5GoldGlovesOF,75

The Red Sox hype machine has fans ready for a big letdown if half their Top 10 prospects don't instantly turn into Fisk and Lynn -- or Nomar and Pedroia -- when they make the majors. Notice I didn't include Mookie, because he's a once-in-a-century Boston talent (like Babe Ruth, Johnny Appleseed and Paul Revere in previous centuries). What's more likely is most of these guys will take a few years of ups and downs, and sophomore slumps to reach stardom. Bogaerts hit .240/.660 his first full season in the bigs, then was a Silver Slugger five of the next eight. Varitek wasn't a #1 catcher until he was 27... nor an All-Star until he was 31. Marcelo Mayer may become a star hitter, but not even as a shortstop... While we all wait for a green core to coalesce, better brace for more bare-bones pitching rotations -- like last winter, when getting rid of Sale and signing Giolito (even if he played), did absolutely nothing to address adding pitching depth. The Sox' biggest improvement to the staff was getting a new coach to coax the most out of starters who never took regular turns through a rotation for an entire season before.

Beating Cy Young with a cow patty bullpen Friday was the Great Escape. But Bello beating a lefty Saturday was progress. Bello's stuff that Bugs Bunnied the O's -- if he can regularly replicate it over the next two months -- is top-of-the-rotation worthy of a contender. Today's finale pits the pitcher who leads the majors in home runs allowed vs. the team that leads the majors in home runs hit. What could go right? Answer: the weather forecast... or, at least, Boston gets to bat nine times, too.

We know what the Sox really didn't do -- which is what Kansas City did do last winter -- immediately zero in on mid-level affordable MAJOR LEAGUE arms, like starters Lugo and Wacha, and relievers Smith, Stratton, Schrieber and Nick Anderson. And this summer the Royals added the perfectly average Lorenzen, who via trade deadline or free agency the past two years joined his fourth club -- none of them named Boston. It seems to be working out ok for KC, playoff-bound right now with the third-best Runs Allowed per Game in the AL.

So maybe a smart strategy -- once an owner decides to spend big on pitching in the offseason -- isn't to break the bank to outbid everyone else for the best pitcher available (and pray he doesn't get hurt)... ... instead, why not spread out the same money and sign three or four average, but established MLB starters (who aren't over the hill, injury-prone or recently cut by other clubs). It doesn't matter if a staff goes into the season with an 8- or 9-man rotation... because we know half of them will be on the IL the first month, and one or two will be out through the summer or next year. But a key for authentic contenders is having legitimate depth -- not a few arms in the high minors who might be able to help in an emergency.

They did it in April, and if anyone's wondering what happened, check the names again of that pitching staff and see how many of those guys were ever above-average big league pitchers for an entire season (couple relievers, but not even Whitlock when he was in the pen...). We can blame B & B for assembling the roster, but here's what really happened: it was just a test from the owners to the new CEO (Chief Excuse Option). This probably happens in a lot of businesses. A new boss gets a probationary period to prove he can be trusted, before being allowed free reign with the budget to expand the company. Just wait until this winter, when John Henry gives the combination of the safe to Craig and Andrew. Because old people change...

Most of those Red Sox teams in the Seventies were contenders, supported by both fans and team owners. Boston was actually in first place in August or September in 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977 and 1978. But the Sox only won one division title and pennant, in '75. The difference is the 2024 Red Sox aren't good enough to choke. Ownership made sure of that.

Luis Garcia as a Red Sox: G 7, ERA 14.09 -- but it gets worse... per 9 IP: H 18.8, HR 4.7... BA .400, OBP .415, SLG .825, OPS 1.240 (Babe Ruth's MLB career record as a batter was 1.164; as a pitcher, he allowed an OPS of .576). How bout a new ice cream flavor: No More Garcia Por Favor

Bernardino worked out ok in the 1st, whiffing the lefties Cowser and Henderson. But I couldn't help thinking: that's one less southpaw the Sox will have for late innings with the game on the line... Meanwhile, with the luxury of flicking back and forth on two NESN channels tonight, watching two Sox -- the Red and the Woo -- and... what about lefty Zach Penrod (now a one-inning reliever)? He throws an 88 mph cutter and a 98 heater.

Just tuned in to NESN. A guy on a promo hypes the push towards the playoffs and adds "maybe even a division title." Then the announcers note that instead of Criswell starting, the Red Sox will OPEN with a reliever they just sent to the minors earlier this week. On the mound for the Orioles (tied for most wins in baseball) will be the top of the rotation starting pitcher they traded for last winter. You know, the guy who started this year's MLB All-Star Game... This is where we stand in mid-August 2024.

We'll never have enough pitching and moaning about it.

WE keep saying that, but Boston keeps putting sub-par band-aids there (and people keep buying tickets to watch them, so what do we know?). Look, I'm all about bats -- keep shaking that baseball tree -- and I'd rather keep Mayer, the guy who led Double A in hitting. Gunnar Henderson leads the AL in errors, but anybody would take him because of his O. I'd much rather trade Arias, but like you always say, big league teams are looking for big league-ready talent in any trades. No matter what, the Sox have to get some legit arms asap; as far as I'm concerned (and I am) a TOTR starter is never wasted, as far as years of control and if the club is ready to contend. An ace can stabilize an entire pitching staff, share grips, batter books, recruit/entice other stars to join, and most importantly -- save innings, shoulders and elbows, especially those in the bullpen. Any rebuild, any improvement, has to start with a starter.

Come on, why. Because this is a forum when fans blab about their baseball team. And as for young guys, this is a discussion that comes up every year -- and the likes of Robin Yount, who started at shortstop in the majors at 18, and made the Hall of Fame... or Al Kaline, who never played a day in the minors, and also made it to Cooperstown. I don't know how good Arias is or can be, but if he's a better SS than Mayer (reporters whose job it is to cover prospects are already speculating he may play another position) then it makes it easier for the Red Sox to make a blockbuster trade soon for PITCHING... because all threads come back to the same point: this team is always going to stink or fall short or go nowhere, until it pays somehow for legitimate pitching.

Announcers have always read ads in between plays, but we could still ignore them and follow the game on the tube. But actual commercials? Never during an inning, not to mention cutting screens in half, when viewers are trying to watch the action. We can't even X them out like pop-up ads on computer monitors.

He's not removing a cancerous tumor from someone's vital organs. He's playing a game.

But have you seen the groupies in A ball? Btw, this exchange was only about bringing up a glove-first SS. If a guy is the highest rated fielder in the system at a position, he can probably play D on the best-groomed diamonds under the best-lit parks in the country. Sox fans have seen a few inferior defenders called up to the majors in the past couple years who can't...

Pen right now looks like the one my cat knocked off the table that the dog demolished: cap is chewed, spring's missing, ink's all over the rug.

Right? How can a professional baseball player possibly play professional baseball professionally on the same size diamond under the same rules in ballparks he doesn't have to travel to on bumpy bus rides with no air conditioning, without eating only fastfood!

And base umps must keep their hands in their pockets during all pitches to avoid the temptation of solo TV time calling swinging strikes on hitters who only bat their eyelashes. It's way past time baseball checked the check-the-check; those aren't swings, never were, and appeals add nothing to the game.

If it's just D, then why not bring up 18-year old Franklin Arias, who is rated a better defensive shortstop than even Mayer? Arias moved all the way up to #6 on MLB.com's latest Red Sox prospect rankings. He also crushed low level pitching this summer (batting righty), so why not give him a cup of coffee at Fenway, and if he looks like the next Jose Iglesias... ... then Breslow can feel confident this winter to trade Mayer -- who's hurt again in the minors -- for an actual good big league pitcher young enough not to fall to pieces a week after he puts on his new Red Sox jersey.

Most disgusting is when a network splits my screen in half to show an ad while an inning is still being played. I'm going to start marketing TV screen half-curtains for cranky old fans, and become a hundredaire.

From the beginning, some of us said Giolito was a bad bet. What good are more innings if he sucks, like he did in 2022 and 2023? Sure, Breslow and Bailey were betting they were going to fix Gio -- but even if we don't assume the new stress on more sweepers stressed out his elbow -- this guy wasn't The Plan to fix the rotation... ... that was clear with the opt out that would let him leave if he did turn out to be the next Gausman. However, if Gio was mediocre to bad, but ate innings with his two-year borderline 5.00 ERA, then he could opt in. That meant they just wanted him to help get them through another year or two on the mound, so they could field a team and sell tickets. Meanwhile, with no additional rotation acquisitions, discerning Sox fans got what they won't pay for (by choosing not to visit Fenway): No Quality and No Quantity.

He's been too serious ever since pitching through three levels in the minors for Boston in 2011. That was also the last year in the majors for former All-Star outfielder Aaron Rowand, so the two probably never met. If Rowand and Martin ever did face each other, it might not have been slapstick. But you can bet your bippy it'd be very interesting...

The only way the Red Sox knew they could count on Chris Sale was if Big Panda sat on him, and El Guapo put an abacus on his back.