What WooSox manager Chad Tracy said to Alex Cora about Ceddanne Rafaela
Ceddanne Rafaela got the call up to Boston to make his major league debut on August 28th. He has gone 2-5 with a double and a RBI so far in his 11 innings he has played in. We have seen him play 9 innings at shortstop and 2 innings in centerfield as a replacement late in the game.
WooSox manager Chad Tracy tends to be one of the first phone calls that Alex Cora makes once someone is called up. It makes a lot of sense that Cora would want his input on where things are with any prospect’s state of their game. Tracy recalled that conversation on Wednesday.
“Alex knows Rafaela as good as anybody.” Tracy told Beyond the Monster. “He is a huge prospect in our organization and Cora is incredibly tuned into what is going on in our system. He knew when we left Spring that one of Rafaela’s goals was to manage the zone better. He is watching and he knew the day he walked four times down here and when he had good and bad games as well. I always talk to Cora when people go up just to give him a little snapshot of what we have seen here and what you might expect.”
The biggest thing we have been hearing all year long surrounding Rafaela is his plate discipline. While the two managers talk when guys do go up, this conversation would steer back to the conversation about the plate approach.
“I told him I think he is doing a lot better, and he is getting himself into positive counts constantly because he is doing a good job early in the count.” Tracy added. “There is still some chase there later when he gets ahead in the count because he gets excited and expands and lets a guy back in the count. It was just conversational stuff giving Cora an idea of where he is at and throw some of that stuff out that we are getting there. We do that with everybody. With him, the conversation steers that direction because we know that will be a big hump to overcome what he can be at that level.”
Follow Andrew on Twitter @ByAndrewParker
For additional Red Sox and Major League Baseball content, follow Beyond the Monster: Boston Red Sox on Twitter @BeyondtheMnstr
Join our new Facebook group for all of our latest content, click the link here.
