Alex Cora has signed a contract extension with the Red Sox- should fans be happy?
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00feeling about it Megha? Can I be totally honest? No. It might just be that I've had two energy
00:06drinks today. It might be my medication finally settling into the right dose. I feel fantastic
00:11about this. Like I'm totally taking the cheese on this because if you asked me just a month ago,
00:17maybe two and a half weeks ago, what I thought the future was going to hold for Alex Cora,
00:21I did not think it was going to be a future with the Boston Red Sox. And not even just because I
00:26didn't think that ownership slash the front office, Craig Breslow would come forward with
00:31an offer that was suitable to him. But just because I thought he was over it. I thought
00:35these two sides were just going to walk away from each other. And so I think that this represents
00:41one, that this is ownership, at least looking to pay for something. I know people out there will
00:48say paying Alex Cora, even the second highest salary of managers in the MLB is cheaper than
00:54going out and paying some of these players that you'd like to have on your roster,
00:58but they're still spending money to. According to the Boston Globe, Craig Breslow went out there
01:06to Denver yesterday to close this deal, to get it done in person in comparison with somebody like,
01:12sorry, your guy, Hein Blum, who used to just operate in his war room from Boston,
01:17trying to get things done at the last minute. It feels different. It feels like there is a
01:22different relationship. And maybe that relationship is just because he's making over
01:26seven million a year, but whatever, like I am in on this. I feel great about it. I feel fantastic.
01:32I don't think it's going to be an extreme difference this year, but for the coming years
01:36with the prospects you have coming up with the guys you have under contract, I am so in on this.
01:41This is the team, right? Breslow and Cora, this is your team going forward with this young group
01:45of players that you referenced just now, the three big prospects, assuming none of them get
01:49traded here in the next five days, which I personally wouldn't have a problem with because
01:52I still think you can invest in this team. Despite that bleep show we saw yesterday,
01:58holy mother of God. This is a day that's more about the battle. It is. Or what is it? The war,
02:04not the battle. Exactly. And it was a good move for the war. You lost the battle horribly
02:07yesterday. That was, I mean, that was Gettysburg. But so far, the war is okay. Yes. So far, yes,
02:13I would agree with that. And that's a good move there. You can vote right now on our poll at
02:18Jones and Mego on Twitter. Fantastic is your reaction of Alex Cora's extension. Is it
02:23consciously optimistic? Is it Schmitt? Yeah, great. You got the manager. Make some trades. Or
02:30is it a bad move? Do you think it's a bad move? Do you think Alex Cora has earned this extension?
02:34Do you think that they should have moved on and maybe started the thing Jones,
02:38maybe moved on from Cora. And if you have a new group of young prospects coming up,
02:43start them over with a new manager that doesn't have the same sort of carry over from the old
02:47team. Maybe not some of the same baggage as Alex Cora. I don't know. But some people,
02:51not very many of you, some people did vote for that. Did you vote fantastic back to the
02:56World Series? It sounds like that's where you are. Look, I don't think it's going to be back
02:58to the World Series. Well, that's what the answer is. I wrote it. But I'm saying eventually,
03:03eventually. I mean, I never say never. They're not even a playoff spot right now. But next year,
03:09maybe year after that, I think that this represents something much bigger than just
03:14an extension for Alex Cora. I voted cautiously optimistic, and I wanted to go further than that.
03:21I wasn't quite mad because I do think that Cora, just in this season alone, I think has shown his
03:26value. I think that he's shown you what he's capable of as a manager. He's good at controlling
03:30the locker room. He's good at motivating guys. He's good at getting the most out of players.
03:34I think that that's something he's demonstrated over the course of these last couple of years,
03:39even last year, prior to the deadline when they didn't do anything and then everything fell apart
03:43and they all stopped trying. You could tell that Cora was able to get more out of that roster last
03:47year than maybe some other manager would be able to. I think that that's been demonstrated by him.
03:52So I don't say meh. I say, okay, this is good. In terms of what a manager can add and the value
03:58a manager can add to a major league roster, I'd say Cora's right up there. I don't know if he's
04:02number one in the league. I don't know what each locker room clubhouse dynamics like.
04:06Is there a fangrass column for that?
04:07There probably is, but there's no way I'm clicking on that because I don't want to lose my
04:11computer here. Either way, I don't think it's a bad move. I don't quite think back to the World
04:16Series. I'm cautiously optimistic, and when I say that, it's not even so much about the deal.
04:20It's about the plan. This deal is a good deal, and I like that they're keeping him here,
04:24but the plan going forward is what I want to be cautiously optimistic about because that's what
04:28Cora should be fitting into. He should be part of a larger plan. He's not the only plan. That's
04:33not all we're doing. We're just, all right, we're keeping Alex Cora. Roster's staying the same.
04:37Good luck out there in the second half, guys. That's not a plan. That's just bringing your
04:41manager back and doing it as a distraction for the fact that you're not actually doing anything,
04:46which I'm very worried. This being the Red Sox and all, and with another team, maybe I wouldn't
04:52be— Wait, you went from cautiously optimistic to very worried?
04:54No, I'm cautiously optimistic in the sense that I like that Cora's here. I'm worried,
04:59though. The reason why it's not fantastic is because I'm worried the Red Sox are just going
05:02to say, hey, there's your manager and there's your move. We got Tristan Tassos coming back.
05:07He's not saying that, and it's good that he's not saying that, but in five days,
05:12we'll see what they're really saying. That would be a wild backtrack for him.
05:15It would. It wouldn't be the most wild backtrack this team's had this year.
05:19Right, but for him— Full throttle from the owner would be worse than that.
05:21It would be the biggest backtrack for him personally, who he told Alex Spearer yesterday,
05:26hey, I'm done with all the, what did he say, metaphors?
05:30Stupid metaphors. All the stupid analogies.
05:31And then he said a stupid analogy right after that.
05:32And he said, I'm turning the turn signal on.
05:35Yeah.
05:35And that he picked a lane.
05:37Here's the quote, he says, at some point, we need to stop with the stupid analogies
05:40and put the turn signal on. That's a stupid analogy, Craig. Doesn't fill us with a lot
05:44of confidence.
05:45We don't know. He could have been in a car with Alex Spearer.
05:47Starting now.
05:48He could have said, use your blinker.
05:50That was like a Charlie Murphy, Rick James, grinding my feet in the couch situation. Like,
05:55that's basically what that is. No more stupid analogies. Gotta put the turn signal on. Like,
05:59okay, that's a stupid analogy.
06:02But he's right that they have played good baseball in the last few months.
06:04They're in a position where they should be buying and improving the team.
06:08It's just that they've waited this long to pick a lane.
06:10It's sort of like they waited this long to sign Cora, but they did.
06:13So, okay, that's promising. I think that makes me a little bit more optimistic,
06:18but that's different from this.
06:20This is, is the plan, we're going to move on from our prospects or is the plan, okay,
06:25the prospects and Cora and Breslau, we're going to go into the next, you know,
06:28to next year and beyond.
06:30And that's going to be the plan.
06:31And this year is just going to be whatever we, you know,
06:33whatever we end up with this year, because we don't want to really invest now.
06:36Yeah. I would guess that the plan totally speculating would be a little shop,
06:40a little shop.
06:41You know, they're not going to actually move a prospect that they feel highly about.
06:46The now four prospects that are untouchable don't even dream about that,
06:50but they'll go out and spend a little bit.
06:52He highlighted pitching to Alex Spear of the Globe.
06:55He said that they're focused on pitching.
06:56Like they are every trade deadline, which feels not true, but maybe for him in his past,
07:01personally, it is.
07:02And he said a right-handed batter.
07:04So we'll see what level of player he accomplishes in terms of bringing that in,
07:09how big of an ad it's going to be.
07:11But I do feel that yesterday with as gross as that game was out in Denver,
07:17it was a big, hey, you're winning the war.
07:21Just let that battle go.
07:24Not only getting your ass kicked on the field, but getting bullied by Cal Quantro.
07:28The whole thing.
07:28The whole thing was just really, really unfortunate.
07:31Like it really, it almost put a damper on the news a little bit, you know, like I was
07:35because before the game, I was doing pregame when we got this breaking news.
07:37And it's always great to get breaking news in the pregame.
07:39And I'm talking with Lou about it.
07:40We're all having a great time.
07:41Everything with Cora.
07:42All right, we're going to win this series.
07:44No problem.
07:45This Quantro kid pitching, they'll knock him around.
07:48And then, you know, then like the third inning happened.
07:51Then all of a sudden, it's 13 to 3.
07:53And it got worse.
07:56Yeah.
07:56I mean, even the way that it started with Pavetta.
07:59Yeah, Pavetta.
07:59You're like, holy crap, Pavetta in Colorado.
08:02It is just not something that ever has worked.
08:04I don't know why we're rolling it out again.
08:06Probably because you have no choice because you need another arm in your rotation.