Right now the site editor for WEEI Boston sports radio is waiting for the ALDS to begin just like the rest of us. The only difference is, the former Boston Herald Red Sox beat writer is biding his time ducking in and out of the club houses in sunny Anaheim. For Rob Bradford it's just another day at the office.

His media bones were made in newspapers, writing for the Lowell Sun, the Eagle-Tribune, and the Herald before landing in the world of sports radio at WEEI. But don't think the journalist likes keeping things at just 3,000 words a shot. No doubt, you or a Sox fan you know has "Chasing Steinbrenner" or Mike Lowell's "Deep Drive: A Long Journey to Discovering the Champion Within" in a bookshelf or on a bedside table. Those are Bradford's books.

So who better than he to make a Division Series forecast about the Red Sox, the team he covers game-by-game, pitch-by-pitch? I can tell you that it surprisingly involves little bias--just experience, intelligence, and a little hard-nosed honesty. How do I know?

I asked him.

Mary Paoletti: Can I get an ALDS prediction?
Rob Bradford: I'm going to say 3-2 Red Sox.

MP: Who's going to have a solid game for the Red Sox tomorrow?
RB: Victor Martinez will have a very, very solid game. If you look at his numbers against John Lackey, they're excellent. He will be the MVP for the Red Sox in Game 1.

MP: Was Buchholz over Dice-K a good idea?
RB: Yeah. I think Buchholz has earned the right to get that start. A lot of people are panicked over the last couple starts but they seems to have diagnosed it... it doesn't seem to be an injury problem or the effect of pitching too many innings. I think the fact that Buchholz has been dominant the last couple times, he's earned the right. Dice has been good, but I like the upside that Clay brings.

MP: A lot of Sox chatter is about a possible ALCS matchup with the Yankees. Understandable considering our history. You wrote a great piece about ex-Angel Mark Teixeira and current Halo Bobby Abreu yesterday--Can you talk more about why Red Sox Nation should be worried about the Angels?
RB: They're a very, very good team. The fact is, you can make a the argument that they're a better team than last year. They scored more than 80 runs than they did last year. They're a more patient team. Part of that is Bobby Abreu--he leads the league in  most pitches taken. They're a slightly different team than last year, but they certainly have the capability to beat the Red Sox because their lineup is so good and so deep. Lackey can be a good pitcher at any time. This is going to be a tough one. Largely the toughest the Sox have had it with the angels. People aren't ready for that.

MP: I talked to Bob Lobel this week and he referred to himself as "more of a fan." Do you find it difficult to put the emotional fan part of you aside and be objective when covering the Red Sox?
RB: I don't have a hard time with it at all. I grew up a Sox fan but as you get older it just becomes more of your profession. You root for the stories and the people you like, I'm not going to argue that. But no, there's no cheering in the press box. So it's not that difficult at all. When you go into a game you have to go into the game itself and what has transpired. As you get older and more weathered in this industry you get more cynical.

MP: Lobel also said that sports journalists are generally weird and are probably only in the business because they aren't good at anything else. What do you think about that?
RB: [Laughs] Yeah well. I'm not going to argue that. I don't even know if I'm good at this. Can't you say that about every profession? The thing is, if you're going to be a pro at something and invest your time into being as good as you can then you're probably going to be better at that than anything else. Maybe a lot can be Renaissance people and be good at everything but if you're going to invest yourself in a team you have to invest in those players and those stats it takes up a lot of time. So yeah, I'm not going to argue with that. It's all on a case by case basis. It's a certainly a unique profession. A lot of people don't understand the sacrifices you have to make.

MP: Speaking of sacrifices; If you had to either ask Josh Beckett about his "dominance" after a terrible start or listen to Mike Adams sing karaoke for an hour, what would you pick?
RB: [Laughs] That's easy. No knock on Adams’ karaoke, but I’d go with Josh Beckett. Beckett's always better to talk to after he loses. He's more forthcoming, he's more honest about the evaluation of himself because he doesn't like talking about himself when he does well. When he does [do well] he's kind of guarded. When he's more unfiltered Josh Beckett which is why I think NESN stopped going live in those post-game interviews.

MP: Who's got the better job, Theo Epstein or Bruce Springsteen?
RB: Bruce. No question. The thing about Theo's job is that it's all encompassing. It's a lot of responsibility from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. During the game you can sit back and say “Sure, this is the team we made” and take pride in it. But Bruce...besides practicing...going on stage and being adored wherever you go isn‘t that tough of a job.

MP: What's are the best and worst moves Theo has ever made in your opinion?
RB: In the long term it's hard to argue with the Nomar trade because of the results. In the short term I'd argue that the Victor Martinez trade is one of the best, if not the best, in terms of what it immediately did to the team. So I would pick that one. The worst one... let's see...I’m trying to consider the magnitude because everyone makes bad decisions. Probably the Wily Mo Pena trade because Bronson [Arroyo] would have had value. You never really saw the upside of Mo Pena.

MP: So not Julio Lugo?
RB: No. GMs make a lot of bad moves and they make a lot of good ones. When you look at the magnitude, it was a big salary but he was able to do something game for game. Money is money. You have to look at the value of a player, who can add something to the team.

MP: How about the best and worst moments of your career in sports journalism?
RB: That's a tough one. I don’t know. The best moments are when I get home to see my kids. When they smile at me, say “Hi dad” and not ask me any questions about the Red Sox.

MP: That sounds rare.
RB: It's kind of one of these things when you're a sports writer. I remember when the Sox were working on getting Daisuke Matsuzaka over the winter. I told my wife I couldn't go to these Christmas parties because everyone was so consumed by it. It's like being a doctor at a cocktail party. It's your job, it's the last thing you want to talk about. Usually you make some excuse like you don't feel good but that time I was flat out honest about just not wanting to go. So maybe that's the worst part. It's been great. I've had great moments--satisfying moments--anytime I’ve gotten hired for jobs and writing my two books. Bad moments are maybe when you write a story that doesn’t make you feel good at the end of the day.

MP: Those two books are "Chasing Steinbrenner" and "Deep Drive." Any other projects on deck?
RB: Oh yeah. We're talking about some things but I can't really say right now.

MP: Top secret!
RB: I can't. We're still in negotiations. It's a tough process. That's one thing I learned about writing books. When you go into it you'd better understand the commitment it's going to take. That Mike Lowell book took a month and a half. I had to write 70,000 words in a month and a half. I go into the process with my eyes wide open though. Everyone thinks oh great, you're going to write a book without realizing everything it entails. I've been through the gamut on those projects.

MP: I think I saw you at Mike Lowell's “Night at the Copa” Charity event from where I was tucked away on the second floor. I was so hungry and thought about asking Beckett to throw me up something off those trays they were carrying around. Was the food as good as it smelled?
RB: [Laughs] Well there you go. How would you rate that for good and bad career moments?

MP: That was the first event I ever attended as a “member of the media.” They gave us five minutes on the floor to shoot video, told us not to bother any of the Sox players, and shuffled us off upstairs. It was surprising.
RB: That’s one of those things that happens... like when we had a book release party for Mike. It's one of those things I feel bad about. They're so cautious and so protective of the players.

MP: Is it interesting to you to see the players in such a different, off-field context like at those charity functions?
RB: It is interesting I guess. But you're around them so much that you see them as human beings. You understand that there's another side of their lives and you have to respect that. I always go by the guideline that you have to treat these guys as human beings. Someone might be having a bad day, a family problem, or someone might be going through an injury you don't know about. You have to respect the parameters of the club house. If you see them outside there you have to respect their privacy. Not everyone does that.

MP: Before you were roaming around club houses for WEEI you worked for the Lowell Sun and as the Eagle-Tribune and Boston Herald's beat writer. What are your thoughts on the decline of print media?
RB: I think there will always be print media. There's definitely a decline, but I don't know. It's a trend that's probably irreversible. The people who came up leading papers are getting older. The people growing up and becoming adults came up on the internet. Print’s still a powerful thing. When you have a website you want some sort of backing to it; [WEEI has] the backing of the radio station, Boston.com has the paper, Comcast has the backing of the TV station. That's the model going forward I think. You do need a viable media presence not just on the internet to drive people to your website and also cross promote. It's very convoluted, the whole thing. I could go on and on about news cycles and the way people are writing and how that's changed. It's changing very, very fast.

MP: You were just talking about how the way people are writing is changing. Dan Shaughnessy, a well established Boston Globe media personality,  has been pretty open about hating sports blogs for a long time. What are your thoughts on them and their role in sports?
RB: The thing that wrangles me about the blog conversation is that there's so many different kinds of blogs. For so long they’d say “blog” and classify it as one general medium. So okay, they want to call a “blogger” some uninformed person who sits in their parents basement and has no idea what they're talking about. That’s are fine. It’s great for people to have a voice. A lot of times sports writers who do have access should learn from these people who have more time to break things down. Obviously it's a catch-22 because blogs might form information and people have to chase it, respond to it. The thing that upsets me is that everyone pigeon holes blogs. In terms of news organizations having blogs it's become enormously valuable. It offers instant information. it offers space for us to give information that you probably wouldn't put in a story. If we have a story that's 3000 words long, a lot of little details would get lost in the story. But if we put those bits up in a blog, then they’re going to get read. There's no short answer. Unfortunately, people want one.

I’m appreciative of all the answers that Rob Bradford took the time to give me. His is a hectic schedule, often without a chance to even answer the phone. “Sorry I missed your call,” he had said, “I was in the Red Sox club house and you can’t pick up in there.” More than forgivable on the eve of the ALDS, I think.

As for the upcoming tangle with the Angels - - I don't even need to check the Vegas odds to know that the Sox are a good bet. But it doesn't feel like much of a gamble when you've got an ace up your sleeve like Bradford.

Sawxheads, you can check out his latest Red Sox columns on WEEI here and his radio show with Michael Mutnansky here.