Brian Butterfield
Brian Butterfield
Brian James Butterfieldis an American professional baseball coach, and a former minor league player, manager and infield instructor. He is currently the third-base and infield coach for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball...
solid third tremendous
That was a tremendous play. Troy has been solid at third base.
attitude controlled conversation excited few help hung instructor phone ready secondary spent spoken talking team time worried
I've spoken to Shea a few times this winter. His attitude is tremendously upbeat. He has spent a lot of time talking about the things we need to do as a team to get better. The things that he can do to help not only (John Gibbons), but me as an infield instructor with the young guys. Every conversation that we've had, I've hung up the phone and gone, 'All right, Shea is one-year comfortable in the organization. Now he's ready to take more of a controlled leadership.' He's not worried about being relegated to a secondary role. He's excited about what he can do to make us better.
besides close emulate feed follow good johnny pleased sound watch
They all really feed off each other. Johnny has been around the block, and they're able to watch him from close up. Johnny, besides being a very good fielder, is very sound fundamentally. So they're able to emulate him and follow things that he does. I've been pleased that they've been down here and are working their tails off.
ankles quicker stronger tolerate tough
Ankles and hamstrings, for me, are very tough to gauge. I think he's a day-to-day thing. As he can tolerate more stuff, the stronger his ankle will get and the quicker he'll be back.
accelerate adjusting ball difficult east hit next stick takes
I think our turf takes some adjusting just because sometimes the ball will hit and it'll go East or West. Sometimes it'll hit and stick and sometimes it'll hit and accelerate on the next hop. It's very unpredictable. I think we play on one of the more difficult surfaces in the American League.
becomes certain game hoping phase player success whenever
One of the things that we're hoping for is that they have some success out of the chute. Whenever a young player has some success in a certain phase of the game it kind of becomes contagious. Then they play with a little more confidence.
bat improvement outfield routes stood swinging taking throwing
While he was with us, he was swinging the bat real well. The thing that stood out for me is the improvement he's made defensively. He's throwing better and he's taking better routes in the outfield defensively.
comfort far further stretched time zone
Every time that I stretched him out a little further than his comfort zone you could see a little more of a limp. He's a little tentative right now, but so far so good.
best coaches coaching people rubs staff starts treats wall wants
It's the best staff I've been around. Sometimes the X's and O's are overrated, but the people -- that's what counts. We have top-quality people in that coaching room, and it all starts with the manager. I think every one of the coaches wants to go right through a wall for him. He treats you fairly, he treats you great, and it rubs off on all the other coaches that are here.
bit comfort further nature position start stop stretch stretched time ways
We didn't stretch him out too far. Every time I stretched him out a little bit further than his comfort zone, you could see there was a little bit of a limp. ... We're still a ways away, just because of the nature of the position where you stop and start so much.
came couple drive handle innings kicked line normally played plays swung talked though
That's what we talked about in the dugout. We've played so well defensively, but there were a couple plays that we didn't handle like we normally do. But you know what was nice? We came back and swung the bats. A couple of those innings were just a thing of beauty. Line drive after line drive. Not all was lost, even though we kicked it around a little bit.
challenge learn middle sincerely
They sincerely like each other and learn from each other. I think they like the challenge of being in the middle of things and being a part of what we're doing.
aware couple great middle played plays
I thought that we played, after the first couple nights, I thought that we made great plays up the middle -- great plays. We've played consistently and they were aware of everything that was going on.
affects baseball games goes impacts league people player
It ain't even close, and if he doesn't, it goes to show you that other people around the league haven't had enough opportunities to see us play. I think he impacts games defensively for us more than any other player in baseball affects the game at their respective positions.