Maxbialystock

I think that's excessive, but I like that you said it.

Amazing. I would have bet cash money he doesn't have the change.

Just a reminder that this is the month of GW's first big win, the direct result of bookseller Henry Knox who had the creativity and the staunchness to propose and then execute hauling captured British artillery from Ticonderoga. It was, so help me, a contract job and brilliantly and courageoously executed. Pay off was 250 years ago this month when those Ticonderoga guns at Dorchester Heights drove the British Army and Navy out of Boston, never to return. When George Washington was made Commander of the Continental Army in June 1775, he was told to go to Boston, where his Army was. That's right, the Continental Army was the Massachusetts militia. I am convinced that the Boston win was what gave the 2d Continental Congress the courage to write and sign the Declaration of Independence 3-4 months later. What I don't understand is how the Boston baseball team opted for red socks. What I delight in remembering is that it was an American immigrant/baseball player who spoke up in April 2013 after the horror of the Boston Marathon. After thanking the Mayor and the Police for the "great job they did last week," he said: "This is our f***ing city and nobody gonna dictate our freedom. Stay strong. Thank you."

If he only had a changeup. A good changeup is almost unhittable. Crochet relies heavily on the heater and on his command and his confidence/determination. He is far and away the best player Breslow has signed. Good appraisal of the defense which had not occurred to me until I read your post. Two youngest Sox had 5 hits between them and Mayer scored all three Sox runs. I was not at all impressed with the three infielders Breslow brought in from the neither regions.

Durbin's a rookie and Contreras is past his prime and has never played 135 games in a season. .

Sounds about right. The pitching is better than that, but the hitting is worse.

NIcely written.

I've been engaged with ACC basletball since November, plus I don't know jack anyway. Nevertheless I can't resist saying I think Mayer will be more valuable and just as healthy as Durbin or Contreras. Absolutely weird seeing Anthony in LF and Duran DHing today, but it definitely worked.

Great stuff! Thanks. I did notice success of run scoring vs run prevention last year. Today, game 1, we saw exactly how much those 4 are missed.

Cubbies lost today, but not his fault.

Me, I would bat Contreras and Durbin 8th and 9th.

I'll take Anthony and Mayer and their extemely low salaries over those three newbie infielders Breslow brought in. Anthony and Mayer had 5 hits and scored all 3 Sox runs. Contreras, Durbin, and Kiner-Falefa had no hits hits and the Sox only error. So far, they stink. Pitching was terrific in large part because Breslow brought in both Crochet and Chapman. As for the challenges of balls and strikes, I like that system because it causes very little delay and squelches any and all complaints. You think you got screwed on a call, challenge it. I would far rather have this than robot umps.

Thanks for the info.

Managers and even coaches are hired to be fired, but it's the CBO who goes after and signs the talent/arms. In 2018 Cora showed what he could do with talent--simply the best season in Sox history. When the Sox bombed in 2019, John Henry hired a bargain basement CBO to replace free spender (and successful) David Dombrowski. I think CBO Breslow is here to stay and I like his emphasis on pitching. Last season and postseason he let go of Devers and Bregman, which the known universe has emphatically stated was sheer idiocy. My view is that the Sox made the postseason mostly on the pitching. Just go look at the scores in those winning streaks and also look at how little Devers and Bregman contributed to them. At the same time, I don't think he has ignored the position players although I think he could use a good righty bat (which Bregman was). Anthony, Duran, Abreu, and Mayer are all lefty bats. So is Yoshida who's hitting well in the MBC this month.

We take everything too seriously and that's OK because we're fans. As one, I'm delighted to admit I completely underestimated the WBC, which which has MLB veterans scattered all over the planet--or so it seems. When I finally looked up the sites, I was dumbfounded at what they are doing. Genius!! And it doesn't look as though participation is screwing up spring training. Upcoming soon is the world championship of soccer/football which absolutely dwarfs anything MLB can put together, but that's OK. The point is to get your toe into the water. And last night I saw some of the gringos playing for the good old USA and they beat a very competitive Dominican Republic team to get into the championship round. What was that Walt Whitman quote at the end of Bull Durham? "I see great things in Baseball. It's our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us." I believe those "losses" were from the American Civil War, the bloodiest war in American history. Whitman was a volunteer nurse in Washington, DC. In some measure this WBC is helping to repair our losses.

Probably not relevant here, but I'm probably the only one who does not see Bregman's new team and $175M contract as a disaster for the Sox. First, I thought Breslow made a reasonable offer. Second, I'm also probably the only one here who does not believe Breslow was the windfall everyone claims he was last season. Anthony and especially the pitching were the difference makers and had that great 10 game winning streak in July. basically without Bregman or Devers. Once Anthony went on the IL on Sep 3, the Sox reverted back to a .500 team. Would I have preferred to keep Bregman? Sure I would, but not at his price. He's getting $35M/season through age 37, plus there is no guarantee there won't be future injuries. The one he had this season was a repeat and he never really came back from it. Do I wish Devers were back? Sure I do. I also think Breslow was heavy handed. However, the Sox were without Devers and with a subpar Bregman last season when they made a nice run--until Antony went on the IL. Now Mayer gets a shot at being the full time thirdbaseman. He has injury issues too, but healthy he could be pretty good. His .674 OPS was better than Bregman's when he returned from the IL. Plus Contreras and his .811 OPS will be nice at 1b. Oh, yeah. I forgot Bregman's stellar leadership qualities. They didn't help much in September after Anthony on the IL.

Not a Casas fan at all because of his injuries and weak defense, but he has a good bat and eye for balls and strikes. A healthy Casas, which I think is unlikely, is the best Sox option at 1b. Keep him.

That "pop fly" Duran dropped was in fact a line drive by Judge that went into his glove about a foot about the ground. That's why it wasn't called an error. In addition, I think his defense improved and he made at least a couple of great catches late in the season. I think durability should be a factor, which favors Duran and Story with 157 games and Rafaela with 156. Then comes a big drop to Narvaez, 118, who was a catcher and was in fact durable. After him Abreu, twice out with injuries plus his return showed he had not recovered, with 115, Bregman with 114, Gonzalez with 98. Then comes a stunner--Hamilton with 91 freaking games and a WAR of 1.1. His OPS was a dismal .590, but his fielding and baserunning were excellent. I do agree that Anthony is special and deserves the highest grade, A-, Despite playing in just 71 games, his WAR was the 6th best at 3.1 However, I would give Rafaela and his 4.8 WAR a B+ and Duran's 4.6 WAR a B. Abreu is a better hitter and fielder than Duran (but not nearly as good a baserunner), but he's got to stay off the IL to contribute. B-.

Also a good laydown. To me the big difference between 2024 and 2025 was Devers leaving 15 June 2025. The good news is I think Anthony shows even more promise than Devers did in his early years. Bregman could be a 2d good bat--he was for the first half of this season--if he can stay off the IL. And let's not forget that after May of 2024 Story's OPS's were .827 in June, .870 in July, .817 in August, and ,795 in September--plus in the Wild Card 3 games, his OPS was 1.000. For the middle of the order, I see Abreu, Yoshida, and Gonzalez, who I think are all capable of .800 OPS's. In the 3d wild card game, Yoshida had 2 of 5 Sox hits, and in the series his OPS was 1.143. In September it was .837. And for the bottom 3 I see Rafaela, Narvaez/Wong, and whoever plays 1b. If Casas stops going on the IL and meets his career .800 OPS, so much the better. Plus let's not forget Mayer, who can field and hit. If Bregman leaves, Mayer would be an excellent fit at 3b but not a top 3 hitter. if the Sox pick up a good bat this offseason, so much the better.

Good pitching is good pitching, righty or lefty. This season the Sox OPS's against lefties and righties were both around .744. Righty batters are usually better at hitting righty pitchers than lefty bats hitting lefty pitchers simply because most pitchers are righties. If you want to play everyday, you must hit righties. So Story, Rafaela, Bregman, and Narvaez, were almost as good against righties as lefties. Gonzalez was way better against lefties. None of the Sox lefty bats--Anthony, Abreu, Duran, Yoshida, Lowe, Mayer--hit lefties as well as righties. Except Casas, who in 11 at bats vs lefties had a 1.409 OPS. In 88 at bats vs righties it was .477. The other exception was Devers, whose OPS's vs righties and lefties were both over .900!!!! Also, as a DH he never missed a game. Given the above plus the Green Monster, I think the Sox should go for a good righty bat at almost any position. Were it not for his weak arm in the outfield, Aaron Judge would be a decent fit. 😄

Impressive laydown.

That makes sense to me. Devers was terrific as the DH, and his bat was missed in September after Anthony went on the IL. I think mvp 78 argues that the time to move Devers to 1b was after this season. However, that would have meant paying for 3 DH's--Ref, Yoshida, and Devers--whose total salary was (until Devers left) was around $50M. So it did make sense to move Devers to 1b when Casas went down and only Cora could have pulled that off.

As for next year, my first step was to look at the 8 teams that made it to the ALDS and NLDS. Why? Because this that 3 game series for the wild cards was as fair as it gets. See especially the Yankees, who would have lost a 1 game playoff--yet again--but finally won, barely, in 3 games. They were to me clearly better than the Sox. Of the 8 Division Series teams--Seattle, Detroit, Jays, Yankees, Brewers, Cubs, Phillies, and Dodgers--all 8 of them are ranked in the top 11 MLB teams in runs scored and team OPS. But only 3--Brewers, Phillies,and Cubs--are in the top 11 in team ERA. The outliers (below 11th) are the Mariners (13th), Yankees (14th), Tigers(16th), Dodgers(17th), and Jays (19th). Let me hasten to add that the Sox finished 5th in MLB in team ERA, 7th in runs scored, and 9th in team OPS, so they definitely earned the postseason. However, by the time Wild Card series rolled around, the Sox hitting and pitching had regressed significantly because of injuries and Bello running out of gas. So, if you bring back the 2025 team and they stay healthy, they should make the the postseason and possibly more. It's that simple. You/they can even persevere if Duran is traded and Giolito not re-signed. But I'm less sure they will thrive without Bregman, and I'll just bet Boras has already told the Sox that. Bregman offers a lot to the Sox--a good bat, a righty bat (which the Sox are short of), a good glove, and a good teammate. However, he turns 32 in March 2026 and missed 7 weeks this season from a recurrence of an earlier injury. Maybe the Sox can offer 4 x $40 = $160M, which to me is exhorbitant. Including this season, Bregman's career earnings are $168M. I would be astounded if another MLB team would offer Bregman $160M. I agree another starter like Joe Ryan would be nice, as would a good righty bat.

As always, neat info. 😃

Not much hitting. In fact, just one good hitter, Anthony. He could be a .900 OPs hitter. The rest are lucky if they get .800 OPS. Virtually no real HR power. Pitching looks fine, maybe even better than this year. Joe Ryan's WAR is 11th best of MLB pitchers, which is pretty darn good. However, he faded in August and especially September (ERA 6.75). On the other hand, his salary this year was $3M.