Felger & Mazz On: The Trade Deadline
After last night's loss and with only 10 days remaining before the MLB trade deadline, Tony Massarotti and guest host Dave Goucher discuss what the Red Sox need to do. But will the Red Sox make a move?
Massarotti: "It remains to be seen whether or not the Red Sox will be players in the trade deadline. In the wake of last night's loss in Oakland, a game they lead 4-0, yet another game by the way in which the Red Sox held a 3-0 lead and lost. If you were counting at home, that's 9 games they've lost this year when holding a 3-0 lead. Right now, the Red Sox are going to play a lot of bullpen games. And when I say that, I mean the outcome is going to be undecided or in the balance going into the 7th inning. They are not good enough to get ahead of teams by a significant margin in the first 6 innings of any game. They don't have that kind of lineup right now. That leads me to the question: What is Theo Epstein waiting for? This bullpen issue has been ongoing since the start of the year. They've had 2 reliable relievers all year long. All things considered, the closer is not an issue on this team. Bard has been good. Everyone else has stunk at some point or another. I don't get the sense that they have any urgency in getting anybody here at all before July 31 whether it be for luxury tax reasons or anything else."
Goucher: "Affordable, effective relievers are hard to find out there. Would you have to give up a lot to bring somebody in here? This bullpen problem has been from spring training on and hasn't gotten any better. It hasn't gotten any better. It's the same now as it was in April. How many more times do you have to see [Ramon] Ramirez go out there and be ineffective? Every trade deadline he's [Theo Epstein] been on the job, he's done something. This is a team that's hanging on at best to try and stay in this race with all the guys they have injured. And the bullpen, which has been an ongoing problem, has yet to be fixed at all."
