It's going to be a "meh" season

I've been following the off-season tweaking the Red Sox are doing and I gotta be honest with you, they don't seem to be doing much of anything. So far this is who they've picked up:

• Matt Andriese - A pitcher of average talent.
• Hunter Renfroe - An outfielder with a decent bat.
• Garrett Whitlock - A Rule 5 draft pitcher. If he doesn't make the team, he'll go back to the Yankees.
• Joel Payamps - A pitcher claimed off waivers after being released by the Diamondbacks.
• Kevin McCarthy - A minor league pitcher of mediocre talent.

Not anyone who I would consider earth shaking. Renfroe can hit the ball and he plays a good outfield and there may be occasion where you will be talking about him the next day but that will be rare. As for the others, I don't think any of them will be that guy who "saves the game" with an immaculate inning, a miraculous play or a walk-off home run.

On the other side of the coin, here's a list of players who became free agents this winter:

• Tzu-Wei Lin - Triple-A utility player.
• Yoan Aybar - Triple-A pitcher.
• Jose Peraza - Shortstop with limited range and not much of a bat.
• Domingo Tapia - Triple-A pitcher.
• Jackie Bradley Jr. - Top-tier center fielder with a mediocre bat.
• Zack Godley - Triple-A pitcher.
• Mike Kickham - Triple-A pitcher.
• Robinson Leyer- Triple-A pitcher.
• Collin McHugh - Triple-A pitcher.
• Martin Perez - Pitcher who made a name as a reliable guy who could go more than 4 innings.
• Cesar Puello - Triple-A outfielder.
• Andrew Triggs - Triple-A pitcher.

They lost two players who had an impact on the team (Bradley and Perez) but they also lost nine minor league players. Those nine players all got called up at one time or another last season. Those are guys who are no longer available to the team.

Sale is a question mark (Tommy John's surgery) and may not be available until July. Rodriguez (Myocarditis caused by covid) is also a question mark but rumor has it that he'll be available for spring training.

So the bottom line here is I am not impressed and at this point, they have yet to put a team in place that will be better than last season. They have not set a date for pitchers and catchers to report but they have scheduled their traditional first scrimmage against Northeastern on February 26th. That is seven weeks and a few days from today.

Seven weeks is not a long way away...

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As for the Bruins, they are in training camp and I understand that all players have reported, including Rask.

With a full team, they should make a good showing of it this season and I'm looking forward to watching some old-time hockey in 10 days.

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The media keeps talking about how slowly the vaccine rollout is going but I had a thought about that.

I'm no fan of Trump and his screwed up administration but given the fact this vaccination thing has just started, I can't help but think we need to give them time to ramp this up. It's only been two weeks and something of this magnitude takes practice.

Give them some time and I suspect things will speed up. Someone will come up with a process, others will follow that lead and things will click in to place.

Then again, it is the government and if there is one thing they do well, it's screw things up.

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These links are for you:

• Forget covid, political unrest or people out of work. The politicians in Massachusetts have more important things to worry about...



• Only in Florida.



• She seems like a real stable woman.



• I still think it's funny that the FBI used satelites, orbiting hundreds of miles above the earth and the latest technology to track someone so they could find her at home.



• Hamsters: The Houdini of the animal world.