A lot of people were really excited about the Sox just getting playoff experience from 2025. I'm not sure what exactly it provided to this group or FO.
2001 Red Sox
Manny's first season. Nomar appears on the cover of SI. An old wrist injury is aggravated in ST and he appears in 20 G. Sox start off hot and are in first place in April and stay in the mix through late June. Pedro only throws 13 IP after July 1 and the wheels completely fall off without him. They were in 1st on July 2nd, but end the season 13 GB going 28-46 through Oct 2nd (ended the season on a meaningless 5 game win streak).
He's trying to throw out RATM lyrics.
Last time we tried a vaguely political thread was when we allowed a COVID topic thread and that was a mistake for sure.
Theo has no interest in being a GM/CBO ever again. He's getting paid to be a consultant and never get blamed for anything going wrong ever again. Sweet gig.
The idea was to flip some of the platoon bats AND get him to face the top of the order less. Moran struggled with that last time and got lit up. It worked for Bello. What's Bernardino up to?
Bennett is fine, but I don't think he needs to be up in MLB this year. Sox need to see if they can get Bello rolling since they signed him to a horrible extension.
As I've heard my son sing in the shower many times when he was in middle school "hope lies in the smoldering rubble of empires." Larry Lucchino knew this. Unfortunately, the empire came home and now NESN is "the numb black screen that be feelin' like home."
It's still important as not all pitches are sent to ABS. You still play a factor throughout the game with passed balls, controlling the running game, etc. Until Fangraphs revises their positional adjustments, CF/2B/3B are staying in third place.
And I also have an overarching problem with how defense is calculated into bWAR vs fWAR. I don't think there's a perfect solution for grading a player's worth. Was Ceddanne really the 14th best OFer last season? His wRC+ was 42 out of 48 qualified hitters.
If he was a projected GG SS, they would have kept him there as it's a much more important position. CF is about as important as 2B and 3B. SS and C are the two most important defensive positions on the field.
He did not have a GG at SS in MiLB. I don't know where you got that from. He had an "average" glove. When he moved to the OF, his defense popped. It was nothing special in the IF.