A Realistic View of the 2025 Red Sox: Part II

[Larry Cook]

Dobbins to the DL with elbow strain!!  Ouch!!!

[Hitch]

18 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

Dobbins to the DL with elbow strain!!  Ouch!!!

Well that's upsetting. 

[Larry Cook]

24 minutes ago, Hitch said:

Well that's upsetting. 

Dobbins has exceeded all my expectations this season. Number 2 behind narveaz!!!  
very sad for the kid indeed!!  

[notin]

11 hours ago, cp176 said:

Story I think will be our ss as long as he is here.  He is doing a decent job currently.  Mayer should go to second.  The last thing this team needs right now is another crisis over trying to move a veteran to another position needlessly.  Moving Mayer to second is quick and easy and obviously upgrades the defense at second.

I’d prefer the other way, but your points are valid…

[vegasbob]

Romy's efforts at 2B today vs SF only highlights the black hole at 2B that remains. 

Grissom always was and remains gruesome,   Hamilton is a toreador on defense,  Romy wondered why me, Ball ?

Kristian Campbell was and appeared to be the answer until he and everyone else sobered up , realizing he was grossly unprepared for MLB.

Put Mayer there and Bregman at 3rd .

[moonslav59]

Mayer or Story may end up solving the long-standing 2B issue.

[Larry Cook]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Mayer or Story may end up solving the long-standing 2B issue.

Mayer at 2B sounds really good after what we saw this weekend at 2B!  
 

how do we feel about toro at first 

[Randy Red Sox]

On 6/20/2025 at 1:47 PM, moonslav59 said:

I mentioned 2B as a reason not to trade Story. I fully understand your point, and am not sure we'd be much better with the trade, except financially after 2025.

I'd much prefer a deal like Grissom & Mullins for Hoskins.

good luck with that trade happening

[Randy Red Sox]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Mayer or Story may end up solving the long-standing 2B issue.

story needs to be moved.  Henry missed a steak one day last week.  Gotta cut that payroll down more. 

[moonslav59]

8 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

Mayer at 2B sounds really good after what we saw this weekend at 2B!  
 

how do we feel about toro at first 

I'm fine with riding it out a bit longer with Toro & Romy at 1B, and until Bregman comes back, Toro can and has played some 3B, too.

I think we are actively looking at a trading for a rental 1Bman.

[moonslav59]

6 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

good luck with that trade happening

It comes down to MIL being sellers, or not.

Hoskins is making $18M, this year.

[Thomas Healy]

https://medium.com/p/750032c1b588

Would ask you to take a minute and read this article I just published. Let me know your thoughts!

[moonslav59]

I don't sign up for this kind of thing, sorry.

[cp176]

14 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

Dobbins has exceeded all my expectations this season. Number 2 behind narveaz!!!  
very sad for the kid indeed!!  

I love the way this kid pitches.  This is sad news but not the end of the world.  He has all of the makings of a solid starting pitcher going forward. 

[cp176]

9 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

Mayer at 2B sounds really good after what we saw this weekend at 2B!  
 

how do we feel about toro at first 

I’ve said right along that as long as we have Story on our roster, he will be our shortstop.  The clearly logical move for when Bergman returns is for Mayer to be our second baseman.  

[Nick]

I appreciate Cora doing everything he can to win each game. I really do.

The problem with playing so many players at different positions is that defense suffers as result of it.

We can talk about how these are professionals and that they should be able to field a position but the reality obviously is not as easy as we think. 

If having a left handed hitter requires an automatic platooning, why have a left handed dominant team? Why not just go for Bregman's of the world.

I think Cora loves getting involved at all times and I'm not sure if it's best for the team. 

Breslow keeps talking about building a team that can consistently win but I don't see that taking place. I rather see Mayer moved to short, where we were told that's his position. Move Story to second. Plug someone at third who can play defense. See how simple that is? We have two pretty good defenders not playing at their best position. It's a struggle at 2B anyway, plugging someone at 3B won't be much worse.

Having 3 left handed bats in the OF for 2 spots is not sustainable. Sure we have the DH spot but what happens  when a lefty is on the mound?

 

I'm sorry. This feels like a MASH unit. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

15 minutes ago, Nick said:

I rather see Mayer moved to short, where we were told that's his position. Move Story to second. Plug someone at third who can play defense. See how simple that is? We have two pretty good defenders not playing at their best position. It's a struggle at 2B anyway, plugging someone at 3B won't be much worse.

Second base in Boston isn't just a struggle; it's fricking haunted.

The ghost's name is Dustin Poltergeist, and he's been disrupting defense and causing chaos at 2B since demonic Machado spikes ruined the Red Sox.

How else to explain the Sox utter futility for half a decade at the position closest to the first baseman, where the shortest, easiest throws can assist in what should mostly be automatic force-outs?

The Bosox don't need an exorcist to play second, but just someone with enough fortitude not to be possessed by evil spirits. At this point, we'll even take a stubborn agnostic...

 

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

20 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

 I'm thinking .650 to .675 is sustainable, as long as his D stays plus.

I disagree, with devers gone and no other proven big bats in the line-up, it makes it very difficult to carry another black hole.

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

23 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Funny, you were just talking about how Baltimore is playing better.  Story is playing better.  

Both story and baltimore are playing better. That doesn't change the fact that they both still suck.

[dannycater]

"They’ve hit .194 in six games since trading Devers and averaged 3.16 runs. Defensive mistakes become magnified in that environment."...worrying about Devers defense was the problem or started the acrimony between player and organization. Sure seems like a lot of positions have defensive issues. I'd rather have a consistent RBI producer and his deficiencies over the utility clown car that exists now

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, dannycater said:

"They’ve hit .194 in six games since trading Devers and averaged 3.16 runs. Defensive mistakes become magnified in that environment."...worrying about Devers defense was the problem or started the acrimony between player and organization. Sure seems like a lot of positions have defensive issues. I'd rather have a consistent RBI producer and his deficiencies over the utility clown car that exists now

2.9 runs/game since 6/10. The offense has been swooning for a little while now. The five games before that they averaged 9.2 runs. 

Roman Anthony hasn't broken out yet. Duran has been back to '23 Duran with bad defense. Story has a moment here or there, but isn't consistent enough to be a fulltime guy going forward because of his swing and miss. Whenever Wong plays, it's like a pitcher batting.  

[Bellhorn04]

8 minutes ago, dannycater said:

"They’ve hit .194 in six games since trading Devers and averaged 3.16 runs. Defensive mistakes become magnified in that environment."...worrying about Devers defense was the problem or started the acrimony between player and organization. Sure seems like a lot of positions have defensive issues. I'd rather have a consistent RBI producer and his deficiencies over the utility clown car that exists now

And they scored 15 runs in their last 5 games WITH Devers.

And they scored 14 runs in their last 3 games WITHOUT Devers.

Losing Devers hurts the offense, but little cherry-picked samples don't tell us anything. 

[mvp 78]

Just now, Bellhorn04 said:

And they scored 15 runs in their last 5 games WITH Devers.

And they scored 14 runs in their last 3 games WITHOUT Devers.

Losing Devers hurts the offense, but little cherry-picked samples don't tell us anything. 

We've seen the pitching be streaky before. We've seen the offense be streaky before. They are in a bit of a funk. The one think that isn't streaky is the defense. That's just always terrible. 

[Bellhorn04]

Seems like we're still the Maestros of Mediocrity.

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Seems like we're still the Maestros of Mediocrity.

That's what happens with .500 type teams, you'll get good stretches where everyone is excited matched with bad stretches where everyone wants to dump all over the team. 

[dannycater]

5 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

And they scored 15 runs in their last 5 games WITH Devers.

And they scored 14 runs in their last 3 games WITHOUT Devers.

Losing Devers hurts the offense, but little cherry-picked samples don't tell us anything. 

I cherry picked that the Giants just took 2 of 3 v. Sox...sorry I'll stop cherrypicking. Maybe I should stop cherry-picking that the Sox are a pedestrian 40-39 when the consensus pre-season was a lot better. 

[Bellhorn04]

15 minutes ago, dannycater said:

I cherry picked that the Giants just took 2 of 3 v. Sox...sorry I'll stop cherrypicking. Maybe I should stop cherry-picking that the Sox are a pedestrian 40-39 when the consensus pre-season was a lot better. 

I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything, danny.  Trust me, I've been doing my fair share of complaining here since Henry lost his marbles in 2019.

Trading Betts and all the new approach crap has generally been a catastrophe.

I'm fine with losing Devers, though.  It was a bad contract and he had a bad attitude. 

[dannycater]

Just now, Bellhorn04 said:

I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything, danny.  Trust me, I've been doing my fair share of complaining here since Henry lost his marbles in 2019.

It's all good as far as criticizing, praising, getting excited. I just get soured every time I think or feel like oh the team is moving in the right direction. How long can we keep talking about all these prospects at the AA/AAA level. It's like some come up, some look like can't misses, then are the opposite. Others get injured, others fizzle out enough to be moved to another organization. Some feel Henry should never be under scrutiny--I'd say then accept this mediocrity because to me this is mediocrity and has been that way like you said more or less for a number of years now.

[dannycater]

I'd say defense for whatever reason has slipped through the cracks in the shaping of the roster. How long can the Sox be one of the worst fielding teams in MLB. At same time, the flip side are injured pitchers, under-achieving veteran pitchers, then the mostly inconsistent offense. It's a lot to fix.

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, dannycater said:

It's all good as far as criticizing, praising, getting excited. I just get soured every time I think or feel like oh the team is moving in the right direction. How long can we keep talking about all these prospects at the AA/AAA level.

It won't be much longer. The system is getting lighter. Anthony and Mayer are already up. All the other prospects aren't on that level. 🤗