00:00oh good morning craig breslow good morning how are you doing doing great um hoping to avoid the
00:06sweep this evening and um obviously the the august run was incredible i did want to ask you about
00:14offense uh over the last 15 days and uh i think you guys ranked 27th uh over that period of
00:24time
00:24with with 45 runs scored are you uh any concern on your part when it comes to the the bats
00:31at this
00:31time of the season you know we were aware of what the the stats are and um you know you
00:39look back at
00:39the season and it seemed like we really really struggled uh to score runs early on especially
00:43to hit with runners in scoring position then we had a couple months run in the middle of the season
00:48uh where a bunch of those batted balls were were falling we were getting on base we were moving
00:52guys and then uh right now you know struggling especially with runners in scoring position and
00:57and struggling to get guys on base so i think before we say you know we're we're worried we're looking
01:02at
01:03the the process that has gotten us there and looking at you know are we are we chasing are we
01:08getting out
01:08of our approach um are we swinging at the right pitches uh are we putting balls in play and getting
01:13some bad luck or do we think that there's some underlying stuff going on there and um you know
01:17i think we've seen over the course of the season that runners and our ability to hit with runners in
01:22scoring position um it it tends to kind of wave and uh you know we're confident that we're going to
01:28get back on track we've got you know a handful of games to do that and uh you know we're
01:33hopeful
01:33that we got another good run in us craig it's hopeful that you guys are going to be getting
01:37some guys back from injury in the coming weeks but justin slayton being likely out for the rest of
01:42the season how big of a blow is that to your bullpen and and how do you make sure that
01:46that doesn't
01:46impact the playoff run sure it's a big blow and i'm not sure uh because justin was constantly
01:55battling uh the the injuries that we got a full appreciation for just how good he can be um because
02:02he really struggled to to stack good outings on top of each other given that he would pitch and then
02:07he would need a day or two off or um you know maybe the the elbow symptoms would would affect
02:13him
02:13um he's a really really good reliever and we're definitely going to miss him um you know at the
02:19same time we've got guys that have stepped up and guys that we know will step up we've got to
02:24um you know make sure that chappy and witt and guerrero and miller and wife and others uh are fully
02:30ready to go if and you know if and when we're we're able to start our postseason um postseason being
02:35right around the corner what is your expectation when it comes to uh what you what you will have
02:41available from garrett crochet yeah you know i think any conversation about a postseason um
02:48is going to start by acknowledging we have to first get into the postseason uh you know fortunately
02:53we've we played well enough for uh for a while that uh we're we're in a pretty good position but
02:58we do need to we need to finish that off but um you know with garrett it continues to be
03:03a process where he's getting better every day and and now there are some benchmarks that he's
03:09checking off where you know he he threw a side he threw a side where he got up and down
03:14twice to
03:15simulate you know multiple innings um the next step would be facing hitters and ramping up that
03:20intensity um you know i think we are still keeping the possibility open uh but the reality is you know
03:27we're we're not going to have the luxury of a ton of time to where if you know he needs
03:32an extra
03:32day or doesn't bounce back quite as well that isn't necessarily a setback but it could time us out
03:38craig this is about postseason but it's completely hypothetical let's say it's because every round
03:46the series change so the first series being a three-game series how would your approach be when
03:51it comes to setting your rotation for your starters when you have three guys that are really good but
03:57you know that's only a three-game series versus five or seven how do you go about that approach on
04:03who you want for potentially game one game two or game three if it does go in that direction
04:08hypothetically sure um you know i think you look at the the modern playoff format and you recognize
04:17that overwhelmingly the team that wins the first game goes on to win the three-game series now uh the
04:23obvious counterpoint unfortunately is the 2025 red sox um but i think it does show just how important it
04:30is to go out and gain and win game one um and so we're going to do you know everything
04:35that we we
04:36can hypothetically if we're in that position to to make sure we're putting our best foot forward right
04:40out of the gates and so is that sunny gray then hypothetically as wiggy keeps saying
04:47we're still gonna we're still gonna have those conversations when you know when we get there um
04:52you know and and it is a great place to be that you could have a you could have a
04:58reasonable debate
04:59about you know any one of probably three guys um deserving the the ball for for game one but
05:05let's get in and then we'll figure out the right uh order of the rotation well you are a big
05:10analytics
05:10guy and you have a 99.99999 percent chance of making the playoffs so i mean it's not like we're
05:15asking
05:15you about winning the powerball tomorrow yes uh that that is true um someone who who tends to think
05:23uh probabilistically would say that they like our chances yeah um what about this season compared
05:29to last we had a conversation on it uh earlier this week about where you are obviously it appears
05:35you're going to be in the same position facing the same team in the wild card round would you make
05:41would you make i made the argument that this season is more impressive than last year regular season
05:46only considering the injuries you have overcome would you agree with that yeah it's like if you if you were
05:53to
05:53have just parachuted onto onto this planet today you would say you know maybe the team underperformed
05:59a bit maybe they overperformed a bit but without understanding the the ride that we took to get
06:03here you would say we thought that this was a post-season team and it looks like they're you know
06:07kind
06:07of on the cusp of uh of locking that in um but i think because of the path that it
06:16took to get here
06:17and because we're talking about humans with emotions um you know it's it's impressive what
06:24the players and what the staff have been able to do um to pull themselves out of uh kind of
06:31a rut that
06:32was pretty daunting uh via a historic run um you know i think it it deserves a ton of praise
06:39and a ton
06:39of credit and and hopefully in some ways um you know for the guys who were able to go through
06:44it it is
06:45even more rewarding than you know had this been just kind of a normal distribution of wins and losses
06:49craig we've talked in other sports about momentum and how important momentum might be in football
06:57especially at the end of the season leading into the postseason with baseball is it different because
07:04when you start to look at some of the guys that might be playing might not necessarily be guys that
07:11could potentially be starters going into the postseason so is momentum a big thing in the
07:17world of baseball um when you're heading into the postseason i think it's a really good question i
07:24think it's it might be a little bit different than some other sports for for reasons that you just
07:30you just pointed out and also because starting pitching has such a outsized impact on on a game
07:38um and on confidence and on momentum that when you're in a position to to kind of place your
07:44rotation exactly as you want and you can look back at you know our season and understand when we've got
07:48certain guys on the mound our chances of winning are really really good um now now i would like buffer
07:55that against over the course of 162 games there are just so many kind of stretches where you know we
08:01had this these streaks where it was really difficult for us to win games and we had streaks where
08:05you know i know the guys felt like we could beat anybody and i think for having gone through that
08:10there is the ability to take a step back and say um you know given uh how many different things
08:15have
08:15been said about our season where again this is the first team in history to do blank like these guys
08:20are
08:20never going to find themselves in the situation where something's going to feel overwhelming or
08:25something's going to feel like they can't overcome it craig you just alluded to you know how
08:30important starting pitching is and you said game one in the best of uh game best of three game series
08:37is so important considering that you will likely be going against cam schlittler who has been dominant
08:43is there any thought in matching him up separately with maybe a guy who has more postseason pedigree
08:48than someone else that's been more successful in the postseason than another starting pitcher on your
08:53staff yeah i understand the question and you you give some consideration to trying to game the series
09:02right and trying to figure out the best way to win any two of the three games um but again
09:07i i just don't
09:09know that you want to overthink these things um because of how massively important winning game one is
09:17and giving yourself the best chance um to do that and so i think when you look back at a
09:22series and
09:22regardless of of the outcome i think you want to be in a position to say you know we did
09:26everything
09:26we possibly could to to give ourselves the best chances of winning every individual game craig you
09:32brought up the fact that the team that you have right now went on a historic run they'll probably
09:37never experience a season like this again but when you look at the team you have in place today and
09:41compare it to who you thought you had back at spring training what's the biggest thing that surprised you
09:46as you as you as you entered the last portion of a season
09:52yeah in in the day-to-day i think it's easy to lose sight of what the team has accomplished
10:01because
10:01the the wins feel so incredible and the losses feel uh so daunting um but when you zoom out and
10:09say
10:10you know we have by a handful of different metrics maybe a top five pitching rotation and bullpen and
10:18we did that without garrett crochet for most of the season and uh you know with whitlock on the il
10:26at
10:26times and guerrero on the il at times and uh you know slayton on the il at times like i
10:32think that is
10:32pretty impressive and a huge credit to the guys and then uh you know when you when you zoom out
10:37and
10:37say you know at least by a handful of metrics in totality the offense has been a top 10 unit
10:43in
10:44baseball and that was done uh you know without roman anthony for most of the season and with key
10:50injuries to to other guys whether it's wilson or sedan or others um and you say that's really
10:55impressive in the moment when you're struggling to score runs or when you're you know when you're
10:58uh when you're losing it doesn't always feel that way but you take a step back and say
11:02that you know what these guys have have accomplished simply by committing to each other every
11:07single day um you know i think it's pretty remarkable one more from me if i could before
11:13you go which it's right in your area of expertise where are you currently on the warnings that that
11:21ai could destroy the human race in the next 10 years um there are so many different snarky responses
11:30that i i should have prepared for that question uh you know it's like hasn't it already i don't know
11:36uh maybe uh ai has taken over um you know this this position but uh yeah you know i'm sure
11:43that uh
11:43there will be be some some sci-fi movies that will inform us uh i think in in the meantime
11:48i'm just
11:49trying to get a few wins here and help the guys get into the postseason right right i mean i
11:53just didn't
11:53know if there was any potential comforting message you could pass along from our robot overlords to us
11:59oh like he was a conduit right right right i i have i've got intimate you know intimate
12:04conversations with with all of all of them and uh you know it's not all bad all right awesome there
12:11are some good some good robots out there let's hope we go out let's hope we go out and uh
12:15win
12:16one tonight and get back on track here and we will talk to you again soon sounds great have a
12:21good one
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