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00:00I mean, like, we can't say, oh, it was cold, because the Blue Jays were cold, the Blue Jays hit, the Blue Jays didn't swing and miss as much as the Red Sox.
00:08I heard Craig Breslow today on the Craig Hill Show, and they talked about strikeouts, and he's like, yeah, you know, we'll have to keep our eye on them.
00:15Yeah, you'll have to keep an eye on it.
00:17Yeah, yeah, you will.
00:19And it was, and I tweeted this out, it is bizarre that they are, like, neck and neck with the Dodgers with everything, offensively.
00:26One and two in strikeouts, yet the Dodgers are the Dodgers.
00:29But where it leads me to believe, and this is where we should keep an eye on this, is the whole driveline thing.
00:36I don't know if you guys are familiar with this, but the whole mentality of hit the ball in the air, right?
00:43And so sometimes it works really well.
00:46Christian Campbell is a perfect example of this.
00:49But when you have this many strikeouts and you have the other opponents not striking out as much against Major League Pitching,
00:56then it is something, as Breslow said, you have to keep your eye on.
01:00So, yeah, I mean, to come back to your question, it's not panic.
01:04There's still as good, this is such a flawed American league, you know, such a flawed American league.
01:09And Toronto is right there.
01:11Like, that's another reminder.
01:12You sign a big extension, you get some wins.
01:14That's how it works.
01:15Because they did strike out a lot last year.
01:17Yeah.
01:18Right?
01:18Like, they struck out a lot last year.
01:19I was looking this up because I don't remember it being like this, but last year in the regular season,
01:24they had the third most strikeouts.
01:26Yeah.
01:27And they would go through stretches where they would hit.
01:29They'd go through stretches where they didn't like it.
01:29Well, that's one of the reasons why they also wanted to get Bregman.
01:32Because, well, we need to counter this a little bit.
01:35And it does drive me a little bit nuts because you go back to a couple World Series,
01:40and when you're in the World Series, you say, oh, look, they're putting the ball in play.
01:43Look at that team.
01:44That's how everybody's going to do it.
01:46And I think the Red Sox were sort of going down that road.
01:48But I can tell you the mentality of the people that they've brought in.
01:53And I think Pete Fassey is a really, really good hitting coach.
01:56But they brought in a ton of people from driveline.
01:58And the mentality is power, string hard, swing up, get the ball in the air, all of that.
02:05Once again, something to keep your eye on.
02:07Well, so I think on three episodes into the clubhouse, you've seen, is it Kyle Boddy?
02:10Is that how you say his name?
02:11Kyle Boddy, yeah.
02:11Boddy?
02:12Yeah.
02:12You see him a couple of times from driveline in the clubhouse.
02:16It's on Netflix.
02:18Cora's been very adamant.
02:19I think he was asked directly about this after the game last night.
02:22He's very adamant.
02:23He wants them to make contact.
02:24He hates strikeouts, is what he told WEI Afternoons yesterday.
02:28I mean, is he on board with the driveline approach?
02:30Yeah, I think so.
02:31But it's also, to his point, at some point, you can't keep doing it at this rate.
02:37I know that you're neck and neck with the Dodgers and strikeouts, but you can't keep doing it at this rate because the bread and butter of this team is Rafael Devers not swinging and missing, not striking out.
02:50Alex Bregman making contact.
02:52Tristan Kassas making contact.
02:54Jared Duran making contact.
02:55You have to have these guys produce.
02:57And this comes back to when Devers was struggling so much, guys.
03:00Is that, well, why is this so important?
03:03It's because you have to have those guys that you pay the money to to actually hit the ball forward.
03:11The hell word.
03:12Yeah.
03:12Yeah.