Sports Final: Are Red Sox A Playoff Team In 2016?
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Red Sox are certainly ready to start the 2016 season, which gets underway Monday afternoon in Cleveland.
There is some hope surrounding the team with the additions of ace David Price and star closer Craig Kimbrel, but there are plenty of questions that still remain. There are some major concerns about the rotation after Price, and the Pablo Sandoval controversy has brought back memories of last season's issues with some of Boston's highly paid players.
But for now, all the focus is on Opening Day, with Price making his Boston debut against the Indians. The often-dominant lefty is 2-1 on Opening Day over his eight-year career, and will be opposed by 2014 Cy Young winner Corey Kluber on Monday.
Check out Dan Roche's Opening Day preview from Sunday night's Sports Final in the video above, including a chat with The Boston Herald's Steve Buckley. While he isn't sold on the team making the playoffs this season, Buckley is excited that they have an ace at the front of their rotation.
"I'm not crazy about the 2016 Boston Red Sox, but I am crazy about David Price. He seems to love it here and has grasped the whole thing of being in Boston. I think he is going to be a huge success," Buckley said of the lefty.
While he doesn't believe the Red Sox will make the playoffs, predicting an 82-80 record, that doesn't mean manager John Farrell will lose his job.
"That will depend on whether the 82-80 is the end result of a bad start; then [Farrell is] in trouble. If they're playing .500 ball and they're not making the same dumb mistakes -- there were so many mistakes last season where the team didn't seem in the game. Fans bring passion and electricity to the ballpark, and I didn't see that from the players last year. If they do that again, that's on John Farrell. If they lose because the pitching isn't good enough, that's not on Farrell," said Buckley.
Buckley also shares his thoughts on the Pablo Sandoval situation and Hanley Ramirez at first base. Tune in to Sports Final every Sunday night at 11:35 p.m. on WBZ-TV!