Team USA Coach Heaps Praise on Red Sox's $130M Roman Anthony 'Steal'

The entire World Baseball Classic has been enjoyable for Boston Red Sox fans, but Roman Anthony's performance has to take the cake for the majority.

Anthony looked the part of a superstar in his 71 major-league games last season, but that was something of a trial run for this year, when he'll be asked to help carry the Boston offense from day one onward. His two clutch home runs in the WBC, the latter of which proved to be the deciding blow of the semifinals on Sunday, have just reinforced the notion that no moment is too big for him.

It's been most gratifying for Red Sox fans to see the rest of the baseball community catch on to how special Anthony already is, and how much more special he could become. Tuesday provided yet another fantastic anecdote for those fans.

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Sean Casey gushes about Anthony, Red Sox extension

Team USA hitting coach Sean Casey, who was a three-time All-Star slugger during his playing days before transitioning mainly to the media business, told WEEI's Rob Bradford this week that the $130 million extension Boston secured for Anthony in August seemed like highway robbery to him.

"I'm thinking to myself, the Red Sox kind of (got a) steal with that contract," Casey told Bradford. "He's a good one."

To add color to his praise of Anthony, Casey also told a story of how Anthony responded to a command from captain and three-time Most Valuable Player Aaron Judge when Team USA had a night of minimal sleep before a bus to the stadium during the semifinal round.

"Judge, he comes in the cages, and Roman is over here with me, and he goes, 'Roman, you better be on that 11:30 bus,'" Casey recounted. "And Roman said, 'Hey, Judge, if there was a 7:30 bus I would be on it.'"

Anthony's attitude has never been questioned, but everything about the way he conducts himself has drawn rave reviews from the biggest names in the sport this spring. That's just what a team wants to see from its superstar, and for Boston, that has to feel especially good in light of that nine-figure investment.