Abraham On Toucher & Rich: Red Sox 'Better Off Trading' Ellsbury
The Red Sox were swept by the Toronto Blue Jays over the weekend and now sit at the very bottom of the Eastern Division. Tuesday night the Sox kick off a three game series with the New York Yankees, who are only one game ahead of the Baltimore Orioles for first place.
Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe spoke with 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich about this series possibly kicking the Sox into gear a little.
"In talking to Clay Buchholz and Cody Ross and a few other guys, they seem to think that the fact that the Yankees have something to play for and they're only a game up on the Orioles kind of requires the Red Sox to show up and play better than they have been. Whether they are capable of that I'm not sure, but with Jon Lester on the mound tonight they should be anyway. It's also a chance for them to maybe pay back a little bit for what happened to them last year when the Yankees and the Orioles and the Rays knocked them out of contention, so maybe the Red Sox can spoil someone else's season too."
The guys also go over some of the stats that shine some light on how bad this team has actually been over the recent stretch of games. All that Sox fans really have to focus on for the rest of this poor season is individual performances.
What are Abraham's thoughts on Jacoby Ellsbury, should they trade him in the offseason and get what you can for him and has he increased or decreased his value since his return?
"Oh clearly decreased, he was second in the MVP voting last year and he's done nothing really this year. You know you can probably blame it on the fact that he didn't play for much of the year because he was hurt, but since he's come back he really hasn't played well at all."
"I personally think that they'd be better off trading him because I think he'd be a tough guy to sign and the Red Sox have gotten into trouble with those kind of contracts in the last couple of years. So trade him now get what you can for him, hopefully it's a starting pitcher and that's what they should be doing in terms of rebuilding their roster."
Is it better if they hold on to Ellsbury till June or July of next season in hopes that he starts the season off well and bump up his value?
Plus they discuss the Washington Nationals shutting down Stephen Strasburg, was that a good call on the part of the team?
