The Baseball Reporters Show Recap 7/16
On today's show, Tony Massarotti is talking everything from the Red Sox injuries, to the interest level of the fan base, to trade deadline moves. Tony fears that the Red Sox are slipping so rapidly, that they may be justified in not making any moves for the trade deadline because they could already be out of it.
When coming back from commercial breaks, it is customary to play audio from Terry Francona about the state of the Red Sox. Lately it has been all injury talk with Tito and Tony Mazz jokingly made a remark about the Red Sox current injury situation.
Tony on the injuries, "We could do a 6 hour show and every time we come back from a commercial have Francona talk about a different injured guy. That's how many injuries the Red Sox have, and how many significant ones they have. But you already knew that."
Matt in Groton called in the show to talk about the interest level of the Red Sox fan base. He says that the Red Sox did it to themselves by creating a fan base that falls in love with goofy guys like Pedro Martinez, Kevin Millar, and Manny Ramirez. Matt said that NESN commercials in the early 2000's would highlight the Sox players in a silly fashion and the absence of those players now has created a lack of interest among fans.
Tony agrees that this team is a little boring, but goes on to say, "What would you rather have?: Competition or entertainment? Do you want to win or do you want be entertained? Ideally you want both. But right now the Red Sox are certainly lacking in the entertainment department. There's no question about it."
Jim in Providence called in and said that the run is over and the Sox can no longer over-achieve.
Tony's response to Jim's assessment, "Offensively, they've gone well beyond my expectations. I could have never imagined they would get a .330 average out of Beltre. And I never would have imagined David Ortiz turning back into something closer to what he was in 2007 than in 2009. Their pitching's been a little worse than what I thought and the defense has been a lot worse. But at the end of the day, I don't care what the mixture is. I judge them on wins and losses. The injuries have clearly piled up. I don't think they're dead yet. They're obviously not dead. But they're clearly slipping. They're slipping rapidly. They're facing good teams and they're not going to have a lot of days off in that schedule. And I fear that by the time the trading deadline comes, the Red Sox will be justified in not making a move."
The Red Sox play game 2 of a 4 game series with the Texas Rangers tonight in Boston. Felix Doubront will get the start opposite Colby Lewis.
