5GoldGlovesOF,75

If Devers wasn't so strong, he'd have a few more singles. But all of his oppo hits seem to reach the wall for doubles or go over the wall. I can't wait until Casas returns, and hits almost exclusively to left, to protect his tender core. Pitchers will start jamming the big boys, and by then it will be summer: Raffy's favorite time of year to turn on pitches.

You do know that 2007 Red Sox rotation was being paid top of the market salaries in that particular year... except Lester, who was a rookie.

Sox fans were just mad they didn't have their ace starter taking regular turns in the rotation the past half decade. No one really cared that Sale had the highest salary on the payroll... except maybe the guy who signed the paychecks. It is stupefying that the Red Sox had a pitcher who broke his rib pitching, and now have a batter who wrecked his core batting. If they tried to hire Sale to pitch BP to rehabbing Casas, both might be rolling on the ground, writhing in pain, before one throw even reached the plate.

Well, a lot of us said it last year, when the starting pitching -- or lack of starting pitching -- was taking them to last place.

Williams hit 43 homers his last year in the minors, while Dalbec hit 33 HRs last year in the minors.

Williams urged the Hall of Fame to open its doors to Negro League stars, and Dalbec's walk-up song is actually by The Doors.

Some would say they wish Masa would call in sick more often. But if people can get over the overhype, the guy punches in, is as productive as just about everyone else in the company, and never says a bad thing.

At 5-foot 8-inches tall? No chance... ... that's Mookie height.

They didn't make the World Series again until 1967, when literally half their starting position players were African American or Latino. Think they got the message?

Grissom is just another overhyped bust in his first full-time role: .135 in May. Triston Casas hit .133 in the first month of his first full season in the majors. Dustin Pedroia hit .182 in the first month of his first full year in Boston. Then there was an ancient prospect in the late-1940s the Red Sox thought so overrated -- for some reason -- that they passed on him. Good thing, too, because the guy only hit .048 in his first May (1-for-21)... maybe he felt too much pressure batting in the month that sounds like it was almost named after him. He was also so young when he made the big leagues he read comic books, ate ice cream and played stickball in the street with other kids...

Imanaga also wondered that in an interview a few weeks ago on MLB TV. Maybe that means he's already working on a contingency plan. Sorta like the Sox didn't when they didn't offer him enough when he signed with the Cubs. Boston always seems to be in on pitchers they think would make good starters in the majors -- Eflin, Lugo last year; Imanaga, Hicks this year... It must frustrate the R & D guys to be overruled by the payroll dept.; one office is all about the cutting edge of the industry, the other is all about cutting corners.

Devers is already #11. I've said it before, but if this franchise is truly so money-conscious about spending on players these days, then finding a star righty hitter to protect Devers in the batting order should be a priority... because that guy will protect their biggest longterm player investment. Dunno who that may be -- or even if there are even more than a handful of right-handed hitters in their primes in MLB right now... but it's a worthy topic of discussion (not political vitriol) on this forum.

The actual parallel here is with the first offseasons of the Chaim Bloom and Craig Breslow Eras. Bloom's fresh start was to rid Boston of what had devolved into a miserable David Price experience: miserable to the press, including fan favorite Dennis Eckersly -- and miserable to viewers, who wasted hours of their lives suffering through agonizingly deliberate deliveries (pre pitch clock). Breslow's fresh start was to relieve Red Sox Nation and the organization of the long agony of counting on the return of Chris Sale to regular turns in the rotation. Price and Sale were also the two costliest remnants of the Dombrowski Era, and Boston willingly paid part of their salaries to pitch elsewhere. The big difference is that Atlanta actually wanted Sale, as their immediate extension shows. Price was so unwanted that the Sox had to kick in a Hall of Famer to make him go away...

Yes, I would. No, you don't: Greenwell and Williams were two lefthanded batters who played left field for Boston for at least a dozen years. Both were career .300 hitters with sub-8% K-rates (Greenie 7.1, Ted 7.2). Both got ripped off of at least one American League Most Valuable Player Award -- Williams finished second in voting three times when he led baseball in WAR, while Greenwell finished second in 1988 to an admitted cheater. Finally, both were known as fighters: Ted in World War Two and the skies of Korea; Mike with Green Monsters in the swamps of Florida and the Fens...

Interesting article and chart on batters cutting down their swings with two strikes: MLB hitters have a two-strike approach at plate WWW.MLB.COM Do hitters have a two-strike approach these days? To see the strikeout rate, which climbs and climbs each year, you’d say perhaps not; to hear old-timers tell it, you’d hear definitely not. We can’t really tell you what batters were thinking in 1924 or 1974 or even 2014. But in Every MLB team's overall bat speed decreases in two-strike counts. Rays' batters lead the majors with the biggest decrease; the Red Sox have the smallest decrease in the AL. Do those adjustments make a difference? Boston has the third most strikeouts in the AL. Tampa is fourth.

Devers may have hit a home run in five straight games, but he had to go and snap his streak of solo shots (O'Neill walked in front of him). What is wrong with this guy?

Physical traits that time erodes include eyesight, muscle mass, metabolism... but factors beyond the individual obviously can greatly affect the individual. When Raffy was having an absolute blast in his first few years, no one was counting on him to be another Big Papi. He was just another spoke in the monster tire, spinning through the batting order with the likes of Mookie, Xander and JD. In the World Series, at least, Devers was one of three "clutch" pinch-hitters, along with Nunez and Moreland. Pitchers might have challenged him more in '17-19; it sure didn't seem like anyone could throw a fastball by him then. For stat researchers, if possible, it may be interesting to compare types and/or locations of pitches delivered to Raffy then and now. Books on hitters also change as hitters adjust to books. Right now, Boston has the majors' worst batting average in May with runners on base. If clutch isn't a repeatable skill, then team-wide suckitude for weeks must be a reflection of the roster.

There's also the outside chance Niko comes up in June/July and rakes MLB heat, lays off offspeed stuff, builds a snappy OPS... and becomes a more palatable trade target than Cooper or Smith. Bloom would be paralyzed to include a 25-year old lefty slugger in a deadline deal (even a redundant one, like his endless supply of shortstop farmhands). But Breslow seems like a guy who knows he has to give up something to get something... at least, if we believe his "painful decisions" vow many months ago. That is, if the Sox are confident they can lock up -- and want to lock up -- Casas, longterm.

Responding to Moon quotes from game thread: "This guy has had some mammoth hits for the Sox, some as clutch as they get. He has not been clutch in his 34 games, this year, and it seems this is what defines him, to some." Those of us who watched 2023 also saw the latter for most of that entire season. Forget our eyes; even team reporters and announcers noted Dever's final numbers -- 33 HRs, 100 RBI, .851 OPS -- didn't tell the whole story of what even he would admit was a frustrating campaign at the plate. We should be concerned about Raffy's at bats, and him overexerting himself maybe trying to justify his big contract. But the lack of All-Star production around him in the batting order has certainly amplified his failures, and made it harder to succeed when pitchers have no reason to throw him a good pitch to hit with the game on the line. Devers' struggles don't have to mean he's beginning to decline. The Sox may develop or even trade for some big league bats that will let Raffy do more damage than ever before. There's also plenty of time for him to figure things out and become the beast he once was. At least there's a much better chance Devers regains his star power than there is that John Henry reverts to his old ways of spending to bring in other fearsome hitters to frazzle pitchers. After all, Raffy is only 27... Henry is 74.

Posters who won't admit this scenario has always been at least in the back of their minds all winter may need to go under hypyesis.

"Sometimes, artificial is used in a more negative way to describe something as fake..." "Fake - not real..." The preceding was copied and pasted from dictionary.com... an online source, thus more dubious than a book made by humans and printed on the remains of a real tree.

How can anyone believe anything on social media? How do I even know you're you? If artificial means not real, then artificial intelligence is a dumbass.

Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos said Red Sox were "adamant" they got Grissom in exchange for Sale. Anthopoulos thought so highly of Grissom as a person that he called him directly (instead of, what -- letting the guy find out on social media?)... Anthopoulos predicts Grissom will be a MLB All-Star and has a "big league bat right now" -- he said last winter... Right now, a week away from Memorial Day, Grissom is a young guy pressing to make up for lost time, trying to show the world he belongs in the starting lineup of a major league ballclub. It's still early in his career and in his life -- unlike for old Red Sox fans looking for any positives rooting for their banged up, undermanned, starless team. Young talent seldom instantly matures into stardom, and no one expects Breslow to be suddenly given a blank checkbook in order to sign proven quality bats for the roster. But what we all should hope for, is that he's furiously searching for the Andrew Bailey version of a batting instructor -- a top-of-the-industry coach who can tap into big league potential, and help batters find their grooves and the confidence to do damage to pitches in the strike zone... before they ever have to swing at stuff they can't reach.

Tyler O'Neill is not the reason the Red Sox can't hit or score enough. A .250 hitter who slugs 30 home runs (which he's on pace for) isn't a problem. The problem is that the Sox have no one else in the batting order they can rely on to supply run production around Devers, and they really didn't have enough even before Story, Yoshida and Casas were injured (only the latter was expected to be a major contributor at the plate). O'Neill is an all-or-nothing guy, but we knew going in he had a career 30% K-rate. That's even higher than Story's, but Boston isn't paying Tyler $140 million.

Sox may not have any Top-40 hits, but out of the MLB's 390 position players, own an entire shelf of 33 1/3 records. Problem is a lot of Side Twos feature either cover fillers or instrumental jams.