- 20 hours ago
Red Sox manager Chad Tracy joins the show from the WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Telethon and talks about how the team is trending, the team being playoff ready, gives some injury updates, and talks about the importance of being involved in the event.
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00:00Chad Tracy joins us.
00:01Thanks for coming here.
00:02We appreciate it.
00:02Thanks for having me.
00:03No problem.
00:04No problem.
00:05Before we get to all the Jimmy Fun stuff, there's been a lot of really good news as far as
00:10people coming back to the team.
00:11You know, we've got Roman tonight in Portland, right?
00:14Yes.
00:14This evening.
00:15That's got to be cool.
00:16Trevor, a story, I believe he was quoted in saying that he might be back as soon as Friday.
00:23Once again, that's a quote from him.
00:24Yeah.
00:25Two things on that.
00:26Do you think that that's a reality?
00:28And also, you know, when he comes back, where do you put him?
00:32You know, because it's a good problem to have, but it is an interesting thing that you're a predicament you're
00:37in.
00:38Yeah, there's dynamics to that as far as the group that's here.
00:42Shortstop's where you put him.
00:43Like, he's a good shortstop.
00:44It's, you know, but as far as when he comes back, like, physically he probably could then.
00:49It's just talking through, like, where is he at physically?
00:51How does he feel?
00:52Like, do we feel like he can play every day at that point?
00:54Do you need to push a few more at-bats?
00:55So, like, we'll have more conversations around that after tomorrow.
00:59He's scheduled to play today and tomorrow.
01:01Okay.
01:01And then we'll have more conversations around that.
01:03Like, do we need to accrue some more at-bats and get together as a group and decide?
01:07But, like, when he does come shortstop with what he's capable of doing, if we get him right,
01:11and the home run ability, like, it makes the most sense, you know?
01:14And then we have to navigate around that reality when that happens.
01:18And how do you navigate Monasterio's role when he does come back?
01:20Mona's got to play, you know?
01:21So, I mean, you guys have seen what he's done over the course of the last month and a half,
01:24how well he's swung the bat versus right and left.
01:27So, you know, we'll look at it.
01:29But, like, you know, he's played, you know, prior to, you know, all the injuries happening,
01:33Mona was sliding all over the place.
01:34Third base, shortstop, second.
01:36He can play second.
01:37So, like, there's realities there where you have to mix and match with other guys.
01:41But, like, keeping him involved in some heavy way is important because of how good the quality of the bat
01:45has been.
01:46First off, your shoes, your kicks are awesome.
01:49They match the shirt.
01:50I love those shoes.
01:52And they do.
01:52They match that shirt.
01:53Those are cool.
01:54I got to get me a pair.
01:55But I want to ask you just the bullpen.
01:56I mean, the bullpen has been one of the biggest strengths for this team all season long.
02:00Yeah.
02:00It looks like it's kind of wearing down a little bit.
02:03Any concerns about the bullpen moving forward?
02:06No.
02:07I mean, you're right.
02:07It's beat up.
02:08I think when you looked, you probably could have, like, looked at our schedule.
02:12You know, obviously I wasn't looking at the big league schedule at the beginning of the year.
02:16But as you got here, you look at the schedule and you saw that first stretch of 16 with the
02:21West Coast swings.
02:22And then this one now we're on the tail end of two games of 16 or 17 in a row.
02:27And, like, you kind of, like, circle those.
02:29And you're like, especially this one, as you approach the end of August, you almost circle that and say, I
02:33wouldn't be surprised if we have some guys banged up at that point.
02:37And not just pitchers, but you look around the league and see some of this stuff happening, oblique, rib, just
02:42different guys.
02:42It's the dog days.
02:43It's been hot.
02:44It's the summer.
02:45And guys start getting beat up.
02:46So we're in that spot, obviously, with Slate and Witt down for now.
02:51Like, we hopefully get them back and work them back to where you got them for the stretch run.
02:54But I think that's why, like, Eric Miller was such an important acquisition.
02:58And you saw Wyatt Olds last night coming from our system in 98 miles an hour with that curveball.
03:03So, like, you have these things.
03:05Every team has it.
03:06And you have to navigate through and find your way through.
03:09We're reaching an off day here soon, which is huge.
03:11And then we play six games and then another off day.
03:14We haven't had that in quite some time.
03:15So that's going to help get some people kind of back to health.
03:18Any good MRI news from Wittlock?
03:20I'm still waiting to hear from the doctors today.
03:23But we'll see what comes of that.
03:24Speaking of pitching, so Peyton Toley, this is the most he's pitched in a season so far.
03:29But, my goodness, like, he has just over the last several times out just evolved into a superstar.
03:36Yeah.
03:37Like, how do you – like, what are your thoughts on that?
03:40Because you know that, you know, obviously this is the most he's pitched.
03:43But, my God, he's pitching better than anybody right now.
03:45Yeah, he's been incredible.
03:47And it was cool the last two, like, two different ways.
03:49It was, like, big, you know, 14 strikeouts in one and then hardly any.
03:52It's a product of the team you're playing.
03:54The Blue Jays put the ball in play.
03:55Yeah.
03:56But did it with fewer pitches and just, you know, weak contact outs.
04:00Like, he can do it in a lot of ways.
04:01He's been amazing.
04:03Watching him navigate, like you said, he's going to reach innings high totals.
04:06With him and Jake doing our very best to, like, try to insert, like, yesterday with Bayo in the pen.
04:12Insert starts to make sure they're on six, seven days rest, as much rest as we can possibly get them.
04:17Yeah.
04:18To navigate through this last month or so of the season and make sure that we manage that.
04:22But he's shown a lot of signs of looking as strong as he has all year at this point, which
04:27is really good to see.
04:30Are you expecting anything from Garrett Cochet this season?
04:33I hope so.
04:35For me to say right now, yeah, I expect this would be, you know, crazy just based on the fact
04:39that he is throwing again.
04:40But it's, you know, short, really short distance and increasing volume.
04:45So, it's hard to say right now if I could say, oh, yeah, we expect this.
04:50I think it would be better to say, like, if we end up getting him there, that becomes a really,
04:54really welcome addition and we can get there.
04:57That's probably a better way of wording it.
04:59And do I think that's going to have him built up to six innings?
05:02No.
05:02I don't even think the calendar will allow for that.
05:04But Garrett Cochet is elite when he's right.
05:08And if you get him right, and even if you were able to get him right and say, hey, he's
05:11built up to be able to go out there and throw three innings or something, like, we'll take that.
05:15But it's just a matter of how he progresses along over the course of the next month.
05:19Chad, we have Durbin and Sigler coming on in about half an hour.
05:21Those guys had a little taste of postseason run last year with Milwaukee.
05:25You have a team that has some postseason experience here and there.
05:27How do you think this team is built for that kind of a run?
05:30I think that's important, like, that piece of it, that those guys were around a playoff team.
05:35You know, obviously we have some guys on our team that were a part of a playoff team a year
05:39ago.
05:39So we're not void of, you know, September meaningful baseball as far as the players on the team, which is
05:45important this time of year that guys have been there and done that.
05:49And obviously with, you know, with Rafa Abreu, if we get Roman back, all these guys were a part of
05:54that.
05:54So, like, they are experienced in playing in pressure September environments, which will be important for us because we're getting
06:03close to that.
06:03What are you watching for in Roman when he's playing in Portland?
06:08I think I know what I'm going to see.
06:10I think for him it's mostly health.
06:11But, like, you just watch the plate discipline piece.
06:14That's always been the number one characteristic of him is he knows what a strike is and what a ball
06:19is.
06:20He knows when to swing and when not to swing.
06:23So I'll just be watching, you know, easy access for me to click and, like, watch the A-Bs, see
06:28where he's at.
06:29Like, what does he look like with his tempo and his rhythm?
06:31Like, what's he swinging at?
06:32But those are things I think first and foremost.
06:34Like, I typically feel like with Roman, if, like, if he's choosing the right pitches to swing at, we're in
06:39a good spot because when he chooses the right one to swing at, he usually hits him really hard.
06:42Yeah, yeah.
06:42So we'll just kind of watch and navigate through that.
06:44And then you communicate with him, like, how are you feeling?
06:46And these guys are honest.
06:47They're pros.
06:48They know how they feel and where they're at with their swing and stuff.
06:50But for me, having been around him a lot, it's pretty obvious to me when he's right.
06:56You can just tell by the swings.
06:57A lot of times you can just tell by the take.
07:00And that's what it is.
07:01It's like, so it takes, like, you noticing that he is kind of back to what he was.
07:06There's no real timetable.
07:07But once you see that, you believe that it's time to call him up.
07:11Yeah, you want to make sure the player accrues enough at bats to feel good about it, you know, because
07:17it's like playing golf.
07:19You know, you don't play golf for a while.
07:20You go out the first time, and you can probably be pretty good.
07:23And the second time you go out, it's horrible.
07:24Yeah, yeah.
07:25So, like, it's allowing them to, you know, okay, it feels pretty good, but, like, accrues some at bats.
07:30Yeah.
07:31And once you start with the player, once you start to feel like you get to that point where you're
07:34like, I've taken five, six, seven pretty good at bats in a row.
07:37Yeah.
07:37It usually means you're controlling your tempo, your timing, you're controlling your load, all those things.
07:42Yeah.
07:42That's usually what leads to success in the batter's box.
07:45So, like, and it's easy to see that, you know, just based on, I said a lot of times it's
07:49based on a take, you know, how aggressive is a take?
07:51Did it look like he's about to offer it something that wasn't even close?
07:54That's, as a hitter, finding the balance on that.
07:56That's cool to me.
07:57You can tell if they're locked in by whether or not they, they don't have to swing the bat.
08:00It's pretty simple.
08:01Right.
08:02If you know they're in hit mode and you see a borderline pitch and it's just a nice, easy, quiet
08:06take, like I saw that right out of the hand.
08:08You can tell.
08:09So, and they can tell, too.
08:11As a hitter, you feel that.
08:12As somebody that's watching, as an evaluator, you can see that.
08:14What, with a little less than 40 games left, what things would you like to see your team improve on?
08:21Maybe a little things, minor things, but what would you like to see in these last rounds?
08:23I'd like to see us play, like, last night a lot, a lot, a lot down the stretch.
08:27Like, last night was great.
08:28Apparently your MIT guy's back, the one who's hacking into the pitch.
08:32Of course he is, yeah.
08:34No, like, last night was, we did everything right.
08:38So many things right that, like, over the, you know, the course of the last week that we had been,
08:43things that made us so good for six-plus weeks was we were, you know, we executed at a high
08:47level.
08:47If we needed a bunt down, we got it down.
08:49If we got people over to third base, we needed a sack fly.
08:52The ball was in play.
08:53The starts were great.
08:55The bullpen.
08:56Do you call that situational baseball at all?
08:58Is that what you guys referenced?
08:59Situational baseball was exceptional.
09:02We were really good at it.
09:03It's what made us good.
09:04We did a nice job of getting on.
09:06We talked with you guys a lot about getting on starting pitchers where you build a lead.
09:11Yeah.
09:11Play from the lead, and then you're now facing maybe the middle part of a team's bullpen instead of the
09:15back end.
09:16Yeah.
09:16This last week, we kind of weren't doing those things.
09:19You know, we were playing from behind, having trouble scoring off starts.
09:22Weren't executing as well.
09:24But you go through spurts like that in a baseball season.
09:27It happens.
09:28Like, there are periods where, like, you get to those dog days and the focus lacks a little bit.
09:32And then yesterday, we were locked in, focused, and did everything right.
09:36We got great pitching.
09:37The bullpen was good.
09:39We executed situationally.
09:40We got hits.
09:41A bunch of guys that needed to start to feel some good swings again felt them.
09:44So that type of game, we don't have to win, you know, whatever, 11-1 every night.
09:49But, like, that type of execution is what we need.
09:52And I think the focus will be there with this stretch coming up and these guys knowing we're getting closer
09:55to September.
09:56Like, that's the kind of focus we need.
09:57Well, I'm not going to say that it's karma, but you guys with the Red Sox have walked the walk
10:01when it comes to helping out with the Jimmy Fawn.
10:03Yeah.
10:03So, I mean, you know, yesterday, it's like, I mean, you guys are all in, which has been awesome.
10:08It's been great talking to all the different players.
10:09We've got even more coming up.
10:11So, I mean, obviously, that's something that not only means a lot to the players, but I would have to
10:15think that just around the team, this means a lot to you guys.
10:17Yeah, this is cool for me because, like, I've been watching this from afar for four years.
10:21You know, like, I know this event, never been around it like this.
10:25I didn't know all this is going on.
10:27Well, welcome.
10:27So, we watch in Worcester in my office, and you see the telethon days, and you get to watch, like,
10:31what's going on, and you have a very good sense from where I was at that, like, all right, this
10:35means a lot to the organization.
10:36But then when you actually are here in it and see it, you're like, yeah, this means a lot to
10:40the organization.
10:41No joke.
10:41Yeah, yeah.
10:41This is a big operation, but it's cool.
10:45It's cool to be a part of it.
10:46It's cool to see our players be a part of it.
10:49Obviously, it's a topic in cancer that, like, affects, I bet, everybody in this room, if you said you know
10:53somebody in your personal life that's been affected by cancer, the answer would probably be yes.
10:56I have a handful.
10:58So, it touches a lot of people as far as this topic, and to see what our organization does to
11:04help raise funds for the families and for research, it's an amazing thing.
11:08Could you kind of feel the emotion last night just in the park and, you know, so many people around
11:13it just –
11:13It's cool watching the other team had the T-shirts on.
11:15That was awesome.
11:16That was cool.
11:16Like, I didn't see that at first.
11:18I walked out, and, like, they had them on.
11:19So, like, it's – again, to me, that speaks to a team that's coming in that's not really involved in
11:24it, but, like, but the people look and say,
11:26yeah, that matters to me because it affects everybody.
11:29Everybody in some way, whether it's directly or, you know, if it's a family member or a friend, has some
11:34type of experience with dealing with that,
11:35and it means a lot to a lot of people, and you could feel that last night.
11:38Yeah, it's such a great event, and it is cool to be in the middle of it.
11:41This is my first year as well doing this.
11:43So, as I said, it's overwhelming in a good way.
11:46Yeah, no question.
11:46And seeing that number is overwhelming, too.
11:483.4 million, which is great.
11:50Chad, hopefully you get another one like we did last night.
11:52That would be awesome.
11:53The blowouts are fun.
11:54They are.
11:54Yeah.
11:54Yeah.
11:54Yeah.
11:54Yeah.
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