Think about it, that would explain a lot. With such a healthy lead in the AL Wild Card race coming into the month of September, it's only natural to let your guard down a little bit. I'm not saying that they are drastically out of shape, but even a few spare pounds, and you have a problem. At least, some scouts in contact with Buster Olney think so.
"I'm talking to scouts and they are saying that there are some players on the Red Sox who they are surprised are not in better physical condition," Olney said. "In fairness to those [players] that are mentioned in those conversations, I haven't talked to them directly, I'm not going to mention the names. But you guys can look at the bodies and probably figure it out for yourselves. And they feel like there are guys during the course of the Red Sox season who have gotten out of shape. And that's a problem. And if you're the Red Sox, and you have a lot of money invested in this team and you are coming down the stretch, you don't want to be sitting there wondering if these guys are struggling in part because they are not in as good a physical condition as the Rays are. That's a problem." (via WEEI)
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