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Felger & Mazz On Red Sox Team-Building Philosophy: Do They Even Have One?

BOSTON (CBS) - With MLB hot stove season in full swing, 98.5 The Sports Hub's Felger & Massarotti program began Wednesday's show talking baseball.

General managers for the league's 30 teams are meeting in Phoenix this week, expressing their offseason desires, gauging trade interest and that sort of thing. This is all a precursor to the annual Winter Meetings in December, where trades and signings come Faster and more Furious than a Vin Diesel movie.

As it relates locally to the Red Sox, the message coming out of Arizona is confusing.

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It gets more confusing though when you look at the particulars of the deal Sandoval will likely reach. Perhaps ESPN's Buster Olney put it best.

This morning, he tweeted:

"So now they're willing to overpay for Pablo Sandoval, but they weren't even willing to entertain the thought of overpaying for Jacoby Ellsbury," said Felger to open the discussion.

This begs the question: do the Red Sox have a proactive or reactive team-building philosophy?

Mazz is starting to think it's the latter.

"This tells me that the Red Sox are reactionary. A year ago in spring training they were selling us their philosophy how they're different from the Yankees. [Team president] Larry Lucchino said the Yankees are still doing it in their 'inimitable' Yankee way. Right? With high-priced free agents. 'No! Not the Red Sox! They do it a different way! They let guys like Jacoby Ellsbury go!' -- except when they go 71-91 and they go back on the market and start throwing money around like a bunch of drunken sailors," said an impassioned Tony Massarotti. "To me, this shows a level of desperation that exists inside that ballpark."

Felger put it even more bluntly.

"They don't have a plan. They don't have a philosophy. They don't have one," said Felger.

Mike and Tony go back even further and provide other examples of the Red Sox being reactionary. This haphazardness is very alarming in their opinion.

Listen below for the full discussion:

MORE RED SOX COVERAGE FROM CBS BOSTON

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