5GoldGlovesOF,75

In defense of Breslow: don't criticize any dumpster-diving this week, because replacing injured players by acquiring an actual first baseman at the end of April, then getting another, while also signing a glove-first shortstop the first day of May is so un-Bloom. Brez is making moves, not waiting for any awesomeness to emerge by pushing a round Franchy into a square pizza box or back-peddaling Arroyo into the outfield. Pablo played infield like Kike, and he's gone... Valdez is finally starting to improve, but was already told to pack his bags. The new CBO is decisive.

Williams couldn't believe how any other ballplayer couldn't mimic his slight uppercut swing by practicing it with their glove hands while standing around in the outfield on defense.

You mean 30 years. Mata is the homegrown version of Mondesi. Wasn't Mata the Sox #1 pitching prospect before the pandemic?

I don't think there was a seat there in 1946 -- just long metal benches, like the ones at high school games -- no backs, no armrests, no red chairs.

The rate of rotation injuries in Boston before May 1 should be a major concern. Even if it's not partially a risk in Bailey's plan, the next logical step is an overhaul in organizational training for young pitchers. Maybe Kyle Boddy from Driveline, with its state of the art professional ballplayer training program, has already begun to implement that...

Fair point. But how do we know the staff emphasis on less 4-seamers and more sweeping slurvey pitches didn't over-stress the arm joints of the four starters who've already missed some starts? Bailey is definitely the star signing of the winter -- so far. But when Bellhorn calls him an alchemist, I worry of the infamous chemist who mixed a popular green paint that rich families used on their bedroom walls in the Victorian era. Suddenly, people fell ill and started dying, as if poisoned... until investigators found one of the ingredients they were breathing: arsenic.

It's easier to root for "Bobby DEE" even if he's not playing good D... ... rather than cheering "Garrett C!" -- that could be a Yankee name.

It is my goal to convince you to stop lamenting Giolito. There is absolutely no guarantee that he'd perform any better than he had the past two seasons. And if he didn't, the Sox wouldn't be in the playoffs after the first month. But if he didn't get hurt and continued to throw like in his recent past, we'd all be calling him the next Kluber and hammering Breslow. The positive of Gio's injury is that it gave other younger pitchers an opportunity to flourish -- and they have.

If Bello-Houck-Crawford can all produce entire quality seasons, this will indeed be the best homegrown class in over a decade. Hopefully, they can form a core staff, but with a ways to go before they equal the Lester-Buchholz-Papelbon era -- when each made multiple All-Star teams in Boston. I'll remain skeptical about whether owners spend more on pitching -- especially if the young cheap guys do well, while their one big winter signing mends on the sidelines.

Starters pitch to more batters, assuming they throw multiple innings. A five or six inning start equates to retiring up to 18 batters -- again, assuming a quality start with limited damage in between. It's the main reason WAR mongers value starters so much more over relievers (who may only retire 3 batters a night, even when doing their jobs). It's also why clubs always want to try stretching out effective pitchers; because it takes 27 outs to win a game... unless it rains or there are ghosts.

Your own words were "pitching already more established".... than Verdugo, Urias, Benintendi? Those guys were all big leaguers...

Coop hurt? Now he is a true Red Sox.

WE keep saying that, THEY keep saying that, but they have yet to do that in the entire Yale Bulldog CBO ERA.

First reference in Beyond the Monster article: "The club is hiring Kyle Buddy, the founder of Driveline Baseball, as a special advisor to chief baseball officer Craig Breslow for the 2024 season." Are they going to be pals or just workout together and land on the IL with the rest of the players?

Breslow hired Kyle Buddy, the founder of Driveline Baseball. The Driveline Academy trains ballplayers on travel teams from age 9 through 18. Buddy may have an idea which players there are the best prospects.

Official scorers never give errors on incomplete double plays -- which is really a single play, only retiring the lead runner -- even if the return throw to first is bobbled, bounced, thrown away or just slow-hand late. The only way there's an E is if the batter or another baserunner advances on the miscue. That's something that never shows up in the box score, but can kill a team if it's habit-forming -- giving opponents extra outs and opportunities to score, and tacking on untold extra pitches onto the arms of moundsmen... The '04 Red Sox upgraded their defense as much as they could. The '03 club was 4th from the bottom in AL Defensive Efficiency, while the '04s finished 4th from the top. Boston's '03 line-up was monstrous at the plate: eight regulars with 85 or more RBI! So Epstein had the luxury of changing the DP combo of a team that won 101 games (including the postseason); replacing Nomar and Todd Walker -- who could both mash -- with Cabrera and Bellhorn... and it won the World Series. Both Walker and Bellhorn had some pop, though Walker was a better hitter. He was also a negative dWAR second baseman, while Bellhorn was a positive dWAR...

Is this a scouting report on a talksox poster? Or does this refer to an adolescent who becomes more deliberate, once he stops goofing off? On the other hand, does anyone -- even an athlete -- actually get faster when he grows old?

Horseshoes? Should be back by the 4th of July... back yard cook-out, that is.

Are a batter's spray charts correlated to his exit velos? For example, if a batter takes an offspeed pitch that breaks outside to the opposite field, he may be just trying to make contact (and not swing for the fences) -- which I never call "a good piece of hitting" because it's exactly what professional hitters should strive to do... unlike the guy who hits it as hard as he can and rolls over, which is what the pitcher wants him to do (besides try to pull it, pull his head, and miss it by a foot-and-a-half). To me, a good piece of hitting is a rising line drive up the middle that clears the centerfield fence.

The flaw in this metric is that there is no way to account for those with superior hand-eye coordination who can actually place the ball to certain areas -- to hit 'em where they ain't. Examples: Boggs, Ichiro, Arraez. Boggs was strong enough to hit for more longball, as many who watched his pregame BPs know. But he chose a lot more hits over a few more HRs. ps. guaranteed another poster will find some stat to totally refute this post... but the fact is, we just dont know who is actually shooting the holes vs. those that are swinging as hard as possible and watching where the impact veers

Ya... IF the guy tags up and doesn't get picked off because he forgot. Counsell doesn't make $45 mil for nothing -- he studied his scouting reports on Red Sox baserunners.

Gotta go with Eddie Alvarez -- he could become clubhouse DJ. Stay away from Sogard -- if he becomes a fan favorite, they'll never get rid of that song: "Sogard- Sogard- Sogard!"

Cutthroats -- they burn out his arm closing a shutout the other night, then discard him like any ol belt-breaking Pablo. Grissom takes his place as the righty platoon partner of Valdez -- until Vaughn starts hitting like Mo. Dalbec is a better third baseman than Reyes' 4 Es in 10 games there, but will be replaced by Cooper -- and I don't mean Cecil (30 WAR in his first seven years after Boston gave him to Milwaukee). Hamilton stays as a crappy back-up infielder but fast pinch-runner for whoever's knees are aching this week.

My son has a Topps card of Collin McHugh in a Red Sox cap. Gonna assume the photo is airbrushed (not hairbrushed).

Come on, Sale was only MIA in Boston for HALF A DECADE The difference with Mondesi -- I mean Paxton -- I mean Fulmer -- I mean Hendriks -- I mean GRISSOM... is that they were Red Sox a long time before Red Sox fans ever (if ever) saw them in Boston uniforms.