This entry was posted on 3/15/2008 9:55 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
Here's a transcript of the Peter Gammons segment from Thursday's edition of the Mike Felger Show on 890 ESPN. Among other things, The Greatest Baseball Writer To Walk This Earth doesn't think Clay Buchholz will start the season in Boston, does believe that David Aardsma is going to make the team and contribute in Boston's bullpen and opines that the Sox front office isn't all that happy with displaced centerfielder Coco Crisp.
I could listen to Gammons talk about baseball forever, so without further ado here it is:
We’ll get to the baseball, but I heard that you were with Bill Belichick and Tony LaRussa for a few hours [recently]. What was that experience like?
PG: I don’t deal with him on the day-to-day things like you do, but I’ve always found him to be a fascinating person. He’s one of the most fascinating people I know. It was interesting, I was with him for a couple of hours and he was watching the Cardinals go through some cutoff drills and other things and every time LaRussa would come over Bill would want to know exactly why they did, everything they did.
I guess he’ll always be the teacher and he has to learn about everything. I don’t where the Patriots are going to use the daylight play on a pickoff at second base, but he’s definitely interested in it. It was a fun time to spend a couple of hours with them.
Does he like the sport?
PG: He definitely likes the sport. I don’t know if it was Dave Duncan or Bob Griese and his son, who were there, who asked but he said he was a football/lacrosse guy but that he definitely liked the sport. I actually remember him being at the ballpark at Fenway one Sunday night and he would just pepper me with questions. Anybody who is that inquisitive always interests me.
How were his spirits? Did he mention anything about Spygate?
PG: No, I didn’t ask him. This was a social visit with his son hanging out at the Cardinals complex, so I didn’t ask him. But he was in good spirits and I don’t know where any of that stuff is going.
What was the basis behind the Mirabelli move?
PG: They just didn’t think he could play anymore. They’re going to let Kevin Cash catch, and they think in time that Dusty Brown could be a pretty good backup catcher. Kevin Cash is going to get the first shot, but they just didn’t think Mirabelli could hit anymore or basically do anything.
What’s interesting is that Tim Wakefield has been such a warrior for the Sox all these years, but you wonder if he’s going to lose any confidence. Cash did a good job with Wake last year and he didn’t really hit anything either. You don’t want to have Wakefield lose confidence.
You don’t have Beckett start until say April 5 in Toronto and you’re going to start the season with Clay Buchholz in Triple-A, then you’re going to need Wakefield to have a good start to the season. Traditionally he’s been a very good April pitcher, and if he pitches in Tokyo it’ll be indoors which will be fine and then he could pitch again indoors in Toronto if he has to.
You just wonder that Mirabelli has been such a crutch and to his credit he presents a target as well as any catcher in the game. You know why Wakefield loves him. They just figure they have to move on and see what happens. They’ll just lean on Cash and then if they have to make a deal for a catcher at some point then they’ll do it down the line. They got a pretty good one in that complex Cleveland deal in Josh Bard, but Wakefield just couldn’t pitch to him.
How do the Red Sox view that deal: Josh Bard has certainly outhit Mirabelli and Cla Meredith has turned into one of the game’s best young relievers, but Wakefield did win 17 games last year and help contribute to a World Series Champion team. Was that deal worth it in the end?
PG: I think it was because they won. Let’s be honest, Cla Meredith was terrible last year and you wonder a little bit in the second or third time around a league with a sidearm guy and how he’ll do. Bard is a good catcher and is sort of a Michael Barrett. They went 86 years and they won two times in four years with Mirabelli catching Wakefield.
Although I don’t think I’ll see anything like that game against the Yankees when Wakefield came in relief and Varitek had three passed balls in an inning and the Yankees still didn’t score. That’s one of my great memories.
Assuming Josh Beckett’s health, who is the five man rotation to start the season?
PG: There will be a four man rotation to start the season because they don’t need a fifth starter until April 13. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Lester pitches Opening Day and you’ve got Lester and Wakefield in Tokyo.
Then you’ve got Lester, Wakefield, Beckett if he can start April 5 in Toronto. They’re in okay shape with that. My guess is that Buchholz gets sent out [to Pawtucket], but they’ve been very encouraged by the Colon thing: he’s topped out at 94-mph and he sat at 92-mph and that’s harder than he threw when he won the Cy Young Award three years ago. He was basically 89-92 that year.
They want to get Clay Buchholz confident in his fastball. He’s got an 8 curveball and an 8 change up, but he still has trouble commanding the fastball and he tends to not have a lot of confidence in it. The other day against Minnesota he gave up two home runs, but then he came back the next inning and threw a couple of incredible fastballs by Cuddyer and I forgot who else.
It’s there but the maturity isn’t there yet, and it’s just as well. If he goes down for three weeks it’s just as well and if Colon can plug a whole for a little while then that’s just as well too. My guess is that Tavarez doesn’t start the season in the rotation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. That’s always a possibility.
They may leave Colon behind from the trip to Japan and then he’ll be ready to make a couple of starts when they come back as a fifth starter. Leave him in the minor leagues or extended spring training and then bring him up April 12 when they need a start and then have him make the three starts in April.
So it sounds like Lester is going to be a big part of this rotation? Can he get to 200 innings this season?
PG: I don’t think they’ll let him. I think they’re going to go with six starters during the season as they go along. Beckett barely gets 200 innings last year, and the reason they won the World Series was that Beckett pitched 45 less innings than Sabathia during the regular season. They’ll be very cautious, But Lester looks great. He’s got that strength and it’s not just all in terms of the weight.
But when you watch his delivery now, the last few years when he was either sick or recovering from chemotherapy you would see that, especially against right-handed hitters, the fastball would really run out of the strike zone. With his leg drive now he’s striding through the ball and getting down in the zone and he’s got that curveball really getting there.
He hasn’t used that cut fastball yet, which is a very good pitch, because they want him to really develop his other pitches. I think if you ask John Farrell, the Sox pitching coach, they believe in the end that Lester is going to end up being the No. 2 starter on that team behind Beckett.
How do the Red Sox avoid using the trip to Japan as an excuse for getting off to a bad start, and avoid getting off to the start that the ’04 Yankees did after going to Japan?
PG: It was really miserable listening to Kevin Brown and Mike Mussina complain. This is why I said to somebody the other day to remember the 17-hour bus rides in the minor leagues and then maybe a 17-hour plane ride seems a little more okay. They do get to come back and play in Los Angeles and start to get back to a sense of normalcy.
It’s not the end of the world. Players don’t like the change, front office doesn’t like it and the coaches don’t like it, but it’s only two games and it’s not like the end of the world. I just hope the time off won’t break up what they’ve built up in the bullpen. Because that seems to be the biggest improvement for them this spring besides watching Manny Ramirez run around like an 18-year-old.
With Delcarmen, he has been unbelievable this spring. With the loss of weight his delivery is much crisper and both his fastball and curveball are down in the zone now. One scout said to me that he’s one of the best ten relievers in baseball and Timlin has come back and is throwing great, then you have Delcarmen, Timlin, Okajima, Papelbon and actually David Aardsma is throwing 96-98 mph and I think they’ll open the season with him and maybe he’ll finally figure it out.
He’s always had great stuff. I think the bullpen has the chance to be dramatically better. I think at times last year people were down praying next to Okajima and Papelbon, and this year they’ll be able to go four or five deep.
If Delcarmen is in the regular season what he’s been spring then he’ll be one of the most dominant middle guys in the game. I’m not sure that Joba Chamberlain is going to be very much better than he is.
What do you think is up with Coco Crisp?
PG: I get the distinct impression that they think Coco isn’t handling this battle with Jacoby Ellsbury very well. The whole trade thing. As much as they love Ellsbury, who is a tremendous athlete and has gotten bigger and stronger and all the rest, speed guys are susceptible to pulled muscles.
And if they just give Crisp away and then Ellsbury pulls a hamstring for a month, then they don’t have anybody else that can play centerfield for a month and Coco could still be an important part of this team. If Coco wants to be traded then he has to first play and then play well, and it was time to sit him down and say ‘Coco cut it out and go play.’
I get the distinct impression before I left that “not happy” was a very operative expression for the way they thought of Coco.
They need him to play, and I’m still not sure they’re going to get anything of significance right now for him so they’re better off using him as a fourth outfielder and then maybe waiting for someone that needs a centerfielder to come get him. I still believe Kevin Towers wants him. Jim Edmonds in the outfield just doesn’t do it for San Diego, but the Padres don’t want to give up anything and Theo isn’t just going to give him up to the Padres.
This might break down if they find that pitchers like Greg Maddux and guys like that are being crippled by their outfielder defense in a ballpark where you need to have great outfield defense, that is the most logical place for Crisp to end up.
Are you suggesting that Crisp isn’t that hurt?
PG: I don’t know…You keep hearing that he’s going to play, but even if he’s not 100 percent then go out and play, get some at bats and get into shape. I wouldn’t say they think that he’s sort of being lax, but he’s clearly unhappy about his situation – and being unhappy and I can’t play today just don’t go together.
If he’s unhappy he’s got to go out there and prove to people that he’s still healthy and that’s the dilemma they have. The Red Sox are pretty good on not passing judgment on this guy is faking it and this guy isn’t really hurt, but after a while you just say “Oh Please, this guy has got to play.”
What about Julio Lugo? He’s missed 10 games this spring after hitting .237 last year, is there concern there?
PG: In talking to the doctors they feel he’s going to be okay. The good thing about Lugo is that he looks totally different. Last year he got violently ill and lost 15 pounds right before the season started, never put it back in and was down about 20-25 pounds by the time they got to October. He looks much better this spring.
This is a guy that used to hit with some juice in Tampa, and he’s someone I think is going to play a lot better. In some ways its been good because Jed Lowrie has played a lot and gained a lot of confidence that he is a Major League player if and when they call him up from Pawtucket, so that’s a good thing.
By the way, I love seeing the young players at spring training. I know this guy has already got a park in Brookline and a bridge in Cambridge named after him, but Lars Anderson is going to be a star. Simply a star, and next to Evan Longoria he’s been the best young hitter I’ve seen this spring
Where will be play?
PG: My guess is that they’ll put him in Double-A even though…actually he’ll be put in the California League and then move him up, but he’s got a stroke made for Fenway, he’s got great plate discipline, he’s a 6-foot-4 left-handed hitter who drives the ball exceptionally well to left field and I think in a very short period of time he’s going to end up being a big-time power hitting first baseman born to play at Fenway Park other than the fact of course that he’s got the park and the bridge named after him.
They’ve got Ryan Kalish, a young outfielder who was great at Lowell last season and his mother’s side of the family is from Brookline but he grew up in New Jersey. He was one of the ACC’s biggest quarterback recruits in high school and he’s going to come in a hurry.
They’ve started to come up with some position players. The whole idea when they started rebuilding the farm system four years ago was to go get pitching and speed first and then go get the hitters. I think they’ve done a pretty good job of it when I spent a day watching the kids at the minor league complex and I was really impressed. Anderson went into a Major League game [at spring training] and he had I think an eight-pitch at bat and a nine pitch at bat and got a couple of walks and looked like he was 25 years-old when he’s really only 19.
