here, is that we now do live in this comical world where the team I just said I won't bring up again. Think about the questionnaires that went out in these interviews. It was, it's what can we find out? and what they found out was that J.T. Watkins was telling the guys that the sequence changed. So J.T. Watkins got his harshest penalty, and I'm sure the players had no involvement. It's such a ridiculous thing. It's such a ridiculous thing because, look, these guys,

they work their ass off. The replay guys, they're putting together all the video for you. They're in these little dungeons. There's no light coming in. It's bad for their health probably, and they're sitting there on a computer all. day long and all they want to do is help. It's all they want to do. They want to make you a better baseball player and in turn help the team. That's what this guy was doing. It's ridiculous. And I would be remiss if I, if the Red Sox aren't taking care of this guy on the side, they should be taking care of this guy on the side. Like this guy, his severance package better be big. If it's not big, they need to step up and make sure that he's taking care of this year because he's taking the

fall. I don't even think that the Red Sox were like, yeah, it was him. Like the Red Sox players or any, I think it was more commissioner was like, I need someone to punish, give me a name. Like in Band of Brothers, when they're like, hey, two people need to do this mission. I don't care who. Like in Band of Brothers or the team was like three people from your company need to be reprimanded.

And the sergeant's like, what for? And he's like, three people need to be reprimanded. Give me three names. Exactly. I think that's how what this went down. I don't think the. So do you think they were like, hey, J.T. like kind of need a guy here.

We need a guy. Here's what we're going to do for you. I don't think that all the reports came in and they're like, it was the replay guy that did it. Hey, that vacation that even wanted to go on. It's all expenses paid and we're going to set you up on a suite and we're going to fly you around the world for this, this vacation you wanted to do. Yeah, yeah.

That's what they need to be doing with this guy because there's no doubt that like you're saying. It was just like, we need a name. Give us this guy and we'll call it a day and they can dump this right before the draft, that'll be perfect. Yeah, I don't think they, like, ratted on him. I think it was more they handed him over. Yeah, JT was probably like, I'll take it.

Just can you guys hook me up? I'll take the year off. Yeah, he can give my job back, right? He can come back next year with a different job. It's really no punchment. That's the case. That's what this guy is, like, he's like, he's blackballed from the game. I know, but if he gets blackballed and, like, doesn't get to work in baseball again

because of this, it's an absolute joke. Yeah, I would be fucked up. He won't. He's the quote unquote fall guy for this, which, again, That was my biggest thing when this news came out is that because they didn't add anything to Cora, is that we still don't have anyone to blame for the Houston thing. We got three guys that got one-year suspensions. And that was my one goal.

Jim, you could dig up the tapes. One of the listeners want to get sick during your quarantine. Dig up the tapes. That was my first thing I said when I wanted Astros punishment is give me the guy. Give me Luneau. Give me Hinch. Give me Cora. Who was running this?

and here I am, you know, 420 part three, so 423. And I don't know who to blame for the Astros thing, which that, that, well, you know who to blame everyone. There's a lot of people that got off Scott Free. Well, you know, see, there's other people that you forgot about Carlos Belchran. He also got in trouble for it. He lost the managerial job before he even managed a game, which is incredible. You're also muted again, Jake.

You're doing it today. Just making the listeners really antsy. I think my microphone's starting to break over here. I might need a new one. But I'm just saying, think about all the statements that came out after and Hinge saying, you know, it was players run. And then that thing from the Astros say it was all Cora. Like we just, everyone that you're mentioning pointed a finger somewhere else.

And everyone got the same punishment except those players. have to live with that damn ring on their finger. Such hell. So, yeah. You're kind of getting upset now that you're talking and more and more about this Astros thing. That's my biggest thing. This Red Sox thing never really mattered.

I think we all kind of agree on that. Except, you know, there's a couple of runners in scoring position numbers that are interesting. But I'm just mad that there's still no clarity from the Houston thing. I want to say this too. Someone should have been blackballed. I want to say this. This says Alex Cora had no knowledge of this.

That's BS. Okay, like, of course he knew this was going on. He didn't care because it's not that big of a deal, but to say that he had no knowledge of it is just a flat-out lie. So what? Dude, this whole thing reeks of Manfred being like, I fucked up the Astros thing. I opened up another investigation when I shouldn't have

because I'm just going to fuck this one up. Let's just get rid of this immediately and just dumped it before the draft. and gave no punishments and was like, I'm done with it. Because if he wanted to punish people, there would be a lot of things he could do. He doesn't want to. He just wants to get,

the whole thing. The whole thing's players and the Astros organization spit in his face. Like he did them the biggest favor. And then they just made him look like a dummy. And he was like, well, shit, I was helping you guys out. Now you have me looking like an idiot. He's like, I'm not going to do this again. They pushed the Red Sox investigation for three months,

hope people forget about it and then slowly leak it before the thing. The whole thing's been ineptitude. It seems like a decade ago that Carlos Correa got on MLB network with Ken Rosenthal and told Cody Bellinger to shut the fuck up. Like, do you remember that? We were so excited for this season because shit was going down and then all of a sudden 10 years later, here we are. Yeah.

And it's nothing's going to happen. not one damn thing to those guys. Nope. And it's funny that like, why didn't the replay dude for Boston get banned and punished? You know, for Houston?

For Houston. Yeah. We, the commissioner knows about Codebreaker and the crew from Houston that was doing the same thing they're saying J.T. Watkins did, but they didn't get.

punished. So like, any way you try to add all of this up, it doesn't. It's just the biggest complete mishmosh dumbness or whatever. The J, well, I, I, I, I sorry, I'm my apologies for laughing at his expense. But the fact that they just threw his name out there to the wolves is hilarious. Like that was my first instance. I just laughed. Like, yeah, we caught the guy. We got him. We got, we got, we got bin Laden. We got the infamous fog all. I really, really think that he's probably laughing like this is funny like my name is in the news they just took care of me this year i'm probably making triple what i was making doing replay and i have the year off i really hope that's the case i hope he's not he doesn't deserve to like go through a year of misery

and no pay i hope he's not even the main video guy i hope like every organization kind of has someone that's like just around and i i hope he was the around guy and they're like they looked around and jt was like yeah absolutely I really hope that's the case, man. He doesn't deserve this. J.T. Watkins won them the 2018 ring. I think we're all real. Do you know the pressure that those guys are under,

like when a player comes in and is like, show me this or tell me what happened? Like they do it because it's like they want to help the team. That's their job. So like for him to just like get thrown on the bus is like I said, it just it has to be, it has to be that they're like JT, we got to give him somebody, take your year off, bud.

Yeah, I don't believe that the commissioner was investigating and like interviewing J.D. Martinez or Ben and Tendi and those players were like, well, it was J.T. you know? Well, no, but it was, it was laid on to them. It was did J.T. Watkins

give you information between innings. And they were like, yep. And they were like, yeah, yeah. Could you use the information? No. Yeah, yeah. Oh, we can't prove it. That sounds.

Yeah. That sounds probably like how it went down. Those fuckers. Then don't let players in the fucking replay room anymore, dude. Like, they can't be allowed in. If that's what's going to go on, we're going to get re-tape people in trouble now. Don't let players back.

It's a very MLB created this mess. They put fucking iPads in the dugout for God's. They gave the replay live feeds of every camera angle. Several live, yeah, say several live feeds of all different camera angles and didn't think teams would use them to their. advantage and then found out teams were using them to her advantage didn't do a thing about it for two full seasons then it finally gets public now they're forced to do something about it and it's they're doing it's so stupid just take it away why do the why does it have to be anywhere near the clubhouse

the replay rooms can go up in the press conference section by the tv stations the chords can be a lot shorter and they can just chill in there. And then players can't go up and down. They just called a bullpen phone and be like, yo, challenge that one. Like there's so many ways to avoid all of this and MLB just was dumb. Honestly, it might benefit players to have it away because when you have a replay room and video so available to you, like you're going to find yourself going in after every abat and looking at pitches and I don't think it's good for you.

Like some guys like, yeah, like I like I like it because I get the same. see where that pitch was and what did it look like. But like you're going to find yourself leaving the dugout, leaving the game. Now you're not paying attention to the subtleties of the game. Like, and this has happened for me and I did a couple different teams. Like managers have said, guys, let's stop going back. Let's stay in the dugout for the game because everyone goes back and looks to their videos. I think it might even be detrimental to some players nights or it could hurt a team that

night because so many guys are going to go look at this shit they need just i think it'd be better for them to just no players allowed don't look at the video wait till after the freaking game to go see that like stay in stay in the game get your head in the game i mean i might sound like an old like old man yelling at clouds now with this but like i really i mean i've had coaches have meetings about that saying like we need to stop going back and looking at every single of bat because i used to do that every single damn at that because why wouldn't you yeah it's all that for you. I mean, there can be good from it. But Trev, how many replay guys for teams? There's 29 other teams out there. Like, when they saw that J.T. Watkins got in trouble, like, how many other

re, because I'd made that joke in my video, how many other replay guys were like, oh, shit, I do that. That's, that's definitely part of this as well. Maybe that's a reason they were like, hey, we got to get the replay guy because. Yeah, like I said, they're just, they said a president. These guys want to help the team. And if a player comes back and says, hey, like, did they change their sequence up? Because that, that scattering report said it was first sign after the two. And then I went, I was on second base and didn't look like that. Like, what is it? Like, they're going to want to help the guys.

So, you know, don't put them in that position. And now I think these guys have, they can say, like, look, dude, obviously I can't give that information to you. But here, but here's the fucking computer. Go ahead and look at the video from last inning. You can still get it if you want. Just do it yourself. Yeah. You can sit at home and do it.

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We're having a wonky day so far. It's the post-quarantine world. You know, you can go outside. You can interact with people. It's a relative's birthday. It's an older relative. Maybe you're lucky enough to have a grandparent. It's an older aunt or uncle.

It's their 80th birthday. Picture that person. Now open your eyes and know that the second most powerful person in baseball, Joe Tori, is 80 years old. And he's probably, as Jimmy said, the MLB got themselves into this mess. I mean, they just don't have their eyes. open to a lot of this stuff. And I'm sorry. Like, I love Joe Torrey, like, one of the more respected people in my life. But if he's making votes on, like, all the stuff we just talked about,

oh, yeah, why should we have a replay room? Where should we have it? Oh, the kids are using iPads to hit. Like, I just think that's how you end up in these situations. And it's, I mean, the leadership regime right now in baseball, I mean, just needs a look in. the mirror. It's not a good look right now. Do you think Joe Torrey actually makes decisions? I think he's the second most powerful man in baseball. Do you really? Yes. Trev, do you think Joe Tori actually makes decisions?

I mean, he makes decisions. I don't know about the second most powerful man in baseball. I would say that's probably like Jerry Ryan's door for another one of the owners. Yeah, like whoever the head head owner is, which I think might be Reinsdorf. I don't know. I think Joe, I think Joe Tori passes along opinions and the owners are like, cool, man. Keep being a figurehead and sell your bigel O.T. I don't think Joe Tori has any say in anything. Is Rob Manfred the most powerful man in baseball? I don't think so.

No. It's all the owners. He stumbled into a fun convoy. All the owners. All the owners aren't one person. Give me. That's what I'm saying. I think there's like a head owner who kind of runs.

All the owners are in charge. Like some owners are in charge of like the investors. investing, MLB investment part. Some are in charge of the media. Like each owner, there's like a handful of owners that have titles of the business of MLB. So I don't know who those guys are. I know who a couple of them are, but I don't think I'm allowed to share. But it's those, that group, the group that are in charge of areas of MLB.

That's what I say. I don't know. I mean, that's the most power. This whole thing is just a puppet for the owners. I mean, you don't really have any power. just a scapegoat and all that but I think Tori How much does he get paid?

Is he like, he's not like Goodell like making 40 million a year, right? I don't know. BPD? Look it up. Rob Manfred's salary. If he is, don't tell me he's like Goodell, please don't tell me he's like Godell.

I mean, it's got to be a big number prior to leaving his post, C-Lig was reportedly making $22 million a year. Manfred's, estimated salaries 11 that's from an article Chicago Tribune February this year I mean it's got to be 11 million with a crazy amount of kickers with revenue and stuff like that right it's too much whatever it is yeah it's too much too much when when's this contract up I don't know I'm just asking questions that up the other day or no that was Tony Clark right yeah we looked up 20

Clark. Well, do contracts get up for commissioners? Like, wasn't Bud Seleague commissioner until he didn't want to be anymore? I don't think so. For 2024. 2024? Yeah. He's given a five-year extension.

Whatever five years before that is the way that just happened. What good moves has Rob, as Manfred made? The wild card was extra wild card. That was him, right? They finally put up netting for. for every field. I mean, I don't know if that was him.

Well, they got back. They, they fucking, they got backed into that one because so many people got hurt. Money. Yeah, the league's making money.

That's all they go. Big TV deal. He got the extension. After 2018. Good job. It was good for him. At that point, he knew about all the cheating.

So he was probably like, yeah, lock me up. Lock me up, baby. Shit's about to go down sooner or later. So just lock me up. and hopefully that people don't find out about this.

I mean, he had all of the fucking reports on his desk. He knew they were cheating. What's weird is he's just the commissioner of Major League Baseball. I am the commissioner of all baseball and I don't even make that much. Yeah, when are we getting Commissioner Plouf shirts? People were asking for him. We really need them. I think that there's a few things I need to take care before we, before we get that.

I'm a man of the people. I need to get the work done before I sit and take my treasures. I don't need a shirt right now. I have work to do. Hey, things are going to start falling on your head, Trev. You better be prepared. I'm ready for it. I'll answer questions truthfully.

You're just a puppet for the owners of global baseball. Nobody owns me. That's the best part of it. I am empowered over all leagues. Mexican League, I got power. Venezuela and Winter League, I got power. What about the Russian League? Only one I haven't.

I haven't been able to infiltrate that yet. It's tough. Yeah. Yeah. How about ESPN asking to broadcast this Taiwanese baseball league for free? KBO. We talked about that on- Oh, it was a KBO.

We talked about that on John Boy Jake Radio. And, you know, I stepped in real quick and it's like, excuse me, absolutely not ESPN. I mean, I hope that's not true.

Like, I cannot believe ESPN. That's 100% true. Yeah. It's just so bad. Like, I know I believe it's true. I just don't want to.

Like, it's fucking so stupid and such a bad look by ESPN. The Ys PIN is on its last foot. Yeah, that's true. The only thing they have going for them is like their own by Disney or whoever the fuck owns him. Yeah, yeah. Stadium's coming for him to. All right.

Now close your eyes and picture a 90-year-old man. Okay. On there. That's the exercise. Just all ages. Yeah. Done. All right.

Well, there you go. There you have. A nice quick little Friday episode on the Red Sox News. It's all a joke. Everything's kind of been a joke regarding these two investigations. Just ridiculous. Can't wait until more comes out later on.

BD, closing thoughts. I'm just glad we got Watkins, that bastard. Thank you. Thank you, David. I miss the Carlos Correa WWE promo. I'm... We should have done.

Do you think this encourages cheating going forward. Yeah. What's going to happen? What do you want to do? Does this encourage cheating going forward? Ep's still going? Kind of, kind of juicy. I know Commissioner Ploos got something.

I just think the teams are going to be like, like, what? Like, we can't use, like, we have a million cameras. We're going to use it. Like, as long as we're not giving live signs and banging a trash can to give our hitters in advantage every single pitch, like these things that We're just going to continue to do them. If they keep the replay room within walking distance of the dugout, yes,

they have just encouraged the cheating. Like 1,000% they have just encouraged teams second round pick. Because once there's a precedent sent, once there's a precedent sent of the punishment, you know, Manfred in his report didn't say like any future, any future, if this happens again,

the punishment would be tempted. Did he even say that in the report? I don't think I saw it. So yeah, if they allowed the replays to be within walking distance of the players, then yes, they just promoted this. And the only reason the Red So the Red Sox didn't have a prior offense. So if the Red Sox didn't have a prior offense. Yeah, now that this happens.

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Would you? Would you? It's not even that big an advantage. That's the thing, you guys.

Like, you still got to get on second base. Then you got to relay these signs. Like I've told you guys before, not everyone wants that because people fuck it up all the time. But the way the Astros did is a huge advantage. That, well, I think Cora drove it home to the players that this will work because he's been working in that field. Is he a bad guy? I mean, would you get a one-year suspension for a ring? Because that's what Houston's done.

And the answer is yes. And would you boost your chances to get a hit for the video guy to get suspended for him? a year? Yeah. Oh, shit. Yeah. All right. Finish the outro.