The Boston Red Sox open up a weekend series tonight in Cincinnati vs. the Reds. Will Jarren Duran, David Hamilton, and Ceddanne Rafaela continue to light it up on the basepaths? Will Tyler O'Neill go deep in at least one of the games Join Gabby as she sits down with Locked On Reds hosts Jeff Carr and Steven Offenbaker to preview everything to expect in this series.
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(upbeat music) - It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. - Take your business further with a smart and flexible American Express Business Gold Card. It offers flexible spending capacity that adapts to your business. You can also earn up to $395 in annual statement credits on eligible purchases at Select Business Merchants. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com/businessgoldcard. - The long-awaited rematch of the 1975 World, I'm just kidding. It's been a while since that's happened, but a really good series is happening this weekend between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox, and we are here to preview it all. On this Lockdown Reds, Lockdown Red Sox crossover. Thank you so much for joining us here on this episode. We are, as always, Lockdown Reds and Lockdown Red Sox are part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every single day you have with me. I'm Jeff Carr alongside Steve Offenbaker and Gabby Hurlbert from Lockdown Red Sox as we are getting ready to get you ready for what's gonna happen in this three-game series, lots of great pitching match-ups, some players that are hot, some players that are not, and maybe they could get back to being hot, who knows. We're also, later on, going to sort of focus in on a couple of prop bets, you could take the fan duel and maybe make a couple of bucks on, but we are going to start first, of course, with what these two teams are doing, because both teams have kind of had the sort of season that you see signs of positivity, you see signs of contention, and you see signs that maybe not everything is right with the ship, that's where we will start on today's episode of Lockdown Reds and Lockdown Red Sox that is brought to you by Tax Network USA. Did you know that it's never too late to resolve your tax issues with the IRS? Don't wait, reduce your tax debt and get help with a team of licensed tax professionals, call 1-800-549-1000 or visit tnusa.com/lockdown. And where we wanna begin today, so the Reds, sort of flirt with 500. The Red Sox are right there around 500. What gives with both of these teams, because it seems like Abby coming into the season, the Red Sox were still, at least Red Sox fans, we're still trying to figure out exactly what this team was going to be. And here we are, first day of summer, and we still don't really know. - Yeah, I mean, it's funny you say, first day of summer, given that it's 95 degrees outside right now. So that's a pretty appropriate way to ring in the summer and just a lot of baseball coming up here. But yeah, it's interesting for the Red Sox, because they had a relatively underwhelming offseason compared to remarks that were made by the Red Sox for an office prior to the offseason beginning about them making a lot of moves potentially. And they didn't really do a whole lot of that. So going into the season, there were a lot of people who were skeptical and thought the Red Sox were a last place team, were going to finish well under 500. Last year, they won 78 games. People said this year could be very similar. And they started off the season very well in the first couple of weeks. And then they started to get injury after injury after injury that piled on. There was a point in the season about a month ago where they had 16 players on the injured list. All at the same time, and it's just been a constant revolving door of somebody gets injured, and then they start getting healthy and somebody else gets injured. And it's just been a constant cycle of that. But where they're at right now, considering all of those factors, is a pretty pleasant surprise. I think Alex Torres done a great job of managing what he has on this roster this year. And the Red Sox currently are sitting five games above 500, which at this point is something that I don't think a lot of people would be able to say they could guess what happened early on. So it's kind of cool that we've seen them at least surpass expectations a little bit to this point. - Yeah, the injury thing and all that stuff sounds really familiar Steve. The five games over 500 does not sound familiar, but the injury thing does. - You know, the injuries have really been the great derailleur for the Cincinnati Reds. We look at it right now, we cannot keep TJ Friedle in this lineup. Out still with this hamstring, we haven't heard an update whether or not he's gonna be able to play in this series. I hope that he is, because it's an entirely different lineup for the Reds when TJ Friedles in it. And there's a big opportunity here against the Red Sox. They're throwing back-to-back right-handers today and tomorrow. That gives the Reds the opportunity to put their best version of themselves on the field right now, which is all the left-handed bats and Ellie and Candelario hitting from the left side. So that gives the Reds an opportunity to score runs. That being said, we don't know what we're gonna get with these injuries. And I look at this Red Sox pitching staff, Jeff. And, you know, I'm excited, the fact that they're throwing back-to-back righties, but then I go and look at those righties and I'm a little less excited about the guys that we got to face in this series. Boston's starting pitching has been tremendous. Injuries are no injuries. - Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's one of those situations where going into the season, the starting pitching was one of the biggest question marks for the Red Sox. They had a serious problem in the rotation last year of guys not being able to pitch deep into games, not being able to be consistent. And going into the season, there was no true ace on this pitching staff. And we were unsure who we could rely on the most out of all of these starting pitchers. Tanner Hauck has had an unbelievable season, certainly in the American League side. Young conversation for sure. He's been the Red Sox best, most consistent starter this year. He's been able to expand his pitch arsenal a lot, which has helped him a lot to be successful this year. And bringing in Andrew Bailey to work with the Red Sox pitching staff was one of the biggest moves they made this offseason that I think was not as talked about by fans because it's not a player move. But from a personnel standpoint, that's a major win because he's coming from the San Francisco Giants. He has a history of developing pitchers into really talented arms. And him coming into Boston, he has done wonders for this pitching staff, primarily the starting rotation in terms of altering the pitch selection and the types of throws that these guys are utilizing as opposed to just relying heavily on their foreseen fastballs. They're mixing in a lot more off speed pitches. And it's really helping them as an overall starting unit to be successful. And I think we're gonna continue to see a lot of that. I think we can expect longer outings from these guys. And they do sometimes get a lot of traffic on the bases to make it a little bit more stressful for us, but they manage to get out of these innings cleanly and they're pitching a lot of quality starts. - Gabby, quick question for you. I know we're getting Crawford today and we're getting Pavetta on Saturday. You guys are still TBD on Sunday. Do you happen to know what's gonna become an ad-ass on Sunday? - Yeah, you know, they have had kind of a mix of guys who have been thrown into that last starting rotation spot primarily because Garrett Whitlock got injured early on. In the season, they weren't sure who was gonna be in that position. And then they started Cooper Criswell and his place who was called up from AAA and has been very good, surprisingly very good for the Red Sox rotation, but they just sent him back down to AAA when Chris Martin came back from his injury. Normally, it is Tanner Hauck that throws after Pavetta. So presumably that would be a Tanner Hauck day. However, they might look to move him because sometimes they do move his starts around depending on the opponents, but the most likely scenario would be that you have to see Hauck in the last game of that series. And he is the Red Sox throwing his starter right now. - You're full of great news today, Gabby. - Just great news. - One, so 'cause the Reds, I think, are TBD as well. I wonder if they're waiting to see because I can't remember, has it been 10 days since Graham Ashcraft has been down by Sunday? - I think we're right about there. I think he's made two minor league starts. So that would be-- - I know he made his start on Thursday night. So that's gonna be interesting. That would be too soon though, I think, to have him start. So I think it's gonna be Carson Spires, but I wonder if they're toying around with that. That's gonna be interesting. But the pitching is going to be the thing for me because the Reds are throwing an Andrew Rabbit and Frankie Mantas in games one and two. And kind of like you said, almost you could just change what you said and say the Reds, like the Reds have really found their aces in Nick Lidolo and Hunter Green, where we had expected them to be that last year. Nick Lidolo dealt with entries, Hunter Green, not as effective as we hoped. So coming into this year, we sort of had an open book on that topic, and then those two guys took back over again. So we kind of feel that. The either one's pitching in this series. Abbott has looked pretty decent so far this year. He's the last couple of starts. He hasn't had his best stuff. And Frankie Mantas is a box of chocolates. Like one game he's gonna throw no hitter, and the next game he's gonna pitch two innings, and both innings he's gonna throw like 40 pitches, and he's gonna give up a bunch of runs. So we're not really sure what to expect from Saturday's game, especially with Nick Pavetta on the mound. So Sunday's game could be very interesting. I wonder if they're leaving it open in case it is a kind of rubber match, and maybe they do throw Carson Spires, or if it's a foregone conclusion, maybe they throw a bullpen game. It's still weird that that's TBD to this point. - I think they are waiting to see what Boston does. And you talk about the starting pitching, Jeff. I like how the Reds rotation tends to, the guys tend to feed off of each other. And there's a really interesting streak going on right now that I would love to see both Abbott and Montes continue. And that is in Ladolo's start, and in Hunter Green's start, neither of them walked a batter. So consecutive seven innings starts with no walks for the starting pitching. I would like to see that trend continue, because we say around here walks will haunt, and that is a big difference when you can keep the free passes to a minimum. So the fact that we've got this streak going, I would like to see the starting pitchers be able to continue it. Probably not realistic that both guys are going to be able to do that. But Abbott has struggled a little bit here recently. And I would like to see a really strong get right start from him where he comes out and looks like good Andrew Abbott versus laboring, powering through it Andrew Abbott. I would like to see that out of Andrew Abbott. And then I think you're right Montes, box of chocolates, that's pretty much, you never know what you're going to get from him. And man, but when he's on, he is on. When I did a crossover with Ethan, Jeff, you're out for yesterday's episode, but Ethan and I did a crossover after that Pittsburgh series. And I was telling him that you look at this series with Boston, and this is a real opportunity, I think for the Reds to get right. You don't have to split very hard to see them taking two of three. If Fritill's healthy, if the lineup is on, I like our odds on Friday and Saturday. Now that I'm hearing what's probably coming our way on Sunday, Sunday doesn't sound as great to me, but I really feel like the Reds can use this series as an opportunity to get right before facing the Pirates again next week. - Yeah, and I think that there are some guys that stand to break out. And a couple of guys that I'm worried about on the Red Sox lineup, but there is one guy in particular. And I'm just going to stand on the table and I'm going to keep saying that this dude's going breakout, and we're going to talk about him coming up next. You know that confidence boost that you get from having a great outfit on? I know that all the time. And it's not necessarily because I've got the most style, which I mean, I do, sorry, Steve, I win there, but it's because Stitch Fix helped me out. Stitch Fix is the website for you when you're looking to upgrade your wardrobe, because quite frankly, until I heard a Stitch Fix, all my style was based on my team. That was what I wore and a little bit of geeky stuff as well. But Stitch Fix is going to help you look nice, but also be comfortable at the same time. You got to check out Stitch Fix today by going to stitchfix.com/mlb and you'll get $20 off. Again, that's stitchfix.com/mlb to get $20 off that my stylus always sends the right pieces for me, and they can help you upgrade your wardrobe too. Go to stitchfix.com/mlb, you'll get $20 off and you're gonna have that style that makes you feel as good as you look. Stitchfix.com/mlb must redeem within seven days of signup. You know we love talking stats here at Locked On Rockies. Here's one that's super simple to remember. Discover automatically doubles the cashback you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cashback match. That means with Discover, you could turn $150 cashback to $300. That's right, you could put it towards some memorabilia you've had your eye on or treat yourself to a premium sports network. You earn and discover doubles. See terms at discover.com/creditcard. You've got to check out. - I don't believe for one minute that you send your style choices to a stylus. Hannah Carr might send your styling choices to your stylus, but you do not. - No comment. You should check out Locked On Sports Today 24/7. It's a 24/7 streaming feed that brings you the biggest stories in sports with opinions, takes, and analysis from the local hosts like Steve, myself, and Gabby, to our national shows that cover every league. It's Locked On Sports Today. You can find it on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team, every single day. And for our every dayers out there, shout out for joining us here on this crossover of Locked On Reds and Locked On Red Sox. Make sure you check out the next episode of each of our podcasts as we'll be recapping this series and the big things that happened over the weekend. And yes, Steve, while my style is not necessarily very questionable because quite frankly, it's either Reds or it's Marvel or it's Star Wars. That's what it is. But when it comes to this series, I'll tell you what I'm not questioning. And I've said it a bunch of times already this season and he continues to show me that it's coming. Tyler Stevenson's go, go crazy this weekend. I really feel it. And I don't know why he got the off day in the series deciding game against the Pirates. But David Bell decided that he should sit on the bench and eat hot dogs and not do anything. So that's what he did. And well, maybe he did, I don't know. But that's because he's about to go off this weekend. He's coming back home. He's been hitting the ball hard. He's been hitting the line drives hard. And I really feel like we are going to see that kind of a series where it's multiple hits in multiple games and maybe multiple RBIs in multiple games because I really feel like he's had that profile of a guy that's just gotten so unlucky. But he's hitting so well. It's just finding gloves. And I think that that is about to change. And I know we've said that. I know every day there's a probably tired of hearing me saying that Tyler Stevenson is gonna break out more, but he's only scratched the surface with what he's done. He's going to get better. He's going to get better. The problem with Tyler is David Bell won't get out of his way. David Bell just needs to put him in the lineup and get out of his way. And that will allow Tyler Stevenson to take off. And I agree with you. He just continues to show signs. And every time he gets in a groove, Bell sits him down and then we kind of start the whole process over. But I agree with you, if he can get into these games, he's going to have himself a good series. But you know who's going to have a great series? You know who is going to electrify Great American ballpark against these Boston Red Sox? It's one and only Ellie Dayla Cruz. In the last 15 games, his slash line is 250, 350, four, five, 18. Narrow it down to his last week of play, 280, 400, 600. He's batting left-handed almost the entire series. He's going to put a ball out of right field. He's going to hit one into the river. It's coming. Ellie is going to have a breakout and it's going to write the ship around here. And we're going to close the gap on the wildcards. I think Ellie is ready to go on a massive, massive heater. - And Gabby, let me see if I can read your mind. Is it Sedane Raphael? - That is one of the options for sure. How did you know that? - He's been hot. He's been really hot. - How did you know that I was going to say that? - Yeah, I mean, he's been fantastic. Early on in the season, he struggled a lot with his plate discipline, tons of swings and misses and not exactly being willing to be patient at the plate. And that's something that the Red Sox have seriously emphasized wanting to work on with him as the season has gone on. And some sort of late switch went off in his head recently. And he's been lighting it up at the plate. Multiple, multiple games where he recently has gotten three hits, went three for four on Wednesday night, had two games where he had three hits against the Yankees last week. And then the Red Sox also placed the Phillies last week. And he was lighting it up in that series too. I mean, those are the two best teams in baseball that the Red Sox faced last week. And Rafaela just had those two teams nailed down to a tee. He looks so much more confident at the plate now. And he's finding ways to utilize all parts of the ballpark, which I really like. He's willing to take his walks more now, even though that's still something I'd like to see a little bit more of from him is just more of that patience. But he's been on fire as of late. So he's somebody I expect to continue that as the series goes on because he's just such a versatile player and a good player for the Red Sox to have around. He can play in the infield and in the outfield. He's an incredible defender. And now he's starting to figure things out at the plate too. So he's been one of the most fun players on this Boston Red Sox team to watch. And somebody else who's also having a breakout as of the last month or so is David Hamilton, who first of all has the speed of an absolute lightning bolt, can steal tons of bases. So I always say on my show that it's an opposing pitcher's worst nightmare when he gets on base because he is a massive threat to steal every time. And Alex Quora has been fantastic about utilizing the speed on this roster to put pressure on opposing pitchers. And Hamilton is one of those players who will lead the way with that against the Yankees on Sunday night. The Red Sox actually broke a franchise record for nine stolen bases in a game. And Hamilton was leading the way with that. Jarren Duran is another speedster on the roster as well that you could look to utilize that speed on the base paths. And that's how the Red Sox are winning lots of games this year is by that speed. And as of late being able to utilize these guys who can turn singles into doubles more often than not and can put themselves into scoring position. Jarren Duran hits at the top of the lineup is a great lead-off hitter. And I expect big things from him in the series as well. So those three primarily who know how to play small ball, know how to find ways to get around those base paths very quickly is something to look out for when it comes to rattling those red spichers. Jeff, if you look at Hamilton's numbers, he has 20 steals on the season. And he's been caught one time. Yeah, never, never gets caught. He gets great jumps on it. And there's a lot of times where the catcher doesn't even try to make a throw down because he's just already there by the time they even realize that he's stealing the base because he's that fast. So these catchers, I felt badly for some of these catchers lately who have had to see him try to steal a base because they don't even have enough time to react and he's already there. Something about guys named Hamilton. I don't know what it is. But yeah, that's going to be the interesting, the converse point to Tyler Stevenson is that his bat has looked good. And honestly, fieldy and wise, like blocking pitches, framing and stuff like that. He's been a lot better this season. Controlling the running game has been his kryptonite. And if he's going to be having a lot of pressure on him with guys on base like that, that's going to be interesting to see, especially against Montas who Montas has shown a propensity that when he's bad and you'll know it quickly because he is a very quick worker, but it's like the first inning you will know which Frankie Montas you're going to get because if he is nibbling and if he's missing, then it's going to be a long day. And he's going to be walking guys. And if he's going to be issuing free passes to guys like Hamilton and Duran, it's going to be a long day for Tyler Stevenson as well. Yeah, I love the Ellie pick. The other guy that I'm thinking, and this is more so a gut feeling. And maybe I'm just trying to speak it into existence, but I got a feeling that Will Benson's going to break out a little bit because-- Oh my goodness. Will has been struggling, man. It has been a tough year for my dude, Will Benson. And he's struck out a lot. He's had long stretches where he's been really good. And he's had equally long if not longer stretches where he's been an automatic out. I feel like with the heat and the humidity and the friendly confines of the Great American Small Park that he is about to go off this weekend. And I just got this feeling we're going to see a couple of homers. And I feel good. From your lips to God's ears, because you're about to end up, you know, Gabby, we have this running joke. Jeff was the first guy on the Will Benson hype train. And there was a long time that it was just that bumper car, the one-man bumper car, hype train. And he's fast approaching that territory again. You know who else? Just real quickly, Jeff. I looked to have a good weekend at Great American Small Park at the continuation of what Jamer Candelario has been doing for this red team since, you know, I called him out as being a bad signing and being terrible and you told me. But wait, there'll be more. There has been more. Jeff, the last 30 games for Jamer, 276, 320, 569, eight home runs, 18 RBIs. He has just turned it on in a big bad way and become the player that, you know, Nick Carl told us he was going to be when he got here. With the inconsistencies of TJ Friedle, they really need Jamer to be the spark in this lineup and help get everybody else going and get everybody else in. And I'm looking for that from Jamer. I think the hot streak he's been on, I think continues because you're right. The weather's turning. The ball starts jumping in Cincinnati. We're going to see a lot more home runs than we've been seeing. And I think an opportunity for the Reds to score a lot more runs. Because God, someone give these starting pitchers some stinkin' run support. I can't take it much longer. So I need these guys to start parking some balls in the stands and get some runs across the plate. - As frustrated as we are about that, I'm sure Hunter Green is way more frustrated. - Oh, wait, Pat. - But that's something I will say about the Red Sox too though, is their offense in general has been hot lately. They've been scoring lots of runs and that was something that I've been waiting for all season long because for a while they weren't hitting and their offense was a big strength of the team last year. So that's something to definitely look out for going into this series because they have been capitalizing on lots of their opportunities with runners on base. Finally, on offense, which they've been failing to do for the first month and a half of the season. So finally, we are starting to see more of that. You know, Jeff, I don't know about this crossover stuff with Gabby. She comes in here and she says, "We're gonna throw our best three starting pitchers at you. "We've got all these runners that you can't throw out, "screw your catcher." And oh, by the way, everybody on the team is hitting hot right now. Is this, what are we doing? - Which is a great setup for exactly what you can do to make a few bucks on this series. We're going to tell you what that is coming up next. When it comes to baseball, we pride ourselves on getting you the latest news, whether it's the off season, the draft, spring training, the playoffs, it's year round. You know what else is year round? Collection season. Just because tax season is over doesn't mean the IRS will stop coming after you for your unfiled taxes. The IRS can garnish your wages, levy your bank accounts and even seize your property. Don't let the IRS target you. Let the licensed professionals and tax experts at Tax Network USA go to bat for you. I know, I filed my taxes multiple different ways over the years and Tax Network USA helps simplify it all for me and they can do that for you as well. With over 14 years of experience and an A plus rating with a Better Business Bureau, Tax Network USA has saved their clients over a billion dollars in tax debt. Whether you owe taxes, have complicated matters that require tax planning or finally hit that parlay this season and need help correctly finally, call 1-800-549-1000 or visit tnusa.com/live. For more information, check out the link in the the episode description below. - The lockdown MLB fantasy minute is presented by prize picks, prize picks is the most fun of head playing daily fantasy baseball and winning up 25 times my money. Download the app today and use the code locked on MLB for first deposit match up to $100. Exploring my skills on prize picks this season, it's an extra layer of excitement to daily fantasy sports but just a few taps you can transform $10 into $1,000 if you've got the skills. Prize picks is incredibly user friendly, I can make my selections and submit my entries in less than 60 seconds. And as a host of lockdown fantasy baseball, I got some great picks to get you started with. Offer Aaron Nold have higher than five strikeouts in his next game. Offer Jonathan India to have higher than 1.5 total bases in his next outing and offer Big Daddy Bryce Harper to have higher than 0.5 home runs in his next game. Download the app today and use the code locked on MLB for first deposit match up to $100. Pick more, pick less, it's that easy with prize picks. - And as this series gets going, you can hear the hometown broadcast for the Reds or the Red Sox on Sirius XM. Just download the SXM app and search the word Reds or Red Sox. And the nice thing about this series is if you just type in red, I'm pretty sure you pull up all three of those broadcasts. So that'll be a lot of fun. - Thank you so much. - You can pull up all three of those broadcasts. So that'll be a lot of fun. Also, make sure that you follow along with each of our podcasts as we go throughout the season covering our teams each and every day. We're gonna have a series recap coming up on Monday. There's also gonna be a live show talking about some trade deadline rumors and some thoughts about that for the lockdown Reds folks tomorrow at 3 p.m. or sorry today at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Gotta get my days right there, Steve. Let's look at this because we've said a couple of things about some guys that are gonna be hot. Some things about each team that you could probably take a look at. And when it comes to maybe making a few dollars on that over at FanDuel, there are definitely some props that I'm hearing you should take. And quite frankly, from the Reds perspective, I tell everybody all the time about the Ellie Parley, but at the very least, take Ellie to get some steals. And it sounds like there's a couple of do's on the Red Sox. You could take to get some steals as well. I'll be interested because I don't necessarily know. Gabby, when it comes to controlling the run game, how have the Red Sox been this year at doing that? - Yeah, Connor Wong has been fantastic behind the plate. That's his strength is throwing guys out. So that might be disappointing for Steve to hear right now once again. That certainly is a strength of his. The Red Sox are one of those teams who are very much keeping a watchful eye on people trying to steal bases. The more concern isn't necessarily about throwing the ball down. It's, are they able to cleanly field the ball when those balls are being thrown down to them? Because the shortstop and second base positions have been a question mark defensively ever since Trevor's story went down. He kept that infield defense intact. And the defense is something that has significantly held the Red Sox back this year from an infield standpoint. So they are not always able to cleanly field balls being thrown down to them by Connor Wong. So that to me is a bigger question mark than him behind the dish. So the Red Sox have been pretty good overall with that, but they have made some mistakes that they shouldn't be making to allow guys to get to second base and then even to third if they try to get too aggressive with throwing the ball down to third and then somebody ends up adding another base to the mix because somebody got sloppy in the infield. So they do get a little too greedy in the infield sometimes when trying to make those types of throws. So that's something that I very much am concerned about with this Red Sox team right now. But with the athleticism they have on their own roster, they definitely are very aware of how to take advantage of other players trying to steal bases. - Jeff Connor, this catcher, 2% better than league average and throwing out runners for Connor Wong. His slash line is ridiculous. 332, 395, 455 from the catcher position. I'm done with Red Sox crossovers. - Yeah, he's had a good season at the play also for sure. I mean, he's somebody who we needed to pan out because ever since the Red Sox traded mookie bets, they have not really gotten the best sense of a return in terms of the fact that most of the guys from that return are no longer on this team anymore. So Connor Wong is like that lone man standing who the Red Sox are hoping will pan out. And so he's had a great season at the play and last year he had to work an excessive amount because their backup catcher, Reese McGuire, was injured for a good portion of the season last year. So there was a while where it was just Connor Wong. They didn't really call somebody up for a while after all this had taken place. So he was taking on a lot of an extra workload. And I said last year on the show, look for this to be really beneficial for Connor Wong moving forward because he's getting all these reps. So I feel like this is gonna pay dividends for him in the future. And now he's hitting very well this year. He's throwing guys out. He's doing everything you would want him to do as a catcher. To me, the thing is the Red Sox do have a star catching prospect in the system right now in Kyle Teal who is anticipated to likely be ready by 2025 presumably. So what's gonna happen there? They might have one of the best catching tandems in the league if Connor Wong continues to hit the way that he's saying. - Am I to understand that if you take your best catcher and you put him in the game every day and let them play, they get better. Jeff, is this even legal? - I don't think we know what that means. - If we play Tyler Stevenson every day, someone called what, send this to David Bell. Email, clip this, snip this, send it over. Let's get Tyler Stevenson in there and get him the reps that he needs. Let's do it. - I definitely, I definitely think that that would help. I mean, it's clear that there are certain starting pitchers that prefer certain catchers and that's how they make the decision. But man, Luke Mayley has not been the same this year. Defensively, I think he's still the same guy, but at the plate, he has been hard to watch and I don't necessarily know how that's going to get much better. And I don't necessarily know that the Reds want to give it a lot of time to get much better, but yeah, I mean, he's a backup catcher. That's who he is. And they should treat him like that, not catcher 1B. It feels like they treat him like catcher 1B. And that's kind of a frustrating thing. But so what I'm hearing is, you know, smash the, smash the steel props when it comes to the Red Sox. Probably look at Ellie. Maybe-- - Oh, the Ellie Parley is an absolute must on-- - The Ellie Parley's. - At least for Friday and Saturday with him batting left-handed. - And for Red Sox fans. - The Ellie Parley. - For Red Sox fans checking this out, you could probably make a few bucks on this as well. Ellie Parley is Ellie to get a steal, at least one steal. Ellie to get at least one run scored and Ellie to get two or more total bases, not two or more hits, but two or more total bases. And there have been multiple times where he's paid that Parley off in one trip to the plate where he hits a double steal, third and scores. And then bam, you've got your Parley done in the manner of just minutes. So that's going to be an interesting one to hit this weekend. The other one that I'm looking-- - That sounds a lot like Jared Duran. - Yeah, there you go. And Duran leading off. And I remember seeing his speed last year whenever the Reds were in Fenway between his speed and then a guy that we haven't mentioned, like Kudos to us for going 30 minutes without mentioning Raphael Dever's. Is Dever's ready to go this series? Is he going to be all right? - Yeah, no, he did face a portion of the season where he was injured and wasn't playing. And that was seriously detrimental to this Red Sox lineup because, I mean, it's Dever's. I mean, he just got this massive contract extension. He is the face of the franchise. And he certainly is playing like it. I mean, he comes through and the Red Sox need somebody to get a big hit at the plate. And he still very much is the heart of the Red Sox lineup. It's just great that he has more support around him in the Red Sox lineup now than it appeared like it would be because he has other players who are setting him up to succeed when he comes up to that. And so he's still Raphael Dever's. I mean, he's still hitting really well. He's still crushing baseballs when he hits home runs. I mean, you can't even really see the ball. I wear it goes because he just absolutely smashes it. But if you're looking for a Red Sox player to feel confident in taking to hit at least one home run in the series, I would say Tyler O'Neill because he's just been mashing home runs ever since coming back from the injured list to quite a few home runs in the series in Toronto, which is really fitting for him being a native Canadian. And he just loves going into Toronto. So he's a home run hitter. I mean, that's what he does. He hits for power. He's somebody who the Red Sox brought here, primarily for his outfield defense, but because they needed more power in the lineup because they didn't have a lot of guys who could hit home runs consistently. And that's a lot of what Tyler O'Neill does is he'll have his fair share of strikeouts, maybe walks, and not a lot of, you know, lighter contact, but he does smash home runs. And that's what he's done best this year for this Boston Red Sox team. So that's something that I'm looking to see more of this weekend is likely at least one home run from him in the series. - You know, Jeff, it's been fun having Gabby here bring us all this good news about the Boston Red Sox. So I have the perfect note for us to kind of wrap this up on, especially for the Red Sox fans joining us today. Just want to point out that back there, over my shoulder, that is the starting lineup for game one of the 1975 World Series with a little dirt from Finway Park and a little jar over there where the Reds won game seven of the 1975 World Series to capture the World Series Championship. - We don't like bringing back memories like that. We like to focus more on the 2000s and the success that the Boston Red Sox have had in this 2000s era, because it actually is in fact the 20 year anniversary of the 2004 Boston Red Sox. And we know how special that team was. So that's definitely a little more relevant in 2024. - Way to clap back with your recent World Series wins. This is fun. This has been great. - Not everybody comes back from down 3.0 and the ALCS against their arch rival to go to the World Series and win it. So that was a very special season for us Red Sox fans. And I mean, that Yankees rivalry is always gonna be strong no matter what, especially for the fans. - All I'll say is- - Into the show. - Into the show. - All I'll say is there's a reason Red's fans like looking at the 70s and not at the 2000s. And that's what we're in today's crossover podcast. Thanks so much everybody for checking out lockdown Reds and lockdown Red Sox and to wrap it all up as well. If you look over at Fandal as a recording of this podcast, odds for the money line are even. - 1.08, - 1.08 for both teams. Gonna be interesting to see how this series goes. And we will be recapping it on Monday on both lockdown Reds and lockdown Red Sox because we are part of the lockdown podcast network. Your team, every day. - A Prime members, you can listen to this lockdown podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. (upbeat music)
