00:00Well, Greg, let's begin with your Boston Red Sox.
00:02Another loss to the Twins yesterday in a disappointing fashion.
00:056-0 loss.
00:07Alex Cora talked after the game, though,
00:09and he's trying to stay positive at least a little bit, Greg.
00:12Here was Alex Cora.
00:13It's tough.
00:14Show up tomorrow, win a game, and it's a 500 trip, and then go home.
00:17That's the way you get to see it.
00:18There's no other way.
00:20Obviously, we lost a series, but tomorrow we win.
00:24It's a 3-3 road trip, and then you go home and play better.
00:28All right, so we're happy with a 500 trip on the road now.
00:31That's what we're happy with.
00:33Okay.
00:33I feel like the only thing that's keeping them, like,
00:37their mouth barely above water is because he's probably looking at the division
00:42and going, all right, the rest of the team's in division.
00:44No one's, like, running away with it.
00:46Yeah.
00:46And I'm not saying that they need to – for them to really, you know,
00:51get their shoulders above the water, they need to go on a winning streak,
00:54but I don't know if they can do that.
00:55Yeah, but, Wiggy, it's like that saying, like,
00:57you've got to get your house in order before you worry about anybody else.
01:01And right now, what's in order for them?
01:03The pitching is atrocious.
01:06They stranded four – they went 0-4-4 with runners in scoring position
01:10when they were even in that position last night.
01:12Right.
01:13The offense is almost completely bare.
01:15No, no, I agree with you, Mago, but I'm saying it's like, all right,
01:18you know what?
01:19We live in a crappy neighborhood.
01:21Our house might be the worst on the block,
01:23but the nicest house on the block isn't very nice,
01:26where that's the thing in the division that they're in.
01:29They're probably – you know, they know they've got to take care of their house,
01:32but they're still at least looking and going, okay,
01:34no one else is really running away with this division where we have to make
01:39a major, major run.
01:40If they go on a four- or five-game win streak, aren't they right in the mix of –
01:44It's April 15th.
01:46Why are we – like, if we have 130 games left.
01:49I know, but we're just having the conversation now about how they could be viewing it.
01:52They're probably thinking, like, all right, if we get hit a four- or five-game win streak,
01:55we're right back at the top of the division.
01:57Does Alex Cora seem happy to you so far this season?
02:00No, no, he doesn't.
02:01I agree with you, Greg.
02:02I think there's something else going on where he just looks checked out for whatever reason.
02:09I don't think he likes working with all these younger players.
02:12I agree.
02:12I just don't.
02:13I think his coaching style fits the journeyman, veteran, I've been in the league forever guys.
02:20It's just – I don't think he is comfortable coaching a bunch of young players
02:26like Marcelo Meyer and Sedan Rafaela and Roman Anthony and – like, keep on going down the list.
02:32I just don't think his mentality is meant for that.
02:35Well, and it's made worse because that is – and he acknowledged it.
02:38We talked about it yesterday.
02:40That's the business model going forward for this baseball team.
02:44So, what?
02:47But then how does that make sense when we know our two scoops in the building,
02:52Mago and Curtis, are plugged in saying –
02:54No, no, no.
02:55Don't associate me with scoops right now.
02:57I don't want investigations into my life.
03:00But to your point, how does that work when – if the organization wants to go that way
03:05and Cora is safe but Cora doesn't like managing young players, doesn't that seem like those
03:11two things don't go together?
03:12No, he doesn't want to manage.
03:13He wants to general manage.
03:15Right.
03:15But so then maybe they'll fire him and, I don't know, move him upstairs?
03:21Right.
03:21But even if he wants to general manage, doesn't it go against the way they want to do things?
03:26With younger players?
03:28He wants older veterans?
03:29I think the Red Sox recognize when we do any poll about the status of the team,
03:36how little blame Cora receives from the fan base.
03:38And then if they fired Alex Cora and they're stuck with Breslow and that crew,
03:43that all the shots that would go to anybody else go directly to John Henry.
03:47And Cora, knowing this, is actively passive-aggressively kind of throwing everybody under the bus
03:56and then getting angry when somebody accurately quotes him.
03:59But I don't blame him for it because the roster that he was given is looking like it's not so
04:06great.
04:07Like, I mean, I don't know.
04:10Are they better than their record?
04:11Yes.
04:12I think so.
04:13Yeah.
04:13Are they?
04:14Yes.
04:14I think so.
04:15The pitching, before the season started, Greg, we all thought the pitching was an actual improvement over last year.
04:21Yes.
04:21They've just been terrible.
04:23Okay, so maybe you thought wrong, though.
04:25But, like, I don't think so.
04:27On paper, they should be better than this.
04:29Was Craig Breslow wrong about Sonny Gray so far?
04:32Bres is never wrong.
04:34Okay.
04:35Good one.
04:36Only early, Greg.
04:36Was he wrong about Durbin?
04:38Yes.
04:39Yes.
04:39Yeah.
04:40I think he's wrong.
04:41Yes.
04:41What do you mean?
04:42Maybe.
04:42Maybe.
04:43Are you waiting to form an opinion about Durbin?
04:47It's early.
04:47Never wrong, only early.
04:49Yeah.
04:49He's definitely, the decisions that he made, these guys are not panning out.
04:52So it looks like, Craig, you were wrong about.
04:55I mean, can you anticipate what's happening?
04:58If you're the chief baseball officer, are you supposed to anticipate what's happening with Trevor's story?
05:05I mean, yes.
05:06He's had one good year.
05:08So, like, you've got to be prepared for that.
05:10Like, he overachieved last season.
05:14And never mind hitting the ball.
05:16He can't do anything in the outfield.
05:19He's got, I don't know, 14 errors or whatever he's got right now.
05:2211 errors.
05:23Like, I, I, like, I mean, it's shortstop.
05:26Yeah, but you wouldn't expect that.
05:27You wouldn't expect him to have that many errors.
05:28Same with, like, Sedan Raffaella in the field.
05:30Like, those are the things you expect to be sticky stats that last season, overseason.
05:34I agree with Curtis.
05:35Like, hitting-wise, you should probably expect some decline from Trevor's story compared to last year.
05:40But in the field, you shouldn't be responsible for being like, yeah, this is who this guy's been his whole
05:44career.
05:45And now he's playing, like, dog water.
05:46Right, he's been a good fielder.
05:48And you're right, because I think, Sean, that's a great point.
05:50When you think of Sedan Raffaella, he's making mistakes out there.
05:53And you're like, all right, that's not who he is.
05:55Well, also, though, I mean, going back to the point of the roster, which we said weeks and weeks ago,
06:01you're going to pick apart the ticky-tack mistakes when the margin for victory is as slim as it is
06:07with the talent on your roster.
06:08Yeah.
06:09So, really, it's just everything blows.
06:10If you're going into it saying, as Alex Cora did, and I don't know that it's his philosophy.
06:17I think he was being a good company guy, but said on this show not that long ago that they
06:24believe they can win games by scoring, you know, two, three runs here and there.
06:28But, Meggo, you're right.
06:29Not when the margin of error is that small.
06:33You can't give runs away left and right.
06:36And you still have to go out and score the two or three or four that you're hoping get you
06:40a win.
06:40I think Cora would be, if you asked him, he would be like, I don't know what's going on with
06:45my pitching staff.
06:47I did not expect this.
06:49So, when he's saying we're going to win games, you know, with two, three runs, he's thinking that Crochet, Sonny
06:56Gray, Ranger Suarez, Early, Bale,
07:00those guys are going to go out there and only give up two, maybe three runs.
07:04He doesn't think that they're going to go out there and give up seven, eight, nine, ten runs.
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