- 5/29/2025
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00:00Alex Cora, not happy with the way the team played yesterday.
00:03He'd been happy prior to that.
00:04Yeah, no, they've been doing great.
00:05They've lost five in a row.
00:06They're four games under .500.
00:07For more on this, Rob Bradford, WEI, and the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast.
00:12You can check it out on the Odyssey app.
00:13He joins us every Thursday at 1130.
00:15He's brought to you by McFarlane Energy, the heating, cooling, and bioheat delivery pros
00:19that Easter, Madison, and all of Cape Cod depends on at McFarlaneEnergy.com.
00:24Oh, my, if there was ever a time to yell McFarlane, it is now.
00:27Yes.
00:27I mean, let's go.
00:28I am ready to go.
00:29I am ready to rant.
00:30Let's go.
00:30There's a lot to rant about.
00:32There's a lot to rant about.
00:33There is.
00:33Where do you want to start?
00:34Rant away.
00:34Hey, Boston Red Sox, just play the great game of baseball.
00:39All right?
00:39Just stop overthinking things.
00:41Just play the great game of baseball.
00:42Hey, Boston Red Sox front office, just put the best team on the field.
00:46I mean, just put your best foot forward.
00:49That's what this is all about.
00:50You know, I wrote about this today.
00:51I looked back, and the Mets, this was the jumping off point for the Mets.
00:55People didn't realize or forget, there were 11 games in the 500 right now.
00:5911 games in the 500.
01:01They're like 19 games back.
01:03And then they have a team meeting.
01:05They have some hard conversations.
01:07They make some tough decisions.
01:09And next thing you know, they had the best record in baseball and landed in the National
01:12League Championship Series.
01:13It's about making tough decisions.
01:15It's about getting uncomfortable.
01:17It's about not saying, well, we think this is happening back two months ago.
01:23We think this is happening a month ago.
01:25It is about looking at what you have and making tough decisions.
01:30And we can go through this.
01:31We can go through Devers.
01:33The answer that Craig Breslow gave about the Crochet 85 pitch thing, I had said that
01:39initially.
01:39I had said that right out of the gate.
01:41Cora was getting ripped for this.
01:42I said, just listen to Cora before the game.
01:46He said, people smarter than me make these decisions about how long these guys go.
01:51He was setting this up already.
01:54And that isn't good.
01:55Like, that isn't good.
01:56Craig can talk about how this is a collaborative thing.
02:00But I come back to Joe Maddon.
02:03When Joe Maddon got fired, he said, one of the problems with managing now is that when
02:07the game starts, you have seven voices in your head.
02:11And that's sort of how it feels right now.
02:13I mean, I'm all over the place.
02:14No, no, no.
02:15But who's safer?
02:17Craig Breslow or Alex Cora?
02:18Who do you think John Henry would side with?
02:20I think it's even right now.
02:22I think everyone talks about Cora.
02:23But if he's going to side with one.
02:26Oh, if Henry?
02:27No, no, I think it's honestly, I'm not copping out.
02:31I think this is a reality.
02:32I think it's too early for Breslow, the guy that they hired.
02:35They know the narrative of, you know, four years and out.
02:38They don't want to do this all over again.
02:40They probably like a lot of what he did.
02:42And by the way, Craig Breslow had a great offseason.
02:44Like a great offseason.
02:46The guys they brought in.
02:47And this, we know that how much they really, really like Alex Cora.
02:52We can talk about Alex Cora's year, but how much they value and like Alex Cora no matter
02:57what the record is, no matter what the actions are this year, whatever it is.
03:01So that's the answer to your question.
03:02I just don't understand how you can like a manager so much when you take away so much
03:06of his responsibilities or what the responsibilities used to be in the past.
03:10I know all teams use a lot of stats and advanced metrics and everything else.
03:14But if you're not going to let the manager kind of manage on feel or like each day is a
03:18little bit different, I don't know why you pay him all that money to begin with.
03:22I just, I think it's a problem throughout baseball.
03:25And I think Cora is, you know, when we look at Cora and we've talked about Cora's season
03:30so far, whenever a manager is having a bad year, a lot of times who've had a good year
03:35in the past and we think he's a good manager, a lot of times it's not having a feel for exactly
03:41what you have and come back to it.
03:45When you have a lot of voices in your head, when you have a lot of stuff going on, I look
03:48at some of the decisions in the last two games, for instance, and you have the pinch
03:54hitting for, no, pinch running for Narvaez, right?
03:57And then it comes back to Cora Wong.
04:00They pitch around Devers to pitch to Wong.
04:01Right.
04:01So, so it's, you're just a little off.
04:04I get what you're doing.
04:05You're just a little off.
04:06Yesterday, you, you pinch hit for Marcelo Meyer with Christian Campbell, who is the worst
04:12hitter in baseball in the month I'm away.
04:14I mean, I mean, that is, no.
04:15What about Trevor Story?
04:16No, no.
04:16He's worse than Trevor Story?
04:17Worse.
04:17He's got competition.
04:19Worse OPS in the month of May.
04:21Wow.
04:21And so.
04:22Impressive.
04:22You pinch hit.
04:23And that comes back to, I don't know if Cora has a good grasp of like what Marcelo Meyer
04:29is yet.
04:30And in large part, because all these moving parts, all these different things, you just
04:34have to lock in on what you feel confident in.
04:38And I said this today, like, okay, this is how I view it.
04:42I, I have seen enough where I know that Christian Campbell, I don't know what you're doing,
04:48moving them around all over the place, send them down to the minors, have them learn first
04:53base, get his confidence back.
04:54He looks like a completely different guy than he did in April.
04:57There.
04:57Move Sedan Raffaella into the infield.
05:00I know that he's one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball.
05:03I don't care.
05:04What is best for this team is him playing the infield and Roman Anthony playing the outfield.
05:08Also for, and this is a enormous part of this perception wise, Raphael Devers, even if it's
05:18just putting, giving him a glove, going out to first base, taking a couple of grounders,
05:23the perception of it is so powerful right now.
05:26Instead of after the game, I'm watching the Nesson feed and he's just sitting in the dugout,
05:33staring straight ahead, clearly upset they lost.
05:35But all I'm thinking is, well, if you're that upset that you lost, then aren't you doing
05:40everything possible to change that narrative?
05:44Did they play David Hamilton?
05:45He'd never played third base before they played David Hamilton at third.
05:47Everybody plays.
05:48This guy, this guy won't get off his ass and play third base.
05:51Twitch chat, by the way, loving, uh, mad Brad folk, uh, just FYI, mad Brad is what they're
05:57loving.
05:57But I, on Devers, why on, I still can't wrap my head around that Cora answer yesterday from
06:02pregame.
06:03The door is shut on third base, but they're going to have future conversations about first.
06:07Like what, how did you read into that answer from Cora?
06:10I thought the door was slammed shut at first.
06:12So I've heard a lot of what you're saying and I don't disagree.
06:15I mean, listen, the guy, you go back to the no, no, no, no, no press conference and you
06:19wanted to play.
06:19Okay.
06:20Here's your chance to play.
06:21All right.
06:22The third base thing I think is they just say, and I don't necessarily disagree with
06:26this.
06:27Marcelo Meyer till Alex Bregman comes back.
06:29You're a third base.
06:30You're a third base.
06:30He's going to be better than Devers is fine, but still, if Raphael Devers ever wants to
06:36play in the field again, it is going to be at first base.
06:39And so that's where like, you have to say, Hey, here's your chance, Rafi.
06:44If you want to play at all, and maybe, maybe he can't play there.
06:47Maybe he won't be any good.
06:49But the reality is that right now, as we sit here, I'll come back to the Mets thing.
06:54They have this team meeting on May 29th after being beat 10 to three by the Dodgers after
06:59a full-end game, 11 games under 500.
07:01They have a team meeting and have hard conversations, make tough decisions.
07:05That's what we're talking about here.
07:07Yeah.
07:07This isn't easy to backtrack Raphael Devers, but still, what is the best for the team?
07:12If you don't want to be in the dugout, staring straight ahead, wondering what's going on,
07:16then you, if nothing else, just take a couple of grounders at first before the game.
07:21See if it, see if it hits, because even if you don't play first base, it sends the message
07:27that you so valuable need right now.
07:31Well, Craig Breslow said a lot of big words this morning, but what is the real reason Roman
07:35Anthony's not up yet?
07:37Oh, I, I, I actually believe that they think that they're slow playing this, but it makes
07:41no sense.
07:42Yeah.
07:42I mean, because we talked about this before when it said about,
07:46Oh, well, we don't want to make it seem like he is have to be the guy.
07:51Well, Marcelo Meyer was just called up.
07:54Marcelo Meyer is, but also two weeks ago, there wasn't as much of a like sense of urgency,
07:59like the season slipping away.
08:01They weren't great.
08:01They were like two games over 500, but we all wanted Roman Anthony up two weeks ago and
08:05they weren't bringing him up and it wasn't like a savior scenario.
08:09Even then you can say, Oh, well you have Bregman, you have this offense.
08:12It's okay.
08:12And everything else.
08:13But, and I agree with you, but.
08:16But right now it's not, there's no room for interpretation.
08:18No, there's zero room for interpretation in terms of what you need for the, what's best
08:24for the, for the baseball team.
08:25Are you going to be as good defensively in the outfield?
08:27No, but you also, you need to find answers offensively.
08:33Roman Anthony is an answer offensively.
08:35Roman Anthony is a guy that you can put in the middle of the order, much like they just
08:39had Marcelo Meyer hitting cleanup, by the way.
08:41And the good thing I like about both those guys is that they're just, and you guys know
08:46Marcelo Meyer.
08:47Well, we're best friends with Marcelo Meyer.
08:49Better than anyone.
08:49Yeah.
08:49Yeah.
08:50But I've said this before.
08:51They're, they're just the right amount of cocky, right?
08:54They're not going to, when Tristan Costa says his thing about all these guys, sudden beings
08:58want to sink down.
08:59They didn't like say, oh, Tristan, you're so right.
09:02No.
09:02Like, they're like, what are you talking about?
09:04I'm going to make the team, you know?
09:05And, and so I don't think there's an element of, oh, we're going to be blown away if we
09:10get to the major leagues.
09:11So to answer your question, like, I do think that they're like, oh, we got to check off
09:15this box, that box, this box, but it comes back to this.
09:19What is best for the team?
09:21And last thing on that respect, the Garrett Crochet thing, the Garrett Crochet, I said
09:27this at the outset.
09:28Like I said that, you know, that this was, everyone's railing on Cora.
09:31I said, you know, this, this is the thing, but crochet is an example of, you don't just
09:38take what's in a vacuum, you don't just take this because everybody knew at that time you
09:43had one reliever who hadn't pitched, you had one reliever available.
09:47So you have baseball scientists, you have to factor all that in much like this with Roman
09:53Anthony.
09:53Yeah.
09:54Maybe he doesn't know how to slide quite the way that you want.
09:57Maybe he isn't the greatest left fielder, but for what your team needs at the most important
10:03time, you have to call this guy up because that skill set.
10:07And by the way, the Crochet thing and what we, we, we should also factor in at that point
10:13in time, they need to keep the momentum, momentum going.
10:16They needed that 100%.
10:18They needed to win because you know what's happened?
10:20You know what happened since they don't win?
10:22Yeah.
10:22They lost like every game.
10:24They, they won that series.
10:25They won two out of three in that series.
10:26It felt like a loss.
10:27Best case scenario.
10:28It's the off day.
10:29Even a minor move.
10:30Are we getting anything today?
10:31Are we getting any moves today?
10:33To tune into two 15, right?
10:35With Alice Cora.
10:36I mean, it certainly didn't feel like when Craig Breslow was talking this morning, it
10:40wasn't going to be anything.
10:41I didn't get the sense.
10:42Maybe it was being real cagey.
10:44I didn't get the sense anything was happening.
10:46We've already said.
10:47Other than bringing the infield in with two outs.
10:50We've already said.
10:51If the team doesn't want to do it, we're going to put it on ourselves to go to Worcester
10:53and go get the guy.
10:54Like we're like, we're going to bring him.
10:56We're going to literally drive him.
10:56We are going to go get Roman Anthony if the Red Sox want to.
10:59That's usually how it works.
11:00You have to drive somebody.
11:01I won't lose my keys.
11:02You won't lose your keys.
11:03I'll have my keys on me.
11:04They're not in Pawtucket anymore.
11:05We don't have to cross state lines.
11:07It's all within the state.
11:08What is he?
11:0922?
11:10I think as a 22 year old, I probably lost my keys, but probably not for three weeks.
11:15No, that seems like a long time to not have the keys.
11:17Somebody texted us.
11:18I think the ghost probably did it.
11:19I think it's probably what was going on.
11:22Well, Brad Foe, I like this side of you.
11:25Well deserved.
11:26Not to say that I don't always enjoy our chats, but I like this side of you.
11:28The fork of the road is fork of the road.
11:30What's today?
11:31Thursday.
11:31Yes.
11:32Rubber meets the road Thursday.
11:34That's right.
11:34I like Mad Foe joining us here on Thursdays on Jones and Keith.
11:38Let me write that down.
11:39All right.
11:39Yeah.
11:39Yeah.
11:39Yeah.
11:40Yeah.
11:40Another marketing opportunity.
11:40Baseball certainly isn't boring.
11:42Check out the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast on the Odyssey app and check them out all over
11:46WEEI.
11:47It's Jones and Keith.
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