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Part 1- Red Sox manager Alex Cora Live from Fort Myers, Red Sox Spring Training! ||The Greg Hill Show!
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00:00by alex cora the manager of the boston red sox hey ac how are you i'm doing good happy great
00:06to
00:06have you here again thank you thank you thank you for stopping by well we're doing it's a nice setup
00:10i i think you know it's better here than in the in the booth over there that was me uh
00:15good idea
00:16i don't like good idea i don't i don't like the micromanager or anything but i mean alex cora
00:22likes you notice this ken i said we need a beautiful view for twitch i was i was having
00:27a conversation uh with a friend of mine and you know you come here to sprint training and yeah
00:33you know it's jet blue park it's not fenway but then you look at it it's like man sometimes you
00:38take it for granted totally yeah bro like the days up here have been amazing 75 degree sorry
00:45my bad i mean people were complaining the other day about the abby was complaining about how hot it was
00:55like alex it was hot i'm like abby's 81 degrees you know but then the other day was like 45
01:0150
01:02but this is awesome this is a great setup and uh we're having fun have you seen what you missed
01:06at
01:06home i mean that's a little i gotta when i say home i mean boston no no no we got
01:12we got the house up
01:13there and we got louis a friend of mine that he takes care of the house poor louis man i
01:17feel bad
01:17perfect but he's over there with the snowblower taking care is that just a trade for tickets or
01:23how does that work if it was tickets it was easy
01:28um so a bunch of weeks into this um how do you feel so far about the way things are
01:34going i like
01:34where we at first things first uh we're healthy which is the most important thing um you know
01:39little by little the the big boys are pitching in the in the big field um you know crochet sunny
01:45uh they can start throwing which makes you feel good about it and you know position player wise
01:52is a different group you know what it's not that different from last year it's just different
01:58characters right like we talk about alex alex is with the cubs we got wilson contreras you know wilson
02:04offensively he's very similar to alex the production will be there we got caleb who uh you know he's
02:10playing second base today we'll see where we at with that but uh you know i thought third baseman
02:14he did an amazing job with the brewers last year the best defensive team in the in the big leagues
02:19and the way he moves he's good and i think he's going to hit a fan weight so um the
02:23boys in the
02:24outfield we got a lot of them we know that you know masa is gone now to wbc but you
02:29got roman and
02:30duran and the two gold glovers which is awesome and uh i think we're going to be better to be
02:35honest
02:35with you you know how things go in boston we get obsessed with stuff uh you brought up alex
02:40um and you had said last week that you're communicating with him you felt like uh a big
02:47part of his decision was based on the arizona part of it do you do you really feel that way
02:52um you know what this this year was a little bit different uh the communication i i think uh
03:00you know the way they handle things you know scott did an outstanding job kind of like
03:05okay you know like i know you have relationships but let me work let me work and uh is that
03:12awkward
03:12for you because scott's been i like scott i like scott i like scott but i understand how he works
03:18you
03:18know and uh one thing about so he basically is like don't don't talk don't tell ac anything at
03:23all about don't talk to ac until you have to and uh he actually did that saturday uh but uh
03:31think about it i don't know if you guys follow him on instagram he has this uh training facility
03:37in arizona there's a lot of guys there and uh they just bought a place in in paradise uh valley
03:44you know i mean nice spot yeah nice spot so i think that was part of it and then the
03:49business side of
03:50it that's that's the reality of it you know uh we got to the point that uh we felt comfortable
03:56you
03:56know and i think the cubs did an amazing job uh recruiting him they they did a good job and
04:02uh
04:02i wish him nothing but the best uh the cool thing about this situation and and it has happened
04:08throughout the years and i i have learned not to get attached emotionally with players anymore you
04:15know that was in the beginning but understanding the business of it and this is not only the red
04:19sucks but i lived it you know if you look at the astros in 17 they're all gone except altuve
04:25mccullers and somebody else you know like people are going they're gone you know the thing is that
04:31here we went through a period of time that they come here for a year they're gone jt did it
04:37alex did
04:38it uh jd martinez was the only one that was here for a long period of time and they impacted
04:44the
04:44organization and that's what i take from all of them you know like what they if you look at the
04:48clubhouse now you see marcello you see roman showing up at six in the morning doing their
04:54recovery work and everything they learned that from trevor last year from alex so those two guys
04:59yeah so great to have alex here for a year would i want him to be here for the rest
05:05of his career of
05:06course we all know that right he's a great player he's a great leader but it just happened that he
05:12selected the cups and uh we wish him nothing but the best except the last week of the season
05:16yeah um you look at the offense and i think this is what wiggy's been going on about for a
05:23while like
05:24where where does it come from are you worried you know pitching i think is is greatly improved yes
05:30um you talked we'll talk about this but you talked about having the best outfield in major league
05:35baseball but are you at all concerned about where the offense comes from no no um i think the
05:41progression of the hitters is going to continue uh william bray should hit at least 25 home runs
05:46again he promised wiggy 30 yesterday 30 that's what i'm talking about i love where you are
05:51on the show that's why we bring you guys here to challenge this guy right i said 30 not only
05:56sam
05:56yeah i know you guys challenged sam but i like you guys to challenge the players i say i said
06:01take
06:01your ass to that damn back cage right now i need 30 we need 30 30 swings on 30 good
06:06pitch
06:06no no fred mcgrisby said fred friday like you know freddy hit 30 and drove in 100 for i don't
06:12know how many years and i asked fred i said how you do that you know he's like 30 good
06:16swings and 30
06:17bad pitches i like i wish i could have 30 good swings and 30 bad but uh i think willie
06:23is gonna
06:24is gonna keep improving offensively roman looks tremendous obviously and this is something that i have
06:31to do a good job with it like i know the expectations are way up there but there's a
06:36progression you know it's his first full season in the big leagues you know like he's gonna go
06:41through up and downs hopefully he doesn't go through downs but he should hit uh jaron looks tremendous
06:47uh wilson wilson will hit he'll hit homers and uh you know i think caleb at fenway he's gonna take
06:54advantage of the green monster so we might not have uh two guys hitting 40 but there's a lot of
07:00guys
07:00that are gonna hit 20 you know i know the projections are the projections yeah but i do
07:04believe we have guys that hit 20 home runs and we're gonna be in a good spot so alex we
07:09talk a
07:09lot about analytics over the course of the season but one element of the game of baseball that is
07:13still i think resistant to just using computers is when and where to bring guys up and you did a
07:20phenomenal job we've talked about in the past in 07 of keeping the second base warm for
07:25perpadroia's inevitable arrival how do you go into figuring out may or in you know obviously
07:31roman anthony last year and when to bring guys up and how much of that is a decision that you're
07:37making what is the what goes into it with craig and in the rest of the organization yeah we talk
07:41about all the kids right and uh last year the three of them they made it right uh kc it
07:48happens to
07:49be in opening day roman during the season and and marcelo alex gets hurt and we got him here
07:54um you know it is it's a combination of a lot of things you know understanding that
08:01triple a level now is a lot different than in the past you know the gap between triple a and
08:06the big
08:06leagues is huge you know uh you're playing six games in the same city you're facing the same guys
08:11over and over over again and it's like a comfort zone you know it's not the big leagues if you
08:17ask
08:17the kids what's the difference between big leagues and the minor leagues besides the talent right
08:23is the traveling is you know is the three game series you play two you play a one you hop
08:28on a
08:28plane you go into new york you play three night games and then you have you know a day game
08:32because
08:33it's the fourth of july in triple a they don't live through it so you see trends down there how
08:39they're handling you know physically offensively where we at uh big believer that if you're striking
08:45out 30 percent of the time in triple a what's going to happen in the big leagues you're going to
08:48got 35 percent of the time we don't want that right so those are the things i pay attention to
08:53the numbers are the numbers we understand that there's some metrics that tells us that yeah
08:58230 here is a lot better than you know what what he's showing because he's hitting the ball hard he's
09:04making good swing decisions but going back to the question it's a combination of a lot of things
09:08and then the needs of the team you know like last year we needed marcello here at one point and
09:13he played great at third base we needed roman to get us going offensively and he did so um communication
09:19is always open you know and uh the the hard thing for a manager is to pay attention to 26
09:26guys and
09:27then pay attention to five guys in triple a it's very hard you know i got to take care of
09:30the guys
09:31in the clubhouse keeping an eye down there but bro like it's here for me you know i talk to
09:37the media
09:37before the game and after the game you know like i get it we're in wooster and they're doing great
09:42things sometimes i get upset when they ask me about hey how about this guy in triple a like
09:48bro let's talk about this guy's here because this is we had to stay in the moment just do what
09:52joe
09:52mazula does don't answer the question wow joe you know what that's something i always wanted to do
09:59i'd like like bill right like i was like man bill but he has he has the hardware you know
10:05like all the
10:05rings that i got one and then i was like at one point i can do it and then joe
10:11wins one and all
10:12a sudden he's the man and he's doing that the the bigger game that was the pickup game oh my
10:17god
10:18no we're playing you imagine we're playing and you know what you're facing crochet today right to the
10:23media to the media to the bradford crack crochet to the high tight to bradford
10:28now that wouldn't be boring i'll tell you that
10:31that's very interesting because you talk about having a lot of young kids up here
10:36and you lose a guy like bregman and who's kind of leader in the clubhouse does your role as a
10:43leader
10:43kind of change where it seems like you might be lighting a fire on the some of these young guys
10:49asses and saying hey listen there's nothing that's going to be handed to you i know there's been the
10:54marcelo thing is that something that you're doing a little bit differently this year is holding some of
11:00these younger guys more accountable bro i learned the hard way in in 2019 i said we're gonna roll it
11:06back and we're gonna do it again that shit doesn't work man it's like it's it's a different year and
11:12you know you go through the off season and you know who you are and you you know okay who's
11:17in the
11:17clubhouse what we got to do let's not forget that trevor story is a great leader you know the fact
11:22that
11:22he was able to play last year help him to be a vocal leader in the clubhouse and he's doing
11:27the same
11:27thing but yeah you know you got to push him um it's been there's been talk about marcelo meyer for
11:33the last three or four years and he knows it he was a huge off season for him i give
11:38him credit last
11:39year he had surgery and he put himself in a position that if we wouldn't advance maybe he was going
11:46to be
11:46able to play for a young kid to do that that that's amazing the off season he did a good
11:52job physically
11:53now we got to push him you know one of the things that everybody wants to know can he handle
11:59the 162 right well i don't know if we're about to see it but i want him to know that
12:05there's a chance
12:06for that but you have to earn it he's not given right like we've been in situations that rookies
12:11come here and you're like okay he's gonna be part of it with marcelo we will love him to be
12:16our starting
12:16second baseman or third baseman but he has to play he's playing uh tomorrow that's the beginning of
12:22his spring training and we see where he takes us so when we hear you say this about marcelo or
12:27any
12:28other player sometimes you're you're saying that publicly to like hey i'm i'm gonna i want to get
12:33these guys going i just want people to slow down too you know like i think uh where we play
12:38and i love
12:39you know the the area i i love that portland is right down the street and worcester everybody knows
12:46everything about the red sox you know and uh sometimes we feel like the whole nation you know
12:52like america knows about the red sox no no no no no they know our proper players but in that
12:56area
12:57they're locked in you know and i i i do it to kind of like low expectations but at the
13:04same time
13:04pushing the kids like hey man we gotta go we did it with petroia in 2007 work out
13:10yeah alex another thing that i i can kind of be critical about managing some of the managing
13:16style and one of the things one of the things well you really at times say the manager has
13:21absolutely nothing to do nothing to do with the success of the baseball team let's be honest
13:26world right i come from a different world where we got game plans and all this other stuff
13:31but here's here's the thing he puts it all on the players well here's the thing here's the thing i'd
13:36like to have no but here's the thing i'd like to have he's never found a player he could
13:39criticize here's the thing i'd like to ask that at times when the players struggle and you know
13:46maybe situationally it becomes more about the players but when there is success a lot of it
13:50is given credit to the manager how do you make sure that your players understand that you know
13:56we're kind of in this thing equally even though at times i might get a little bit more of the
14:01credit
14:02because being the manager no uh i get your point and uh i make sure like in most of our
14:08meetings
14:08is a player driven business we know that i got a job to do they have a job to do
14:14at the end of the
14:15day is what happens in between the lines our job is to try to maximize lineups find good matchups
14:22but the last time i made an error in the big leagues or got a hit it was in 2011
14:27right i understand
14:29that there's certain situations that i can make an impact in the game most of the time it's them
14:36our job is in the clubhouse it's on those back fields try to put them in a situation or help
14:41them
14:41to be better but over 162 games they're the ones that decide what's going to happen last year we did
14:48an amazing job as a group just staying the course obviously you know you have to push them we had
14:54to
14:54especially at the end man like at the end i know everybody was like oh they're going to the playoffs
15:00they're going to playoffs it looked there when we went to arizona and sacramento that you see
15:06cleveland and detroit and like are we going to the playoffs with the personnel that we had we were
15:10banged up and uh we push them to that but i agree with you in in in certain in a
15:17certain way that
15:18at the end man they have to do the job my my my job is to maximize the lineup maximize
15:25that that matchup
15:26uh and never let them never let them throw a bunt down on the road
15:31i mean that or oh they fill in you know
15:40i'm in tune with you guys
15:41i have to i have to i understand you here
15:46bro man like i mean the the 2 30 interview and the four o'clock i gotta know what's going
15:51on but
15:53alex i will say this i will give you credit because one thing we got to talk to veritek and
15:58one thing
15:58that you're doing or at least it seems like the narrative is being pushed for this this team is
16:03about getting to a world series and winning the world series where a lot of coaches that i've been
16:08around they act like you know we can't talk about that that's off limits is that what made you say
16:14we are a world series team that we can get there and that's our goal rather than shying away from
16:21it
16:21yeah i think it's uh gary crochet sunny gray ranger suarez brian bayo and then whoever is going to be
16:28the fifth starter and the two that are going to be in in worcester it's a much better pitching staff
16:34than last year um i do believe the bullpen is going to keep getting better uh stuff wise
16:41do we expect chappy to be the guy that he was last year probably not but he's not gonna like
16:48all of a sudden not pitch well right gary whitlock is going to continue to develop it's about pitching
16:54you you saw it last year when we pitched we were good when we have that horse as a number
17:00one it
17:01happened in 18 it happened in 21 it happened last year having that number one it means a lot you
17:07know
17:07is the guy that keeps the streak going the winning streak and stop the losing streak what he did in
17:12new york last year that was amazing right i mean like 118 pitches and probably he he couldn't finish
17:20that inning but we had the big guy in the bullpen but he is that guy and uh he's gonna
17:25keep getting
17:25better it's like scuba with the tigers right like think about the tigers the last few years it's an okay
17:31team that has pitching but they have that horse and we have that horse and that's the reason i feel
17:36like we're gonna be better defensively is a much better team than in the past and uh offensively
17:42we talk about homers but we're very athletic we can do a lot of things
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