mvp 78

Cora can't fix the rotation with this roster. All he can do is move somebody out and replace them with internal options. He's stuck with Kelly because of the other injuries in the bullpen. Breslow doesn't scout the waiver wire the way Bloom did. Bloom would have churned through some other DFA'd guys by now for sure. It's the only reason Zack Littell even played here.

And if you don't like Romy, Blaze Jordan hits LHP pretty well or at least has a history of it in MiLB. Maybe they do that route towards the end of the year/next year.

Romy '24 vs LHP 879 OPS

DH Raffy 1B Toro/Romy Toro vs RHP 989 OPS Romy vs LHP 950 OPS

Crochet is a ratings draw!

He was told that he was going to be a 3b for a long time. He asked if they were going to sign a 3b and they said no. When they signed Bregman, he had a right to be annoyed. He came to ST, still hadn't been communicated with and worked on his hitting. There was an initial press conference where the translator misspoke and made Raffy out to look very angry, but he was just matter of fact stating what he knew from his conversations with Cora. They worked on it behind the scenes and he sucked it up and became a great DH. It wasn't a distraction to anyone in the clubhouse. It was just a good story for everyone in the media. Once injury plagued Casas fell apart again, it was just time for the media to complain about Raffy rather than go after Breslow for not having a better plan from the beginning.

Yes, we took the glove out of his hand and he became a better hitter. Why take a bad fielder and put him back into the field?

With all the pitching injuries, he may be here a while unless (a) he gets injured or (b) is overused by Cora.

Since the start of 2021, he's only gone over 1 inning 4 times. He's just a 1 inning pitcher it looks like.

It was going to be Hendriks or Slaten, but both are on the IL. Whitlock has not looked good enough to close. I guess Weissert? Yay? That's why he's not going 2 innings IMO.

Yuck

If we pitch Chapman for two inning one game, who do we trust to come in the next to be the closer?

Where the Red Sox failed was mainly playing Anthony in LF all season (66% of GS in field). He should have been 50/50 between RF and LF. He even had 3 times as many CF starts than RF starts this year, which is ridiculous as he should never play there in MLB. They goofed on that IMO.

The fundamentals are bad across MLB when you watch a lot of other games. It's not just the Red Sox. Even the Rays 3b was let off the hook last night by instant replay because he was going to tag the runner, but chose to throw to 1b and Wong was called safe with the bases loaded and 2 outs.

Pitchers taken after Yorke in the 1st round: Bryce Jarvis, Cade Cavalli, Nick Bitsko, Jared Shuster, Bobby Miller (probably should have taken PCA, Jordan Walker, Austin Wells, or Jordan Westburg though) Pitchers after Mayer: Frank Mozzicato, Sam Bachman, Kumar Rocker, Andrew Painter, Will Bednar, Gunnar Hoglund, Jordan Hicks, Ryan Cusick and others (Cowser, Lawlar, House, Frelick, Watson, Merrill also taken in this loaded 1st round) I agree that not taking a pitcher in the first round may be a good idea, my thought was that college bats like Westburg, Wells and Cowser take less time to get to the show and provide more immediate impact to the MLB roster.

Giolito start. Oh boy.

Or is there something else causing the mix the Sox have to just make them be well under .500?

Is this "LOL Baseball random" and like the Padres of a few years ago, the Sox will make a big run at the end of the year?

20 teams with better W/L records than the Sox.

I don't care. He's going to be DH going forward. I'm not going to try to fix something that's not broken.

Nope. If he's under 700, I'm fine with moving on from him if they want to be a serious org.

And Rafaela may not need to be entrenched as the CFer depending on his bat. If he's below 700, I don't believe he's really playable. He's not even the best CFer in the division.

We are truly in the golden era of Abreus.

I think one of Duran or Abreu could be part of OF of a Sox true contender, but it would most likely be Abreu due to age. I think an OF of Anthony/Rafaela/Abreu is most certainly good enough to be playoff worthy. If Mayer takes over and performs at SS and Campbell improves at 2B, the middle of the IF should be all set. We should assume that C is at least decent with Narvaez at 50% of the time, but will need another defensive catcher. They should add top level 1B and 3B to round out the lineup. I'd be happy with that! Right now, it's the starting pitching that's really holding back the Sox IMO. Chris Bassitt (37) Shane Bieber (31) – $16MM player option with a $4MM buyout Walker Buehler (31) – $25MM mutual option with a $3MM buyout Dylan Cease (30) Zach Eflin (32) Jack Flaherty (30) – can opt out of remaining one year, $10MM Zac Gallen (30) Shota Imanaga (32) – $57MM club option for 2026-28 or $15MM player option for 2026 Merrill Kelly (37) Clayton Kershaw (38) Michael King (31) – $15MM mutual option with a $3.75MM buyout Zack Littell (30) Seth Lugo (36) – $15MM player option Dustin May (28) Freddy Peralta (30) – $8MM club option with no buyout Chris Sale (37) – $18MM club option Ranger Suarez (30) Tomoyuki Sugano (36) Framber Valdez (32) Brandon Woodruff (32) – $20MM mutual option with a $10MM buyout

Per bref: