Is the Red Sox season over?
After losing 5 straight, the guys debate if the season is now over and done for the Boston Red Sox
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00This is the WEI Afternoon Show, I'm Christian Arkin, that's Andy Hart, nice to have you with us here today.
00:05It's been a tough couple of weeks here for the Red Sox, really it's been tough since the break.
00:10These last few though, getting swept by Arizona at home, on your way to getting swept by the Blue Jays who suck.
00:19Burrios was pitching yesterday, they always hit Burrios, didn't matter, the offense has gone silent.
00:24Seems like the Red Sox here with a month to go left in the season, currently circling the drain.
00:29Are they giving up, Andy? Do you think this is a team that has resigned to their fate?
00:32Do you think it's a team that has given it all they have and they just realize, you know, we're not good enough?
00:36I think the latter part. I don't think it's something that's in front of mind, it's more back of mind.
00:42Because they probably all, as much as you know when you're hot, you're hoping, yeah, we are this good.
00:48Probably a little bit of your human nature, it's like, can we sustain this? We're really going to keep up?
00:54We don't really have an ace in terms of pitching staff.
00:58Houghton's been pitched like an ace, but he's only 8-8, you know, the team doesn't score for him.
01:02But no disrespect to him, he's Tanner Houghton. That name doesn't carry weight.
01:07That name doesn't have a history, a track record, a resume, where you just know,
01:12oh, when that guy pitches, we got a horse, we got Clemens, we got whoever.
01:17Coming into the season, we didn't think that. I feel that way about him now, though.
01:20Yeah, I don't. I still think he fits in line with everybody else on this team.
01:24Where the future might be very bright for a lot of these guys.
01:28They have laid a foundation, I know this gets back to a column that Chris Gasper wrote about,
01:32is the season already a success regardless of what happens?
01:35Which now is really being shown that that's the reality.
01:39The season has kind of reached its finality, you're not going to make the playoffs, you're an also-ran,
01:45did you do enough at the deadline, whatever, you developed young players.
01:48No, the answer's no, by the way.
01:49See, I think it's yes.
01:50Did they do enough at the deadline?
01:52Oh, they didn't do enough.
01:53My answer was no to that question.
01:55What about, is the season a success?
01:57No, I'd say no to that, too.
01:59See, I would say yes.
02:00I can't call it a success when they crapped their pants in August again.
02:02I know, but I had very low expectations for this team. I took the under.
02:05You didn't think anything was going to be different the way it started off the first three months?
02:08You didn't think the season would be different?
02:09No, beforehand.
02:10Before the season started.
02:11My expectation was going into the season.
02:13Then all of a sudden, you're like, huh, do they have something?
02:15Me being a cynic was like, nah, it's early, this'll peter out.
02:18And it didn't.
02:19They sustained it longer than I thought they would.
02:23Using the guy we just talked about, Gerard Mayo and the Patriots.
02:26Remember his description of what success was in his pre-training camp press conference?
02:30Laying a foundation for the future.
02:32Figuring out the guy.
02:33Whatever the words were, I feel like the Boston Red Sox were a success in a Gerard Mayo rebuild.
02:40And you have Jaron Duran that you now say, no, no, he's just good.
02:44He's the All-Star MVP.
02:45He's really good.
02:46You have Devers.
02:47You have Casas back.
02:49Rafaela has made himself a guy, a dude, whatever you want to say.
02:53All those guys are lefties, by the way.
02:54Okay, but they're good.
02:55I know they're good, but you needed some right-handed power.
02:57Okay, now you're getting into the details and how you fine-tune a team.
03:01Prior to this year, I didn't think there was a foundation.
03:03I didn't think there was a foundation to the pitching staff.
03:05This was a playoff team this year.
03:07They were a playoff team.
03:08They were in the wild card.
03:09They were there.
03:10They just had to protect it, and they did not.
03:11I'm not going to hand-wave that away.
03:12Not when it mattered.
03:13Yes, when it mattered.
03:14Right now, they're not doing it.
03:16Exactly, when it mattered.
03:17Since then, they've fallen apart.
03:18They were leading into this before the break.
03:20We're a playoff team.
03:21They were in the mix.
03:22They still technically are.
03:23They're the first team back.
03:24They're still ahead of Seattle and Detroit and these other also-ran teams.
03:27They're all sort of falling down by the wayside right now,
03:30but that's not what they were all year.
03:32All year, they've been right there.
03:34They've been right there in the mix.
03:35But it doesn't matter in baseball.
03:36They were close to the top of the AL East this year.
03:37It's the longest season.
03:38Whatever people tell me, I've always hated this.
03:40I'm not disagreeing with that.
03:41I think I actually mocked you when I filled in in this time slot previously.
03:45If the playoffs started today, they don't start in June.
03:48They don't ever start in June or July,
03:50assuming we never have weird pandemics or things again.
03:52So, they should just suck in August every year then?
03:54No, no, no.
03:55Because it's such a long season.
03:56The next step is laying a foundation in April, May, and June
04:00that you take advantage of in August and September
04:03because you can lose a season early.
04:05They traded Mookie Best for Prospects four years ago.
04:07Yeah.
04:08Okay.
04:09So, how long do we have to lay this foundation for?
04:11The first couple years, there was no foundation.
04:13I didn't feel a foundation.
04:15All I was sold was Marcel O'Meara was really good,
04:17and now he's hurt again, and I have concerns.
04:19But luckily, they've repackaged and remarketed,
04:21and now we have this fabulous foursome or whatever down in Worcester
04:25that we're going to build around.
04:26That was Chaim Bloom's job was to come in here and lay a foundation.
04:27He didn't.
04:28Yes, he did.
04:29I mean, he did.
04:30Most of these Prospects are his guys.
04:31That's why he's not here.
04:32He was fired.
04:33He's not here because he wouldn't trade Chris Sale.
04:34That's why he wasn't here.
04:35He's not here because it was not going anywhere,
04:36and now it feels like it's…
04:37Do you not believe it's going somewhere now?
04:39Sure.
04:40Okay.
04:41The result is when Chaim Bloom was here right now,
04:43and Chaim Bloom is the one, and not just him.
04:45Dombrowski.
04:46There's a lot of Dombrowski guys there too.
04:47A lot of Dombrowski.
04:48But Chaim Bloom was given the same handcuffed restrictions
04:51that Breslau is getting right now, so I don't really think it's going anywhere.
04:53So you don't feel better about this team today than you did at this time last year.
04:57Not if they're not going to spend in the offseason
04:58and not if they're not going to do anything at the deadline.
05:00I don't care about the ifs.
05:01I don't even care about the ifs.
05:02But that's what they're probably not going to do.
05:03They already have a stronger foundation in the manager
05:05who has decided he wanted to stay.
05:07It's the same manager as the last five years.
05:10So you don't like him?
05:11No, I'm just saying, what's the difference?
05:13Last year he was a learned duck manager.
05:15Now he's here for the foreseeable future.
05:17So I feel good about that.
05:18And they have guys that I now believe.
05:20They signed him to the extension and then fell apart.
05:22Why do you feel good about that?
05:24Because they're not that good.
05:25They're not good enough.
05:26They don't have a quality pitching staff to go out there night in and night out,
05:30in my opinion.
05:31They need a top-of-the-rotation guy.
05:34Because if you make Tanner Houck your two,
05:36they're kind of like the Patriots wide receivers.
05:38Tell me they're competitive, but there's no one.
05:40If you put a one out there and make Houck your two,
05:43and now Bayo just kind of slides into,
05:45yeah, I'm going to learn on the fly as a young guy.
05:47Who knows?
05:48Maybe I'm an ace down the road.
05:49But I feel light years better about this team now than I did a year ago.
05:52I could not have cared less about them a year ago because I thought it was over.
05:55I like that there's young players getting better.
05:57I'm encouraged about the ran.
05:58I think that there's things to like about this team.
06:00Do you like that Worcester now has guys that are a step away?
06:03They've continued to develop?
06:04Not really.
06:05I mean, that doesn't really make much difference to me.
06:07If they can come out and play in the major leagues, fine.
06:09Marcelo Mayer's been here a long time.
06:10Gunnar Henderson, all the other people in that track are playing right now.
06:13They're playing on their teams.
06:15They're in the majors already.
06:16Him being in Worcester doesn't really get me all that excited.