Latest / Who's On First? / Episode 1- Alex Cora Fired, Is Rob Thomson Next?
Transcript
- -: Well, hello, hello and welcome to Who's On First. This is the Monday, April 27th edition. My name is Joseph Lund and I'm so excited that you are joining me for the very first episode of this new podcast. I'm so excited to be beginning this, a little bit about me. As I mentioned, my name is Joseph Lund. I'm a senior in high school. I do play-by-play broadcasting. I also play baseball. And in addition to that, I'm an avid baseball fan. So it is an absolute pleasure and a joy to be bringing this podcast to you and getting to do what I love and that is talk baseball. So what am I going to be talking about on this show, the Who's On First Show? It's going to be daily storylines. I'll be talking about the biggest series as well as free agents, trades as that comes up in the season. I'll be giving you some rankings as well as my opinions on certain things and so much more. I'm super excited to be Beginning this and I have a lot of ideas on how to make this show better different content I want to be bringing all of you. So without further ado, why don't we get to that content? We're starting off We had some big news over the weekend Red Sox announced that they are firing longtime manager Alex Cora This was announced on Saturday night just hours after the Red Sox won 17 to 1 over the Orioles Cora was entering his ninth season in Boston as a manager, 620 wins all time, which is third all time in Red Sox history. One of those big wins obviously includes the 2018 World Series Championship. Also on Saturday, it was announced that Chad Tracy from AAA Worcester was named the interim manager for now. And with Cora obviously very early in the season, was this firing announced much to the shock of many baseball fans as well as the Red Sox players. And this has just been a big trend as of recently in sports. Originally, it was mainly football. Now we're seeing it more and more in baseball. This trend of manager firings. Last year was a record year. Nine managers parted ways with former teams. That includes Derek Shelton of the Pirates, Brandon Hyde. of the Orioles that was mid season. Bud Black, this was a shocking one. The tenured Rockies manager last year being fired mid season. Also Dave Martinez of the Nationals fired mid season last year in July. Brian Snitker of the Braves parted ways with his team, as well as Rocco Baldelli of the Twins. Also Bob Melvin. And then on a mutual parting of ways, the eighth and ninth managers to be leaving teams last year was Bruce Bochy. and Ron Washington. And this has been something that we've been seeing a lot more in baseball, basketball, and football all over sports is kind of the use of a manager, sometimes 100 % warranted firing of a manager. But also a lot of times a manager can be used a little bit as a scapegoat. That's what a lot of people are bringing to the table with this Red Sox firing. ⁓ Cora was by no means a mediocre subpar manager. going through his years as a Red Sox. In 2018, that was his first year. Obviously, we remember that one. They led to the team to an 108 and 50 record. That was a franchise record in regular season wins. They also brought home the commissioners trophy that year winning the World Series. 2019, they missed the playoffs, but still were above 500. Then in 2020, there was a lot of trauma with Cora. He was obviously tied to the Astros sign stealing scandal. And so he served his one year suspension that year. Then in 2021 came back, got right back to it, winning 92 games and reaching the ALCS where they ultimately lost. Then in 2022, they went 78 and 84 as well as 2023, both those years they went last place in the AL East. In 2024, they went 81 and 81. They brought the team back to 500. And then last year, solid team as they went 89 and 73. They got a wild card birth, however, fell to the Yankees. Then this year in twenty twenty six, obviously not off to the start you wanted sitting at ten and seventeen, just seven games below five hundred, obviously early into the season. But this was a team that a lot of people had high expectations for. And it was a team that the Red Sox spent some big money for. They brought in Ranger Suarez. Over the offseason, the big signing there, they obviously had Garrett Crochet and Trevor Story and then that young core with Jaron Duran and Romeo Anthony. Along with guys like Caleb Durbin, this was a team that a lot of people expected to be contending for the top spot in the AL East. Obviously, that's not at all completely out of the question. However, going to be tough with the start they've had so far. And so as we look at this, lot of times players stay quiet on certain things like this. However, that's not the case with these Red Sox players. Right after it was announced, the firing Trevor story, you said, quote, I was shocked by the decision. I think it is a fair way to put it. He continued that those are some of the best coaches in the world. Obviously our performance on the field kind of cost them their job, their story being brutally honest. A lot of this was not up to the coaches. A lot of it was the players. We also heard from Garrett Crochet who said, we've been playing terrible. And then this kind of feels like those guys paid the cost of our own crime. So there you see two dugout leaders being very blatant and honest about maybe where the cause to this bad start was occurring. When you look at the lineup for the Red Sox, When you look at the lineup for the Red Sox, looking at OPS +, which is a metric used to determine whether a player is hitting above league average. 100 is league average. Currently, Roman Anthony hitting below at an OPS +, below 100. Marcelo Mayer, below 100. Carlos Novaya is below 100. Jaren Duran, below 100. Caleb Durbin, below 100. And Trevor Story, below 100. I could keep going, but you get the point. The pitching has not been much better among the five starters. Garrett crochet. Obviously the big top dog in that rotation. Many believe him to be one of the top arms in baseball this year in six games started a 6.3 ERA. Same thing with Brian Bayo at nine ERA through five starts. Sunny Gray of 43 ERA in five starts and Ranger Suarez. of four ERA in five starts. So to pin this all on Alex Cora is pretty tough, obviously. The front office looking for a scapegoat and time and time again, that tends to be the manager. And so now looking forward for the Red Sox, some emerging names to possibly be the new head coach, obviously, Chad Tracy, the current interim manager. This is his job to lose. ⁓ Obviously, just name the Red Sox manager. If he can right the ship and get them back to their winning ways that a lot of people expected, you could expect him to be named the full-time manager. Other names being floated around include Rocco Baldelli, who played with the Red Sox in 2009. That's a younger manager, as well as David Ross, who managed the Cubs for four season. He also has a personal connection to the team as he played with Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow. He won 83 and 79 in his final year in Chicago before being replaced by Craig Council. I expect when the Red Sox are doing this job search, they're going to look for a younger manager. ⁓ Breslau is a younger guy and he's a very analytical guy. The Red Sox are one of these teams we're seeing where they're shifting to more analytics-based, more match-up-based. And so I don't expect a guy like, say, Brian Snicker or Bud Black to be getting the call. Expect one of these younger guys in a ball deli or a David Ross. Or also, if they wanted to go internal, A name you could look at is Andrew Bailey. He's the surviving pitching coach, one of the few coaches not fired. He's seen as a potential internal candidate. He also fits that Breslau analytical vision that they want for the future of the Boston Red Sox. Obviously, that will be determined later. For now, it's Tracy's job to lose. And so one thing you got to think about, how is Rob Thompson and the Phillies looking at this situation? The PR so far from all this in the media has not been great for the Red Sox. A lot of people getting mad at the front office instead of mad at Cora. In fact, a lot of people taking Cora's side. And it seems so far that the Phillies have taken the player route when it comes to who to cast the blame on this terrible start that they're having, finding themselves in last place in the NL East. Just yesterday, they DFA'd Tywan Walker. Walker, obviously a well-known pitcher in the big leagues. To start this year, a 9-1-3 ERA in 22 and 2 thirds innings pitched. He's given up 36 hits, eight home runs, and he has a 353 opponent average. So that was a no-brainer when it comes to the DFA. That made space for Zach Wheeler to join the team. So a possible Brighter. Brighter. That made space for Zach Wheeler to join the team. So perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel for the Phillies in this skid. We talk about the players when it comes to a slump. Bryce Harper, the lone offensive spark for the Phillies. He's hitting 313. He has six home runs. He's got 12 walks and 14 strikeouts. That's incredible numbers from the former MVP. ⁓ Kyle Schorber on the contrary however 40 strikeouts in 28 games played in a hundred and two at bats. He's now hitting below 200 he's gonna need be someone that the Phillies need to flip a switch if they want to get back into the race in the NL East especially because they're gonna need to catch the red-hot Atlanta Braves who on Sunday were the first team in the MLB to reach 20 wins also tip of the cap to Chris sale who pitched on Sunday against the Phillies. He dominated going six innings, pitched allowing just one hit, no runs and striking out nine with the win that was number 150 for him. So obviously a big milestone, but also in the same game, he surpassed Chuck Finley as number seven all time among left-handed pitchers with 2,617 strikeouts. The Braves won that. two out of three in the series against the Phillies, so the Braves continue to cruise and more answers to be had for the Phillies. Now moving on to the NL West, the Padres versus the Diamondbacks played in a very fun game out in Mexico City, just a two game series. They split one of one. Important to note in the first game, Mason Miller now improved to a 34 and two thirds innings pitched scoreless streak. That is a San Diego franchise record needs to reach that 45 number to get into the top 10 all time. Diamondbacks took the second game of that series. They're now 14 and 12. The Padres with the game one win. They're 18 and 8 and 0.5 games back of the Dodgers for first place in the NL West. First off, just want to talk about this Mexico City series. How cool is that for the MLB? I think it's an amazing thing. You've really seen in the past 10 years or so a heavy prevalence and a Okay. I love you. Real quick, want to talk about this Mexico City series. How cool is this for the MLB? Love to see them playing more foreign games, getting more foreign involvement in the game. Obviously baseball, one of the most international wide sports in the games. That's super cool to see. How cool is that for the fans in Mexico to get to see Mason Miller extend his scoreless inning streaks and see two great games of baseball. So really awesome for the game. In that sense, expect more of that for the MLB. They got the London series coming up in just a couple months. Mention that the Padres find themselves a half game back of the Dodgers in the NL West. So we'll finish up talking about the Dodgers series against the Cubs. Cubs took game one, six to four. However, the Dodgers came storming back. Game two, they won it 12 to four. Obviously a big offensive effort there. And so it came down to the Sunday game, Justin Robleski with the ball for the Dodgers. And boy, did he spin a gem. Six innings pitched, zero earned runs, six strikeouts, allowed four hits on 109 pitches. With that Robleski is now second in the MLB in ERA at one. Mentioned that the Padres are a half game back of the Dodgers. They had the big weekend series against the Cubs beginning on Friday at Chavez Ravine. Cubs took the first game six to four. Then on Saturday, the Dodgers came storming back with a 12 to four win. So it came down to that Sunday rubber match game. It was Shota Imanaga pitching for the Cubs and Justin Robleski for the Dodgers. Robleski. Spun a gem, he went six innings, zero earned runs. Six strikeouts allowed only four hits on 109 pitches. He's second in the MLB now in ERA, allowing. Mentioned that the Padres find themselves a half game back of the Dodgers in the NLS. So we'll finish up talking about the big series that they had over the weekend at Chavez Ravine taken on the Cubs. Cubs took game one powered by some late inning heroics from Dansby Swanson against the Dodgers bullpen. They took the first game six to four. Dodgers came storming back on Sunday to even up the series after a 12-4 win. So it came down to the rubber match on Sunday. On the mound for the Dodgers was Justin Robleski. He went six innings, allowed no runs, six strikeouts, four hits allowed on 109 pitches. Robleski now second in the MLB with a 1.50 ERA in 30 innings pitched behind only Jose Soriano of the Angels. Also in Sunday's game, Otani starting to heat up. He went three for three Sunday with a home run and a double. And when you look at this Dodgers team, it's really awesome to see the success that Robleski is having. You think between Yamamoto, Otani, Glasnow, Sasaki, and Sheehan, all of those stellar starters, the man leading the charge for them is Robleski. So far on the year 30 innings pitched, he's only allowed 20 hits, five earned runs. He's yet to allow a home run on the season and 15 strikeouts to go along with that 1.5 ERA. I talked about so big win for the Dodgers as they remain in first place in the NL West. We'll close things up as we look at the standings first up in the NL East Braves hold on to that first place spot at 20 and 9. They're the first team to get to 20 wins following them. It's the Marlins and Nationals at 13 and 15 and 13 and 16 certainly not the two teams you'd expect to be at second and third in the NL East so far. through the season, they're having a great start to their year with the younger guys on that team really carrying the load. Then in fourth and fifth, it's the Mets and Phillies, both at nine and 19, both with a lot of questions to be answered. In the NL Central, this is America's In the NL Central, it's the Reds leading at 18 and 10, followed by the Cubs after dropping two to the Dodgers. Then it's the Pirates in third, the Brewers in fourth at 14 and 13, tied with the Cardinals at 14 and 13. Yes, the NL Central has every single team above 500 so far to start off the season. And of course, in the NL West, we talked about the Dodgers leading the Padres by a half a game. Following them up is the Diamondbacks, Giants, and then the Rockies at 13 and 16. Moving on to the American League East, it's the Yankees leading the Rays in second, and it's the Orioles at 13 and 15, the Blue Jays at 12 and 15, and the Red Sox at 11 and 17, and a lot of answers to be made for the Red Sox. But crazy just to think about these two teams and how they're handling it. Obviously the Blue Jays struggling at 12 and 15, but you wouldn't know it based off the media coverage that they're getting. The Red Sox firing Cora, now getting this attention on them. There's going to be some pressure on them in these next couple of games to right the ship and get back into it. In the AL Central, it's the Guardians leading at just 15 and 14, tied with the Tigers. Then it's the Twins, White Sox, and Royals, also with a lot of questions to be answered at 11 and 17. Then lastly, it's the American League West with the Athletics leading the charge at 15 and 13. The Rangers follow them in second. Then it's the Mariners, Angels, and the Astros to round out the standing so far. And that's going to do it for the episode today. I thank you so much for tuning in to the first ever episode of Who's On First. We'll be back later in the week. But for now, we'll see you later.