00:00is the chief baseball officer of the boston red sox who joins us this week craig breslow morning
00:05craig hey how's everybody doing doing great and and uh certainly nice to get a series win
00:12and it looks like maybe uh second outing is the charm when it comes to sonny gray yesterday
00:21sonny was really good uh at a time when obviously we needed him but um you know ability to control
00:27at bats pitch deep into the game bullpen was was a little bit tired so he really picked us up
00:32craig prior to these uh last two games you guys started out horrendously what do you think has
00:37been the biggest reason for this slow start yeah we obviously have spent a lot of time thinking about
00:45that and my guess is there is no like single bullet here um i think there's a lot of things
00:54that
00:55contribute to the way that we've started the season and you have to be careful not to overfit
00:59something um because that could could either force you to to react in a way that doesn't make a ton
01:05of
01:05sense uh or create a a solution to a problem that doesn't exist but we certainly didn't get out of
01:10the gates the way that we wanted to and we're spending a ton of time thinking about how we turn
01:13this around and hopefully the last couple of days is is indicative of that along those same lines what
01:18was the atmosphere like inside the park obviously probably not the best feeling when you see your
01:24boss subjected to sell the team chance while inside fenway park sure um our our fans are passionate
01:34they have uh expectations for this team for the organization we we have the same expectations we want
01:41to live up to those and like the way that we the way that we were playing to start the
01:45season like it
01:46it didn't warrant a ton of excitement and cheers um and and that's okay it's on us to turn it
01:52around
01:53uh roman anthony struggling a little bit when when it comes to the defense is any concern
02:02organizationally that there's a lot of pressure on him as a as a as a young guy
02:09roman's an incredibly talented guy so uh you know pressure versus expectations
02:15given what this guy's capable of doing um you know we got a ton of confidence in in roman he's
02:21going to be fine he's he's doing the work to get back on track when you guys signed ranger suarez
02:27in the off season what were the expectations that you had for him and his position with this team and
02:34what do you think has most prevented him from reaching the standard maybe that you that you expected
02:43yeah he's a he's a veteran starting pitcher with a proven track record of success during the season
02:49and particularly in the postseason um he's he's been unflappable no moment has has gotten too big
02:56uh certainly not off to the start that that he wanted or uh you know we envision but i think
03:01for
03:02him he is he's a guy that uh that manages hard contact and because of that he's always going to
03:09be
03:10somewhat susceptible to balls in play and finding holes and uh for right now his execution is is a
03:16bit off we've seen glimpses of what he's capable of doing the first couple innings in san diego uh
03:21you know for san diego he was he was in control and then they made the adjustment they were swinging
03:25early they were aggressive and and hitting pitches in the zone and he gave up a couple of uh you
03:30know of
03:30hits first pitch and and i think now it's on him and and the rest of the staff on and
03:37all of us to
03:37be able to make that adjustment but we feel he's going to be he's going to be just fine the
03:41stuff
03:41is very much in line with what it's been in terms of velo and shape the execution is just a
03:46bit off
03:47right now i wanted to get your opinion on this as a guy who made his money throwing the baseball
03:53there's an argument with ranger and others some veteran guys that uh the the abs system is not good
04:01for them um when it comes to uh pitches that they used to get maybe from umpires because because the
04:12they've been pitching for a long time or whatever whatever you use as the argument do you agree or
04:17disagree with that yeah i think over time we're gonna we're gonna find that it doesn't really impact
04:25anybody disproportionately in one way or the other and that by that i mean you know ranger sure is a
04:32guy who uh who can make a living by kind of teasing the strike zone throwing pitches that appear to
04:38be
04:38strikes that end up as as balls and and pitch that appear to be balls and end up as strikes
04:43and right
04:44now i think hitters pitchers and umpires most importantly are still adjusting to the abs system but
04:49over time i think he's still going to be a guy that induces soft contact because he can he can
04:55execute pitches at the margins of the strike zone and as soon as he does that um it's gonna be
05:01less
05:01about abs and more he's so good at forcing hitters into getting themselves out how confident are you
05:07in the roster that you built uh this offseason that you guys can turn around turn things around quickly
05:16confident i think we've seen that over the last two days uh and and what particularly gives gives
05:22confidence is the fact that um most of the players are not playing up to even their career norms right
05:30like we're not looking at guys and saying why are they not even better than they had been last year
05:36right now players are kind of not playing up to what they've they've always done and as soon as they
05:40do
05:41that uh we're going to have a ton more success on the field has there been a void that is
05:47yet to be
05:48filled in the leadership gap on this team compared to last year i don't think it's a leadership gap in
05:57terms of um guys are looking around the room and trying to figure out who's going to speak up or
06:04uh who's going to step into to avoid um there are veteran guys who have had success who have
06:12won world series i think um you know and and maybe in part because the team just didn't spend a
06:18ton of
06:18time together this spring we had a bunch of guys that were out playing in the wbc um you know
06:23the team
06:23is still kind of coming together building relationships forging that identity and so i think that might be
06:29might be legitimate but whether it's trevor jaron garrett wilson sonny there are guys that have
06:35that have been around been in this league for a really long time um and are very very capable of
06:39carrying leadership position when cora made the decision with carlos narvaez what role do you play
06:45in that and did you agree with it sure uh the role that i play there is to to just
06:53kind of be a
06:54sounding board to bounce ideas around having spent uh a lot of time in a major league clubhouse i
06:59understand how important the relationship between the manager and the players is and you know i know
07:06that there are things that need to take place and need to be handled within the doors of the clubhouse
07:11and i am completely supportive of that i think i'll go ahead oh i was just gonna ask going back
07:16to
07:16to roman with some of these errant throws that he's had kyle hudson attributed some of that in quotes to
07:23his lower half cora talked about his footwork i gotta ask like with your going through and
07:29evaluating roman is that mechanical habits that you've seen from him in his past like is it or is
07:37it something new uh we've seen you know glimpses at times of just um and some of the way that
07:45he
07:45approaches the ball and the impact that could have on his momentum and direction um but but he's a
07:50really good outfield coach roman is fully committed to doing the work so i think we're going to look
07:55up here pretty shortly and just and look back at this as as a blip i think craig a lot
08:00of people
08:00you know we talk about it all the time when you start out like this everybody goes to roster
08:06construction do you felt like you built the best roster this offseason or are there potentially
08:12pieces that we might see you guys add as we get closer to the trade deadline i know it's early
08:22sure i think i think the answers of both of those things is is yes right we have a lot
08:27of confidence
08:27in the players that we currently have on our roster we have a lot of confidence in uh the depth
08:32that we've
08:32built up in in worcester and also we're going to constantly evaluate uh where there may be
08:38opportunities to upgrade or balance um whether those are external acquisitions uh as we get into
08:46the season or just you know opportunities to to to change the roster a bit based on um the way
08:53some
08:54of the younger guys in in worcester are playing last one for me if uh if there were somebody on
09:00this show
09:01who was a uh a manager on a varsity a high school varsity baseball team should they be in uniform
09:08while uh while managing that team oh wait sorry can you ask that question again yeah yeah if there
09:16was somebody like shyme who is uh the manager of a high school varsity baseball team should he not
09:23based on tradition should he not be in uniform uh on the field with the fellas
09:31yeah uh in all of my exposure to to baseball the manager has worn the uniform uh i'm trying to
09:38think back at what what level that begins but certainly by high school so thank you thank you
09:43very much craig breslow and so i i could not agree more get shyme you right the president's order is
09:49binding yes that is true all right well back to uh back to winning ways hopefully it continues and we
09:57will talk to you again next week sounds good thank you okay all right
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