Is the Red Sox season over?

WEEI-FM / WEEI

After losing 5 straight, the guys debate if the season is now over and done for the Boston Red Sox

Transcript

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.

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