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#Redsox begin 2nd half of season tomorrow against Cubs. Are you back in on Sox being a contender? What can the Red Sox do at deadline to improve chances?
Transcript
00:00Red Sox are back tomorrow, so when it comes to social medias and those who call this radio station and reach out on the DMs, there is a lot of talk about what the Red Sox are or aren't going to do, so we can continue that discussion this morning, certainly.
00:21Yeah, I think that a lot of people, you know, are not all the way back, even though they were like, well, if they can take two of the four and split with the Rays, who's a good baseball team, then you know what, I'm buying in, but they swept the Rays.
00:39People discount that you just swept a really good baseball team, because at times this season, the team stank, but there's so much that is different, including the departure of Raphael Devers, who was think forward from my perspective, and so it's a different baseball team.
01:03If you're not in on them, then I think you're making a mistake, and they absolutely have to do something, in my mind, over the next two weeks, and if they don't do something, then I'm going to be disappointed, because I look at the baseball team as a team that can go deep in the playoffs.
01:25Right, and I think a lot of people, Greg, are back in, but they're hesitant because of Cora's track record in the second half of the season.
01:36You know, when you look at his track record, especially over the last, you know, three years, I think a lot of people are like, all right, I'm back in, but this is generally where they fall apart, and they usually fall apart right after the all-star break,
01:51and now you've got three series against three really good baseball teams. I'm just going to wait a little bit to see what you look like after that.
02:00I don't know if it's fair to put that track record, that second half of the season track record, on Alex Cora, when it's really on the Major League Baseball players that he's had on this team,
02:13and it's on the ownership and the chief baseball officer who didn't go and get him something at trade deadline time.
02:23All right. Is that the way you feel?
02:26Yes, it is.
02:27So then don't give him any credit for the first half of the season.
02:29That's fine. I'm not necessarily giving him the credit for the first half of the season.
02:33I'm giving the credit to Craig Breslow for the moves that he made getting rid of Raphael Devers, bringing the young guys up,
02:42and I'm giving the credit to those guys for building that chemistry and vibe, and I know you're going to yell at me and say chemistry doesn't matter, Craig,
02:53but the guys that have stepped up and want to win baseball games, and Meggo was in here yesterday or the day before talking about how finally the pitching is clicking.
03:08That's not Alex Cora. Maybe that's Andrew Bailey, but it's certainly Brian Baio and Lucas Giolito and guys who have figured out how to throw strikes.
03:21So I don't know. Where are you on it, Sean? It's Alex Cora, and who's responsible for the resurgence of the Boston Red Sox?
03:32I give the most credit to the players. When it comes to the pitching, yeah, the manager and Andrew Bailey in particular help make adjustments on game plan overall.
03:41There's clearly been an emphasis on throwing more fastballs, but it's up to guys like Baio and Crochet and Giolito to spot those pitches
03:50and still hit the zone and attack with strikes, which they are doing consistently, and then guys at the plate have been way better.
03:56Trevor Story getting better at the plate and getting better in the field is not a result of Alex Cora.
04:01It's just Trevor Story playing up to his potential. Roman Anthony on a nine-game hitting streak is not credit to Alex Cora.
04:07That's a Roman Anthony raking. So I give the majority of the credit to the players.
04:12Well, I don't get it because people will say Cora is the best manager. Look what he was able to do with teams that didn't have much the first half of the season.
04:23And then now when you're in a position right here, you don't give the guy any credit. I give him a little credit.
04:31I'm not taking, you know, I'm not going to just basically say he has nothing to do with it or, you know, he doesn't, he probably has an understanding of, all right, you know,
04:41maybe we did talk to so-and-so Trevor Story about a swing or being patient. Like that's the manager doing his job.
04:48But I feel like you guys are just like, before you tell me how great Cora is, now you're just like, well, it's about the players. It's not about Cora.
04:56It's about Breslau and the players and Breslau making the right decision.
04:59Well, I don't know that I was in here saying how great Alex Cora is. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that we were discussing whether or not Alex Cora ought to remain the manager of the Boston Red Sox.
05:12Right. And I got pushback for that, but saying, oh, he's one of the best managers in baseball. And I was like, well, like, I mean, where are you coming up with this?
05:21You know, there's plenty of numbers that I put out there and saying, comparing him to some of the, you know, whether it was Aaron Boone or whether it was Dave Roberts, comparing his record to theirs.
05:33And it's like, people are like, oh, he's one of the best managers in baseball. And now all of a sudden it's, oh, he's, it's not really about the players.
05:42And then why are you wasting $7 million on a manager?
05:44Well, I think for a long time, Wiggy though, like he was, I felt like he was always a really good manager because of the way in which he managed the players in the clubhouse.
05:53And then with the entire Raphael Devers situation, I felt like that was brutally mishandled and he just stood there the whole time, kind of like putting his hands up.
06:03Like, I'm not getting involved in this. You figure it out, Craig Breslow, instead of doing his job as the manager.
06:08Yeah, but, but, but his job, the way he manages and why people thought he was great was because he was a player's manager.
06:16But when you have a player like Raphael Devers, who is disrupting, like a kind word would be disrupting what is going on when it comes to the guys that are on that baseball team, then he is hands off.
06:32Yeah, but that's, that's, then that defeats the purpose of having a player's manager.
06:36Like I look at a guy like Mike Tomlin in particular, you have a situation with a guy like Antonio Brown, who we all know now is tapped.
06:43Like he is out there, but yet you never knew that in Pittsburgh because as a player's coach, he handled those situations internally and it never really kind of leaked its way out into the public, which is what Alex Cora is supposed to do.
06:56If you're a player's manager, if you're not a player's manager, then I just simply ask, what are you doing here?
07:00And like I said, I, I give Cora credit. I think he was able to, once that situation of Devers being traded, he was able to, you know, maybe get guys to buy in and, you know, maybe all those guys in that law in that clubhouse felt like, all right, now we don't have to walk around on eggshells.
07:18So I give him credit for that. I give him credit for some of the decisions that in-game decisions that he makes, you know, but I give the players a lot of credit.
07:25Like you said, Giolito and Baio have kind of basically been consistent for about a month and a half when it comes to going out there and giving you five, six good innings.
07:35And it's easier for him to be better managing the bullpen when your starters are just outright being better every single night.
07:41No, I, here's a text on the Subaru of New England text line, which says in hindsight, don't we now believe that Raphael Devers had been a problem for a long time and the organization just hid his behavior pretty well.
08:00And yeah, I, yeah, we talked about it.
08:05It's a guy and there's any number of things that you can point to that create an issue for other guys in the locker room as, as minor, as refusing to do an interview post game after a walk-off or after a win.
08:25And some other guy has got to step up and do it every single time because Ralphie, as you call him, isn't willing to do it.
08:34So that creates a thing that is going on in that clubhouse with the other guys.
08:40And so, um, and, and maybe Alex Cora wanted Alex Bregman so bad because he thought that that would solve a part of that problem.
08:49If the, some of the leadership stuff shifted to Alex Bregman, uh, and what it actually did was create the opportunity to say goodbye to Raphael Devers.
09:00It actually created more of a problem.
09:01Yeah.
09:02Well, all right.
09:03A lot to talk about when it comes to the Red Sox.
09:05They, they got 12 games next 13 days, uh, against pretty good baseball teams.
09:11So for, for you to be in, how many of those do they have to win?
09:17I think if they just go 500, I'm fine with that.
09:20Right.
09:20You know, I, I don't, I think that's when you look at this team, the, the, what they've been able to do over these last 10 games.
09:29If they can just go 500 against these really good baseball teams, I think, you know, you, you still got a team that, you know, okay.
09:36All right.
09:36Where, how did they lose this game?
09:38How did they lose that game?
09:40And, oh, they were able to win this game.
09:42So it shows that they can't compete with these teams.

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