5GoldGlovesOF,75

Alex Cora -- who next season may be managing in either dugout in a Red Sox-Yankees series -- speaks of getting greedy with the '24 Sox. Clearly, Boston is better than New York right now, and only three behind the annual World Series favorites in the loss column. For dreamers, second place doesn't seem unattainable. Casas will make a full recovery and slug homers all summer to protect Devers, the bullpen won't burn out, and not one single starting pitcher already pushed beyond career innings totals will get hurt the rest of the season. Now, let's get real. This team has a legit shot at making the postseason, but with clear needs. Foremost has to be a good starter, and three of the top five in MLB pitcher WAR are available: Fedde 4.1 and Crochet 4.0 from the White Sox, and Anderson 3.5 of the Angels. Crochet leads the AL in Ks, K/9 and FIP... is 25, and not a free agent until 2027... so, which one of the Red Sox' Big FOUR would you trade -- because that's at least the cost it will take to keep another top-of-the-rotation #1 out of Baltimore. The Orioles have prospect capital ready to make the deadline painful... Start the deal with Anthony or Campbell, and keep Teel and Mayer (potential star catchers and shortstops are more coveted -- but perhaps Chicago has interest in quantity, and asks for both Garcia and Arias as longterm chips)... Fedde and Anderson will cost less, but not for a team that wants to land them before the last minute of July. It's a seller's market!

Yanks definitely have star power, but their overall line-up on the field is awkward, while the Sox actually look more balanced. I said it a month ago: Yankees are going nowhere with Judge in centerfield. He has a negative dWAR, and doesn't make diving attempts for anything close (I suspect the club told him to stay on his feet -- and not to risk injury -- since his bat is the key to their season). Soto also has a negative dWAR. Boston may have four outfield gloves better than NY's two starting All-Stars: Duran, Abreu, O'Neill and Rafaela -- who may not have the numbers of Duran, but makes a highlight catch in just about every game he plays CF. Any fan watching nightly already knows: Ceddanne is our best fly-chaser since JBJ.

I thought Smith was Lonnie, a regular position player who won rings with three different teams in '80, '82, '85; he also got back in the World Series with a fourth team, but lost in '91-92. Another guy of note is Orlando Cabrera, a starting middle infielder for five different cities in six postseasons from 2004-2010. He only won one World Series -- Boston '04 -- and apparently wore out his welcome quickly wherever he went. But nobody can call OC a loser; all five of his clubs were first-place teams.

Right, but I can't give credit to a CBO who drafts good prospects with picks that are the direct result from his big league team losing nearly every year. Drafting the best player available left on the board when it's your turn is standard practice for baseball GMs. It's their job, and most follow suit. Media who cover the draft reported surprise that Mayer and Teel fell into Bloom's lap. His strategy to take Yorke so he could afford Jordan, on the other hand, raised eyebrows. Later round guys like Anthony and now Campbell developed faster than the industry expected -- or just show the crapshoot variables of drafts, where there are loads of past examples, from Betts to Judge... A CBO should be judged on how he builds his MLB roster each year, and supplements it with sufficient big league depth to properly deal with annual injuries. Epstein and Dombrowski were good at that, and Bloom wasn't. Argue if you want that the same owner determined their fates, depending on his spending moods. And pray he gives Breslow a chance to improve... our summer entertainment value.

Kristian Campbell Eastern League Player of the Month in June, after being South Atlantic League Player of the Month in May. Wouldn't want to rush him, but sure looks like he's in a rush!

This exchange hinges on one's definition of what constitutes a "bargain." If I'm the Celtics' owner, maybe it's a bargain to pay market value to keep my stars in their primes so the fans will keep buying tickets and swag to follow annual sustained title contenders.

I hated him throwing at Nunez for swinging too hard. Arrogant pitcher -- does Nunez then get to throw his bat at you, for trying to throw too hard? Kluber's last pitch before Boston signed him was a playoff-losing gopher ball that knocked the Rays out of the '22 playoffs. Those pitching experts in Tampa were glad to see him go to the Red Sox. I also thought signing Giolito -- who sucked the last two seasons -- as the new ace, smacked of mid-market pretense. The guy I coveted actually coming off success was Montgomery. Imagine where we'd be with him right now: sixth place? Seventh?

Probably - remember reading some high school pitchers were getting it done, just to add velo... but not everyone comes back better than ever from surgery. I know at least one kid who was never the same after TJ, and his pro career ended shortly after recovery. There's also only one Doctor Re-attache out there...

I have to reply to myself cuz it would let me edit, but also: the prevailing wisdom the past half century for adolescent ballplayers was a strict avoidance of snapping off curveballs... at least, until their ligaments and tendons were full-grown -- which may have been an old coach's tale (like red meat as a healthy source of protein... or rap "singers").

I haven't seen that so much, but maybe those who need TJ are regulars throwing irregular? Ly? ... not counting Trevor Alternative-Ending Story, who gets hurt doing all kinds of shortstop things.

I'm olive in the face, but isn't there also speculation floating around that the increase in TJs could be caused by an industry increase in breaking pitches? Or maybe it's just coincidence that a career workhorse like Giolito suddenly blows out his elbow in his first month throwing for Breslow and Bailey's Offspeed Circus...

If I had to predict, I'd say Vlad will become a DH before Tris. I don't know why; maybe because Casas is portrayed as a more quirky and/or intense player, a guy more likely to get in a groove when immersed in the perpetual two-way on-and-off-the-field, offense and defense game. Vladdy looks more than happy to just get in the box and take his rips -- though he's always the first one out of the dugout whenever the boys overreact to perceived trouble. Despite the early unexpected rotation success, the Sox biggest need -- AS ALWAYS -- is still starting pitching. There is zero MLB-ready mound depth in the system. Looking at minor league stats, Wink and Criswell are the best options by far... After those two, Penrod has the top combination of WHIP and ERA, but alas: currently injured. Fitts is most likely to earn a regular turn in Boston's rotation in the second half. It doesn't matter if the young stud position players aren't quite ready yet for prime time; it's never too early to stockpile arms. Stop blowing money on free agent reclamation projects, and deal position player depth for any available pitchers under 30.

Even though Gio didn't earn a penny pitching for the Red Sox this season, he gets to opt-in and stick around for another year. Divorce sucks so much, maybe marriage contracts should include an opt-in clause. The next time someone wants to kick me out of the house, I'm going to opt-in. Maybe she'll let me earn back a starting position... after a rehab assignment, of course. Wait a minute...

Makes sense if they have zero plans to add reinforcements to the payroll this summer and go for it ... which will also confirm they have no intention to pay Cora what he's worth, after it doesn't end well in September. Breslow will then bring in a new, young, energetic manager at entry-level pay -- a guy we will be told is the right man to lead the young bucks, someone they will all relate to (at least, when waiting in line at the bank to cash their checks on payday).

There are some here convinced what Brez really liked was the price of Gio, compared to what it would cost for more coveted starting pitchers on that free agent market. Maybe what he gave Giolito was all Breslow was allowed to spend on the rotation.

It was never funny to me, because Giolito's ERA was borderline 5 runs per 9 innings the past two seasons. And fans were supposed to be ok with the newest smartest CBO paying him twice the price as Kluber and Richards combined? Obviously every free agent is a roll of the dice, but isn't that a problem with a front office regime that supposedly relies so much on the odds? Some can say we should trust the front office people who know more than we do, but fans can research stats, too. And Gio's innings-eater rep did nothing for me -- even before he blew out his elbow. Who wants to leave a guy on the mound to lead the team in innings pitched if he also leads in giving up the most runs?

It made total sense to me. The new CBO didn't need Theo's employee research firm to immediately move on from the past regime's biggest disappointment -- a guy another predecessor hitched the franchise wagon-train behind, but who couldn't take them anywhere with broken axles. No wishing or hoping or praying could repair the damage. Sale's contract was welded onto the payroll, weighing it down, before Breslow convinced his boss to pay $17 million for an alien forklift to tractor beam the pitcher out of New England and deposit him in Atlanta. (yes, these are mixed petit fours, and I recommend the lemon one with vanilla frosting)

What's your point? Nobody thought the Red Sox rotation was good or deep or worthy of a contender going into the season. Then everybody was surprised the rotation was so good the first month, and hung in there the next two. Now July is here, typical wear and tear have taken a toll, there's still no mound prospects ready for promotion, and the CBO has to pick a lane. None of that is surprising at all, and most of us spent the offseason bitter, preparing ourselves for all these inevitabilities.

The old younger Henry would splurge on an ace, but if they stick to the new business plan, the only significant acquisitions will come from a trade. He's got to be especially resentful about Giolito, the most expensive free agent signing of the new regime -- who convinced Henry he was worth it, despite the past two years of suckitude, and who never even threw a pitch in his first regular season in Boston. The Sox have to pay him ace money next year, too, no matter how or if he comes back. Intriguing questions: can Breslow pull off a blockbuster, and who will he part with that he promised would be "painful?"

My favorite complaint by a pitcher is when he throws a ball away, an unearned run scores, and he says he lost on a day when he had a good ERA... ... as if fielding your position isn't part of playing "pitcher" (if a run scores because of the pitcher, it should count as earned -- if the opposition makes him so nervous that he gags, didn't they earn that run against him?).

Cora made some other comments, too, regarding the future -- he said it was all about his family. Fans might perceive that to mean he will take the most money offered to manage somewhere next year, and that won't be in Boston. Not that the front office or ownership really cares, but what will look worse, just before he leaves: acquiring significant reinforcements next month to help boost Cora into the postseason, or selling impending free agents and letting him finish in last place again?

I haven't forgotten anything -- the first 15 years of Henry's ownership nor the Bloom Era. The latter made me sick from the beginning, and I love Raffy -- but loved Mookie more. Case in point: Schwarber -- one of Bloom's good moves -- and he's just a two-month rental. A big-market Boston club financed by an owner who wants to win would always find a way to keep a home run king in his prime. Now I read where Breslow is driven by the odds -- so fans should expect the Sox to be sellers in the next few weeks. At least we'll have that to look forward to...

Spot-on description of the two-steps sideways, two steps back moves of a big-market franchise at a mid-market dance. 1. A new CBO completed his predecessor's dismantling of the 2018 statues -- and a half decade of relying on an unreliable ace -- with a big-market move, paying 63% of Sale's salary to play elsewhere. However, points #2 and 3 reek of mid-market hoping... 2. Replacing one presumably past-prime pitcher with another -- a guy who'd gobble innings like a glutton at a hot dog-eating contest, acid reflex be damned! (does any reasonable fan really think a "contender" would leave a starter on the mound for 150-180 innings if he gave up five runs a game, like Giolito averaged the past two seasons?). 3. Handing a starting position to a new guy who's never even been a regular on a big league roster for an entire season, nor even proven himself as a regular position player for any stretch of time for a Red Sox affiliate... If it was a longshot that Sale would instantly transform back into Cy Young the minute he put on a different uniform, wasn't it the same for Giolito? And Grissom was a total unknown, despite gaudy minor league stats and the Braves' GM praises. Even if the worst possible outcomes didn't occur with all three -- which they basically have -- there are still tons of alternate routes that could've been taken, especially for a hypocritical club that can always afford larger investments, and supposedly bases team-building strategies so much on the odds.

If they trade bad Vlad at age 25 -- like some in the media are speculating -- it's gotta be a full rebuild. Even if he looks like he'll morph into Prince (not a good) Fielder before he turns 30...

A team serious about the '24 postseason could do a lot worse than taking Bichette and Bassitt off the payroll of last-place Toronto. Bichette has been nagged by injuries this year, but is only 26, and one of the best RHH available. He's only due $17.5 mil next year -- in comparison, Trevor Story, already 31, is owed over $100 mil by Boston. Bassitt, who the Sox should've signed last year before he led the AL in games started and wins, is old but reliable, and a lot cheaper than Berrios and Gausman (who the Jays would probably love to dump, as well).