00:00So, Polar Park was a great venue to watch a great game of baseball.
00:04And I watched Franklin Arias take some ground balls at second base,
00:08watch him hit, watch him hit a home run, the whole ball wax.
00:11Yeah, so he's – the two most interesting guys down there are very,
00:17very interesting.
00:18And Franklin Arias and, believe it or not, Christian Campbell,
00:22who's all of a sudden hitting the crap out of the ball.
00:24And not only doing that, he has – I was talking to some hitting coaches,
00:27and they were talking about how he has, like, elite bat speed now.
00:31Not that anyone cares, but he has elite bat speed now.
00:34He's hitting the ball really, really hard.
00:36He seems to have turned a corner.
00:38So, I don't know where you want to start, Franklin Arias or Christian Campbell.
00:42Well, let's start with Arias.
00:43Is there any shot he gets called up?
00:46There is a shot.
00:48And now you know the reason – there would be a better shot
00:50if there wasn't the lockout next year.
00:53And I say that in case people don't know.
00:55So, if he gets called up, he has to be put on the 40-man roster.
00:59Anybody on the 40-man roster now goes on the umbrella of the lockout
01:04so they can't play baseball.
01:06So, their thing is, well, if we put him on the 40-man roster,
01:10then his development might go the other way
01:13because if the lockout lasts a long time, he's not going to be able to play.
01:17Now, I will say this.
01:19I don't care.
01:20Like, if he – if you get a guy on a heater like this guy is,
01:27his OPS is in the high 900s in AA.
01:30It's in the mid-900s for AAA.
01:33He has four home runs already with the Woo Sox.
01:36He has 23 for the year.
01:37He's playing with all kinds of confidence.
01:39Christian Campbell was saying how unbelievably defensively he is.
01:43He plays behind him in the outfield.
01:44Like, all of this.
01:46And sometimes you just get a guy on a heater.
01:48That's fine.
01:48And they've done this before.
01:50Xander Bogarts was 20 years old when he got called up to the World Series run in 2013.
01:55So, I say, why not?
01:57I don't care.
01:59Take your chance with the lockout stuff.
02:01I don't care.
02:02This is part of the solution.
02:03You need as many jumper cables as you can getting through the last couple months
02:07because we've seen what happens if you don't get a little bit of a push
02:11over that five-game losing streak.
02:13Yeah, and that push is certainly important.
02:15It's just there's a lot of names, Brad.
02:17I mean, there's a lot of moving parts here.
02:19A lot of guys coming back from injuries.
02:21A guy like Campbell who, I mean, really everybody kind of forgot about,
02:24but now all of a sudden he's on a heater at a pretty convenient time.
02:27I mean, if Arias isn't coming up, it seems unlikely that Campbell would either.
02:31But, you know, the more hot bats, the better, right?
02:34Like, how do you think this is all going to get managed?
02:37Yeah, it's a good question.
02:39You know, the state with the Arias thing, it's – I think they're just going to ride
02:43out Trevor's story and say, hey, listen, take your time getting back,
02:47go to your rehab assignment, prove that you're healthy, prove that you're the guy.
02:52And if we feel that way, then sure, you're going to play.
02:55But there's also, like, Arias playing second base shouldn't be considered a small thing.
02:59And I know they say, oh, we're moving him around and everything else.
03:02Well, he's playing there, you know, a lot, I think.
03:06And so as good as Anthony Siegler is, you know, if you get a guy like this,
03:14the upside of a Franklin Arias is a very, very powerful thing.
03:18So at least you have to consider that.
03:20Because we saw that Siegler went the other way for a little bit.
03:22I mean, he's been great, no question about it.
03:25But it's not like you're going to roll him out in the postseason like, oh, yeah, yeah,
03:28he's going to be absolutely part of the solution.
03:31Same thing with Sogard.
03:32I don't know.
03:33All I know is this, is that this guy, until he stops hitting,
03:36then you just keep moving him up and you see what you have.
03:40It didn't work out with Mankata.
03:42It did work out with Bogart.
03:43And with Campbell, if he keeps hitting like this, you have Jemai Jones sitting there, fine.
03:49You know, he's a righty off the bench.
03:51Darren Duran, he isn't hitting.
03:52I think that that's more of a stretch to think that Christian Campbell is going to come up
03:56and get significant playing time.
03:58But if he keeps doing this, you've got to at least have a conversation about it.
04:03All right.
04:03Now, Rob, what a week.
04:04Our own Rich Shartley did not ask Chad Tracy about the interim tag.
04:08However, in the front office report, not only did Sam Kennedy declare they will never sell the franchise,
04:14the Fenway Sports Group, and he addressed the interim tag situation.
04:18In case folks missed it, here's that answer, and then I want your reaction.
04:21Yeah, I think, you know, that'll be discussed between him and Brez at the appropriate time.
04:26But, you know, he's, again, it's just obvious to everybody what a great job he's done.
04:31So I know him and Brez will talk about that at the right time.
04:35And truly, truly, he and the front office are focused on the task at hand.
04:41And so that'll get addressed, and we'll go from there.
04:46But, yeah, I mean, it's obviously on everybody's mind.
04:49And let's be honest, it's really important that we have that settled at some point here.
04:55So that conversation will happen between those two guys at some point here soon, I think.
05:01But for now, he eats free at the nines.
05:03What do you think, Rob?
05:05It's really important that we have this settled at some point.
05:08Right.
05:09Um, yeah, yes.
05:11It's on everybody's mind?
05:12It's on everybody's mind.
05:14But as you know, because I tweeted out, and I also directly sent you the screenshot from the Wikipedia page
05:22or whatever AI,
05:23that Jim, because it has to be true, Jim Tracy, his dad, who went on one of the all-time
05:29heaters as an interim manager,
05:31and now a manager of the year in 2009, didn't get his interim tag taken off until I think it
05:37was November 18th.
05:39So it's not like this hasn't happened where a guy has ridden through an interim.
05:44And the other side of that, of course, as we've mentioned a bunch of times, is that if things go
05:48the other way, they go sideways, you don't want to fire another guy.
05:52You get to say, hey, Chad, we appreciate you.
05:54Stay on your Worcester contract and be the manager of Worcester.
05:57I don't think that's going to happen, but they can cover themselves that way.
06:02But the Sam Kennedy thing is just interesting because he's sort of making it seem like we have to settle
06:09this.
06:10We have to figure this out.
06:11You really don't.
06:13But the fact that, like, he's thinking that way, like, lends me to what we've said all along, which is,
06:21here's another.
06:21We talk about jumper cables.
06:23Well, Chad Tracy, everybody, interim, off the title.
06:28He's your manager.
06:29Go get him.
06:30Go win the World Series.
06:31I don't think that would be a terrible thing.
06:33Yeah, I don't think so either.
06:34But I think at this point, everyone knows they're not going to fire him this year.
06:36I mean, you can't – you just had the hottest stretch any team's ever had in the history of the
06:40game.
06:41Like, you know, and there's only a month and a half left in the season.
06:44Like, you're obviously not going to fire him.
06:45So, at this point, it's all just kind of performative, isn't it?
06:49But it's not firing him this year.
06:53It's what do you do next year?
06:54So, in other words, if they go and they get swept in the first round of the playoffs, do they
07:01say, oh, hey, good job, but we have other options?
07:04Again, I don't think that that'll happen.
07:07But this isn't about that they're going to fire the guy and they're going to replace – he's not going
07:12to replace this year.
07:14I mean, that is 110% the case.
07:18But it's just about what they do next year.
07:21And I do think – I don't know how many people disagree with this.
07:24Like, who doesn't think that he's proven enough that he can be the manager for the Red Sox next year?
07:30I don't think anyone thinks that.
07:31Well, no, I think you can be unsure how he'll handle the postseason and whether he's going to be too
07:35big for him.
07:36But wouldn't you say, Bradfoe, that this really comes down to Craig Breslow and if Breslow has, like, a guy
07:41in mind that he wants to hire, not just, you know, promote from AAA, that maybe that's something that's been
07:45going on and the reason why the interim tag's not being removed?
07:50Yeah, maybe.
07:51Maybe.
07:51I mean, that could be the case.
07:55But, you know, this isn't – this is like when we talked the other day, Christian, about, hey, you know,
07:59is this on the mind of Chad Tracy?
08:01Right.
08:01I mean, I can – once again, what's on the mind of Chad Tracy is winning because he can understand
08:07that it's in his court.
08:10If he wins, he leaves Breslow no other options.
08:13I mean, he's probably already left him with no other options, to be honest with you, because he's done so
08:18well.
08:19But he leaves him with no options.
08:21Like, Breslow can say, no, no, no, I have this other guy, Chad Tracy, even though you did this and
08:26you made the playoffs or whatever.
08:27No, like, you could not do that for Craig Breslow, and I don't think he would want to do that.
08:32I really don't.
08:33I think they're just slow playing this.
08:35As I said, I keep coming back to that sort of thing with the dad and other history when it
08:40comes to interim managers.
08:41Sometimes it just doesn't take off until after the year, so be it.
08:45Hey, listen, maybe they'll take it off on the duck boat.
08:47There you go.
08:49That's it.
08:50They'll have a time.
08:51They'll have a big interim sign.
08:52They'll throw it off the duck boat and say, you're our manager.
08:55How about the tea party, right?
08:56The Boston Tea Party.
08:57Exactly.
08:57That would look great.
08:59Perfect.
09:00Throw it to the harbor.
09:02That'd be great.
09:03Finally, Rob, how much merch can you sell at the Field of Dreams game in Iowa next year?
09:08Oh, my goodness.
09:09Are you kidding me?
09:10Well, like, the cornstalk t-shirts are already, like, in production.
09:15If there is a game, right?
09:17If there is a game.
09:18Thank you, Stiz.
09:19That's true.
09:19Good point.
09:21Yeah.
09:21Well, even if there isn't a game, we're going to go.
09:25Well, there's going to be a game.
09:26There's going to be, what is it, August?
09:28August next year?
09:29There's going to be a game.
09:30Like, let it be said.
09:31Let it be done.
09:32Yeah.
09:33Who's the manager?
09:34And basically, and you know what?
09:35You know what?
09:36That could potentially be the second annual baseballs and boring night for the Boston Red Sox.
09:41Wow, yeah.
09:41Every weekend right there.
09:42Should be.
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