Nick

Really a big game tonight, going for sweep. We then follow up with 6 games vs the Nationals and the Rockies, got to go at least 4-2 if not 5-1 in those 6 games. We finish out by playing 4 at home versus the Rays. Critical 11 games beginning tonight. Can't go 5-6/6-5. We have chance to get over the .500 mark.

Bernardino is the Opener. He appeared 16 times in May, giving up 1 run. In 15 outings, he was unblemished. 6 hits in 12+ innings. In June, he had a whip of 3.00, not great. He maybe someone that should go on a IL just to rest up. Otherwise, Cora will over use him like he did last year. He'll end up sucking. Criswell is our 27th man, he'll follow Bernardino. To think he started 18 games for us last year. In 2024, innings pitched. 183.2 Kutter, 178.2 Houck, 162.1 Bello, 145.2 Pivetta, 99.1 Criswell, 76 Winckowski. Unbelievable turnover in our staff.

Best thing about Bello's outing was he got through five innings with 62 pitches, 40 for strikes. I'll take that everytime.

Can Fitts come back? He only threw 38 pitches? (never mind, probably not) Bello only threw 62 pitches......yeah, I'm stupid.

funny

Great job by Bello today. I jumped on him early when he gave up two runs. I am very often WRONG.

There's no separation in his pitches. His changeup at one point was his best pitch. Another low IQ (baseball wise) pitcher.

I think this is where the Sox wanted to be in first place, having Campbell, Mayer and Anthony on big league roster. Narvaez was a gift we didn't expect. Unfortunately Campbell has not worked out after his outstanding April. Then Abreu has been very solid when healthy and Rafaela is emerging as a pretty good second year center fielder. There's no DH so Cora can be flexible with his lineup. We just need our pitchers to right themselves as a group.

The bottom line? I rather watch Anthony hit from DH spot than Devers. Our future guys are now sprinkled all over the major league roster. You can't expect not to have some downturn when you have 4 rookies taking up bats, (Anthony, Mayer, Narvaez and Campbell) along with 2nd year players in Rafaela and Abreu. It's just unrealistic. Add on top of that Story and Duran are having subpar years. Only way we'd be competing is with good starting rotation. Yet, Bello, Buehler and Giolito are all trying to figure things out. And that doesn't involve Houck and his dark times. Not to mention now Kutter is out for the year. I didn't even know that he was hurt going into spring training. That's how bad it's been. We see a glimmer of hope with Dobbins and Fitts. And if Jordan Hicks becomes our closer and Kyle Harrison emerges as a starter, than the trade looks better and better in Sox direction. What, we gained $280M that can be REPURPOSED. I am glad Devers is gone. Now do something with all the 'flexibility' supposedly his departure is going to provide us. I'll be waiting.

My top target would be Cease. His ERA is up but he's still striking out 117 hitters in 91.1 innings. He's making $13.75M. His agent is Boras. Maybe we'll secure Bregman and sing Cease this off season. . He'll be 30 all year during 2026 season.

Hey Moon, we always talk about second ace....tell me what you got. And whoever you have for 2026, he's probably no where near Skubal. We can do what YOU want for 2026. But if you want a Crochet #2, you have to be patient. I didn't say anything about NOT spending for 2026. Duran hasn’t been able to replicate his breakout 2024 season, and with a young group of outfielders that includes Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela -- and more on the way with Tibbs and Jhostynxon Garcia knocking on the door -- Boston could try to move Duran to address other areas of need for 2026 and beyond....here's a blurb from MLB and I'm beginning to come around on trading Duran. Our offense will be solid as long as we have Bregman and add a every day 1B. You and I want same thing. I said nothing about punting 2026.

I'm willing throw big $$$ at the next sure thing starter. Do we wait for Tarik Skubal? He's a Boras client so he'll probably test free agency in 2027. He will pitch all that year as a 30 year old. We can backfill #3-#5 with our young guys.

I would love to see Dobbins and Fitts move ahead of Bello. I'm not sure if Bello can survive without a swing and miss stuff.

The team is 0-6 in Fitts starts. How long can he flip tails?

Not done with the Pivetta trade. We get a sandwich pick between 2nd and 3rd round. Pick #75 in addition to draft pick from Milwaukee for Priester trade.

Both Cease and the Detroit pitcher are represented by Boras. Maybe we should get tight with Boras by giving Bregman a 4-5 deal. Giolito pitched well in June. Like I said, I'd like to see couple of more minor league guys pitch this year. I'd like to see Password get some bats. Maybe we should trade Duran. That means we are all in on Abreu. The Password will bring lefty/righty balance to the outfield. I don't believe Refsnyder returns next year. With the DH spot 'relatively' open, we can use DH spot to rotate Password, Anthony and Abreu to man 2 of the 3 OF positions. We still need a full time 1B. Maybe we can acquire another cost controlled 'fireballer' out of the pen. Your approach seem to mirror Buehler/Giolito/Sandoval signings. I would just wait for a top free agent pitcher to come along and give the guy an offer he can't refuse. Hell we were willing to pay what's his name $700M.

I don't believe if he gets to 140 innings, with a mutual option of $19M, the Sox probably won't go for it. But if he falls short, it becomes $14M club option, which maybe reasonable. At least you know what you have with him. He has at least 15 more starts, needs about 81 innings. I think he gets there, 140 IP that is. And let's not forget about Patrick Sandoval. We owe him $12.75M, or $9.125M luxury tax payroll for 2026. So he'll start us if he's healthy. So we could go Crochet, Giolito, Sandoval, Bello and Dobbins. I'd like to see Tolle and Sandlin pitch this year if we're out of it.

Sitting tight other than to sell off parts absolutely not necessary or valuable. Buehler, for his ineffectiveness Chapman, get something of value and then parade few closer candidates to see what we have, Hendriks was a disaster in my opinion Basically we have 4 rookies in our lineup, although one has been demoted. C Narvaez, 1B Campbell 2B Mayer OF Anthony. Don't worry about Campbell's position. 2nd year player in Rafaela, 152 games and 544 AB in 2024. OPS of .664 vs .716 in 2025. He should be our fixture in CF based on his defense. Another 2nd year guy in Abreu, 132 games and 399 AB in 2024, OPS of .781 vs .795 in 2025. Just not sure why we want to get rid of him. 3rd year guy in Duran, 160 games and 671 AB in 2024, OPS of .834 vs .711 (really down). Lets face it. We are young. Maybe we need to patient especially with these 7 players. Extend Bregman. Keep DH open to allow Cora flexibility in our lineup. And we are now back to the starting rotation. Bello does not possess swing and miss pitch. He's a #4/#5 at best. I think I would bring back Giolito at this point. Who is better other than Crochet?

No one has come to Devers defense.

At least he is throwing strikes.

I don't think it's about what choices do we have? Hamilton's value is speed. I bet there's a playoff team out there that can use him to just pinch run. We are destined to finish dead last if we don't do something drastic. What do we have to lose? I don't care if we end up with 70 wins when the alternative to play the same players and get to 81-81. I am willing to let it play out until the All-Star break. We need to make a decision at that point. We just don't have the pitching staff to carry our offense right now.

Like I said, it was a salary dump. Because the Giants took 100% of his contract, our return was going to be less. Yes, you maybe right. Hey check out my post on 'Old is New Again'....I'd love to hear your thoughts. Maybe you've read the article.

Drag Factor = ((100 - wRC+) * Plate Appearances) / Team Total Plate appearances This was brought up on Over the Monster. It's a good read. Sox drag factor is 14.20 compared to 5.50 for the Yankees (smaller the # the better). Trevor Story is highest at 2.83, followed by D Hamilton at 2.54 and Wong at 2.05. The conclusion is D Hamilton and Wong has no business being on our 26 man roster. It seems very obvious. Say what you will about Story, ultimately he's a utility player. Sox trying to squeeze out every bit of production solely because he's highly compensated ultimately makes no sense. Every at bat we give these three hurts the team. It makes perfect sense to me. But Cora feels obligated to play Hamilton and Wong. His comment was they need more at bats. Really?

Assuming Chapman is gone, who are our backend guys for 2026? We are collecting hard throwers who can't throw strikes, or it seems. 1. Justin Slaten, 5 yrs of team control 2 Greg Weissert, 5 yrs of team control 3 Jordan Hicks, 3 yrs of team control 4 Jorge Alcala, 2 yrs of team control 5 Garret Whitlock (he's in my doghouse) 6 Louis Guerrero, 6 yrs of team control 7 Bernardino, 5 yrs of team control 7 Tanner Houck, we used to think he could be our closer 8 Kutter Crawford, we used to think he could be our closer If we sell at trade deadline, it's time to start Realistic View, 2026 Part I

I'm not sure we got 'crap' back. Assuming big part was a salary dump of Devers (in management's point of view, they are using 'bad teammate' as an excuse but I think it was the money). We picked up a reliever, possibly a backend guy that throws 100 mph, Jordan Hicks with 2 years of team control after 2025 (yep, we're paying him $12M, more than Chapman, let that sink in how good of an acquisition Chapman was). Kyle Harrison was highly thought of only a year ago. We have 4 more years of team control after 2025. We got couple of more guys. I like to think we got more than a 'crap'.