5GoldGlovesOF,75

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.

Or: It has taken a while to see what he looks like.

Depend on how many more starters go down. He's already got the stuff and length to be an opener, and then could get stretched out in one inning increments: three IP, four IP, five... golden rings... More likely, Uwasawa is the next Criswell, and Slaten sets up Hendriks in the second half.

Ok why even have a home plate ump if you're going to let the corner umps get air time to fist pump check-the-check? Home plate ump calls "Ball" twice in a minute, then checks-the-check -- first base ump pumps his fist -- three pitches later -- third base ump pumps his fist. Both relays show Red Sox batter STOPPING their bats -- not SWINGING their bats. But at least both corner umps got to call balls as strikes.

Consistent pitching costs money.

Grissom 4-for-4 Sunday, up to .333 in his Triple A "spring training"; he may just get to Fenway when Spring actually comes to Boston... temps projected in the 70s soon!

The betting shows must have taken a bath on those odds, with LA giving 222 "runs" -- plus, don't forget, "for every five dollars you blow, we promise to light a match and burn 150 more of your bank account dollars."

I was thinking their pitchers should've saved some of those scoreless innings for today -- Pablo! Also, starting to worry about Slaten; if he continues to imitate '21 Whitlock, how much longer before they make Justin a starter and send him to the IL?

I really want to agree, but fear Counsell's contract has upped the ante for name skippers beyond the Red Sox' current business plan. Maybe -- and this is a stretch -- they'll factor the coming cost of Cora as insurance protection for their biggest investment: Devers. AC has always been a valued mentor for Raffy, and also has the respect of many players from the DR, PR, Venenzuela, etc.

He's going to make a lot of money next year on a team aggressively trying to win that's not afraid to get what it pays for.

Add: metaphorsaken manager, at the top of his game, in a contract year...

Most unearned runs allowed. Least earned runs allowed. Most batter strikeouts. Least healthy roster. Most baserunners caught between pizza boxes. Half game out of a wild card spot...