Felger & Mazz: Gammons On Red Sox' Disturbing Pattern Of Inaction
Felger and Massarotti were joined by Peter Gammons of MLB.com to talk about Josh Beckett's back injury, Trade Deadline, and the inaction by the Red Sox front office.
Is Beckett's back injury a serious concern? Are Beckett's injuries preventable? When should the Red Sox start treating Beckett like a fourth starter?
"It's a serious concern," Gammons said of Beckett's back injury. "It was the oblique and the back in '08, which is how they ended up losing to Tampa Bay. Same thing in 2009. It's going to happen when you have pitchers tied up in their 30's."
"To me, he is what he is; A 170-180 innings guy who doesn't even throw 92," he said of the former ace. "He's learned to make a transition from power-pitcher to a curve, change, sometime slider pitcher… I still think people are looking for him to be an ace and I don't see that. He's okay; he'll give you a quality start 60-percent of the time, which isn't bad. At the same time, he's a four now, and that's all it's going to be."
How close did the Red Sox come to making a major deal before yesterday's MLB Trade Deadline? Gammons said not too close, but they did their homework to explore all possibilities; which included trading Jacoby Ellsbury.
"I don't think they want to trade Ellsbury, but at the same time they know he's gone at the end of the next year," said Gammons. "The question is could you (have gotten) a franchise changing trade now where he has two months and a year before free agency. I think what is going to happen is he is going to come back next year, because you can't ask Jackie Bradley to be ready for 2013."
Is there a disturbing pattern of inaction with the Red Sox organization? How much of the inaction has to do with the contracts they have on the books?
