5GoldGlovesOF,75

Regarding Roman, we all wanted to believe the hype -- and that includes from the Red Sox, national media coverage, and Team USA Manager Mark DeRosa: "Roman Anthony is special and the moment is never too big for him. Red Sox fans are gonna have a nice time with him for the next 15 years." What we never wanted is a batting order that left him pitifully unprotected without enough established elite bats that pitchers had to stress about instead of focusing solely on a 22-year-old rookie.

Wait -- is he -- yup, the president is about to lie again: "A healthy Mead and Rutschman will be better than any two other bats we can add this offseason," Sam will promulgate. And we sure are glad we have Gold Glove third baseman Caleb Durbin, instead of wasting all that money on Alex Bregman, who also won a Gold Glove... and hit 28 home runs.

BABIP isn't all luck. Batters with the fastest exit velo and hard-hit rate shoot liners in between or over fielders before they can catch them -- that's not luck. But here's the real question: is batting average when making soft contact just luck? These are professional hitters with the best hand-eye coordination in their world. A two-strike approach where batters choke up and shorten their swings to put the ball in play is taught and stressed since Little League. And if a guy who's down in the count intentionally punches one through the hole the other way for a base hit, that's skill. A lot of hitters take mighty cuts at the first two strikes before swinging with more control. A lot of hitters at a lot of levels...

If the Red Sox don't add more MLB bats this offseason, they should at least reshuffle the batting order to reflect the deep analysis of talksox -- and what we all value above all else in offensive stats! Mead leadoff -- his .353 OB% was higher than any Boston fulltimer but Contreras. Plus, Curtis could provide instant longball, like Schwarber or Ohtani at the top (Mead wasn't predicted to hit homers last year, but he actually did). Rafaela can stay at #2. Lousy OB% and a hacker with the worst challenge% in the bigs, but a Top Ten Batting Average... that's actual HITS divided by ABs. Ceddanne was leading baseball in doubles before he missed the last month; that'll move the runner. Anthony #3. Hard contact, big contract -- he's a future staaah! what more do you want from your third batter? How bout: potential on-base machine ahead of your top sluggers. Contreras Clean-up. The big bopper who was AL's second-best in the sacred OPS... and actually second in ON BASE %, which is why the #5 guy should be... Abreu -- who actually did lead the league in doubles and was fifth in extra base-hits behind only Yordan, Junior, Rice and Polar Bear (good company). That's exactly the kind of SLUGGER you want batting directly after one of the best On Base men in the business. OH PEE YESSS!!!

So Fenway Park with its short wall and lack of foul territory is Defensively Inefficient. Then again, maybe the pitchers are, for allowing too much contact in the air... ... which just puts more value on guys who induce grounders and guys good at fielding them, like Durbin, Contreras and Arias. There's more than one way to tailor your roster to fit your ballpark.

Story was the guy who wasn't at SS when the Sox were winning all those games. I know, Pratt's bat hit the sweet spot the whole postseason and was shaky on D, and Milwaukee won. And the Brewers also led MLB in batting average -- and on base -- and had an above-average slugging. So obviously their balanced batting order overcame their Defensive Efficiency, which was 6th in the majors. But even though the Red Sox had three Gold Glovers, their team Defensive Efficiency was 20th. They need improvement everywhere.

Big difference in Arias and Campbell that should shut down any further comparisons about what Franklin does with the bat: Arias' DEFENSE is elite -- Soft quick hands and a solid accurate arm don't go into slumps. A guy who was just named the best defensive shortstop in all the minor leagues is absolutely ready for the majors, especially on a team whose starting SS has one of the weakest wings in fastfood chicken joints.

I'm not as focused on the budget or roster openings because Breslow simply has to improve the offense if the Red Sox want to improve their chances. And it's not just posters saying this over and over for over a year now; it's batting authorities like David Ortiz and Willson Contreras. The difference this offseason to caution against is automatically pencilling in Roman Anthony as one of the main men. Not after an unreliable season and an entire calendar year of dealing with injuries. With a guy like that, we have no idea how healed or how good or definitely how much we can expect. Build the batting order accordingly. If Roman is a stud, that's a bonus (which is how it always should be when a 22-year old makes the majors). So there's no problem upgrading the outfield with a legit bat, especially after the demise of Duran. Jahmai Jones ain't it. Abreu will only be traded as part of a package for a superstar -- if any truly are available. Safe to say he'll be back in RF.

Parrish the thought. But you're right... expect the Sox to add a hitter, but he'll be more like Larry Parrish than Lance Parrish: bb-ref most similar batters: Nick Castellanos for Larry, Sal Perez for the Lance (dang, he might actually turn out to be Castellanos).

Tied for least world titles this decade! The snoring '20s have just been unlucky.

Every time the president opens his mouth it's a lie.

It's ok to cite regular season stats, but after watching the entire postseason, the best hitter for anyone was arguably Brewer SS Cooper Pratt. Now some may say the rookie just got challenged with a lot of good pitches to hit. But it's also possible he was developing into an above-average batter before our eyes vs. top competition... just like Jeremy Pena, when he was WS MVP a few years ago. People can find stats to show how weak Milwaukee's offense has been the past two years when they won the most games in baseball. But there's no dispute the Brewers hit when it counts because they're good.

Right now, I'd say Mead is a better bet. He didn't injure himself three times in past 12 months swinging a bat... a pitcher did. And I wouldn't count on Eli White coming back good as new next season, either. He's looking at a tough recovery. As for Duran, even if the Sox don't move on from him, he's too unreliable and they still need to add a legitimate bat that can play LF and/or DH. Signing Arozarena makes too much sense -- but I won't say he's earned his cents (now obsolete).

And then flip Nada for Cero, and combine him with Futura Estrella for Dustin May.

Offseason officially starts today. Internet already loaded with crazy trade proposals for the Red Sox to trade their best prospects and proven youngsters for one guy to play shortstop... ... as if Bobby Whit or Elly or Abrams are even available -- or even great enough to bring a title to Boston without Tolle at the top of the rotation and Abreu manning RF. Shortstop is not an area of need -- not when you already owe one guy $25 million to play there, and you have the AL's highest-ranked two-way prospect waiting to take over. Boston is not one bat away from a deep October run. We just saw the best team in the American League -- a club with four or five bats better than any Red Sox not named Willson -- hit .182 in the World Series.