Twins (Ober) vs Red Sox (Gray): 5/24/26, 1:35pm

[illinoisredsox]

19 minutes ago, Deja Doh said:

Where did Breslow dig up Guerrero?  He'd been out of the league for 7 years.

He wasn’t the problem today.  Whitlock needed to get one out and the Sox are out of that inning.  He failed miserably.

[a700hitter]

8 hours ago, vegasbob said:

Durbin is the new King of Pops. 

The guy is a bush leaguer.

[Old Red]

What a Great weekend for sports! WNBA, NBA, a GREAT Indy 500, and the NASCAR COCA-COLA 600. Did I miss anything?🤔

[jad]

RS, pretty much last in the league in hitting, fix that problem by getting ...  Tyron Guerrero?

[notin]

1 hour ago, jad said:

RS, pretty much last in the league in hitting, fix that problem by getting ...  Tyron Guerrero?

They got him in January…

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

18 minutes ago, notin said:

They got him in January…

... when they should've acquired more bats -- with good hitters attached to them.

The Sox team batting average with runners in scoring position straddles the DuranStoryline and reveals a lot. I don't care about team OPS with RISP since On Base includes walks, which are sometimes intentional with 1st base open and don't drive in runs unless the sacks are loaded...

... (OBP also includes hit by a pitch and catcher's interference, but those are usually only issued by Boston pitchers in tight spots to opponents).

Through all this ineptitude -- bad enough the last few seasons but now at an all-time Red Sox low -- I admit I'm starting to come around to this forum's consensus about "clutch." 

Correct me if I'm wrong: clutch hitters are really just the best hitters doing well... Oritz wasn't really clutch, just really good. If so, then the 2026 Sox bats aren't unlucky hitting atomballs or facing Cy Youngs every night -- not for two straight months, come on... they just suck.

[illinoisredsox]

“Clutch” is having the ability to relax and do what you do normally.  Ortiz probably had about the same average in big situations as he did in the 5th inning of a game in May.  

Other guys tense up and can’t do that.  Clutch may not exist but anti-clutch certainly does.  The current Sox have a lot of these guys.

it also helps to have faith in your teammates; if I don’t don’t do it, the next guy will vs. I have to do it because the next guy won’t. 

[notin]

13 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

... when they should've acquired more bats -- with good hitters attached to them.

The Sox team batting average with runners in scoring position straddles the DuranStoryline and reveals a lot. I don't care about team OPS with RISP since On Base includes walks, which are sometimes intentional with 1st base open and don't drive in runs unless the sacks are loaded...

... (OBP also includes hit by a pitch and catcher's interference, but those are usually only issued by Boston pitchers in tight spots to opponents).

Through all this ineptitude -- bad enough the last few seasons but now at an all-time Red Sox low -- I admit I'm starting to come around to this forum's consensus about "clutch." 

Correct me if I'm wrong: clutch hitters are really just the best hitters doing well... Oritz wasn't really clutch, just really good. If so, then the 2026 Sox bats aren't unlucky hitting atomballs or facing Cy Youngs every night -- not for two straight months, come on... they just suck.

Yes we were all disappointed that the Sox spent a full weekend contemplating Yordan Alvarez vs Tayron Guerrero.

Hindsight looks like a bat was needed.  Or at least some honesty from Story that he wasn’t feeling well.  But adding a bat in place of Durbin wasn’t going to fix slow starts by Duran, Story, Anthony, and a few others.  Most people who want another bat also seem to think that bat was needed in the bench for some reason, replacing IKF or Yoshida.
 

I agree clutch hitters are usually just good hitters, with very, very few exceptions.  The Sox do suck this year; no one is questioning that.  But was there any reason to expect Duran to be this bad at the plate? Or Story? Some guys - Narvaez, Anthony, Durbin - there’s not a long track record to go by.

But do you think Anthony hasn’t been unlucky?

Anthony has a .675 OPS with 1 HR.

Sal Stewart has a .840 OPS with 12 home runs.  
 

Is that difference really reflected in their respective StatCasts?

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/sal-stewart-701398?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb

 

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/roman-anthony-701350?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb

 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

43 minutes ago, illinoisredsox said:

Other guys tense up and can’t do that.  Clutch may not exist but anti-clutch certainly does.  The current Sox have a lot of these guys.

I'm a believer in anti-clutch, but for good hitters.

Some guys just can't handle the pressure when it counts... until they finally do. And I'm not just talking about ARod, but top batters at various levels I've played or coached with or against the past half century. 

Yogi Berra got laughed at for not thinking too much, until he said that's the only thing he thought about.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

34 minutes ago, notin said:

Yes we were all disappointed that the Sox spent a full weekend contemplating Yordan Alvarez vs Tayron Guerrero.

Hindsight looks like a bat was needed.  Or at least some honesty from Story that he wasn’t feeling well.  But adding a bat in place of Durbin wasn’t going to fix slow starts by Duran, Story, Anthony, and a few others.  Most people who want another bat also seem to think that bat was needed in the bench for some reason, replacing IKF or Yoshida.
 

I agree clutch hitters are usually just good hitters, with very, very few exceptions.  The Sox do suck this year; no one is questioning that.  But was there any reason to expect Duran to be this bad at the plate? Or Story? Some guys - Narvaez, Anthony, Durbin - there’s not a long track record to go by.

But do you think Anthony hasn’t been unlucky?

Yes, because the Red Sox didn't surround him with enough good hitters and he never got enough good pitches (mistakes from over-stressed arms) to swing at and instead struck out on a lot of pitchers' pitches -- mainly because he was told by everyone he was supposed to be THE GUY instead of one of the guys.

And you know it wasn't hindsight all last offseason when guys like us typed regularly about adding bats. 

[notin]

46 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Yes, because the Red Sox didn't surround him with enough good hitters and he never got enough good pitches (mistakes from over-stressed arms) to swing at and instead struck out on a lot of pitchers' pitches -- mainly because he was told by everyone he was supposed to be THE GUY instead of one of the guys.

And you know it wasn't hindsight all last offseason when guys like us typed regularly about adding bats. 

Some people wanted bats, but mostly they wanted Henry to spend.

But that’s the point.  Anthony isn’t flailing away at bad pitches and making bad contact.  He’s actually hitting the ball well.   And if he was being pitched around, either his walks or strikeouts would change noticeably, but neither has.   In fact, he’s striking out less often than last year.
 

Outside of a reduced barrel rate, he is hitting almost exactly like last year.  But the end results are drastically different.  How was another bat going to change that?

[moonslav59]

On 5/24/2026 at 12:34 PM, notin said:

Not necessarily. A lot depends on the money and years of the target bat.

We got Schwarber for Aldo Ramirez back in 2021, but he was not at 100%.

I bet we could get someone pretty good for Witherspoon & Cespedes

[moonslav59]

5 hours ago, notin said:

Some people wanted bats, but mostly they wanted Henry to spend.

Even subtracting the Devers money dumped, JH spent more in new money & extensions than in any year in a long time. (He even got STL to pay us some, unlike us paying ATL and other teams like past years.)

AAV Dollars

41 Gray (STL pays $20M)

28 Crochet extension

26 Suarez

21 Contreras ($4M paid by STL)

16 Anthony extension

13 Chapman extension

8 Campbell (kicked in during '25 season)

6 IKF

$160M Total ($24M paid by STL and -8M for Campbell and it's about $130M AAV.

No doubt, JH has been cheap and way too cheap for too long. This is not even making up for lost time, but it is spending more. It's spending way more.

Subtract $30M for Devers and it's $100M.

[notin]

14 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Even subtracting the Devers money dumped, JH spent more in new money & extensions than in any year in a long time. (He even got STL to pay us some, unlike us paying ATL and other teams like past years.)

AAV Dollars

41 Gray (STL pays $20M)

28 Crochet extension

26 Suarez

21 Contreras ($4M paid by STL)

16 Anthony extension

13 Chapman extension

8 Campbell (kicked in during '25 season)

6 IKF

$160M Total ($24M paid by STL and -8M for Campbell and it's about $130M AAV.

No doubt, JH has been cheap and way too cheap for too long. This is not even making up for lost time, but it is spending more. It's spending way more.

Subtract $30M for Devers and it's $100M.

And if we take out IKF and substitute Pete Alonso - because we know that was the choice…

[mvp 78]

21 hours ago, notin said:

Yes we were all disappointed that the Sox spent a full weekend contemplating Yordan Alvarez vs Tayron Guerrero.

Guerrero probably hit bombs when he was 10.

[mvp 78]

40 minutes ago, notin said:

And if we take out IKF and substitute Pete Alonso - because we know that was the choice…

It was actually Pete Alonso or Devin Sweet. 

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, notin said:

And if we take out IKF and substitute Pete Alonso - because we know that was the choice…

LOL.

Getting Alonso + Contreras should have forced a Duran, so Yoshida could be the 4th OF'er and back-up DH.

Had we been able to get Paredes for Duran, that would have looked nice on paper, but I doubt Brez was allowed to sub Alsono fo IKF.