There will be some new faces in the NESN studio during the 2021 Boston Red Sox season in Mo Vaughn, Kevin Youkilis and Ellis Burks.
The trio, along with Jonathan Papelbon, will hold various roles with NESN during Red Sox games.
Vaughn, Youkilis, Papelbon and Burks know the team well. They all had stints with the Red Sox and all will bring a different perspective to the games.
NESN held a media availability Wednesday hosted by Tom Caron with Vaughn, Burks and Youkilis, and discussed what fans should expect from them as analysts — especially Vaughn, who was particularly vocal while he was a member of the Red Sox.
“Listen I think you know what I’m gonna do is talk about the game, the mindset. Analyze the game and what I’ve been taught in the game,” Vaughn said. “In terms of being unfiltered, things are gonna come up and you’re gonna make your statements. But I want the fans to understand what it feels like and what’s in a hitter’s brain as he’s walking to the plate to drive in a run. The analyzation of what that pitcher has versus what you’re trying to do and how you’re feeling, and the pitch count. And all those little things that people don’t understand or think about, I want to be able to talk about those things — the little game within the game of hitting and the mindset of that and what it takes to be consistent. That’s what I’m gonna be. Listen, we all grow up, we all get older. We all realize that sometimes things are better unsaid than said, and that’s where we are now. “
As for Burks, he knows he and his new co-workers shouldn’t dwell on whether a player commits an error during a game.
“Anytime a player knows he made a mistake, and I don’t think we need to harp on it, we know they made a mistake,” Burks said. “We will address that, they’re gonna address it to the media after the game. Everything happens, and you just have to learn from that and make sure it doesn’t happen again, because you’re gonna make the physical mistakes. But the main thing is try to limit your mental mistakes.”
Youkilis was pretty blunt, noting he’ll be a homer when it comes to the team he spent nine years with, but added that won’t take away from his analysis.
“I’ll probably be a homer, I’m not gonna lie to you,” he said. “That’s just in my nature. You can still be a homer and analyze. I think the key is when you have to analyze a certain situation, fans might — they’re drawn into people for different reasons … But we have the ability, and I think Mo touched on it best, is when a player makes a mistake a lot of times it’s probably a mental mistake more than a physical mistake. So, if we can evaluate and kind of walk through why these mistakes were made, I think that gives a better perspective for the fans. Sometimes you just make an error, man. Ball comes up, hits you in the wrong spot and there’s nothing that we can say as analysts. The ball just took a funky hop, whatever. But there are times that we can give you a perspective that will help you understand why that mistake was made. Sometimes you’re gonna have to say things, but as Ellis was saying, most players know what they’re doing wrong, and they gotta be accountable for it after the game, too.”
Fans certainly should be excited about what’s to come.
The Red Sox begin their 2021 season Thursday at Fenway Park against the Baltimore Orioles. First pitch is slated for 2:10 p.m. ET.
