A Realistic View of the 2025 Red Sox: Part II

[Randy Red Sox]

29 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

My position is Devers swing is not right!!!! To my eyes there is a hitch in the beginning of his swing, that tells me it is a physical thing!!! 
Maybe it becomes easier for him in warm weather, but why not have the MRI and get all the facts first! 

i think Devers is pouting because he lost his 3B spot

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

I think youve been spending a little too much time palling around with Red. No malice directed at either.
 

I'm not high class enough to hang out at the gin joints that Old Red frequents. 

[Larry Cook]

Worcester has seen a lot of left handed pitchers this season and Mayer is hitting below the Mendoza line currently!!!

Anthony has been getting very hot despite having a hurt shoulder!!!!

at some point, soon, Anthony is going to be healthy and force the Red Sox front office to promote him. 
hard decisions need to be made in the coming weeks.

Duran, Devers, casas and rafeala please report for Star Trek red security shirt fitting please!!!!! 

[mvp 78]

19 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

Worcester has seen a lot of left handed pitchers this season and Mayer is hitting below the Mendoza line currently!!!

And Mayer is hitting WORSE against RHP!

[Larry Cook]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

And Mayer is hitting WORSE against RHP!

Seems like Mayer caught the same bug that most of the Boston hitters caught. 
Campbell and Anthony appear to be immune !!!

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

Seems like Mayer caught the same bug that most of the Boston hitters caught. 
Campbell and Anthony appear to be immune !!!

Grissom has started off the season fairly strong as well. The two most likely to be promoted AA guys (Romero and Jhostynxon) have hit well to begin the year too. 

Zanetello leads all Sox MiLB with 21 k (47.7 k%!!!!) has been watching too many BOS games.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

You don't need lessons on how to argue, that's for sure. 

From the master baiter.

🤣

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Aside from the STL series, it's been a nightmare. 

Our bats did okay v BAL:

16 runs in 3 games (105 OPS+) but yes, otherwise.

No better than a 96 OPS+ vs all others.

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

From the master baiter.

🤣

Would never! 

[Larry Cook]

14 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Grissom has started off the season fairly strong as well. The two most likely to be promoted AA guys (Romero and Jhostynxon) have hit well to begin the year too. 

 

Zanetello leads all Sox MiLB with 21 k (47.7 k%!!!!) has been watching too many BOS games.

 Marvin alcanterra has been a singles machine! 

I got to watch toro in game 2 of the double header yesterday. The results look good in the box score, but I cannot figure out how he does it. 

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

Im not sure Im happy because my expectations have been lowered (but I dont rule it out)

The truth is - they went out and got the 2 players I wanted (Bregman didnt start on the list but he was added to my list after I realized that we werent getting Soto, at the time I also wanted an OF - and Im glad I didnt get that wish)

I think the lower expectation were real from 2020 to 2024, as we seemed to be losing more talent than we added, each year. The weird thing was that I felt the pre-2022 season was the best all, but we did way better in 2021. Returning from injury players helped in '21, of course.

I have much higher expectations, this year. I don't think lower expectations for the 5 years prior have affected the ones I have, this year. If anything, I feel more strongly about meeting my expectations, now than in many other years, where we looked pretty good, on paper. 

The pressure for a big(ger) season is high in Sox Nation, IMO. It's time to put up (team)  and shut up (Kennedy.)

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

 Marvin alcanterra has been a singles machine! 

I got to watch toro in game 2 of the double header yesterday. The results look good in the box score, but I cannot figure out how he does it. 

If Casas goes down, Toro is the backup FWIW.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I think the lower expectation were real from 2020 to 2024, as we seemed to be losing more talent than we added, each year. The weird thing was that I felt the pre-2022 season was the best all, but we did way better in 2021. Returning from injury players helped in '21, of course.

I have much higher expectations, this year. I don't think lower expectations for the 5 years prior have affected the ones I have, this year. If anything, I feel more strongly about meeting my expectations, now than in many other years, where we looked pretty good, on paper. 

The pressure for a big(ger) season is high in Sox Nation, IMO. It's time to put up (team)  and shut up (Kennedy.)

You can say the '22 team underperformed, but Bloom just didn't help the bullpen at all and rolled Dalbec out there way too long when he should have just re-signed Schwarber. 

Rotation: Eovaldi, Pivetta, Wacha, Hill, Crawford/Bello

Bullpen: complete mess, 27th ranked pen

Offense: Devers, Xander, JD, Story, Vaz, Verdugo, Kiké, Refsnyder

With Schwarber at 1B and a better pen, that team gets to the playoffs and makes one final run. 

[moonslav59]

5 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

I got to watch toro in game 2 of the double header yesterday. The results look good in the box score, but I cannot figure out how he does it. 

Who is bucking the high K and K/BB trend?

K/BB

4/8 Y Rod

5/6 Jordan

8/9 Asencio

5/5 Sabol

17/14 Anthony

11/7 Jh Garcia & Ehrhard

15/10 Ferguson (6 SBs leads system)

In Zanetello's defense, he is 2nd in BB on the farm with 10. (.356 OBP)

Speaking of OBP:

.474 Alcantara

.472 Arias

.469 Y Rod

.455 Asencio

.433 Anthony

.422 Anderson

.417 Toro

.415 Jh Garcia

.400 Sabol

.395 Ferguson

.372 Romero

.365 Grissom

.356 Zanetello

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If Casas goes down, Toro is the backup FWIW.

and Romy v LHPs

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

You can say the '22 team underperformed, but Bloom just didn't help the bullpen at all and rolled Dalbec out there way too long when he should have just re-signed Schwarber. 

Rotation: Eovaldi, Pivetta, Wacha, Hill, Crawford/Bello

Bullpen: complete mess, 27th ranked pen

Offense: Devers, Xander, JD, Story, Vaz, Verdugo, Kiké, Refsnyder

With Schwarber at 1B and a better pen, that team gets to the playoffs and makes one final run. 

Certainly mistakes were made, most omissions. IMO, there were less that winter than others, where we swung and missed wildly on rotation additions.

Wacha and Hill blew away Richards, Martin Perez I & II, Kluber, Paxton....

Had we had Jansen & Martin (or the like) in 2022, we'd have done much better. Bloom's whack-A-Mole approach failed, but with a limited budget, he could never address every/most needs at a time.

[drewski6]

43 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Certainly mistakes were made, most omissions. IMO, there were less that winter than others, where we swung and missed wildly on rotation additions.

Wacha and Hill blew away Richards, Martin Perez I & II, Kluber, Paxton....

Had we had Jansen & Martin (or the like) in 2022, we'd have done much better. Bloom's whack-A-Mole approach failed, but with a limited budget, he could never address every/most needs at a time.

Not mistakes (multiple), mistake! (singular).

Sure there may have been others, but they all fall in line behind the single huge one that he should never ever be forgiven for, that MVP pointed out to you.

No f'ing reason to let Schwarber walk.

[mvp 78]

38 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Not mistakes (multiple), mistake! (singular).

Sure there may have been others, but they all fall in line behind the single huge one that he should never ever be forgiven for, that MVP pointed out to you.

No f'ing reason to let Schwarber walk.

Schwarber was a great fit for the offense and not a great defensive fit. He was such a patient hitter and it really infected the other hitters around him. While he didn't have an ideal position here, I think he was one of those guys you shoehorn in to 1B/LF/DH for a year knowing that you weren't going to re-sign JD after '22 anyway. You have him fake it for '22 and then become a fulltime DH in '23. He just fit Boston too well IMO.

[Kimmi]

4 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

I think the Red Sox front office has done a great job lowering our expectations.  

I have high expectations pretty much every year.  I often get disappointed with the on-field results, but it's  not often that I don't feel like our team should be competitive.  I still have high hopes for this year's team.

[Kimmi]

22 hours ago, Nick said:

CF, if Duran and Casas hit, Sox can carry him offensively because of his stellar defense. Not so much if they are struggling.

Bingo.  I really don't want to lose Rafaela's defense.  We can live with him in the #9 hole.  He's not the problem offensively.

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

Bingo.  I really don't want to lose Rafaela's defense.  We can live with him in the #9 hole.  He's not the problem offensively.

Only problem being that the 8 AND 9 hole hitters are virtual black holes at the moment. I read somewhere that it's like that across the league though so maybe we have to reset expectations. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

29 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Schwarber was a great fit for the offense and not a great defensive fit. He was such a patient hitter and it really infected the other hitters around him. While he didn't have an ideal position here, 

At least he hit a homer in the Major Leagues before Philly thought it a good idea to sign him (turn your head and cough, Yoshida).

[Kimmi]

9 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Only problem being that the 8 AND 9 hole hitters are virtual black holes at the moment. I read somewhere that it's like that across the league though so maybe we have to reset expectations. 

In the 8th slot, our hitters rank 27th in BA and OPS.  In the 9th slot, we are 25th in BA and 26th in OPS.  More concerning to me is that we are just as bad out of our 4th slot, and below average in the #1 and #2 slots.  Bregman and Story are doing their jobs in the top 5.

It's hard to carry two black holes, but things would look a lot better if we can get Duran, Devers, and Casas going the way they should be able to go.

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

In the 8th slot, our hitters rank 27th in BA and OPS.  In the 9th slot, we are 25th in BA and 26th in OPS.  More concerning to me is that we are just as bad out of our 4th slot, and below average in the #1 and #2 slots.  Bregman and Story are doing their jobs in the top 5.

It's hard to carry two black holes, but things would look a lot better if we can get Duran, Devers, and Casas going the way they should be able to go.

Duran has a 794 OPS since the STL series. I think he's starting to turn it around. Devers and Casas have work to do. 

[Larry Cook]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

Duran has a 794 OPS since the STL series. I think he's starting to turn it around. Devers and Casas have work to do. 

Bres-slow said they are working to get Casas to heat up 

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

Not mistakes (multiple), mistake! (singular).

Sure there may have been others, but they all fall in line behind the single huge one that he should never ever be forgiven for, that MVP pointed out to you.

No f'ing reason to let Schwarber walk.

Betts was the singular "mistake."

I have no issue with not signing Schwarber, when you look at the winter budgets handed to Bloom. I wouldn't even call it a minor mistake.

In hindsight, Schwarber > Story, for sure, but the Story signing made sense, to me, even with the one injury known.

$7M Wacha + $5M Hill + $3M Strahm or $20M x 4 Schwarber would have made no difference in win totals.

[drewski6]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Schwarber was a great fit for the offense and not a great defensive fit. He was such a patient hitter and it really infected the other hitters around him. While he didn't have an ideal position here, I think he was one of those guys you shoehorn in to 1B/LF/DH for a year knowing that you weren't going to re-sign JD after '22 anyway. You have him fake it for '22 and then become a fulltime DH in '23. He just fit Boston too well IMO.

He also got red freaking hot in that postseason. Also seemed to be well liked by teammates and fans. I couldnt believe how completely disinterested Bloom was, and it was a big turning point for me with Bloom.

I really liked Bloom after his first year because he did something that I cant believe isnt done more often. Rebuilding ? Sign a bunch of cheap guys to 1-2 yr deals,  and flip the ones that increase their value (see Pillar) for prospects to speed up rebuild.

[drewski6]

13 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Betts was the singular "mistake."

I have no issue with not signing Schwarber, when you look at the winter budgets handed to Bloom. I wouldn't even call it a minor mistake.

In hindsight, Schwarber > Story, for sure, but the Story signing made sense, to me, even with the one injury known.

$7M Wacha + $5M Hill + $3M Strahm or $20M x 4 Schwarber would have made no difference in win totals.

schwarber carried the team on his back for september and october. You just dont let that guy walk when he wants 4 @ 20 (it might have even been a little less).

Betts was obviously a bigger mistake but im talking about when bloom lost me (personally) the second time.  He had won me over a bit after Betts because I liked how he signed and flipped guys like Pillar, Moreland. That losing me over again, started with not getting schwarber and got worse due to deadline inactivity

[Hitch]

8 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

My position is Devers swing is not right!!!! To my eyes there is a hitch in the beginning of his swing, that tells me it is a physical thing!!! 
Maybe it becomes easier for him in warm weather, but why not have the MRI and get all the facts first! 

Okay, well first of all, one exclamation mark is perfectly sufficient. I feel like I'm being shouted at by a mad man here. Secondly, don't you think they will have got an MRI if the shoulder(s) were in bad shape? Do you think these organisations hire large medical departments with the idea of just winging it and using guess work?

So it leaves us with only a few realistic scenarios here. 

- They have had the MRI and it's fine. And his lower than expected start is in fact, due to one of the several other reasons posters have been sure is causing the problem.

- They have had the MRI and are lying to us. 

- They have not had the MRI because his shoulders are fine they don't need another one (to go with the one they had last year).

Now you can believe whatever you like obviously, and clearly will, but let's not pretend like your opinions on the matter are clear fact and can't be challenged. 
 

[Hitch]

9 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

They did it with Kutter all last season. Raffy's shoulder was so sore that he didn't pick up a bat all offseason. Now he's a shell of himself. 

Causation does not equal correlation. And in this case the two examples shouldn't be conflated anyway. 

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe that Cora came out last year and said Kutter's knee is fine. Nothing going on there. His performance is down to mechanical not physical issues.

In fact, as far as I can remember, the severity of Kutter's knee situation only come out this winter?

We can question whether he maybe should have had surgery in the off season (though everyone involved continues to suggests it isn't needed, and they probably know just a tad more about it all than us), but it is a different case to Devers. Management have come out and quite clearly stated it isn't this particular issue people keep bringing up. They're either lying or they are not. Which is different to trying to manage a condition on the quiet.