Well, you have, it's just

a mirror.

I'm putting a mirror, you know, in front of them and say, now, what do we want to do about this? Right.

And so, but, but, you know, people will, you know, there's generally, you know, nervousness around receiving your 360 feedback when the day comes to get your 360 report.

And I tell people, if you don't have a twist in your gut right now, you're just not human because we all wonder and worry a bit about this.

But I would say most of my clients end up receiving a really solid confirmation of strengths for about 80% of what they do is really good.

And that's what we're seeking to confirm because inevitably what they're doing is they're still exercising a lot of energy on the things that they're already good at.

Yeah.

What would concern you more as you, you go into the postseason? And again, no guarantees that they're there, but it w- would it be, uh, as, as we kinda already pointed out, this, this feeling like maybe the offense is slipping back to early season levels? Would you have concerns about the closer? Would you have concerns about defensive plays slipping again? What would, uh, what would be the, the, the, the thing that would pop up that you think is most likely to pop up and would be the biggest detriment?

Yeah, I think over 162 games, they're, they're just not gonna be a, an elite offensive team.

I, I think, you know, we need to accept that e- even though they've been excellent recently.

I, I just don't know if they have the bats there to, to really compete with the top of the sport.

Um, the thing that would concern me i, is starting pitching if for some reason it regressed.

Uh, the other night in the 13-inning game, Ranger Suárez didn't look good.

Um, you know, i- is Sonny Gray gonna continue this all the way through at 36 years old? Are Tolee and, and Bennett gonna hit the wall with, with innings restrictions here in the deepest water they've been in, uh, in their young careers? If that regresses, that's been the thing that's given them a chance to win all the way through is starting pitching.

Uh, what, what is Jarren Duran's status? What would you do if you were the Red Sox with him? Would you keep playing him every day, or would you try to pivot here?

But given that, what do you think Breslow will do? How big an impact will he have at the deadline coming up?

Well, you know, we've heard all sorts of crazy names from Bobby Witt Jr. all the way down.

If you want to make a serious run at this, which in a weak American league, I think you can.

I think it's within reach.

You obviously need one more bat.

I'd like to see one more leverage arm in the bullpen.

If you've pivoted away from starting pitching, then maybe you should go for another relief option to add to Chapman and Whitlock.

How much, if you're the Red Sox... are you paying attention to what the Yankees in Tampa are doing in terms of how it relates to you realistically in the postseason, or are you looking at that at all? And have you heard any rumors about what either of those teams could be doing?

And if that's the case, do you think robot Breslow can manage his way through that?

That is one factor that we don't necessarily know and that we might not know before the deadline, and that's Craig Breslow's future.

Whatever discussions are going on behind the scenes on Jersey Street, we'll never really know how safe his job is.

Sam Kennedy or anybody else there aren't going to come out and tell us, yes, he's definitely staying or no, he's definitely not.

If he feels like he's under pressure, that might affect the decisions he makes going into the deadline, he might be more likely to make a stronger acquisition just to try to save himself.

So I would think that that is certainly a factor here.

But to your point, they pitch well.

How many of the players playing right now will be a part of the everyday lineup when we get to August and September?

Do you get that impression that that's happening now, or was this kind of where they are and where they should probably remain?

In order to take on the world, we need real systemic changes at a grassroots level to develop players.

The pay-for-play model that we use, these travel teams where parents pay thousands of dollars for their kids to be coached by somebody else's mother or father, that's not realistically going to develop players who can beat the best teams from Europe and from South America.

You need the best coaching, and you need access to it.

If you look at Norway, who is really making waves in this World Cup, Norway has made youth sports free for the last four decades.

They're a much smaller country than we are, but they're giving their people access and uncovering the best players.

The second part of that for us is recruiting.

So in order to kind of fix the problem, you need to change things systematically here in this country so that the training and the competition is better here because setting them off at the age of 15 is not something U.S. parents are going to do.

Like, what's a wildest dream scenario? Like, what, uh, what is possible for this team on the positive side?

Uh, well, they made a quarterfinal before.

Um, you know, that's the ceiling so far i- in terms of the program.

Um, you know, so a quarterfinal or, or a semifinal.

Um, you know, that- that's what you're looking at here, depending on who they're drawn against and, and who's in front of them and their health.

Um, you know, that's sort of the pie-in-the-sky, uh, dream that they would've had coming into the tournament.

And, you know, the Federation acted accordingly when they hired Mauricio Pochettino.

Are they the biggest shock so far?

From what you know of Driveline, is there a theory or, like, a practice of, is it more of a, a, a swing path home run-driven, uh, uh, modus operandi? Like, uh, do you- what do you know about that? Or, uh, it might be too strange a question.

Well, so all these hitting schools that, that, that came in vogue in the late 2010s and, and early 2020s were all based on launch angle and hitting the ball in the air.

And, you know, the thought that if you wanted to get up there and, and slug, you had to hit the ball in the air.

Your, your approach had to be different.

J.D. Martinez used to talk a lot about that when, when he came here.

He was working with a guy named Robert Van Scyoc who, who was sort of, uh, you know, similarly aligned with, with Driveline and, and ultimately the Dodgers hired him, uh, to be part of their hitting department.

So it's, it's largely philosophical.

I, I don't know how you give the guy a fair assessment.

Is that one of the more troubling things? I know it was just one game, but seeing that blow up the other night, that's got to put fear into your heart if you're hoping for a season.

When you see a start like that from a pitcher like Garrett Crochet, the first thing that you're scared of is whether or not he might be hurt.

He said afterwards that he was fine.

He stayed in the dugout.

He didn't go to the clubhouse with the medical staff after he got taken out of the game.

So I took that as somewhat encouraging that maybe he's not hurt.

The stuff was a little bit down in terms of velocity.

You've got to stop reacting to fans.

What's going on with them defensively? Can you pin that at all to a coaching issue?

I think ultimately it comes down to you don't have good enough players.

And I know that's too simplistic.

And we're looking for more of an explanation than that.

But what proof do we have that Caleb Durbin is a third baseman? What proof do we have that Trevor Story can still play shortstop? Do they ever have their best outfield alignment based on the roster construction, based on the fact that one of these guys clearly should have been traded in the offseason, and Craig Breslow, whether he couldn't find value or ultimately couldn't part with any of them, decided to hang on to all.

We already knew that Masataki Yoshida's playing left field.

But they're at a point right now where they might just have to put him out there because his at-bats have been good enough.

What is going on specifically with him?

How concerned should Red Sox fans be the next time Brian Baio would get the ball in a start?

Yeah, I would assume that they would go into the series thinking the same thing.

Now, you'd ultimately have five games, so you'd need a little more length out of them.

You'd need to win three.

So you would be thinking, can we steal maybe three more outs or six more outs? We can't torture our bullpen in game two of the next series.

Yeah, it's a concern because he hasn't pitched well now going on four or five weeks.

You know, this isn't just a couple bad outings.

What do you see happening?