Ray Finkle
☠️ Banned ☠️
I spoke to someone in the Red Sox front office last night, a couple of things:
-The Sox are happy that a) the Yankees didn't get Santana and b) he's out of the AL.
-I asked him if the Sox were ever serious about Santana and he told me if the price was right (the players they had to trade and the contract both dollars and years) they would have listened. But they wouldn't have went more than 5 years with Santana and that there was no way they'd pay him 25 million.
-Told me that a lot of the Sox scouts had major concerns about Santana's elbow and shoulder. Apparently Santana threw 70% less sliders he did in previous years and when he did throw sliders they were flat and hittable. He also didn't have the movement on his pitches he had in the past. The scouts said he could get away with not throwing as many sliders because of his excellent change up however once he loses a few MPH on his fastball he'd be hittable and pitch to contact a lot more (ala Schilling last year). Basically he'd be a different pitcher. He also said scouts noticed other things about wouldn't say what when I asked.
-Told me that there are absolutely no plans to ever build a new Fenway Park while John Henry is the owner. The owners are 100% committed to keeping Fenway and just improving it. (This disappointed me, I love Fenway but I definitely think they need a new stadium- basically exactly like the old Fenway but bigger aisles, more seats, better food options, more bathrooms, etc).
-Also Johnny Pesky's number (#6) is probably going to be retired this year. Right now the rule on retired numbers is the player has to be in the MLB Hall of Fame as a Red Sox (Fisk is an exception) but the Sox new rule is if a player has been wearing a Sox uniform for over 50 years his number could be retired. Pesky's number should have been retired years ago and hopefully this is true and his number gets retired right away.
That's all the info I got, he wouldn't comment about possible trades (Coco, Tavaras) or signings.
-The Sox are happy that a) the Yankees didn't get Santana and b) he's out of the AL.
-I asked him if the Sox were ever serious about Santana and he told me if the price was right (the players they had to trade and the contract both dollars and years) they would have listened. But they wouldn't have went more than 5 years with Santana and that there was no way they'd pay him 25 million.
-Told me that a lot of the Sox scouts had major concerns about Santana's elbow and shoulder. Apparently Santana threw 70% less sliders he did in previous years and when he did throw sliders they were flat and hittable. He also didn't have the movement on his pitches he had in the past. The scouts said he could get away with not throwing as many sliders because of his excellent change up however once he loses a few MPH on his fastball he'd be hittable and pitch to contact a lot more (ala Schilling last year). Basically he'd be a different pitcher. He also said scouts noticed other things about wouldn't say what when I asked.
-Told me that there are absolutely no plans to ever build a new Fenway Park while John Henry is the owner. The owners are 100% committed to keeping Fenway and just improving it. (This disappointed me, I love Fenway but I definitely think they need a new stadium- basically exactly like the old Fenway but bigger aisles, more seats, better food options, more bathrooms, etc).
-Also Johnny Pesky's number (#6) is probably going to be retired this year. Right now the rule on retired numbers is the player has to be in the MLB Hall of Fame as a Red Sox (Fisk is an exception) but the Sox new rule is if a player has been wearing a Sox uniform for over 50 years his number could be retired. Pesky's number should have been retired years ago and hopefully this is true and his number gets retired right away.
That's all the info I got, he wouldn't comment about possible trades (Coco, Tavaras) or signings.
