- 4 minutes ago
Interim Red Sox manager Chad Tracy joined the show to discuss a report that the team has discussed giving him the full time job, Payton Tolle’s daily salute & his performance, an injury update on Garrett Crochet, and playing the hot hand in the playoffs.
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00:00Chad, thanks for coming on with us again, buddy.
00:02What's up, guys? How we doing?
00:04Hey, doing good. Let's just go ahead and start right off with this,
00:07because I saw this article that just came out today from Buster Only,
00:11and I'm just going to read right from it.
00:13It says, quote,
00:14Manager Chad Tracy has been working under an interim tag all season,
00:18something of a head-scratcher.
00:20It may be that the two sides talked about the idea of an extension in midseason,
00:25but set aside the topic for the offseason.
00:28And then he wrote, but Boston is now expected to retain both Craig Breslow
00:31and Tracy.
00:32First of all, congratulations, according to that.
00:34And second of all, did you speak with anyone about an extension at any point
00:40this season, as Buster suggests in his article?
00:44We haven't gotten fully into the weeds.
00:46We've beat around the bush on different things with the goal in mind of keeping
00:52our focus on what we're trying to accomplish on the field.
00:55So, certainly, you know, would welcome it, wouldn't rule it out,
00:59but, like, the focus right now is so, so centered on the field in between the lines.
01:05But that's good to hear that at least that there was some sort of vague dialogue
01:09at some point in the season, right?
01:12Yeah, there's, I mean, it's certainly, you know, obviously it's, you know,
01:16it's not just been completely ignored, you know,
01:19but I just think that the tenor of everything has been on trying to continue
01:23to push the group over the finish line on what's currently happening, you know,
01:28and keeping the focus there.
01:30So, in the meantime, if something was able to get done, great,
01:33but, like, we really are focused on the field.
01:35Speaking of Buster only, Chad, he had a guy from ESPN on his podcast, Hembo,
01:39and according to his research, the Red Sox really struggle against pitches
01:43of 97 miles an hour velocity or greater, worse than baseball.
01:46Is that accurate per your numbers?
01:48And if so, what's something you can do to get around that, work on it?
01:53Well, I would say that I don't know what the numbers would spare out
01:58across the whole league, but I would venture to guess that there's quite a few teams
02:01that struggle against fastball velocity of 97, 98, 99 miles per hour.
02:06That's why those guys, typically starters, too,
02:10the reason those guys get paid so much money is they generally,
02:12they get paid to miss bats.
02:16So, that's part of it.
02:17That being said, like, when you get into settings at the end of the season,
02:21like we're in now, or, like, if you get into playoff settings,
02:24that's why you watch those games all the time,
02:26and it's often, like, one-to-one in the eighth, right?
02:30Like, there's so many games that are decided by one swing of the bat.
02:33It takes one.
02:35You know, like, yesterday, Sogar gives us a two-run homer,
02:37and we end up with the base load later, and, like, you're, you know,
02:39despite, obviously, I think yesterday we struck out 15 times,
02:42which is a season high for us that we've had a couple of times,
02:45although generally we're a pretty ball-and-play team,
02:48but we're still, like, one ground ball single away from potentially winning that game.
02:53So, do you like strikeouts?
02:56Like, especially with our club and what we've watched over the summer,
02:58like, no, do I want to see us put the ball in play more, you know, with two strikes?
03:04Absolutely.
03:05But do I also acknowledge there are certain games you play
03:08and certain teams you face or certain pitchers you face, rather,
03:11that they're just, they're paid to and do a really good job of missing bats?
03:16Yes.
03:16So, you've got to be opportunistic in those games.
03:19So, Chad Tracy, what can you tell us about the Peyton Tully salute you get every day?
03:24There's nothing crazy about that.
03:26It's just something, he's totally imagined his personality.
03:29You guys know it well enough now.
03:30He'll walk into the locker room and he'll go to that locker room hallway,
03:33go right by my office before, to the right, the player's lounge,
03:37or the player's locker room, to the left is my office,
03:39and he goes in the doorway and just gives me a little salute
03:42as he walks in before he goes on his way.
03:44So, something he started doing pretty regularly from when I first got here,
03:48and it gives me a chuckle every day.
03:49It's my day going the right direction, and typical Tully.
03:54You know what?
03:54We were talking about Tully, and the great thing about him,
03:57obviously outside of his personality, which is just fantastic.
04:00The way he smiled before he did that immaculate inning, that's such a great clip.
04:06But also, he has over-delivered, I think, on what any of our expectations were,
04:11and I'm not sure if it was the same with you.
04:14I mean, he's been excellent this season, which leaves you with kind of a tough problem,
04:19and that is, you know, if everything goes to plan, this team most likely makes the playoffs.
04:23Like, what will you consider when putting together the starting pitching and their orders?
04:28Because right now, Tully's making it, he's inserting himself in this story.
04:36Yeah, for sure.
04:36No question.
04:37I think you guys are, I think that's well said.
04:39Like, you know, he got his first opportunity a year ago, you know, being that, I mean,
04:46quickly through the minor leagues, right, gets to the big leagues in his first full season.
04:50And I think showed flashes of, like, things last year that you're like,
04:54that were flashes of things that were enough to be really excited about,
04:57but also flashes of things where you're like, yeah, but man, he's still got a lot of work to do,
05:01right?
05:01Yeah.
05:02That was obvious even for me watching from afar.
05:05And then fast forward to the very next season, and you look at it and go,
05:09well, a lot of those things he had to work on, he already kind of took care of that.
05:14And I still think there's stuff to work on.
05:15Like, that's what's great about him is I still think that, you know,
05:20there's ability to improve the arsenal, improve the breaking balls.
05:24But, like, he, the biggest thing was he went into the offseason,
05:27he came back with a usable changeup, a pretty good breaking ball,
05:30a cutter that's very usable, and then he's landing all those pitches in the zone.
05:34And all of a sudden you look up and see a guy that's become, like, you know,
05:38center stage in our rotation.
05:39So, and then the second part, yeah, those are, we haven't gotten there yet.
05:44Those are conversations that you have to have as far as you creep towards,
05:49you know, hopefully, like, I don't take anything for granted.
05:51We've got to get our job done and finish it off.
05:53But you creep towards a postseason setting.
05:57And I think that's where it becomes very easy if you're, if you, you know,
06:01if you've won a division, you're going to advance to a division round
06:03and you have five-game series and you have, you know, everybody's going to throw.
06:06But if you have to play in a wild-card series,
06:08you're going to have to be diligent about how do you want to do this
06:10because you only get one shot in a three-game series.
06:13So, we haven't, we haven't, haven't gotten there yet.
06:17But, but obviously what Peyton's doing can't be ignored.
06:21Chad, you're probably, too, if you can advance to a division round,
06:24you're going to probably need Garrett Crochet maybe at some time.
06:27I'm just curious, you know, he's been ramping things up here,
06:29getting closer to maybe being able to pitch in live games.
06:33What's your, where's he at?
06:34And what's, what's your thinking maybe with him once the playoffs come?
06:39Well, he threw a, he threw a side a couple days ago, like an up-down side.
06:44That was the biggest volume he's had.
06:46He's been doing sides, right?
06:47But like this was the first time he did like a side where he threw 15 or so pitches,
06:52sat down, and then threw 15 or so more.
06:56So, and then he gets through that.
06:58Again, you're only a few sides into this build back up, right?
07:04So, as you approach this weekend, going into next week, you at least,
07:08we got to see how he responds today to what he did yesterday,
07:11or at least the next couple days, because that's a big step of it all, right?
07:14He does his work, and then you kind of wait the next two days,
07:16see how the shoulder responds, see how the body's feeling.
07:19And then you go from there.
07:21So, the big thing with him has been, we're not, you know,
07:25don't have this full roadmap laid out.
07:27You have an idea of where you'd like to get to,
07:29but it's so dependent because of how long he's been out on how he's going to be feeling.
07:34So, at some point, you'd hope, like, you know, can we get him, you know,
07:37if it's not on a rehab, if we can't meet that time,
07:39is it even a live VP of some kind where he has a couple innings worth of pitching to hitters?
07:47If we can get in there, then you start to look in those settings, like,
07:51all right, what does this look like, and then how does he feel?
07:54Because that's going to ramp up the intensity even more.
07:56As soon as you get on the mound and set a hitter in there,
07:59these natural progressions just organically increase the intensity.
08:03You know, as a pitcher, when you see a hitter standing in there,
08:05you're going to ramp up the velocity a little bit.
08:09So, as he crosses those different thresholds, you see from there,
08:14where is he at and decide, is this realistic or not?
08:16And sorry, that's long-winded, but the second part of that is, you know,
08:21how do you envision using him?
08:22Like, it's hard to say.
08:23Let's first get him back.
08:25Let's see if we can get him back first.
08:26And if you do, it's likely in a bullpen role because we're not going to have
08:29the length in the calendar to stretch him out beyond that.
08:33Chad, you have a guy in AAA, Braden Ward, who stole his 58th base,
08:37set a single-season record.
08:38Would you consider bringing him up to be a late-inning base dealer?
08:43I think that'd be considered for sure.
08:45I mean, you have to look as we get closer, another futile exercise,
08:49because you guys have seen the amount of injuries and different things that can happen.
08:53I mean, over the course of the last three weeks, different guys that have gone down.
08:57So it's really hard to predict what a roster could look like,
09:01but you definitely can't ignore a 60th stolen base player, you know.
09:05So how does that fit?
09:07Like, what does the rest of the roster look like?
09:09And you remember gaming for, you know, a pinch runner is oftentimes it's like a last resort,
09:14ninth inning, you're trailing kind of thing.
09:16So you also, whoever that extra person on the roster, you have to consider, well, you know,
09:21is having a defender better or another right-handed bat.
09:24So, like, there's a lot to consider that we haven't gotten to there yet,
09:27but I'll answer that just by saying I know Braden, obviously, managing a little while,
09:31and we're well aware of what he's doing with his legs, obviously.
09:34So, Chad Tracy, with the playoffs coming up, how do you, like,
09:39how much weight do you put into postseason experience over someone who's just the hot hand?
09:46Like, if there is a player, because there's a couple guys, obviously, right now.
09:49We were talking about Sogard, by the way.
09:51I mean, that's insane how, you know, he's had five home runs, I think, in the last 24 games,
09:55and before that, for, like, 90-something, he didn't have any.
09:58So you want to talk about a guy who's, like, all of a sudden he's caught fire.
10:01We all know about Mickey Gasper.
10:02How much weight do you put into riding the hot hand when you're getting a roster ready for the playoffs?
10:08I think you got to put, it just depends on what specifically you're talking about.
10:12I mean, like, Sogard's case, like, he's been awesome, by the way.
10:15I'm glad you mentioned him.
10:16But, like, but, I mean, he's got both, right?
10:18Like, this guy was thrust directly into the middle of the playoff atmosphere last year.
10:23You know, not anything that anybody expected with the amount of guys that got banged up.
10:27And Nick Sogard and Nate Eaton were playing pivotal roles in a postseason series in Yankee Stadium.
10:32So Sogey's well accustomed to a playoff atmosphere plus what he's been doing.
10:38But I think each of those things are looked at individually based on, you know, whether it's a hot hand
10:45or what's the quality of that and who you're comparing it against.
10:48And, again, that's hard to do right now.
10:51You can have your ideas right now.
10:53But, like, what does that specifically look like at the end of September when the season's getting ready to wrap
10:59up?
10:59Like, who's healthy?
11:00Who's actually on the roster?
11:01And then you go from there.
11:05So sometimes as things go along and a guy gets banged up, like, sometimes those questions just answer themselves.
11:11You know?
11:12I hope that they don't.
11:13I hope that everybody that we need to get healthy gets healthy, and it forces us into a position to
11:18have to make decisions.
11:20Hey, Chad, considering it wasn't the best, you know, start in his rehab starts in AAA, you've got to be
11:26tickled pink that Trevor Story has been hitting the ball like he has.
11:30What's it been like to have him back in your lineup there?
11:35Yeah, he's a leader, man.
11:36It's more so just the presence in the locker room and how well-respected he is in the locker room.
11:41So having him there has been great.
11:42And you're right.
11:44Like, him and Roman, they took extra time, much of it designed around their need for at-bats and where
11:50our roster currently was.
11:53And to see both of them.
11:54I know Roman has some strikeouts, but, like, man, he's hit three or four home runs.
11:57He's really hitting the ball hard.
11:58Trevor's at-bats have been good.
12:01You know, he's knocked the run.
12:02He's had some, I don't know, three or four big-time late-inning at-bats with people on base.
12:08So I think everything went as well as it could as far as how long we had to wait for
12:13them and the rehabs dragging out and making sure that they were where they needed to be before they got
12:17here.
12:18Chad, any update on Tyron Guerrero's return and Raffaella?
12:23We'll see how Ty is today when we go in there.
12:26He's obviously came with us, been doing some throwing, so we'll see what we got there when we get in
12:29there.
12:30And Raffa's just at home in Boston.
12:31He's continuing to do his running progression.
12:35He had been doing some jogging and stuff.
12:37And over the course of this few days while we're in Texas, was scheduled to start ramping that running with
12:44more intensity and sprint-type variety.
12:46So, really, that'll be easier to answer after a couple more days and see where he's at.
12:52So, with the end goal of, like, we got to get him completely healthy.
12:56So, we'll see as he goes through.
12:59I mean, he'd been hitting, throwing, all that was fine.
13:02We'll see as he continues to go through more high-intent running, how he responds to it, and if we
13:07can speed him up, slow him down, or whatever is required from there.
13:10Well, Chad, if Buster only is right, congratulations once again on soon no longer being an interim manager.
13:17Way to go, Chad.
13:18Way to go.
13:20Pop the champagne.
13:22But thanks for coming out with us, man.
13:23And, you know, good luck as we kind of, it's what, five?
13:27We're getting closer there.
13:28Magic number is what, five still?
13:30Yep.
13:30All right.
13:31Yeah, it's closer.
13:32Yeah, it is, man.
13:33And it's going to be fun to watch.
13:35So, thanks, Chad, for coming out with us.
13:36We really appreciate it.
13:37All right, guys.
13:38Thanks for having me.
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