Felger & Mazz: Jim Duquette Says Bedard Doesn't Want To Be 'The Guy'
Continuing the Erik Bedard discussion, Massarotti and Bertrand spoke to former Baltimore Orioles GM Jim Duquette, a man who had an up close perspective of Bedard during his stellar years in Baltimore.
Duquette had some interesting remarks about Bedard yesterday and Mazz jumped right on that, asking Duquette how Bedard will fit in the Boston market. Duquette simply said that Bedard can definitely work in Beantown, although he does not want to be the center of attention. Duquette further indicated that Bedard is a good teammate, is liked in the locker room, but, as Mazz said earlier, is an introvert of sorts. So does Bedard despise media attention on the whole? Will he be as cold to the media as John Lackey can be at times?
Mazz and Bertrand went back in the hot tub time machine to discuss Bedard's immense success he had during his time with the Orioles. Duquette asserted that Bedard would have been more in the mix for a Cy Young award had the Orioles been a contender in any of his last few years with the team before being traded to the Seattle Mariners.
Bertrand, a proponent of the Red Sox acquisition of Bedard, took the opportunity to ask Duquette about Bedard's injury plagued track record coupled with poor second half statistics and whether that is cause for concern for the Red Sox. Duquette just said that he believes Bedard has the potential to dispel any prior notions about him during his stint with the Red Sox which could lead to a somewhat lucrative contract this upcoming offseason.
As a former GM, how much did Duquette buy into the theory that it's important for players' to be in the media's good graces, something Bedard is arguably not? Duquette stated that he always wanted that type of perfect situation, but as long as that sort of thing did not affect a player's performance on the field, Duquette couldn't care all that much.
Does Duquette think Bedard can work out with the Red Sox? Is Bedard a better option to Rich Harden? What type of contract can Bedard look to get this offseason?
For answers to these questions and more, tune in to Felger and Mazz to find out about that and more!
