mvp 78

@SoxProspects AJ Politi slammed the door and picked up his first save of the year with 1.1 perfect innings and a pair of strikeouts. The 25-year-old righty has 12 strikeouts over 5.1 scoreless innings and a 0.18 WHIP. @hopspitching Advanced numbers to begin ‘22 for @APoliti6 : 12Ks 0bb in 5.1ip, 60% strikeout rate, 46.8% whiff rate, .116 wOBA One of our main points of emphasis this off-season was to develop a deeper understanding of what intended locations would produce the best expected results. https://twitter.com/hopspitching/status/1518636158791602177 The Politi/German combo is holding up well for the Portland pen.

Oh, they didn't all compete for the CY in 2012 like moon remembers?

@ChrisCotillo Within this: The expectation is that the Red Sox will not be missing any key position players this week. Not getting into names (the team won't either) but that's the reality. Eovaldi, Pivetta, Wacha named as starters so they're good to go, too. Plus many key RPs. @jcmccaffrey It’s been a long first month of the season for the Red Sox and now they embark on a four-game trip to Toronto without a few key payers. So it's just some relievers that will be missing? Who is key aside from Whitlock? I can't imagine Strahm or Diekman would have been signed if unvaxxed. Brasier and Barnes are vaxxed reportedly. Robles? Sawamura? Valdez? Davis? So far just Houck and Crawford are out.

@alexspeier Kutter Crawford not with Red Sox in Toronto, expected to go on COVID restricted list

Disagree. The 2018 rotations had 4 ifs (Porcello, Price, Johnson, ERod). The 2013 staff had just come off the chicken/beer nonsense and none of the pitchers had a 100 ERA+ the year before.

Pivetta 21 - 104 Wacha 18 - 121 Houck 22 - 141 Whitlock 22 - 615 Eovaldi 21 - 126 If Pivetta pitched like last season, Wacha had a throw back year, Eovaldi pitched like last season and Houk/Whitlock had a break out, I think it could rival at least 2 of the WS rotations.

To sell off the team.

I think bringing up Fitzy and Yolmer ASAP would be fine. I don't think they are worried about Fitzy's long term development since he'll be 28 this year. I would understand if they wanted to keep Casas down a little longer if they thought he could work on some things in games that don't necessarily count.

The Red Sox are not expected to be missing any key position players and have listed Nate Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta and Michael Wacha as their starters for the first three games of the series. The vaccination statuses of some bullpen members are unknown though Matt Barnes, Ryan Brasier and Garrett Whitlock are among those who have said they are vaccinated.

I've heard lots of conflicting rumors on this. Some have said that no important offensive pieces will be missing. Xander may have gotten vaxxed in the offseason? JD was unvaxxed at some point? Will be interesting to see what changes are made today.

Yeah, they aren't extending Devers.

The bottom half of the lineup has been brutal. Many people thought that we'd hide JBJ at the bottom of the order, but he's been the best bat down there. Kiké really didn't get going until July last year. He's always been a streaky hitter and he started off cold last season too. Vaz/Plawecki are what they are at this point in their careers. I'm not sure how much longer either are in the org. Dalbec has been absolutely brutal. At least his defense seems a little better than at the start of last year. He also started off slow last year. The bench has been absolutely terrible (Shaw/Arroyo/Arauz). To really get this lineup going, Story and Devers will have to hit the next gear and the bottom of the order needs to be fixed. At what point is Casas (903 OPS, 16K, 13BB) ready? Should they call up Yolmer Sanchez for the UTIL role (1067 OPS, 12K, 13BB)? Would Fitzgerald be able to hit at the next level (1046 OPS, 19k, 5BB)? Is this lineup much better if Dalbec is replaced by Casas, Dalbec takes the bench bat role from Shaw (DFA), Arroyo (DFA) is replaced by Yolmer and Arauz (option to AAA) is replaced by Fitzy?

I'm not a Ray fan. I think last year was his high point as an MLBer. He's been very volatile in the past. SEA could be a good fit for him though.

System Leaders as of 4/25/22: R Rafaela H Lugo 2B Lugo HR Binelas/Rafaela RBI Franchy SB Hamilton OPS Mieses IP Pannone ERA Wikelman (10+ innings) K Bello BB Pannone/Schreiber (least 10+ innings) WHIP Walter OPS Walter

Gets Wander out with bases loaded and is called a pants shitter. Bad post streak continues.

Venable Manager of the Year

Save machine Matt Barnes

Barnes v Franco Classic Confrontation

I guess Franco is ok

Below average defense from Xander

Who’s announcing on NESN?

Storeeee

How is there not a good camera angle?

Yankee great Corey Kluber

Clement was great until getting hit with that line drive. He never pitched the same afterwards. Hard to get upset about that "miss."