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Projo SoxTalk: Confident Pedroia is getting it done

Sean McAdam joins us from Toronto for today's edition of Projo SoxTalk. Click here to listen to the full audio file.

Today, Sean looks into the adjustments that Daisuke Matsuzaka made to improve his luck, and at some of the ways the slumping J.D. Drew is trying to get better results.

He also spoke about Dustin Pedroia and the uproar over Curt Schilling's and David Ortiz's Barry Bonds/steroid comments. Here are two excerpts.

On the streaking Pedroia: "I think a lot of it is just confidence with him. I don't think there's much question looking back to April that he was pressing a little bit, perhaps trying to prove that he belonged and was worthy of having a spot in the lineup for a team that expected to contend for the pennant. There's been a lot said and written about his swing, which looks overly long for someone his size, but it's always worked for him. A couple of nights ago Pedroia said that he's also doing a little bit better job in the batter's box, maybe waiting on the pitch that extra fraction of a second and not being too jumpy -- sort of out in front of the pitch, he was pulling a lot of pitches foul. He seems to be making more solid contact and I think just getting a little bit more comfortable in the lineup with the more success he has."

Why the off-field fiasco probably won't be a distraction: I think Terry Francona has probably had his fill of it the last few days, because a lot of the questions get directed at him, and he's probably feeling some heat from above in the front office and ownership to try and keep a tighter rein on these guys. I think we've seen back to the days of the 2004 championship team that this is a pretty loose place. I think players have made their peace with the various personalities. Teammates know that Schilling is opinioniated, is going to say things that get attention. I think that the core of this team has been togehter long enough to just shrug that off for the most part -- ignore the off-field stuff and focus on baseball."

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 11:42 AM to McAdam | Permalink