- 12 hours ago
JP Riccardi, NESN analyst and former Blue Jays GM, joins Rich, Ken, and Ted to discuss if the Red Sox can salvage this season.
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00:00there was a picture that went viral yesterday i don't know if it was real or not you can never
00:04tell anymore i don't even know if it was from last night but it sure was a nice encapsulation
00:08of i think all of us feel it was john henry sitting alone in his box with his head in
00:14his
00:14hands as if you've got to be kidding me as people were shuffling out well the question is can they
00:20do anything is this can can they make any moves to make this really doa team any better and that's
00:28what we have on jp richardi baseball analyst for the red sox and nesson and and so much more he
00:33was
00:33part of the big money ball uh thing if you saw the movie read the book he's down with billy
00:37bean
00:38uh jp thanks for coming on with us we really appreciate it yeah no problem how you guys doing
00:43hey doing good jp we started the show trying to figure out whether this is the worst red sox team
00:49of our lifetime and can you remember a team being this bad at this point of the season
00:58well it depends on how old you guys are let's just pretend i'm your age
01:06uh i don't know if it's the worst red sox team ever i think it's a i mean if you
01:11want to look at
01:11the positive side it's a very heavy pitching organization right now they've got really good
01:16pitching and i feel good about that i think for all of us that have been uh aware of the
01:23red sox for a
01:24lot of years it's probably the least offensive team they've ever had red sox used to be power
01:29power power and it's a team void of power uh and and not only is it void of power you
01:36know in baseball
01:37you want to create a critical match you want to get as many runners as you can on base get
01:41as much
01:41traffic as you can go in on the bases and then have your big boppers if you don't have your
01:45big
01:45boppers you got to still create that critical mass and try to create runs by having traffic
01:49and they seem to have a void on the offensive end of both of those categories so i i see
01:55them
01:56struggling offensively but i do like their pitching jp how did they not see this that it was going to
02:02be a problem in the offseason that they weren't going to have those bats
02:07well i think you know when you put together a roster you put together a roster you believe in and
02:14i
02:14think that they believed that they were going to be able to really be a pitching and defensive team
02:18uh but you know traditionally you can go back to the early 70s if you want to uh it's the
02:25american
02:25league east has always been an offensive league it's been good pitching it's where most of the
02:29money comes from the red sox used to be a big spending club yankees used to be a big spending
02:34club you know toronto back in the day was a big spending club they've turned around now and they're
02:38a big spending club again so the big spending clubs have both offense and pitching and i think they
02:43went into this with the idea that we're going to have really good pitching and try to have run
02:47prevention and try to win games that way well jp you've been in the front office of different places
02:52for a lot of years if you were running this front office what would you want to do now what
02:56would
02:56you do next um well i think it's kind of hard to make a trade right now there's very few
03:03teams
03:03are going to be willing to get off uh some of the players that that are part of what they're
03:07trying
03:07to do obviously you could kick the tires and see and see what's out there but it's going to come
03:11at
03:11the expense of some of your younger players probably some of your younger pitching what i
03:18would try to do with present lineup present roster is you know most people don't want to hear this
03:24because these aren't household names but yoshida and gasper need to be in the lineup because they're
03:30the one the two guys that make consistent contact they draw walks and they get on base they're not the
03:37sexiest guys they're not the guys you thought at the beginning of the year but they've got to get
03:41a group of guys that can create the more traffic on the bases and right now those two guys are
03:48on
03:48base guys for them and they need to get those guys in the lineup more and then try i would
03:53try to run a
03:54little bit more you know sedane can run um obviously um anthony's hurt but marcelo meyer can run a little
04:02bit yoshida can run a story can run a bray who can run they've got some guys in that lineup
04:09that
04:09can steal some bases i would have more of a hit and run type lineup i know most analytic guys
04:14don't
04:14want to hear that anymore but they've got to realize what they are real fast and start making
04:18an adjustment on the fly i mean that's the interesting thing jp is just you know it feels
04:23like you're talking about a team like milwaukee or the rays that are kind of small ball you know type
04:29playing teams you know and that runs counter at least it does in my mind to what essentially it
04:35sounds like they're teaching them which is the driveline guys which is basically pulling the
04:39ball and hitting it in the air it feels like there's just a misalignment with uh how they hit
04:44and it's a one size fits all mentality and it's is that how you see it and how do you
04:48have a small
04:49ball team and have an athletic team and talk about well the way you're talking about how they need to
04:53move runners when you're teaching this driveline technique well it's actually a really good point
04:59and uh i don't know if the show is long enough for me to go off on driveline so uh
05:03i i uh you know
05:06the problem with trying to hit home runs is a couple of problems one when you don't have the personnel
05:10you
05:11can't do it number two what usually happens is in short series and close series uh the power ends up
05:16running out the good pitching shuts it down and i would have thought what toronto did last year by
05:21having so much success putting the ball in play that other teams would have built on it and you
05:26touched on two teams that have done it amper bay and milwaukee they play to their strengths they have
05:31athletic players they touch the ball they create uh people on base they steal bases in the three or
05:38four guys in their lineup that do home runs they always have someone on base with the potential to
05:42be a one a two run a three run home run i think with the red sox lineup right now
05:47they're not going
05:48to be a power club so the faster they realize that and the faster they start playing a little
05:53bit more of a not so much base to base but take advantage be a good first to third club
05:58steal the
05:59base here and there uh you know don't be afraid to do a double steal every once in a while
06:03and you've
06:04got some guys that are struggling duran's struggling he's a guy who can run when he does get on base
06:08take advantage of it and send them so uh i like the point you made i like the milwaukee and
06:14the tampa
06:14bay comparison and those two teams always seem to find a way to recreate themselves now jp in today's
06:21mlb can you can you be successful with the philosophy that this team has and has had since they got
06:27rid
06:27of dombrowski where it's not as much about spending for big you know big money for big players and
06:32instead it's trying to use stats and and figure out a way to you know to cut corners and maximize
06:38and
06:39depend on players playing to their maximum potential unlike how they used to be where
06:44you would get the big names here and they would be always one of the top spending teams in the
06:48league
06:50well i think it's it's a little bit of pollyanna to think that you are going to uh out analyze
06:57somebody
06:58else who in our game is analytically driven and is winning world series there's very very few teams
07:05and if you go back and look from the year 2000 to 2025 a 25 year period the teams that
07:10have won the
07:11world series have mostly been in the top 15 to 17 in payroll there's only been a couple outliers that
07:18have won the world series it was the 03 marlins and i believe there was one other club i can't
07:23think
07:23of it off the top of my head but if you trim that down even more most teams that win
07:27the world series
07:28are in the top 10 in payroll it's the big leagues you don't put a missouri mule in the kentucky
07:34derby
07:34it ain't gonna work and you could try to outsmart these guys all you want and you could do it
07:40for
07:40a little bit of time you know tampa bay is always 80 and 82 82 and you know 80 they
07:45have 86 wins and
07:46they and we did in oakland you know we got through we got to the playoffs but we could never
07:51get over
07:51the hump because we could never afford the big bopper on the mound or the big bat and i think
07:58if you try to outsmart people and outthink people i think you can reinvent the wheel
08:04the game has showed it it's right in the statistics teams don't do that and win the world series and
08:08the red sox look at the yankees the yankees are in the playoffs every year the red sox should be
08:13in
08:13the playoffs every year because they've got the same uh same type of monetary backing behind them
08:19and i think the yankees haven't won the world series but they're always there and that's how the
08:23red sox should be now jp speaking of that big bat and i know you said it's tough to pull
08:27a trade and
08:28we live in fantasy land on the radio so we just get these names thrown at us and we throw
08:31them
08:31out ourselves would any of these names be realistic at all fernando tatis mike trout yordan alvarez
08:38cattel marty would you give up like elite young pitching in the system to go after one of these guys
08:44well alvarez you talk about the guy houston right yeah yeah yeah i would uh i would
08:50have no problem going after him um that's the type of bat they're looking for and you know houston's
08:55a good matchup because you know they're going to pull the plug at some point when they realize that
08:59maybe their season isn't heading the way they wanted uh but you know the bennett kid left-hander
09:04young kid good arm that's a guy that you could put out in the trading block uh and that's the
09:09one
09:09thing they have they have a little bit of depth in their starting pitching that they can move some of
09:15their younger players um and you got to see what you know what the other team's looking for but
09:20if if you've got crochet and you've got uh suarez and you got uh i forget the kid's name now
09:30from
09:31uh the kid who pitched the other night pitched really good guy from the cardinals you're on the
09:34gray uh you got sunny gray you got totally you got early you got five really good starting
09:40pitchers right there and you got two young kids behind the three veterans so anything else you've got
09:45in your system that you could deal i'd have no problem dealing it jp i you know i just want
09:50to quickly go back to the great point you made about you know having to spend money and and having
09:55to you said it so eloquently about you can't put one of mississippi horse or something oh no
09:59moussuri bull moussuri bull yeah i looked it up i was like well that's awesome it's a great it's
10:04really a great way to put it but i just don't know what it's going to take to make ownership
10:08change
10:09their philosophy do you think that it would be anger from the fans apathy people not
10:14going is is this ownership capable of changing their mind on how they do business
10:22well you know i don't know the ownership uh personally i've never worked with them i've
10:27never been around them i'm just an outsider like you guys looking in i think that they've
10:32had a lot of success here and have done a lot of good things and maybe they just don't want
10:38to get
10:38involved with all that luxury tax anymore uh and maybe the only thing that is going to get their
10:43attention so to speak is uh people not going to fenway park or people not watching nesson but
10:48uh you got to remember this is a very very loyal fan base uh it's going to take a lot
10:54for people
10:55not to show up at fenway because on a night-to-night basis i bet you 25 percent of the
10:59people who show
11:00up at fenway park aren't from around here yeah it's a destination firm and it's always going to be a
11:05place
11:05that that attracts uh fans so i don't think fenway park's ever going to be empty uh and i hope
11:11it doesn't
11:11come to that because you know the red sox mean so much to this area and so many people are
11:17so tied
11:17to them but uh you know maybe maybe losing uh and they lose to some teams that maybe they think
11:23that
11:23they shouldn't lose to uh maybe spur them on a little bit more but uh i think the ownership
11:29has done a great job here when you think about where they were and where they've come and they've
11:35raised the bar so high now people have expectations but i think you can also rest on your laurels
11:39and i think that's what this ownership did as a matter of fact i i believe that after they won
11:44all their championships and they just said you know what we're just not going to be spending
11:48anymore and it happened to coincide with them getting ownership with other teams you know
11:51obviously overseas and then you got the uh pittsburgh and it just it it as a fan you're looking at
11:58it
11:59and it almost it makes you a little pissed because you want them to always be hungry to win
12:04and it just seems like they saw that i think they probably feel that they've got a lifetime
12:10uh free pass because of what they've done where truly fans in this town demand you'd give everything
12:17you've got every year to building a winner yeah and i don't disagree with you one bit uh you know
12:24i i
12:24look around though the landscape has changed in baseball it used to be the red sox and the yankees
12:29were in the top two to three to four of payroll now you look the dodgers have basically said we're
12:35going to spend whatever it takes to reward our fan base because they've become such a financial engine
12:40with so many different entities leading to them being so successful but the yankees have even pulled
12:46back the red sox have pulled back you know the phillies are pretty much what they used to be
12:51but there's a lot of clubs that have really backed off what they they used to spend and i don't
12:57know
12:57if it's just you know a restructuring all across baseball but there's less and less teams out there
13:04spending the way they did i mean the toronto blue jays have turned the corner and now decided that
13:10they're going to spend money and the mets have always been a club that has spent money so
13:14it's shifted a little bit but uh some teams are really drawing back a little bit and i think the
13:21red sox are one of them well jp i just uh hope that i read that article in the globe
13:25today where
13:26they're like i guess it was alex beer saying that right now there doesn't seem to be many plans for
13:30them making any moves and i just want to watch entertaining baseball that's the thing is that
13:34they're just they're like you know what they are they're sports nyquil you just sit there you just
13:39get sleepy depressed and just every night watch the woo socks with jp's on the call it is it's like
13:45it's baseball it's sports nyquil and i just don't want that i want to be able to enjoy myself i
13:50love
13:50fenway park like you just said it's awesome to bring people from out of town and go hey let me
13:54show off
13:54my city and then you go there and you see 18 people left on base and you're just like i
13:59knew
13:59this was going to happen and and ex-players who you who you could have had like kyle schwarber
14:03come in and embarrass you night after night it's just i i just uh you know jp me to you
14:09i just hope
14:09that they do something because i hate bad baseball well i will tell you this you know i don't know
14:14how much time you got here but i will say this you know you look at the last three games
14:17against
14:18philadelphia all three of those games could have went the red sox away they really pitched well so
14:22they're going to be in some games because they pitch well it's it's pretty much just sending up
14:27a signal get me some offense and i think this team could do well in the second half so the
14:33they got the
14:34one thing that a lot of people want the problem is the yankees have good pitching toronto has good
14:38pitching and their offense is much better than the red sox so they know what their need is if they're
14:44able to address that i wouldn't quit on the red sox in the second half but they have to make
14:48a move
14:48yep absolutely well jp great stuff uh jp rishardi baseball analyst for the red sox nesting you can
14:54see them all over the place we appreciate you coming on with us that was uh thanks a bunch for
14:57thanks anytime take care guys
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