Tanner Houck Is Doing It

Welcome back to The Red Seat Podcast, episode #280. On this episode, Jake Devereaux, Keaton DeRocher, and Bob Osgood discuss the major changes in the Red Sox rotation, the exciting changes that Tanner Houck made to his pitch mix in his most recent start, and try to establish a pecking order in the middle infield.

We opened the show by talking quite a bit about the rotation. Garrett Whitlock is returning on Saturday and we just want to see an extended period of time with a healthy Whitlock in the rotation. Tanner Houck relied heavily on his secondaries in Monday’s outing, getting a ton of whiffs on his slider and splitter. As a result of both of these items, Nick Pivetta and Corey Kluber find themselves in the bullpen. Can they co-exist in the “long man role” or is this a waste of a roster spot?

From there, we broke down what the middle infield will look like as players return. Yu Chang is rehabbing, and Christian Arroyo will return not long after that. What will this mean for Pablo Reyes and Enmanuel Valdez long-term?

We finished the show firing through several topics and great reader questions including: Triston Casas’s improvements in May, if we’ll see Richard Bleier pitch for this team again, Nate Eovaldi’s Cy Young caliber season in Texas, and a “would you rather” J.D. Martinez or Justin Turner after two months?

If you have a question for The Red Seat pod, you can email us at redseatpodcast@gmail.com or tweet us. Jake is @DevJake, Keaton is @TheSpokenKeats and Bob is @BobOsgood15.