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I wondered why they even recalled him Can you do one where they DFA Watson and call up Braden Ward?

Even if Breslow survives this year, it will probably feel more like a political move than a baseball one, barring any miracles the rest of the way. But even if he does survive another bad Sox season, his seat just gets hotter for 2027. The Sox don’t seem to let CBOs finish out the season, either. Most seem to get replaced before the final game gets played. If they finish at or under .500 this year and don’t show marked improvement in early 2027, he will be gone by mid-August at the latest…

That feels selective. Don’t the Sox have their fair share of players that have done better after acquiring them? Chapman, Whitlock, Romy, Narvaez, Slaten, Abreu, Weissert, Kelly, Samaniego…

Crochet hasn’t been the monster he was last year, but thats also crazy to expect every season. But this year, the Sox started off with 5 easily named pitchers in the rotation. They really never had that last year. Hunter Dobbins was only wuth them briefly and still ranked among the top 5 in GS among pitchers…

Cora may do well with veterans, but for all his background in analytics, he does appear to be very reluctant to move an underperforming veteran off a key position. Ladt year wuth Devers. This year with Story. Tracy hasn’t made any significant changes in this regard. It’s only been a handful of games, but it’s fair to question if he will act on this…

Again, the Sox went 52-37 with a Tampa lineup from June through September. The point here isn’t that the Sox are secretly hitting, just that there are other ways to win besides thumping. Leading the league in home runs makes for an exciting team, but all it guarantees is more home runs. You’re old enough to remember the 1980’s when the Sox were at or close to the top in home runs every year, but also ended many seasons playing out a short string of meaningless October games. The Sox this year are underperforming. Narvaez is one thing; last year he was a productive cog, but he really lacks any history to know if that was a career year or not. Ditto Anthony, although he at least has a significant minor league pedigree. But players like Duran and Story are in the midst of career-worst seasons (in Story’s case on both sides of the ball) that have them among the worst players in the league at their positions…

The Sox went 37-36 with Devers’ production; 52-37 without it. Explain why it was so essential that we’re back to these stupid “replaced his production” talks that usually require a 50 man active roster. Maybe some posters the Sox already spent more this year than last year and don’t believe perennially spending more money since they are other teams with cheaper rosters winning and ones with more expensive rosters are off to worse starts. Oh, and these posters also don’t blame spending or lack of it on Internet forum participants…

Whats killing tjis team is collection of bad starts. Last year, after trading Devers, the Sox lineup featured C: Narvaez 1b: Toro 2b: Hamilton/Romy 3b:Mayer or Bregman SS: Story LF: Duran CF: Rafaela RF: Anthony and Abreu DH: Yoshida Thats not a better lineup than this year. Their “Star” Alex Bregman did have a .821 OPS, but only 18 HRs and 62 RBI. Somehow that mishmash above went 52-37. Certainly the team pitched well. Of course how does that pitching differ this year? Does not having Giolito make that much of a difference? Especially since his replacement (Ranger Suarez) has been pitching well?

Rafaela doesn’t look like he’s worth that deal to you? His AAV is IKF money…

So Chapman never won a ring on a team he started the season with…

Bello might be the best answer to a questionable bullpen. But a few arms need to get heathy first…

You also said 90 wins. And the Rays have the second best record in the American League (despite lacking a highly overpaid batter, no less)…

Also Crawford and Sandoval…

This could be bigger than Duran’s struggles. Not sure how Eaton’s fills the void. Someone finally going to let him pitch?

And many fans wanted Like Keaschall over Mayer despite Keaschall putting up numbers that are worse than what got Campbell demoted…

And those are not all on Anthony. Duran and Story each need Ruthian hot streaks to get back to a .600 OPS first. That’s certainly not on Anthony to make that up…

That’s not anything the team said. In fact, they said they expected Abreu to break out this year. And they tried to bring back Bregman and to some extent, explores options like Marte, Paredes, and even Seager in some unsubstantiated rumors. That doesn’t sound like handing the team over to Anthony. Don’t confuse fan expectations with team plans. Anthony’s numbers will work themselves out. Sure he won’t be Ken Griffey Jr Jr, but does the team really expect him to be? I think right now they (and we) had higher expectations from Duran…

A lot of this is your personal theory. Nowhere did the Sox publicly state they wanted Anthony to “carry the team.” If that were the case, why pursue Bregman? More than likely they signed Anthony because they didn’t want to risk another Betts situation where their options were pay $300mill or trade. And the “hype” wasn’t from the fans or the Red Sox. Neutral third party scouting sources like Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus ranked him very highly on their own…

I have 0 concerns about Anthony. StatCast data tells me much more about how he is hitting than batting average and RBIs, especially after only 110 PA. I have patience a lot of thing will balance out because he is hitting the ball with authority. His Ks are higher than I like, but then he is also walking a lot. If he was striking out and not walking, thats a legitimate concern..,

Ummm… making MLB by age 21 is special, isn’t it? Like I said earlier, there are probably going to be highly-regarded players drafted this June that are his age or older, and will be headed for A ball. Just because a player is “special” doesn’t mean he makes the All Star team before he can legally drink. Roman is basically putting up Mookie numbers. His age 21 OPS exceeded Mookie’s (.859 to .812). And after 110 PA, this year his age 22 OPS of .642 is nearly identical the .649 OPS Betts had after 103 PA at age 22. In hindsight, do we wish we signed Betts to an extension then?

Sure there is the possibility that all 4 of Bello, Anthony, Campbell and Rafaela soend thr rest of their careers in AAA. But it’s slim based on Rafaela alone securing a roll. Or maybe Anthony never becomes a star and Bello (a punching bag today, but we all know he can pitch better because he has done it) just remain average players. Well, right now they’re all really paid that way, which makes them tradable. The combined AAV is around $40mill, which isn’t a killer for 4 players. And their total spend (including money already spent) is about $270mill. Again, Thsts for 4 players and spread across 9 seasons. This isn’t the stumbling block many are afraid of, especially considering it’s not like Boston was collecting top tier free agents even before these deals went out. It’s not like it prevented them from signing Bregman and Suarez. And they aren’t going to turn into the financial handicap the Schwarber/ Turner/ Harper/ Wheeler/ Castellanos/ Luzardo/ Nola are going to be in Philly over the next few seasons. Fans want contracts with immediate results. Sure. I get it. But for these types of deals, it might not happen right away. If they become stars, their immediate assets. If not, the players you wind up missing out on are the Lorenzen / Finnegan / IKF types. Fantasies that the Sox were going to save all $270mill and sign some Dylan Cease type should have been abandoned long ago, even before any of these deals happened…

It’s not an excuse to look at how well he is hitting the ball on his StatCast page and notice he is doing most things right. Some of us don’t use RBIs to measure a leadoff hitter, or really, any player. Sure 1 HR. So what? Plenty of good hitters have that total or less right now. And so what if fans get excited about him? There is plenty there to get excited about, and getting excited is what fans do. Demotions happen, and if it does here you will unlikely gloat. Not because you were right; youre noncommittal about everything until it becomes time to blatantly lie. But only because you don’t like seeing fans (which is short for “fanatics”) get excited about their team. It’s not going to stop happening. I mean, are you really calling for patience on a hitter “an excuse” IN APRIL?!??! Hes a very young player; some of us have patience. Labeling him a “suspect” until he meets whatever your criteria you have is absolutely not patience…

You’re right. He’s clearly a bust. It’s like the old saying goes “if they’re not hitting by 21, they never will.”

Because he hasn’t set the league on fire before his 22nd birthday?

Is it worth giving 5 players utility infielder money to risk getting one superstar? Campbell has an AAV of $7.25 million. On today’s market, that gets you Steven Matz. Bello makes a little over $9mill AAV, enough to almost sign Kyle Finnegan. Now together, both their deals are worth $115mill, which can get you 3 years of Framber Valdez, who is likely only that cheap due to his anger issues. Or, hey, the Sox could have gotten 4 years of Kazuma Okamoto and had enough left for 3 years of Tsunyami Imai, not that either of them have earned their contracts yet. Why not roll the dice on these deals? Because you want a $500 mill contract attached to a player who then gets surrounded by replacement level talent? Thats the beauty of these deals; the players don’t need to turn into stars to justify them. Bello is making less money this year than Mike Lorenzen. Have you EVER wanted the Sox to sign Mike f***ing Lorenzen? Third rate closers have higher AAVs than Bello. His pitching might be a bust, but his contract isn’t, because he fits in well with s*** team closer money. Earn their money first? We don’t want them earning the wages they’re being paid..