Former Blue Jays manager and current ESPN analyst J.P. Ricciardi joined The Big Show Thursday to talk about what’s going on in the world of baseball the last two days before the trade deadline, whether the Sox can recover in terms of the pennant race and their ratings, who the biggest surprise is in baseball this season, and how the votes should work for Hall of Famers from the steroid era.
Following are highlights. To listen to the full interview, visit The Big Show audio on demand page.
On Theo Epstein’s thoughts at the trade deadline:
I think he’s definitely been looking at relief pitching, I don’t think there’s any question about that. I think they’ve been in with a lot of good guys. I think the price tag is really high right now, so they’re trying to address their relief pitching, they’re trying to add one more bat which may be in the outfield because their outfield is still banged up. I think they’re just getting everyday players back like [Victor] Martinez, and ultimately their lineup will start to get together a little bit more, but I think they’re going to need one more bat, which I think they’re going to try to get. They might have as much luck on the waiver wire when guys start going through waivers, they’ll get more luck than what teams are asking for right now — straight up trades. So, I think they’re going to address some of that bullpen help.
On general managers feeding rumors to the media:
Well, I don’t know so much if the general manager would be out there doing it. I would say in today’s game, it might be the agent who’s doing it. I think the agent has more contact with writers today than they’ve ever had, I think they are the ones who a lot of the times bring us some interest, and say, “Hey, this team is interested in signing this player,” when there’s absolutely no truth to it. But they’re trying to create a market and drive a market, and I think the one thing in Boston is the Red Sox and Yankees are always cognizant of what the other is doing. It’s almost like the old Mad magazine “Spy vs. Spy.”
On whether the Yankees are more inclined to look for bullpen help:
I think they’ll try to get some bullpen help. I think they’re going to really try and deliver a knockout punch and try to get an Adam Dunn. I don’t know if it will happen. But I think if they can put that cycle back in their lineup it finishes up their lineup and absolutely it may deliver a knockout punch to the division.
On whether the Sox can stay in the pennant race:
I think they can. They remind me a lot of what the Phillies are doing. The Phillies are really starting to make a push, they’re starting to play their best baseball. I think it’s really incredible what the Red Sox have been able to do this year, to be able to hang in this race, to be that banged up and really hold the fort down while they’re starting to get these guys back. I think their best baseball is still in front of them, being able to pitch, being able to hit, being able to do it all together.
I think they’ll get something in the way of something small, but they’re not going to trade [Jose] Iglesias, they’re not going to trade [Casey] Kelly. They’re not going to bite on that bullet, but they’re going to get some guys in there that can help them, whether it’s a group of smaller guys. Even if it’s just changing scenery in the bullpen to give them a different look. He’ll do some different things but I think the big pieces are coming back. … They have to have a push, that’s the only way they’re going to get back into it, but I do think it’s in there.
On the most surprising team in baseball:
I would say San Diego. I think they’ve hung in there long enough. I think they’re really going to try to do something. What it is, I don’t know. I don’t know what they’re finances are, but I think they’re the one team, that they’re going to try and do something. I think something along the lines of a bat, I think there’s going to be more bats out there that you’re able to get. I wouldn’t hold the trade deadline as a drop dead-type date. I think a lot of guys are going to through waivers. There’s going to be some big salary guys that go through waivers that people won’t touch and maybe a team like San Diego will say, “Well, hey, we’ll fire our bullet on this type of guy.”
On NESN’s falling television ratings for watching Red Sox games, down 36 percent from last year:
I am surprised by that, and I think what’s happened, maybe, is — and I hate to say this — we do have such a great sports town here. You wonder if people just get kind of bored by the winning, which, I hate to say that because I saw it happen in Toronto. After ’92, ’93, it’s like the world stood still. They went from 4 million people down to — they have the lowest attendance in baseball right now. In five more years they’re going to be teetering on whether that organization can stay in Toronto based on that. I don’t think that will ever happen in Boston, but I’m really surprised to hear that, that big a fall off from watching the Red Sox.
On the Red Sox’ ability to make it to the playoffs and the World Series:
I think the biggest problem is going to be getting there. I think that’s the problem with playing in the American League East, there’s three teams that are all deserving of being in the playoffs and one of them’s going to be home watching it. But any one of those three teams I would not want to face. I guarantee you, the Phillies, and even Texas, when they go out and make the deals that they’re making, they’re thinking that I have to go through the American League East to win this world championship, whether Texas has to match up with the Yankees or the Red Sox or Tampa, that’s why went out and got Cliff Lee because they weren’t going to cut it with the guys they had.
I don’t think anybody in the National League, outside of maybe the Phillies now, if they have [Roy] Oswalt, putting those two guys up against the other guys, that’s what people look at — just having to beat those teams in the East. But I think if the Red Sox get in, I would not want to face that rotation.