Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
We welcome in Rob Bradford, WEI. He's brought to you by McFarland Energy. The heating, cooling, and bioheat delivery pros at Eastern Mass and all of Cape Cod depend on McFarlandEnergy.com. Brad, what's up?
McFarland. McFarland. Yes. Everything's great. How are you guys doing?
Excellent.
We're doing great. I heard that. I don't sound convinced. I mean, that was like a question mark.
We're doing great. Well, I want to get to Roman Anthony because I don't think Cora was asked the other day. There was one question to Breslow this morning about it. But, like, what is wrong with Roman Anthony's throwing arm? Like, what is that?
Yeah, well, I know that people in the minor leagues say, oh, well, it was never a thing and he had an above-average throwing arm. I never thought he had an above-average throwing arm. I don't think he had these sort of problems.
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Chapter 2: What are the concerns about Roman Anthony's throwing arm?
And I think they just have to work itself out. I think the biggest thing is when you look at the team, how it's constructed going through spring training, it was, you know, we don't want to have a 21-year-old DH. I don't want to do that. Alex Cora said that over and over and over again. So if he's saying that, think about that, guys.
If he's saying that throughout spring training, there isn't that concern. But out of nowhere, all of a sudden you have this concern. So... I don't think that it's something to pull the cord on and say you've got to be a DH all the time and you've got the Y word. No, I think that you've got to still run them out there. You've got to see what's going on with it and see if you can get any better.
Chapter 3: How do the minor leagues view Roman Anthony's arm strength?
I mean, the footwork thing, eh, okay. But I think it's probably more of a confidence thing than anything else right now.
Do you have more confidence in Roman Anthony as a left fielder or as a leadoff hitter? Oh, a leadoff hitter. Okay. Yeah. Is he getting on base enough?
Yeah, but I think he's going to get on base enough. Now, it's an interesting one, Rich, because we've talked about how you have to make changes. You have to adjust. You go into the season, best laid plans and everything else. And clearly, whatever plans they had in a lot of ways, it wasn't the right plan, including Trevor Story hitting second, potentially Jaron Duran hitting third, all of it.
And Roman Anthony hitting leadoff was a big part of this. They said, in the world of baseball, the best hitter a lot of times hits leadoff. He's our best hitter. Go get him. I still would run him out there now because I still think he's hitting the ball hard on occasion. I'm not as concerned as I was when I was watching Trevor's story in the number two spot. So, yeah, I mean, I guess, like,
you look at the numbers and you look at some of the strikeouts and you're like, what are you talking about? But no, I mean, I still would run him out there because in order for the Red Sox to be good, like he has to be at the top of the lineup somewhere.
You talk to a lot of people, Brad. You're very plugged in, man. Baseball is boring. You're at the ballpark.
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Chapter 4: What does Alex Cora think about Roman Anthony's role?
You're chatting with everybody. Names that have come up when we're talking about Roman Anthony's throwing arm. Again, I'm hung up on this. Knoblock, Ankeel, even like John Lester when he couldn't throw to first for that stretch. So with all the people you've talked to, have the yips with Anthony come up at all? Is that something that's come up?
It hasn't come up with the people who are immersed in it, involved in it. I think in the outside world, everyone's trying to figure this out. You know, about a couple of years ago when Von Grissom was first came the Red Sox and nobody was seeing him throw. And there was murmurs all throughout baseball. I mean, scouts, everybody about the yips, about the yips, about the yips.
And, you know, I contacted Red Sox, and they firmly denied that. And then when we saw them, it wasn't a great throwing motion, but it probably wasn't a yips. So I don't think that you can go down that road. Like I said before, when I said the Y word, that's the Y word. Because nobody in baseball loves talking about that.
I mean, I did a whole thing with Daniel Bard, and that's the extreme example. The worst thing you can do as a baseball player is introduce that, and everybody absolutely knows it. Now, I will say this, is that there are cases where guys have gone on the, not the injured list, but the, you know, I don't know what you call it, but it's basically a Gavin Lux, for instance.
Gavin Lux, the second baseman for the Rays, I saw him make a throw this spring training that was 15 feet wide of the first baseman. That is a guy with a history of the yips. Next thing you know, they're putting on the IL with shoulder issue. That is like, that is okay. We can point, paint the dots here. That is a guy with a Y word.
I don't think that you can go down that road quite yet with Roman Anthony.
How do you feel about Caleb Durbin thus far? Obviously a really, really bad start.
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Chapter 5: Is Roman Anthony's performance affecting his confidence?
He's gotten a couple of hits since then. He's not in the lineup every single day. He was back in there yesterday, though. But he's the guy that's pretty much been given the job out of camp, and everyone's just sort of waiting for him to sort of get going.
Chapter 6: How does the current Red Sox lineup impact Roman Anthony?
But what's your take, what, 12 games into the season on Durbin?
Number one, has the second-best quota spring training. Can't break your neck if you don't have one. I still, every time I look at him now, like, okay, good one. Yeah. And I also like Cora. I left yesterday and I've heard this before. It's like, you know, he's a wrestler and you know, one of the things that he does really well is he gets off the ground really quick. Okay.
Is he wearing a singlet under his uniform? Maybe. You got to ask him that. I mean, that would be awesome. The ideas are popping, by the way. Caleb Durbin singlet night. Ooh.
Well, the marketing team's on fire right now with these cooler cups and the Roman Anthony bobblehead. They're on one. Let's go.
I think he's just going to run. Again, this is another case that I think that, A few weeks in, he's showing some signs when Milwaukee came in. You have his four-man manager, Pat Murphy, basically spending 15 minutes talking about how this guy is going to be great for the organization. I don't know, man. I'm still going to give it some time. I will say this.
Via Copa, coming out of spring training, I thought right away this guy was going to be good. I saw him in spring training play really, really well. And he wasn't. He wasn't good at all. I think he's showing signs right now. So I think that's the sort of thing that you've got to ride it out, especially when you have a coming-off game with a couple hits.
We talked a lot. We're talking to Rob Bradford, Baseball Isn't Boring, WEI, joining us here on Jones & Keefe as he does every Thursday at 1130. We talked a lot about the Red Sox 2-8 start and how it's the worst in franchise history and all those teams didn't make the postseason, which is true.
But if we're going to be fair, a lot of that history, there wasn't a wild card, never mind two, never mind three wild card spots. And the AL, I can't imagine, was ever as down as it appears to be, at least through the first couple of weeks. There's only three teams with winning records in the American League, Brad. So why do you think that is?
Do you think the American League in general is down this year?
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