Felger & Mazz To Red Sox: Don't Make The Same Mistake Twice
BOSTON (CBS) - Mike Felger, Tony Massarotti and Marc Bertrand opened the Wednesday show talking about Red Sox free agency. The "e-mail of the day" prompted this discussion, it reads:
Hey guys, all this stuff about [Brian] McCann, etc has me a little worried about the Red Sox. I don't want the Red Sox to take their eye of the ball here. Back during the season I think we actually asked 'Would something like a World Championship be enough reason to keep this team together?' and we all said no.
Yet the other day Ben Cherington said they would love to keep this team together, but that it was unlikely. Maybe that was rhetoric, but the idea of bringing Stephen Drew back and overpaying for Brian McCann, etc has me feel like they're already straying for their mission statement last offseason.
I said this last winter and during the season, and I'll say it again: this upcoming offseason is far more important than the last offseason. And it's even more important now that they've unexpectedly won. There's a tendency to look at all this and say 2012 was an outlier for the Red Sox - and it was. But can we agree that 2013 was at least something of an outlier as well?
Bottom line is I'm starting to fear the Red Sox are going to do something stupid this offseason.
Signed,
Anthony in Brighton
Who is Anthony in Brighton you ask? The one and only Tony Massarotti.
Tony fears that the Red Sox are already feeling the pressure of "feeding the monster" and could very well make the same mistake twice in signing the wrong players to bad deals.
"Let's not over-think this," said Mazz. "You were in a certain position a year ago. You put together a team and in the wonder of all wonders you won the World Series. What an amazing story. But let's not put too much emphasis on this one season either. It's bigger than that."
Mazz continued, "Let's not get out of whack here. You dumped the contracts you did in part so you can build and make sound financial investments. Don't do something stupid here and go give Brian McCann a 5-year deal."
Felger agrees with that sentiment as well. According to the Red Sox computer models, the team they constructed last year was only supposed to win 88 games. So even though they won the World Series, the front office should still view them as an 88-win team.
"Let's not go and pretend that this roster is going to win 97 games again," insists Felger. "Let's not go overrating Stephen Drew. That's a good example. He was a starting shortstop on a 88-win team. You know what? He still is. Look at the contract lengths of the guys they signed last year, this was not supposed to be the core group of guys going forward."
Another thing that has the guys peeved is Jarrod Saltalamacchia and the way he's going about his free agency.
Listen to the full discussion below to find out why:
Don't Make The Same Mistake Twice Red Sox
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