5GoldGlovesOF,75

Don't. Make me. Lose. CONTROL!!!!

For a perennial doormat, Rafaela should be in the perfect situation to win the starting job: by all reports, he already has one of the top gloves in baseball, and also starred on offense in the minors the past two years. I worry more the Sox will play an inferior centerfielder instead of a sure thing like Ceddanne, who will help the club improve overall. Like with Bradley, I could care less if he has holes in his swing -- because face it, half the roster already swings from their asses, and can't catch or run, either.

As a fan it's more fun when your team is bashing its way to wins. But the O is the area most underrated in its neglect this winter. It would be great if all last season's first-year Red Sox improve -- but progress isn't linear, and the sophomore jinx can be very real for batters who don't adjust as well as the editors of pitchers' books on hitters. Story has to be better, because only good teams can carry a glove man who bats .227 with a sub-.700 OPS, which is what he's done in Boston so far. For the new guys, would you take .287 BA, .716 OPS and a game-winning grand slam out of Grissom? Those are feats posted by Pablo Reyes in '23. Can O'Neill produce 44 homers and 154 RBIs? Those are marks combined by Turner and Duvall last year. Verdugo wasn't quite a star, but his career 15% K-rate was half of O'Neill's 30%. As for Devers, we'd gladly accept a repeat of 33-100-.851. But most who watched last year would agree that a better approach to situational hitting is needed. However, with even less big bats in the order to protect Raffy, opposing pitchers have even less reason to throw him anything in the zone. At least the front office can invest in longer bats...

It's ok, he's working out with Micheal Fulmer in the ghost gym that Sale, Paxton, Story and Mondesi haunted last year... or was it the year before? Remember, Sam and Tom said our players returning after the trade deadline will be better than anyone they could actually deal for. Wait, do they mean this summer or next?

I keep buying new combs for when my hair grows back, too. I'm waiting patiently for regrowth. So please don't mistake me for being moss elite.

This fan, among at least four or five others, will celebrate on antisocial media: The Budget! Reset! Get more players under Control! It doesn't matter if they're pitchers who throw with control -- or baserunners or batters who control impulses not to do dumb things or take dumb swings... Years of CONTROL! That's all that counts for Sox fans.

With Charlie Brown as acting CBO, starting himself on the mound, and playing his dog at shortstop. At least they try. But there's nowhere on the diamond for a football puller like Lucy.

... once the top free agent closer I rooted for the Sox to sign in January '21 -- but my message got lost in dalmatian and intercepted by the WHITE Sox. Wonder how that '21 postseason would've gone if Bloom paid up for Liam... So... does this make it easier to deal Jansen now -- or then?

Not blaming Petco, but savant's stats show it isn't a location that would boost a batter's performance (even for $280 million). Remember when Bogie would just poke singles the other way and hit .320 -- and Sox management coaxed him to go for more power? Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of VPs...

This may mean something: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/statcast-park-factors Quick summary: Fenway is ranked #2 overall for batters; Petco in SD is #30...

At this point, I'd consider trading any reliever for starting pitching prospects. Like others here have said, it doesn't matter if you have a good bullpen, if your starters can't hold any leads.

I agree about the defense, mostly because it can't get much worse at the big league level before many of those involved lose their jobs. I want to agree about the bullpen, but doubt that Martin can have another historically near-perfect season. Houck and/or Whitlock and/or a few new guys have the potential to contribute to a unit that is always year-to-year on nearly every team. I can't agree on the starting rotation -- and not because we'll miss Sale trying to recapture his 20s, or Paxton throwing for one month like the best pitcher in baseball. But it is mind-boggling that one of the worst rotations in baseball lost two of its starters this winter -- and only replaced them with one new guy who allowed nearly 5 earned runs per game the past two seasons.

But post #8793 was way typed way back yesterday afternoon...

A couple?!? The front office told Werner if the Sox just had a "normal" defense, they would've had 11 more wins!

I read one KC prospect site last night that had him rated #2 overall last summer...

Best-case scenario for Boston: Sandlin turns into David Cone, who had just made the majors and was traded to the Mets at age 24 in Spring Training 1987 for basically a back-up catcher... to Kansas City. There has to be a few longtime Royals fans worrying the same thing this morning... "Our top pitching prospect -- for a journeyman set-up guy?"

Let's not assume the same squad is returning and just needs to improve against a handful of teams. Excluding the six clubs you list, it's impressive they had a winning record vs. the other 23 despite atrocious defense, inept baserunning, poor contact hitters and half a rotation. Maybe it's a testament to the contributions of guys like Turner, Verdugo, Duvall, Sale and Paxton -- who have been replaced this winter by O'Neill, Grissom and Giolito. Nothing against those three, but the rest of the 26 better be better or there's realistically little chance Boston can even repeat 78 wins. What am I missing (about the Red Sox... I know I'm missing a lot of other mental and physical attributes)?

Sandlin reportedly has a mid-rotation ceiling -- which instantly ties him with Perales and Winkelman as best starting prospect in the system. So Breslow just increased our mid-rotation potential by 50%! How can that be a bad thing... Is-tree-noisy-falling-on-a-bare-pope-in-the-woods question: If a team has zero #1 or #2 starters, isn't that entire narrative negated if they still choose to open the season and complete a three-game series? Story said he doesn't see any reason why this club can't go all the way. Instead of mocking him, who wants to cite any reason it can? I'll start: Story reverts to 2018/19 Trevor (in Fenway), Raffy reverts into 2019 Devers, Giolito has a 2019 year, Cora reverts to 2018 AC... these are all things that have happened at least once. Then, to win a ring: Casas morphs into 2010 Votto, Grissom develops into 1982 Molitor, Rafaela becomes 2016 JBJ, but most importantly -- Bello evolves into 1985 Dwight Gooden.

Any guy who admits he has lust in his heart, and swears he saw a UFO, has no skeletons in his closet. But he may have bones in his ashtray (maybe just a roach).

He kinda resembles an old Grissom.

Push them OUT the door -- before they bump their heads on the ceiling! In houses built for the size of people who could fit in the original seats in Fenway Park -- which are still there... Squeeze, Car-o-line Good seats never felt so g- so ga so gaaah

Ornery old umps on ego trips would never do that to a rookie who yelled out calls before they were made. (don't ever underestimate the reason people in authority take jobs in authority...)

Looking at that list of potential hitters and wondering how many, if any, will ever have a season of .900+ OPS in the bigs... The defending cellar dwellers in Boston had zero at .900 last year, but Devers has done it before in 2019 (the year he had 92 extra-base hits). He was joined by Betts, Bogaerts and Martinez that summer... the pennant-winning Astros had five at .900. And not all guys have to be stars, just solid batters; the '03 Sox also had four at .900 -- Manny and Papi, plus Nixon and Mueller. Casas seems capable of .900 OPS. Anthony may hit with enough power... There are talented prospects, but right now, who else has that "ceiling?"

It's all about the legs -- the biggest muscles of the body. If Teel has strong legs and optimizes them, he takes most of the strain off his arm (which controls direction/trajectory of the throw). Most catcher's mitts sweep the ball to bare hands moving close to right ears, from where throws come straight over the top. Teel is young, and his release point got him to the pros. Sale's delivery was also described as odd, and he was a great MLB pitcher in his 20s... then his body blew apart.

Zorro has Xander's pronunciation.