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Mastrodonato: (Hopefully) The Final Red Sox Season Preview From Freezing Cleveland

BOSTON (CBS) --- Boston Herald Red Sox writer Jason Mastrodonato joined the Adam Jones Show on Monday Night hoping to discuss the 2016 Red Sox season opener. Of course, the game didn't happen, as the heavily anticipated game was pushed back to Tuesday afternoon.

During the course of a baseball season, there are bound to be a handful of games due to rain. What made Monday afternoon's cancellation more frustrating than usual, however, was that the Red Sox opener in Cleveland wasn't called due to precipitation. It was just cold.

Like every Red Sox fan eager to get the season going, Mastrodonato was a bit puzzled by the decision to postpone the game.

"The Red Sox have never played a game when its been 30 degrees or colder [in the past 15 years], and it was 30 degrees," said Mastrodonato. "So, I'm guessing that the players and teams got together and said 'This is cold. Guys are gonna get sick.' I don't know what else happened, but they decided it was not a good idea to play baseball today, so we're gonna play it tomorrow when it's gonna be 34 degrees."

In that case, what would you accomplish by pushing the game back by a day?

"They're going to get four degrees of extra warmth," Mastrodonato noted sarcastically.

Other than David Price's Red Sox debut, Mastrodonato was looking forward to seeing how the re-shuffled Red Sox lineup will shake out early on this season.

"I wanted to see how the offense is going to click," said Mastrodonato. "There's a lot of guys on this team where you need to see them hit, because if they're not scoring at least four runs a game, this is going to be a lousy season. The rotation, as we've talked about, is questionable."

Lastly, Mastrodonato gave his take on the direction of Boston's catchers, after spending time watching both Blake Swihart and Christian Vazquez play over the past few years.

While Swihart hit very well down the stretch last season, it's hard for Mastrodonato to overlook the elite defensive skill he's seen from Vazquez.

"I still wonder if he's (Swihart) gonna be a catcher, especially when Vazquez gets healthy," said Mastrodonato. "I'm interested to see how they handle this because Vazquez is a once-in-a-lifetime type of defensive player."

Hopefully more of these questions will be answered sooner rather than later, as the Red Sox season is set to open at 1:10 PM on Tuesday afternoon in Cleveland.

Listen to the full interview below:

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