 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. They lose their second round pick in the 2020 draft and the replay operator JT Watkins. 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. 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 gonna use video to decode sequences from second base. Everyone does it. 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 JT Watkins here. Who is 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 they were so egregious that he deserves to be banned for a year. He didn't do anything like that. Okay 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. 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 JT Watkins under the bus if they didn't punish JT Watkins there would be zero point zero zero zero 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 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 the 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 JT 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 these the questionnaires that went out in these interviews it was it's it's what can we find out and what they found out was that JT Watkins was telling the guys that the sequence changed so JT 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 like these guys and they worked their ass off the replay guys they're putting together all the video for you they're in this 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 basal player and in turn help the team it's what this guy was doing it's ridiculous and I would be remiss if I if 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 and make sure that he's taken 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 anything I think it was more commissioner was like I need someone to punish give me a name 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 gonna 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