Friday Four-Pack 6.27.25

The Celtics Big Reset. Sox sound very Moneyballish. Drake Maye gets married. Rich Shertenlieb is back. I may have been assaulted.

Is this assault? It kinda feels like assault.

As someone rooting hard for Team Minihane at the Barstool Sports Dozen Trivia Season 5 Live Final, it was a bittersweet Thursday night at the House of Blues in Boston.

On the one hand, it was an honor to introduce the teams to the fired-up crowd and co-host intermission shows with Tommy Smokes, a man happy to plug MutStack.com. He sounds like he might even be a subscriber.

On the other hand, it was brutal to see Team Minihane fall behind early, battle back in heroic fashion, only to lose on the last possible question of overtime in the trivia tournament’s semifinals.

Two of the three matches, including the title match, went into overtime. It ended up being a wildly tense two hours of team trivia. If you didn’t watch it live, you missed out, and can/should watch it here.

I am TERRIBLE at trivia and would be a complete dud in these contests. It was wild to watch the four teams answer question after question correctly. And credit to host and creator of The Dozen, Jeff D. Lowe, for keeping the whole thing moving in rapid fashion, particularly in a rowdy, live setting. The crowd, from start to finish, was electric. And thanks to Jeff for the opportunity.

But back to the screenshot in question. “Mut’s sooooo short. Get a booster seat. Nice hair, idiot. Brandon owned you. Blah blah blah.”

You’re missing the point. Did the captain of the Season 5 Champs, The Experts, assault me during the intermission? Is Brandon Walker now legally my father after this move? My lawyers are looking into it.

Also, I’m not that short. Brandon is just a very tall human being…who might be hearing from my legal team in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, Brad Stevens does it again. Craig Breslow sounds like he’s reading straight from the Moneyball script. Drake Maye's stock is soaring even in the offseason. And we have multiple Boston sports radio nuggets in the MutStack notes.

All ahead in this week’s Four-Pack.

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On the Celtics reset…

“ Brad Stevens is the most underappreciated figure in Boston sports. Not just this season but over the last twenty years. I get he won a million more titles, and this is crazy actually to type, but this is truly Red Auerbach-type stuff here. Just look at that list!”

A few weeks ago, I made a list of all of the good things that Brad Stevens has done as a member of the Celtics organization, as a way of arguing that he’s criminally underrated in Boston.

Thanks in large part to Jayson Tatum’s injury, I can’t add “Two-Time NBA Champion” quite yet. But I think we’ll look back at this week and add Stevens’ moves to the list in the next few seasons.

Stevens was able to move Kristaps Porzingis and his $30.7 million to Atlanta without having to throw in a first-round pick. Before that, he traded Jrue Holiday and his three years, $104 million to Portland for a player with one year left on his deal in Anfernee Simons.

I guess I should make this clear here - If you thought running it back with he same group again, and hoping to win a championship without Tatum was a good idea, you’re an idiot. Respectfully. The same applies if you wanted to bring the same group back and hope that Tatum’s recovery is quicker than expected, allowing him to play at some point next season. I have heard these callers (and hosts) on Boston sports radio for three days now, so forgive me for spelling it out so bluntly.

Is the team better after these moves? Of course not. But by shedding salary and getting under the NBA’s cockamamie second apron of the salary cap, they’re in a better position for when Tatum returns in 2026-2027. And that's more important.

Because I believe that Stevens—unlike his Boston baseball counterpart Craig Breslow—is actually really good at his job, and I’m okay with accepting a bridge year of sorts next season, with the idea that the team’s next championship push comes the year after.

As far as how the bridge year plays out, I’m torn. Part of me wants to see how Joe Mazzulla adjusts to his new roster, how Jaylen Brown performs as the team's true alpha, and hopes the C’s fight for a playoff spot in what looks like a down year for the NBA’s Eastern Conference. But I’ll admit, there’s a small part of me that wants a complete tank job, where they end up with a lottery pick in he 2026 draft. With a new owner looking to keep the building jammed and a head coach who appears obsessed with winning, the latter scenario seems highly unlikely without significant injuries.

If we reach the 2026-2027 season and the team suddenly stops spending under their new owner, we’ll blast them (and him) for it then. However, this feels like the most sensible way to ensure you're back in contention after next season.

If you want to be angry about all these moves, be angry at the NBA and the team owners. In the aftermath of the Warriors’ run, they decided to push a CBA that somehow penalizes teams for spending money and trying to win. The Celtics are just playing by the rules of engagement, even if they’re dumb rules.

The loss to the Knicks was a major letdown—it was a bad loss, even with the Tatum injury. I’m glad the team didn’t make things worse by bringing the band back together and trying to win with the same group.

With Brad Stevens calling the shots, these trades are the best thing for the Celtics’ next NBA Title hopes.

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On a ‘Moneyball’ quote from Craig Breslow…

Moneyball is a tremendous movie. I’ve watched it dozens of times, and fallen asleep to it…I don’t know 100 times? 200 times? It is one of the most rewatchable and well-written movies of my lifetime.

There’s a famous scene where Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) is arguing with then-A’s scout Grady Fuson (portrayed by actor Ken Medlock) about the team’s new reliance on analytics to scout players.

“Adapt or die,” Beane bluntly tells the scout, in a scene that might actually be more fiction than reality.

But I couldn't help but think of that scene and the movie when Craig Breslow appeared on WEE Thursday morning. Asked by producer Chris Curtis why the team had fired a long-time scout—the guy who had signed uber prospect Roman Anthony—Breslow gave this answer.

“The reality is, the game has changed…and the game has changed because the players have changed, over the last 20 years. And if we’re going to get where we need to go, which is to win a World Series, then we’re not going to get there by doing things the exact same way that we have for the last 20 years. So, it’s not that we have diminished the role or the importance of scouts; it’s that we’ve asked them to take on some different responsibilities. And that’s true across the office, and that’s what drove the disruption here over the last year and a half.”

That might as well be right out of the Moneyball script.

Breslow paints it as just a simple change in the role of team scouts. A different view came from Red Sox Stats, in his newsletter just after the Devers trade. A reminder that after Stats’ initial post, Buster Olney, Jeff Passan, and Yahoo Sports all wrote stories with the same tone and idea—Stats was first with the same nuggets that the national media guys pushed days later.

I’d heard that by the time Chaim Bloom was fired, there were some people in baseball ops that were ready for a change. They felt Bloom’s inner circle had shrunk, and they were ready for new leadership with refreshed lines of communication. From what I’ve since been told, there is now an even smaller inner circle kept, with lines of communication being described as a courtesy, if it even gets to that point. Some personnel that were hoping for a fresh slate found the grass not greener.

Breslow says scouts were asked to take on new responsibilities. Reading Stats, it sounds like Breslow just stopped listening to many of them and no longer cared about their opinion or work. Sounds like a fun work environment!

Sox owner John Henry famously tried to hire Billy Beane away from the A’s. It’s not hard to believe that Henry has installed the Yale product Breslow as his 2025 version of the former Oakland GM.

The problem, of course, is that the A’s had one of the smallest payrolls in all of sports, let alone baseball. The Boston Red Sox are valued at $4.7 billion, but they want to act like a small-market team; they prioritize winning their way over winning at all costs.

Maybe the end game is the eventual sale of the team, as suggested by more than a few people. Given the recent sale prices of the Celtics and Lakers, Henry might be looking to trim payroll to make a deal quickly. I think for most Red Sox fans, that’s the preferred outcome.

Or it could just be the billionaire owner hired a Moneyball wannabe and is trying to recreate a modern version of what the A’s had 20 years ago.

I think that last scenario is much more likely, and as someone who has no faith in Breslow, it’s hard to feel good about the direction of the Red Sox, both in the short and long term.

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On the QB1 of your New England Patriots…

The groomsmen at my wedding were gifted designer travel bags and some booze.

I’m guessing the groomsmen in Drake Maye’s wedding did a lot better.

Hell of a photo of Drake and the boys on his wedding day. I’d take that OL over the group that was entrusted with protecting Maye last season.

There are lots of reasons to elevate your opinion of the Pats’ signal-caller off the marriage to this longtime sweetheart earlier this month.

📈 Got married in June, the best month to get married. Professional decision.

📈 Marrige = stability. Locked into his career and family.

📈 Great groomsmen photo. Creativity on display.

📈 Picked a sick spot to get married, Grandfather Mountain Country Club in Linville, North Carolina. Two golf courses on the property, probably got a round in the morning of his wedding. Smart.

I was already buying all the Drake Maye stock heading into Year Two. That bet I pushed last week now feels even stronger.

Week 1 against the Raiders is just 72 days away…not that I’m counting.

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On your MutStack Notes…

📻 The May Boston radio ratings for Persons 6+ are out. For the first time in a long, long time, 98.5 The Sports Hub and Sports Radio WEEI are tied, with each station getting a 4.6.

A year ago, The Sports Hub had an 11.0 share in Persons 6+, thanks in part to the Celtics’ NBA title run. I am already on the record as saying I have no idea what this means—but the numbers are at least worth pointing out here, given how far ahead 98.5 is with Men25-54. The Sports Hub (451,800) still had a significant lead in total cume audience over WEEI (338,300) in May.

The Spring Ratings for Boston will be out in mid-July, and we’ll react to them here, as we’ve done for the last two and a half years.

📻 Rich Shertenlieb is back. The former 98.5 The Sports Hub and WZLX (for however briefly) host launched the ‘Open Your Prize’ podcast network this month.

“I wanted to create a network that’s as curious as it is entertaining,” Shertenlieb told Barrett Media. “Something that’s smart, funny, and it doesn’t talk down to anyone. It just says, ‘Hey, the world is weird—let’s explore it together.’”

There are four video podcasts on Rich’s YouTube Page, two of which are segments similar to his Toucher and Rich days, where they’d play a silly 911 call and react to it on the show. In this case, no Toucher, it’s just Rich. Obviously.

There’s a charitable element to the network, as each segment features a QR code that allows you to donate to the Rich’s page for the Pan Mass Challenge, a significant fundraiser for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Rich talked about his wife’s cancer returning in his debut episode last week.

I’m not sure if this marks a full-fledged return to content for Rich, or a means to help him raise as much money as possible for the Pan Mass Challenge in August, or some collaboration with Dana-Farber.

Given Rich’s very serious response to the Boston Globe a few weeks ago, I don’t think we’ll ever get his honest take on the much-ballyhooed breakup of Toucher and Rich on his new show. Still, if he does release that episode, I would watch.

📻 Adam Kaufman’s time with iHeart Media came to an end in March, and that meant the end of the only daily sports betting radio show in Boston, The Gambler with Adam Kaufman, which aired weeknights on WRKO. Kaufman is currently hosting shows for SportsGrid and CLNS Media.

With the marketing dollars for sports betting drying up in Massachusetts, it’s not surprising. 98.5 The Sports Hub cut their weekly two-hour show down to just an hour, moving original host Dan Lifshatz off the show to allow Kendra Middleton to host solo. I was told part of the reason for the moves was that a sports betting sponsor was cutting back. I also hear far fewer segments on Boston sports radio, “Sponsored by Sportsbook X.”

🏀 Celtics second-round pick Amari Williams should at least be fun to watch in the NBA’s summer league.

💰 May was a massive month for Massachusetts when it comes to sports betting, collecting over $16 million in tax revenues. The big month was aided by the Celtics' loss to the Knicks. The only month more profitable since betting became legal in The Bay State was January of 2025.

👋🏻 I will miss outgoing Kirk Minihane Show Producer Dave Cullinane, as he leaves for…Well, I don’t know—a producer/marketing/lead generation job in financial radio and content. While not great with drops, Dave was willing to laugh at himself and kept the local media in Boston on their toes, especially Tony Mazz. It’s not really goodbye, it’s more bye for now (shoutout Eric the Actor), as most of Kirk’s producers return at some point. Happy Trails, Cully.

And with that, I believe we have said it all.

Next Friday is July 4th. Will there be a Friday Four-Pack?

For the 127th consecutive week, God-willing, yes, there will be.

Fireworks. Family. Friday Four-Pack. 🎆🎇

Good luck with all your bets this weekend.

And thanks for reading.