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WEEI Red Sox Insider Rob Bradford talks about potential trade possibilities for the team and what it would take to get Yordan Alvarez from the Houston Astros. And it’s a lot.

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00:00But it is 93.7 WEI, home of one of the more frustrating teams that I've ever covered,
00:06the Boston Red Sox. What a difference a day makes. I know, I know. How about our guy Hembo
00:10from ESPN? Fenway runs per game. Lowest ever. 3.21 right now. It's been 28 games. Lower than
00:16the dead ball era. He goes through like years in the 19 teens before they switched the dead
00:21ball. Unbelievable. Ken, I told you the one that makes me just pull my hair out, if I had any,
00:26is the fact that it's May 29th and they've yet to have double digit wins at home. Like this is
00:32insane. They've just stalled out. And Rob Bradford, baseball isn't boring. WEI.com. He's the guy who
00:39got the scoop from Roman Anthony yesterday that contradicted what Sam Kennedy and others had
00:44been saying about his hand injury. And I, but we, we talked about that, but I do want to ask
00:49you,
00:50you had mentioned, you know, this team obviously has to do something. Will Fleming at the end of
00:53the broadcast yesterday was just like, man, they need to make some sort of changes. He's pissed
00:57that he's got to watch this every day. Um, Jordan Alvarez is a name that that's been thrown out
01:02there. God knows we would love to have this guy on the team. What's it going to take? Like,
01:06what can the Red Sox give up? What, what give me a trade scenario in which Jordan Alvarez is a
01:12member
01:12of the Red Sox. It's not going to be comfortable for anybody. And, and this is a, first of all,
01:19I don't think it's going to happen, but it's always dare to dream. And what has to be defined
01:24here is that I'll say it once again, if you get over Jordan Alvarez on this team as currently
01:29constituted, you are a world series contender considering what the American league is for
01:34a couple of different reasons, but what it takes to get Jordan Alvarez is going to be, I mean,
01:41Utah, Franklin Arias, Anthony Ionson, Jaron Duran. I mean, those like literally they'll probably
01:47though. Jordan Alvarez still has caught years on his contract. So he is an elite player
01:53and you're doing it at a time as Craig Breslow says, how tough this is. No kidding. It's tough
01:59to make trades in the season when things don't work out. It is almost impossible. Today is
02:05the, I tweeted this out today is the anniversary of the last time that the Red Sox made a significant
02:11May trade. And that was 23 years ago. Shea Hill and Branford, Byung Young Kim. So this almost never
02:18happens. The giants were able to do it last year to get Devers, but that was because you have to
02:24hit
02:24the sweet spot when it comes to dysfunction, a team wanting to get rid of a guy, which happened here.
02:31And also the money aspect. Well, are you willing to take on the money? You just have to have the
02:37perfect situation. And for your now, Vrez, that isn't the perfect situation because the Astros
02:42could still make a case much like the Red Sox. They have this guy. He's still a centerpiece.
02:48So good luck getting him is what I'm saying. Now, Bradfoe, I know Brez loves pitching,
02:52but I feel like he might do your deal more, more than giving up totally or early who I'm sure
02:57he
02:57loves. But if you had to give up one, I'm sure teams are asking for that. Who do you trust
03:01more
03:01going forward? Connelly early or Peyton Tully? Man, that's a, that's a great question.
03:06Thank you. You're on fire. But I will say this before I answer this is like the way that both
03:13those guys are viewed are dramatically different than even the off season, because now they've
03:18proven they're legitimate. No doubt about it. Middle to top of the rotation, major league
03:24pitchers, at least for now, unless something takes a turn. But, you know, I would probably
03:28go with Connelly early, but just by a very, very slim margin. You'd keep early and trade totally.
03:33Yeah. And, but, you know, I rattled off people what you need for your Alvarez. I, I did a bad
03:39job because you would probably have to integrate one of those guys too. I mean, I don't know if it
03:43was all of those guys, but if you go back to the Joe Ryan trade from a year ago, that
03:49they basically
03:51they, they had offered Peyton Tully and either Franklin Arias or just Nixon Garcia, but they didn't
03:58offer Connelly early. Now it's not even a question. I mean, for a guy like Jordan Alvarez,
04:04he probably right now has more value and will cost you a whole lot more than Joe Ryan did last
04:10off last trade deadline. It's weird. Cause you know, I'm, I'm looking at the Houston Astros record
04:15right now and they're only two and a half games. They've been playing better. Yeah. So I, this
04:19Jordan Alvarez dream might be slipping away. I mean, if you, if you're two and a half games out of
04:25the
04:25wild card, that's, I don't, but guys, can we get it? Not to interrupt, but can we just like
04:30state the, like the reality of what they're facing? Red Sox are facing right now. We knew
04:35coming out of that twin series that seven of the next eight teams that were playing had top or top
04:4110 and ERA in major league baseball for pitching staffs that you're doing, when you go up against
04:47good pitching, you can't hit. We know that about this team. So you're going up against these good
04:52teams. So, and on top of it, everyone's saying, well, you know, they need a Jordan Alvarez and
04:58need to buy, you need to get this guy or that guy. Well, all right, but we're it's rubber meets
05:04the
05:04road time in terms of defining what you are. And when you get to the end of this run and
05:09you end up
05:09finding yourself in Colorado, finally a reprieve in mid June, you might be sitting there six out of
05:16the wild card and the conversation is completely different. Yeah. Yeah. And I suspect that's what
05:22they'll be when they get to the play Colorado. Let me ask you this, Rob. I asked Chad Tracy
05:27this yesterday about just the morale, you know, what's the morale like? He says it's never been
05:32better. Do you, do you agree? What's your, you know, kind of take on just the overall morale of
05:39the team considering, you know, where they're at right now? Yeah. I mean, I think it's fine. And I
05:44think Chad Tracy's done a good job. I think they're, they're optimistic, but it's so weird because you
05:49have a game, like the game that, uh, rich you were like, I know that you had doubled down on
05:54them.
05:54The world series, right? I bet your ass I did, but, but, but here's the thing. Like that's the
06:00reaction of most people. This I've never been around a team that when you hit a ball, the warning
06:06track, it's like you hit it 500 feet. You hit a whole run. It's like you hit it 800 feet.
06:12It's
06:13perfect. And you hit, you win a game. It's like you won 10 games and this is how it feels.
06:19And so
06:20like, and I think that that's how they felt. You had those quotes across the board. They are so happy
06:27after wins. It's kind of nuts, but it's, it's, but that they're listen, they're all, they're like the
06:36kid in the tunnel. Good effort. Nice try. Good effort. Nice try. But, but still like that's, I don't think
06:41that there's any really big dysfunction. I think they, they care about each other. You know, I
06:45think that, you know, Duran gets up there and say, Hey, like when we go in a run, it's going
06:48to be
06:49sick. You know, all that, like, I think they still believe, but we have to face the reality of this
06:54situation. And the reality of the situation is exactly what is happening, especially at Fenway
06:59Park, which is you can't be a contender as currently constituted. Well, to quibble with you on Tracy,
07:05I do not like his bullpen management again yesterday. Well, no, I, I, you, I talk about clubhouse
07:10dynamic. No, no. I, okay. Tracy's had a good job. I mean, he, to bring Weissert in again, the guy
07:15is
07:16proven to be the worst in fireman situations coming in the middle of innings. He cannot do it. And why
07:21you wouldn't extend a Guerrero a second inning or go to Slayton earlier is beyond me. Yeah. I think if
07:28there's one criticism of Chad Tracy is he's had some odd bullpen moves and bringing in a Whitlock
07:33earlier than, than anybody's used to as sort of backfired a couple of times, obviously with Weissert,
07:40you know, a lot of times you do, you have to deal with what you're dealt. And I think that
07:45what happened there in hindsight, it's like, okay, you don't have Whitlock. You can't stretch
07:51yourself out. You have to put Slayton in the Whitlock role, but you have to also, you have to
07:57also know the game is on the line right there. Right. Right. And you also have to know, to your
08:00point, Ken, the Weissert numbers is like, you just can't keep doing this. This is, and somebody said
08:07this, he should have been opening today. Like he should be the opener science and math would
08:12suggest nobody's on base when you open a game. So yeah, but, but yeah, I think that if you're
08:18going to, if you're going to say one thing about Chad Tracy, about how it's sort of a work in
08:22progress, it's definitely the bullpen. Well, it's going to be a interesting couple of weeks here.
08:27I, I, as I said, I mean, I, I, I got my hopes up a little bit when against the
08:32Braves,
08:32they showed a little bit of life and I was just like, damn it, this is kind of nice. It
08:37feels
08:37good to enjoy myself watching this team. It was a pants off dance off, baby. I was covered in peanut
08:45butter and rubbing the walls. You're taking tarps off to a new level when you, when you go below the
08:51waist instead of above. Every tarp was off. Um, but, uh, so let's just hope they do something. Cause I,
08:56I, I can't, you know, I, I know a lot of people are into like, you know, drama of when
09:01a team
09:01sucks. I'm the opposite. I'd rather just watch a team and have a good time and bring people to
09:05Fenway and enjoy it. Now that we have like, okay seats, which is kind of cool. Got the job. I
09:10don't
09:10want, I kind of want to watch a decent product selfishly.
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