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5GoldGlovesOF,75

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Everything posted by 5GoldGlovesOF,75

  1. I like Romy and he's a hitter who can contribute in a good batting order... but I never want to see him batting clean-up again with a Refsnyder leadoff like in the playoffs. Breslow gets kudos for the depth he's built on the pitching staff... but he's slicing our soles on broken seashells in the shallows of an offense.
  2. Dang -- take it back. Stop, before this is all over the internet.
  3. They tried eradicating them by arming drones with spear guns, but natives suspected secret bounties when others started disappearing: goliath frogs, electric eels, LED eels, manatees, girlatease...
  4. Otters know where it's at. Swimming and fishing all day.
  5. Two guys that can run followed by your four best power hitters? Why are you trying to make sense? No avocado for you.
  6. Totally agree. A guy who makes contact and can bunt should hit second in a good batting order. But I'm so outdated, I'm only reiterating the first 100 or so years of accepted baseball strategy.
  7. The reason Sonny Gray bounces from one team to another is that he's just too contradictory. It's not his fault -- his parents named him -- though all administrations are hypocritical about transparency (especially those whose favorite colors are redacted and white). If I owned a team called the Red Sox, the first change I'd make is a sock code: wear your pants high enough to show your colors!
  8. That .5 of a win will come on half of a walk-off home run by Willson on a rising liner that the Green Monster eats and spits back out... ... the ball will bounce back over the leftfielder, but Contreras will just beat it to second base safely.
  9. "Tanner Houck will be a better addition to our roster than any other player we can acquire at the trade deadline," the President will lie again in July.
  10. No matter what we think is the best order -- or even what the paid analytics dept determines -- the manager has his favorite line-ups, plus ego quirks to deal with that none of us know about. Cora's already said his top four guys will be Anthony, Story, Duran and Contreras, probably with Abreu 5th and Durbin 6th (AC likes Caleb "lengthening" the line-up down there). That's a lot of swing and miss, 1 through 5. Personally, I like a contact hitter and bunter like Durbin behind another base stealer like Duran or Story. It's the best way to utilize Durbin's skills -- which are rare on this roster and desperately needed to change the culture. And if Anthony is indeed the team's best hitter -- on a team with zero offensive stars -- don't we want him up there as much as possible with traffic on the bases??? If this season will be based on pitchers' duels, give yourself the best chance to win them...
  11. Texas' starting rotation is as good in names as New York's, but neither may have the quality depth to overcome injuries as Boston's. If everyone stay healthy, then all three teams have to be favored to make the postseason. And I say that without even looking at who the Rangers have in their starting line-up, since pitching is the predominant reason for optimistic Red Sox fans whose hopes Spring eternal.
  12. Merloni just said Cora loves Anthony leadoff, so who bats behind him for protection just needs to wear a Manny mask until they get to Contreras at clean-up (he didn't say the last part; I did). Lou also says Durbin at 3rd, with Mayer/Romy at 2nd -- mainly because Romy is more comfortable there. My feeling is that Mayer is the best infielder with the best arm, which gives the Sox the best chance at completing Cora's favorite feat: the double play. DPs will be more important than ever for a club built around pitching. Mayer had his elbow fixed last August. Durbin, who proved himself capable at 3B for a team that won the most games in baseball, had his elbow scoped this offseason. Romy has had recent shoulder pain, but in his left shoulder. Cora will go the guy who will turn two most consistently.
  13. No matter how we look at it, a homer counts for at least one instant run... ... so I confidently determine the minimum value as 1 HRAR (1 Home Run Above a Replacement batter). My logic is that the typical replacement batter can't even reach the seats -- unless he overpays for one and enters through the turnstiles.
  14. Game 4: Sox led 2-1 in games, but LA had momentum, coming off an 18-inning walk-off in Gm 3. Dodgers were 7 outs from tying the Series and would be home for Gm 5. Rich Hill, throwing a one-hitter, had a 4-0 lead in the 7th when Roberts yanks him after his second walk. Moreland pinch hits for ERod and PLAKATA... Boston then destroys LA's bullpen and wins easy.
  15. Fair points. Of the eight teams that won their first rounds in the '25 playoffs, only Milwaukee was below the MLB average in team HRs. I'm just a Red Sox fan, and know that our four World Series MVPs this century all were awarded for their power. Manny, Lowell, Papi and Steve Pearce wouldn't have been candidates without the longball. Oritz never should've been pitched to in any of the 2013 games by St. Louis, because he blasted the most heroic grand slam in Boston history in the ALCS. It's arguably the greatest dinger in Sox postseason history -- (because they won rings, Carlton) right there with his '04 walk-off in the Bronx and Damon's salami... though no one should ever forget Moreland's 3-run pinch shot that turned around momentum in '18...
  16. Ah, Soto -- the Red Sox knew how much he'd mean to their batting order, and were reportedly so aggressively interested they offered $700 million... or was it $600 mil... $500? More than $0.00 to Schwarber or Alonso? But they wind up wounded, not even dead.
  17. LaRussa tried her, but she insisted on getting more than three outs in the 9th. Kira lives with husband Kevin Bacon on the family farm in Connecticut. My father was a farmer, and there's no closing in a dawn to dusk profession always getting ready for the next season all year every year...
  18. Wear a seatbelt next time so you can read all the words in a post before replying.
  19. Breslow himself acknowledged that home runs help teams get deep into the postseason. Some posters love stats that justify opinions, but then use "Small Sample Size" to argue against other stats. Teams that out-homered opponents in playoff games last year won 35 of 40. Call that a SSS if you want, but it's also ALL the playoff games, so ESS: Entire Sample Size. I love the Durbin trade because the Sox didn't give up much for a guy who's my kind of ballplayer: all hustle, makes contact and doesn't strike out. And of course Cora is going to say the Red Sox are a "complete team" the first week of Spring Training. But we all know it's not.
  20. Pitchers absolutely deserve MVP awards in some years. Pedro was by far the best player at his position in baseball the year two writers refused to vote for him in the Top 10 for MVP when he finished 2nd. For five years Dennis Eckersly was by far the best player at his position -- which he invented: Closer -- and finally won an MVP (but it wasn't the season he walked three batters... in the entire season). And the Sox go nowhere last year without their Big Three pitchers on the mound. The question is: after Crochet and Chapman, who was #3? Fangraphs says it's Whitlock, bWAR gives the edge to Bello. Both gagged in the playoffs, but could've had better fates if anyone wearing a B on his helmet could hit...
  21. What's your case again? I gave '25 Crochet/Gio/Bello a lot of credit all day, and have said Sox fans should be happy if '26 Crochet/Gray/Suarez are at least as successful. I dunno how many here look at Duran/Story/Rafaela as consistently above average though. They're all capable of big moments, but can they be more consistent or at least equal their career years in 2026? You commented that teams with better hitting need to be consistent all year, and I responded that teams with good batters were more likely to always have some guys hitting well on a regular basis... what I didn't add is that those will be different guys; when some have bad nights, others can pick them up -- if they have enough quality bats in the line-up. You're right that a lot has to go right, and every team can say that every year... but for the best line-ups, that usually means all they need is to stay healthy. This Boston offense is counting on a bunch of guys to be better than ever... so we can win at least as many as last year.
  22. Sure, but here's why everyday regulars win 95% of the MVPs over starting pitchers who play once a week. No one is going to excel every day, but a line-up of good batters has a better chance of at least a few guys having a night than a pitching staff with an overworked bullpen that has to constantly bail out mediocrity in the rotation from starters who work every 5 days.
  23. Good post. Some fans worry about overpaying for upgrades at the trade deadline, afraid of mortgaging the future. When is the future now? Alex Cora sure isn't shy every July to say the only future that matters is the coming October. Some day they'll be a CBO who truly goes for it again in Boston like Dombrowski did every single summer he ran the Red Sox. He made his deadline moves from 2016-19, but just look at all the talent he traded away: Aaron Wilkerson, Wendell Rijo, Jose Almonte, Luis Alejandro Basabe, Anderson Espinoza, Pat Light, Shaun Anderson, Gregory Santos, Gerson Bautista, Jamie Callahan, Stephen Nogosek, Rafael Rincones, Deven Marrero, Jalen Beeks, Ty Buttrey, Williams Jerez, Blake Swihart, Eli Prado, and Noelberth Romero.
  24. We know that, but apparently the experts at MLB.com don't. They just anointed two Red Sox as the top players at their positions: Duran LF and Chapman RP. Duran is a good player but we all know his flaws. He can't carry a club like Judge, Cal, Vlad, Gunnar, Bobby, Shohei and Kyle... or Raffy when he gets hot. This is just the reality of the Red Sox right now. Pitching and defense can win, but only if they're consistently good all season.
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