Red Sox President & CEO LARRY LUCCHINO as of late "has been virtually invisible and it appears his powers are diminished," despite the fact that no change in Fenway Sports Group's "chain of command has been announced," according to a Q&A with Dan Shaughnessy of the BOSTON GLOBE. Excerpts of the Q&A are below.
Q: Aren’t the Red Sox kidding themselves and their fans with their insistence that they are still playing for something in 2015?
Lucchino: There’s no reason, and no requirement, that we throw a white flag up prematurely. We’re not doing that. I think the team is going to finish strong and is going to provide some entertaining, competitive baseball for fans this summer.
Q: How long can the 2015 Red Sox maintain this position that the season is not yet over?
Lucchino: The end of July is a time when there’s a fork in the road.
Q: What would you say to the notion that some of [GM BEN CHERINGTON’s] support is rooted in him not pushing back against what the analytics people want, or what the owners want?
Lucchino: No, Ben Cherington is a very independent agent and strong personality, and we admire and respect him for it.
Q: To what degree is the team being assembled by the analytics guys?
Lucchino: Some would say there’s tension between analytics and traditional scouting. I believe you’ve got to have both. ... I don’t think [there are more stat guys now than before.] We have a lot of experienced scouts in our organization. I can see that the people you might see around the office are more the young, analytical guys, but we have people all over the country who are traditional observational scouts.
Q: Is there concern about holding the fan base, keeping them watching and going to your games?
Lucchino: The first fundamental commitment of ownership is to field a team that’s worthy of fan support, that provides interesting, entertaining, competitive, winning baseball. When that’s not happening to the level that we’re satisfied with, we’re concerned about how it impacts our fans, their passion, and their support.
Q: How would you characterize the Red Sox chain of command at this hour?
Lucchino: It’s functioning pretty much as it has for a long period of time.
Q: It appears you are less involved because of your involvement with [the Triple-A Int’l League Pawtucket Red Sox] and the Olympics. Is that fair to say?
Lucchino: No, that’s not quite fair. I’ve had to throw myself into Pawtucket quite a bit because of (PawSox owner) JIM SKEFFINGTON’s death. But it is the Triple A affiliate of the Red Sox, so it’s not like I’m off doing something else. It’s part of my Red Sox responsibility. The Olympics take a very small amount of my time. They asked me to take a larger role, but I demurred.
Q: Are you as involved with the Red Sox as you have ever been?
Lucchino: I would say the answer to that is yes, with the short-term exception of the last couple of weeks with the Pawtucket time after Skeff’s passing (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/28).
