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00:00Jones and Keith here on WEI every Thursday at 1130 we talk to Rob Bradford WEI.com and baseball isn't boring he had some good intel on the pregame fracas yesterday dust up brouhaha yeah it was good scrap between the Red Sox and the Angels Bradfo as always brought to you by McFarlane Energy the heating cooling and bio heat delivery pros that Easter Mass and all of Cape Cod depend on at McFarlane Energy.com they could have used
00:30McFarlane yesterday to cool things down before the game Rob oh my goodness you know there's so many words we could have used for that but the word that fit the best undeniably was kerfuffle that was yeah that is that was the word you used on Twitter I did see that I should everyone that was you know it wasn't quite a brouhaha but it was a kerfuffle yeah it was it was bizarre because I was up in the broadcast booth doing a podcast with Ryan Brazier and I'm all of a sudden like I'm like wait a second something's going on down there
01:00what's happening Garrett Crochet is walking all the way across the field and you know what it inspired them actually it didn't because I gave up no no it started poorly yeah go ahead no you know what they were inspired undeniably was Rich Keefe up mingling with a riffraff up in the immediate dining room I heard hearing me yell scream and yell about where are the gummy bears real quick yeah Keefe butt out for a second how what what was Keefe eating
01:29just a giant ice cream this is what I've heard this is the boots on the ground and said it was a giant ice cream Bradford he uh I I cannot confirm or deny that because I was so in the zone I was so like taken aback by there was no gummy bears um but uh I do know he was sitting by himself and I was like come on over come with all the cool kids this is in high school come on it's true the BBWA can be intimidating what's the cool table it's like the cool table is the one I was at by myself it's like Mick Adams sitting like AC Slater
01:59down at the end like just like oh what do you got what do you got teach well well also his journalistic integrity went out the window once he finally got that City Connect charity yeah no you're in the he's in the bag now I had a big ice cream and a City Connect couldn't really do any better than that this is going pretty pretty great all right one of the one of the topics Jones and I have been kicking around and we heard from Breslau this morning on the Greg Hill show of course we hear from Alex Cora before and after every game
02:28is just this whole idea of the approach at the plate the driveline stuff Cora being like hey we might need to you know change our approach Breslau like really full throat defense of driveline this morning where do you come down on all of this are we making too big a deal out of it or is there something there
02:48I it made me scramble to do a YouTube tutorial of what driveline was after hearing that
02:54it was like it was uh yeah so I mean I I get where Breslau like that was about as defensive as you're gonna
03:01hear Breslau they come back like that but I think that that's been the narrative I've said that narrative I
03:07mean they've hired half of the driveline corporation and I do think I get where Craig is coming from when
03:12it describes driveline but you know the facts are the facts you know in the last two years you have this
03:18team who's striking out more than anybody else you have a philosophy which is you know isn't really to
03:23do the Luis arrive Jacob Wilson that's going to make contact that's why Bregman was so important
03:29so so yeah I mean you can push back on the driveline thing but I think that there's undeniably there's an
03:35approach where it's hit the ball hard hit the ball in the air and maybe not prioritize worrying about
03:40strikeouts as much as you have and and the numbers bear that out and Ike fellas like if you want to
03:45talk about one run games there's a lot of reasons for it but for me that's one of the reasons is
03:51because you got to put the ball in play when it counts the most um and they haven't been doing that
03:56okay yesterday they did Cora before the game as Keith was suggesting called out uh the process which I
04:03did think was a shot personally at Breslau and driveline and baseball ops he's like maybe we got to look at
04:08the process the process ain't working and then they come out yesterday and they're not swinging
04:12from their asses and the only home run they hit isn't a home run in any other ballpark and
04:17was yesterday the beginning of a different approach or was that just a one-off randomness
04:23I think the process is an all-encompassing thing honestly there's a lot you know whether it's like what
04:29they're doing in terms of PFP taking fielding practice with pitchers because they've been terrible
04:34with that or whatever it is so when he says the process I think it's a lot of things but that
04:38could be one of them I mean we can't ignore the fact that they had over 10 hits and they had what
04:42six strikeouts find how many times they've done that this year not a lot so you know I think that
04:48overall the process and guys another part of the process is getting these guys to understand when
04:55they mess up right Sidon Raffaella the other night and he's been really really good but he air mails a
05:01throw and then after the game he's like I thought it was a good throw and after Cora said no you
05:06should have hit the cutoff guy right and so yeah it's but but Alice Cora can go in the next day which
05:12I'm sure he did sit down with Raffaella and say this is why but to me this is one of the things this
05:17team is missing is you know the manager and the coaches you can only say so much and that can hit
05:23only so much hit so much you need guys in there who are gonna say hey Sidon that was the wrong throw
05:29the teammates the players those are the best teams and and if you go back to 2021 that's what
05:36that team was like you know I think that absolutely what they need in there is that they need more
05:42accountability guys who also understand what it takes to win games because that's another thing
05:48they don't have a lot of guys who have experienced a whole lot of winning in there what do you do with
05:52Christian Campbell at this point in March and April he was off to a really nice start to the year
05:57he might have been the worst player uh in May I think we even talked about this like last week
06:02he was like the statistically the worst hitter in May and then it hasn't gotten any better the first
06:06four games of June for him well I've been saying they should send him down for like last few weeks
06:11like maybe the last month probably the last few weeks but thankfully they they got off this first
06:17base thing which was it made zero sense it made the sense at the time we talked about it I think we
06:23signed off at it initially because he was hitting and fine he's an athlete he can play the position
06:27they need a first baseman but why would you land when they said they were going to play him last
06:31Sunday why would you put the guy who has been the worst hitter at a position that he doesn't know how
06:37to play yet like that made no sense so they got off of that but I think Christian Campbell is going to
06:43be a really good player but how do we are we not seeing this where it's okay to send the guy down
06:49especially if he wants to learn a new position or get better at the position that he's playing
06:53it's okay to send him down we have plenty of examples Mike Trout Jackson Holliday go down the
06:59list it's okay and I cannot for the life of me understand what the hesitancy is when you see
07:05what they're doing to the kid pitch him inside he hits the ball into the ground defensively doesn't
07:10look confident send him down call him back up in a couple weeks or whatever and go from there
07:15the Red Sox uh promised approach in free agency and team building the last few years has been
07:21well let's get these prospects up here let's develop uh talent from within let's even try to
07:27pay some of these guys early they weren't able to do that with Meyer and Anthony who were still
07:31waiting on coming up but they did pay Rafaela early they did pay Baio early they paid Campbell early
07:39how are the Red Sox feeling about those early extensions in that approach because it doesn't
07:44seem like they're getting much of a return on on any of those guys well okay let's say one by one
07:49number one you didn't need to do that with Rafaela that was nobody understood that even if he turned
07:54out to be a really good player you could have waited for that you didn't need to do it that early
07:58the jury's still out you know I saw the story Chad Jennings wrote in the Athletic today about
08:02is he the next Pete Crow Armstrong well that's a pretty big leap Chad did a great story I missed that
08:07that's a pretty big that's a pretty big leap yeah um and so so I think that that the the takeaway
08:14there is that there is that was the guy you didn't need to do that extension so early Baio same thing
08:19you probably didn't need to but you you wanted to start locking up what you thought that was the
08:25foundation right now it looks like you might have mis-evaluated that but there's a lot of time left
08:31with that with the Christian Campbell thing you know fine fine but you know this might be end up
08:37another Rafaela thing you didn't need to do it so early and what you're seeing I think with these
08:42other guys like Marcelo Meyer Roman Anthony and even Casas when he was like felt like he was going to be
08:48a really really good player like they're like no I'm not going to settle for that 50 60 million
08:54dollar extension I'm going to hold out for the Corbin Carroll like and they're not going to give it to
08:58me then that's fine so the guys that I think that they really want to do it with like they haven't
09:04been able to do it with um and the guys that they have done it with haven't been the slam dunk no doubt
09:10about it Bobby Witt Jr you you get the face of the franchise going forward uh what are your thoughts
09:16on any potential Jaron Duran or will your Abreu trade oh uh I think that there was the Duran one
09:25and I remember and you guys know like a year ago before Duran took off we had all the scuttlebutt
09:31scuttlebutt another word excellent yeah scuttlebutt about a scuttlebutt about uh um that he was that
09:38San Diego was interested in Jaron Duran so with his smoke with his fire AJ Preller trades all the time
09:44so I don't doubt it but you know you think the Red Sox are going to let that guy go for for anything
09:50but like an enormous haul he's under control you can say what you want about any flaws in his game
09:55but he's a unique player he's a leadoff hitter he's part of the solution not part of the problem
10:00and I'll come back to it like you have him under control for a long long time the question is do
10:06they think that Abreu is better than Duran and I would say this well you're still pinch hitting for
10:11will you Abreu as good a player as he is you still pinch hitting for him so that suggests to me
10:16that Duran's probably a more valuable guy I you know I just think it's good it would take an
10:22enormous haul to trade Duran yeah I mean I'd be much more I'd listen on Abreu like you're telling
10:27me they're trying to balance out their roster to get pitching I'd listen on Abreu I mean to me
10:31Duran is is mostly a non-starter unless you're getting a haul like you said real quick I just
10:35realized we started with the uh the kerfuffle yesterday I didn't ask you what what are you
10:40hearing that's uh all about because there was uh one guy Mike Rodriguez on Twitter who said
10:44the Angels were accusing the Red Sox of stealing signs yeah that's what it was it was uh it was
10:52basically Tyler Anderson uh who had pitched the first game of the series uh they you know I think
10:58that they had caught maybe like them stealing signs which by the way is you know it happened
11:02from baseball but you know people could not like it they're stealing signs when Kikuchi was pitching
11:07uh so he took issue it started yelling at uh Jose Flores the first base coach he started yelling
11:12back and then that's when the pitching coach for the Angels got involved and he went after Flores
11:17uh went nose to nose with them don't talk to my players so forth and so on but it was all over
11:22yeah it was all over the stealing signs thing this uh series with the Yankees obviously even if the
11:28even if the Red Sox sweep them they're going to be under 500 but even just a series win against New
11:34York could that be enough to sort of light a little bit of a fire or do you feel like 64 games
11:40we know what this team is no we have no idea what this that's a problem isn't it I mean we have no
11:47idea like it's like it's in it's not what we think I mean I feel like we kind of have some idea
11:52I'm afraid we do know we might know what they are they stink well what we think is that they're not
11:57very good and they're a team that four games under 500 but yeah I mean it can change the narrative
12:02it's just I don't know if it should but it can change it's like you know oh you hit a 308 foot
12:08home run to walk it off should that change the narrative I don't know like I probably not and I
12:14don't think a lot of people are but you've got to be good teams I mean this schedule was so soft
12:19and then and then you get into these games and even you know against the White Sox and Angels you
12:23aren't taking care of business if you can take care of business like win a series against the
12:27Yankees yeah I mean I think that's an enormous step in the right direction but the bigger thing is that
12:32you just have to like have guys play better man like you have to have you have to be a better
12:37baseball team you have to you you have to manage the game in a better way you have to do all this
12:42stuff better you have to find what you are because right now and this is what Brezzo said it was true
12:47they have no idea what they are forget about results like they have no idea what their identity is
12:52and at this point of the year you should have that identity all right he's Rob Bradford you know his
12:58identity uh every Thursday 11 30 here on Jones and Keith uh Bradford we will quick quick question
13:04yes yes yes yes yes because I've been sitting on this all week waiting for this okay I have I have
13:09a quandary I love listening to you guys talk about uh talk about yeah three that's three three for
13:14three uh I love talking about OTAs I love when the football writers keep track of like seven for nine
13:21uh in OTAs yeah what is the spring training equivalent of this because like I don't want to
13:26be like baseball player yeah a baseball reporter yelling at clouds but isn't this like the ball's
13:31coming out of Lucas Giolito's hand in Dunedin really really well and this keeps that like what is
13:36happening yeah that's good or you can just say Tanner Houck's working on stuff that's why he sucks right
13:40now he's working on stuff but stop but start keeping we're doing start keeping those stats and we'll talk
13:45about it yeah yeah you know if we're doing entire days like we're painting the Drake Bay picture and
13:51I'm not saying you guys you guys do it in a far more entertaining way than most but it's like
13:56you're welcome uh I'm here to build up not tear down so it's uh but but you know but it's like
14:03I just don't get like how people like say this like so definitively about Drake May like Drake May
14:09had a great day he went seven for nine well all right talk to me in September like this
14:15doesn't and I just I correlated to it's June baseball I hate to break it to you Rob football
14:20is fairly popular well I know people are interested in the team yeah no but Brad vote start do that
14:25start doing this in spring training next year we'll we'll relay all of this listen anyone who
14:30will be like Roman Anthony took big cuts because Rob there's no podcast that's football isn't boring
14:35because people know that it isn't hold on I got running that down right now thank you
14:40all right Brad for good stuff very good all right all right guys thank you all right mad
14:45foe he's getting a little mad about the he was real mad last week yeah he was fired up at the
14:49team last week yeah then this week he doesn't like the coverage of the football team nope a lot of
14:54baseball on the show look we do talk a lot of baseball especially especially this week uh Brad
14:59foe you can check out all his work odyssey at baseball isn't boring uh he was reunited with
15:02Kenley Jansen which I'm sure Kenley was thrilled about yeah uh the baseball good sit down with
15:06Ryan Brazier too oh yeah that's what it sounded like it's off the top nice uh so you can uh check
15:11it out odyssey app uh he's here every thursday you can also check him out on weei.com uh we will
15:17go on the clock by the way I'm not sure if I've teased this yet shame on me yeah we're high noon
15:21come on why Alex Cora should be fired it's aggressive in just 60 seconds that's aggressive
15:25that like that's gonna pop on social media people are gonna be mad why Alex Cora should be fired
15:30in just 60 seconds we'll do that at high noon