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Baseball Isn’t Boring

Cora In The Morning: We Have An Opening Day Lineup

22 Feb 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What lineup does Alex Cora suggest for the Opening Day?

0.031 - 2.795 Unknown

Yeah, there should be some passion. This doesn't have to be boring.

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3.336 - 7.522 Alex Cora

You don't get bored by baseball.

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7.622 - 19.98 Host

Okay, one thing the game needs is more people like you. You. You. You. You. You. You. You.

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20.42 - 24.426 Unknown

You. You. You. You. You. You. You.

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25.067 - 48.28 Alex Cora

You. You. You. The organization has done this rotation, BAYO, two years ago as your opening day started, right? And today, where he's at and what that sort of takes off the pressure he brought to himself. Yeah, I thought he did an outstanding job last year for a stretch there. It was Gio, Crochet, and BAYO, and we took off.

48.783 - 65.278 Alex Cora

You think about where he was a few years ago, 40% change-ups, and now we have a lot of stuff, repertoire-wise, and he's been getting better at it. It looks like the change-up is where, at this stage, right?

Chapter 2: How has Brayan Bello evolved as a pitcher?

65.759 - 90.362 Alex Cora

Erling Kemp is in a good place. Velo-wise, it's not kind of like morphing into that sinker Velo, right? Although last year he was thrown harder, but The 91-92 changeup last year was a bad sinker, and I think lefties took advantage of it. The velo right now is 87-88. We'll see what happens today, but he's in a good spot, and I agree with you. Just let him be.

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91.863 - 102.554 Alex Cora

We don't know how we're going to do it for the regular season yet, but we know he's a guy that we can rely on. He can give us innings, and he's really good at what he does.

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102.594 - 116.995 Unknown

With the changeup disappearance last year, was that – it was that kind of a chicken and egg thing like was it like you know him like reaching for more velo on it and then losing the shape on it or where to go uh you gotta ask him that but from my end and there's something that uh

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118.19 - 139.147 Alex Cora

I always have this conversation with Hall of Famer Carlos Beltran. When he was coming up, it was a left-handed thing. He wanted to switch it, and he got to it. All of a sudden, he was better from one side than the other one, and the other one was elite before he... He took him to switch it, and he's like, time out, you know?

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139.607 - 162.579 Alex Cora

I need to continue to be elite at what I do and be whatever it is from the other side, you know? And little by little, he kept working, understanding that this is my strong side. I got to keep going. This is where I make my money. So with Brian, I believe we have paid so much attention to the other pitches that we thought we mastered the change-up, and this is me talking for him.

Chapter 3: What changes have been made to Bello's pitching repertoire?

162.739 - 183.076 Alex Cora

Probably it's not the... It's not how he feels about it, but this is how I see it, that we forgot about the feel of the changeup. That's something Ranger had to talk to him about it. It happened to him in player development with the Phillies, that this is my bread and butter. And then all of a sudden, oh, you got to do this, you got to do that.

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183.637 - 197.297 Alex Cora

And all of a sudden, the reps for the pitch weren't there, and he lost it for a little bit. And now he makes sure, like, yeah, we can keep getting better, understanding that this is what makes me a big league pitcher. So hopefully we can get back to that.

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197.317 - 202.725 Unknown

If you have Bale with the pre 2025 change up with the other stuff that he's added, what does he become?

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202.866 - 221.375 Alex Cora

It's a lot different against lefties. He can throw the change up against righties, but he was a good pitcher last year. He was a solid pitcher two years ago. If we take away the last month of the season, the last few starts, Everybody will be, wow, what a great season. We just had that bad taste of the last two innings of the season too, right?

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221.875 - 239.755 Alex Cora

And we acted the way we felt we needed to do, and we almost pulled out, but it didn't work. But I know he wants to be better. He wants to get back to that stage, and he wants to perform to that stage, but step by step. Let's go out there, two innings, be clean, and move on.

239.775 - 243.979 Unknown

Looking forward to seeing how he got a new curveball. At least we're working on how that kind of plays out.

243.959 - 259.984 Alex Cora

Yeah, it's part of what we're trying to accomplish. Just add something else. We can steal strikes with it. Hopefully we can get it down in the zone for chases. But I think at the end, from my end, probably others have other ideas. This is when he's at his best.

Chapter 4: How does the changeup play a role in Bello's performance?

260.004 - 264.21 Alex Cora

When he has his changeup, he becomes a really, really good pitcher.

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264.23 - 268.617 Host

You've talked about you think you'd be better defensively in the infield this year. How much does that help him?

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269.187 - 295.331 Alex Cora

A lot. And we have to make plays on that side. We did make plays on that side of the infield. But with the pitching staff that we have, we have to convert outs. Trevor's working hard at it. Caleb, Marcelo, whoever, we have a third base. They're going to be good at it. So it's an emphasis in camp. It's been an emphasis for five years. But hopefully this is a year that we can convert out.

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295.752 - 308.63 Alex Cora

We turned the whole place last year, which was great. But protecting the first 90, don't get to first base unless it's a single. Hopefully we can be better at it.

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308.65 - 322.98 Unknown

On the subject of Trevor defensively, he had that stretch in September where he got sloppy with his throws, had a bunch of errors in a week or so. That aside, What can he do to maybe elevate his defense?

323.08 - 338.234 Alex Cora

We talk about it, the backhand, going to his right, something that he wasn't great last year. He was a plus to the left, a plus on routine plays. To the right, he wasn't, so he worked hard. This offseason trying to master that with his script pitch.

338.414 - 356.147 Alex Cora

There are some adjustments there As you know, he's always looking for something looking for someone that can help some help him and I think pre pitch wise it's a lot different than last year the way you have the kind of lineup stacked up today is that kind of the way you see it going it looks like

356.127 - 385.746 Alex Cora

at least the first like seven spots or so just trying to win this uh this league so i just felt that's that's a good way to to to set it up but uh yeah it's something i have envisioned and uh it just happened that for the first time in years you know like you might what you see early is what you're probably gonna see uh in open day i say that's the guy who sometimes would hide you know down to the number nine spot you'd like him to get a little higher like today yeah yeah but i mean in general like you

386.182 - 396.34 Alex Cora

I mean, with the guys that we have, you know, he's going to hit in the bottom third lineup. And, you know, it's very important because we need guys to get on for the big boys.

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