OTM Roundtable: The Red Sox at the Olympics

As we wait for the MLB world to pick back up, we have for the last few weeks had the Olympics at least to enjoy. That comes to a close tomorrow, but it’s been on the mind and, frankly, we don’t really have much to talk about these days. So, for this week’s roundtable we picked some events for Red Sox participants to compete in. (As a note, I specified Winter Olympics but a little late so there is some Summer sprinkled in here.)

Scott Neville

I would have Jarren Duran join the track team, just to see how elite MLB speed translates to the Olympics. I think Duran would get smoked but I’d like to see how he stacks up to the fastest people in the world. It would be a test of elite baseball speed versus Olympic speed. We saw him run out of gas on his inside-the-park home run (unrightfully ruled a triple with an error), so endurance runs would not be in his favor. 100 meters would be his best bet.

Bayleigh Von Schneider

Jarren Duran is a speedster and if Cool Runnings”taught us anything, it’s that speed is the most crucial element in the Bobsled event. Doesn’t matter how cold, if you can run, you can at least be semi-productive in the event. So, let’s see Duran’s speed help him slip and slide into the Olympics as the newest member of the US Men’s Bobsled team!

Brendan Campbell

I would like to see Jackie Bradley Jr. participate in the ski jump at the Winter Olympics. I’m not sure if Bradley Jr. has ever actually skied before, but he adopted the ski jump celebration during the ‘Win. Dance. Repeat.’ seasons so I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing him attempt to medal in that.

Phil Neuffer

I’d like to see Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Andrew Benintendi and Brock Holt take on curling, mainly to see the Killer B’s back together one more time and since they need a fourth, why not Holt? Betts would definitely be the standout here since curling seems to have a little bit of the same DNA as bowling, and I think everyone else would fill in nicely as role players. Curling has role players, right?

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Keaton DeRocher

I’m going to go with Rafael Devers in the snowboard halfpipe. I have no idea if he’d be good or not, but I just think Devers would have a blast messing around in the snow and it would be super fun to watch him having a blast in the winter elements. Toss in the possibility he launches himself into the air just to see how high he can go and it would be very wholesome and entertaining.

Mike Carlucci

The team the Red Sox need to field in the winter games is a curling squad. Skipped by Xander Bogaerts, the team would have solid leadership and thinking, someone who can put the rock wherever he wants it, and a collaborator looking to make action all over the ice. He’d be back by Kyle Schwarber, Rafael Devers (the fun one of the team), and Chris Sale. Sale would be the most accurate thrower, but you can’t underestimate his sweeping potential. He’d pair well with Schwarber when sweeping and when barking ideas across the ice to Xander for mid-game strategy.

Bob Osgood

I will admit that I’m not much of an Olympics connoisseur, so I needed to thoroughly research the hardest winter Olympic sports prior to this week’s Roundtable. According to Outside Magazine, “Bobsledders need to be buff. Even the smallest two-person sled is nearly 300 pounds, and it’s on you and your team to take it from a standstill to around 25 miles per hour in less than five seconds before hopping in. Track athletes and football players tend to transition pretty well into bobsleigh because they’ve developed the powerful, explosive energy spurts needed to generate momentum.” If I need explosive energy bursts, I’m choosing the 70-grade raw power team of Bobby Dalbec and Triston Casas for the bobsleigh. The Bobby D-sleigh, if you will.

Brady Childs

The Winter Olympics don’t have the marquee attractions the summer olympics have but they have a bunch of sports that would kill a normal person. Mikaela Shiffrin’s struggles have received a lot of coverage considering the level of push NBC was giving her, but she’s not alone. Flip on any downhill skiing event and half the field is wiping out because making those sharp of turns at those fast of speeds is really hard! So, the goal here is risk mitigation. What’s the safest Olympic game? It’s everyone’s favorite meme sport: curling! I know next to nothing about curling except that it’s way harder than you think it is, but no one’s going to break any legs sliding stones down the ice. My curling roster will have Jackie Bradley Jr., Bobby Dalbec, J.D. Martinez, and Chris Sale as the sweeper.