5GoldGlovesOF,75

May need surgery and will miss the entire season. Just when we thought the new shapes of his pitch shaping was really shaping up... Does this means he won't be opting out next year?

Their words are just stock lines. Prez: "We plan on competing for the world championship." CBO: "We'd be remiss if we didn't always look to upgrade." Coaching staff: "We like our players." Less fans than ever: "We believe every single lie you tell us, and have total faith you'll make the Red Sox great again."

Bailey has already said he doesn't think they need to add any pitchers. He likes what they have...

Much more relevant on a website devoted to entertainment.

MLB updated the Top 30 prospects for each club. Breslow has doubled the pitching prospects in the Sox' Top 16, by adding 13 Fitts and 16 Sandlin to 7 Gonzalez and 11 Perales. Meanwhile, Atlanta's top 5 prospects are pitchers. The Braves' best 15 prospects include 10 pitchers. They have finished first the past six straight seasons and last just once in 30 years. Maybe Henry can hire some junior exec from Atlanta's org next time, instead of Tampa's.

No politics, dagnabit!

New, like expansion teams? The Red Sox look like an expansion team: lots of one or two-tool position players, pitching staff of oldsters and youngsters -- but no one in his primester.

I coach youth sports with a few guys from Philly, and they and their families have had a total blast the past few years rooting for the Phils and all their star players. And they're really encouraged, looking forward to another season beginning this month.

Pablo had a .716 OPS last year in the majors, and now he bats clean-up in ST games. That's gotta mean something... to someone... let me check one of the betting show that's on every other channel on my remote menu. As for Bonaci, the decision to send him home for the year was simple. You might call it a ----- say it out loud ----- (So-gard, So-gard, So-gard)

That goofy Dombrowski, at it again! Someday they'll write a book about him titled Ball Money. It will be the blueprint for future billionaire owners to aspire to -- but only guys who inherit billions, and not some genius who thinks he's smarter than the market.

You meant to type "excuse"

So we're on pace for a 69 win season -- All in, baby!

Ten games in and the Sox are playing .700 ball. Dismiss ST all you want, but the only teams with less losses are the Orioles and Dodgers -- expected contenders. Starting pitchers all look at least decent, especially vs. minor league bats. Pitchers are always ahead of hitters early, but any sample size helps when searching for shreds of hope. Besides Devers, the Sox have zero home runs from their projected roster (which has barely played part-time, so far). Defense looks "normal" with a big league shortstop and centerfielder. Really hoping they go west with Rafaela and his righty bat. Really don't like Story hitting third; as much as he's legit with the glove, his swing-and-miss is also legit (and has nothing to do with injuries). If either Ceddanne or Grissom can take off and spark rallies, there may be a scenario where Devers and Casas bat 2-3...

bb-ref told us never to compare players within one or two WAR wins -- so that stat is too close to call for Tiant and McLain in '68 (fWAR is even closer). So... the MVP or the ERA leader? The world champ who led the league in 9 pitching categories and was second in 7 others, or the third-place ace who led in 12 categories? McLain is the only 31-game winner in the past 90+ years, but Tiant won 21 and posted a great 1.60 ERA… though only about one-third of a run better than Denny’s 1.96. I give the edge to McLain for his league-leading Innings Pitched: 336… which was 78 more than Tiant's. That's basically 9 more complete games, which Denny also led in, with Luis second -- 28 to 19. Some may argue McLain pitched for a great team… but others may counter that a great pitcher can make a good team great. Otherwise, why has the world of baseball credited Ws for over a century to the only player – in the center of the diamond -- who touches the ball and initiates every play while he’s in the game? Agreed with the choice of Clemens in '90, a great pitcher who made a good team finish first. I'd also argue Dave Stewart and Eck were better than Welch on the A's alone that year. The connection to discussions about the '24 Red Sox all winter is that a great pitcher (not necessarily one with a great W-L past) can make any team better, even a doormat. And one guy can boost a mediocre team to a postseason. We just need to find one: buy one, take one, make one...

It wasn't random when qualified voters picked the AL Cy Young winners in 1968 and 1990 -- they just voted for the two guys with the most wins in the past half century. But in retrospect (and because the '24 Red Sox have zero aces again), this is up for further debate: who was the "best" AL pitcher in those years: 31-winner Denny McLain or Luis Tiant in '68, 27-game winner Bob Welch or Roger Clemens in '90?

But imagine how many funs ways 3 Notins in an office could deconstruct, destruct, mister and misconstrue the field reports of a couple dozen 5Gs just begging the department to trust the qualitative data...

Sorry, John Henry. How are your 33 analysts doing building that core the past five years while not supplementing it with actual big league talent through free agency and trades.

It just means they have too many usual suspects in the front office to fit into a police line up. Not that any fans could identify any, if we saw them. The Globe today reported 33 Red Sox analytics personnel; they could fire about 30 and afford a couple dozen more scouts. It's appalling there's been no core for half a freaking decade now. In Boston. Raffy in the middle holding up the stem, with a lot of dead space around him where maggots ate the rest.

... unless the Red Sox in their current business plan intentionally fail to offer fair market value to lock up Casas longterm. His words about Sox offers so far: "nothing enticing." Uh oh, sounds like we've got another young man ungrateful for the opportunity of the Fenway Experience (discounted student tickets, 7th-inning singalongs, 40-degree rainy nights, enemy fans all over the stands)... When can we get three meh prospects for him.

Thanks, Craig. Red Sox fans are glad you dusted off the blueprints that Henry buried in the archives in 2018. The "timelines" are a bit confusing, though. During the Bloom Era, some impact starpower left or was given up -- Betts, Schwarber, Bogaerts, Eovaldi (the best pitcher in baseball in another postseason in '23). If the Sox are rebuilding -- for what, five years now -- then maybe the timing wasn't right to resign any or all of them. But then, how or why did timelines line up with inking Story or Yoshida or extending Devers? Especially when none of these damaged goods, or good-bat/no-glove guys were/are as good as those we didn't keep...

But Bobby's height advantage can better protect the Green Monster's strike lights... which have to be at least two feet off the ground.

CJ Cron -- 4th most similar batter, career and through age 33: Mitch Moreland. Range factor as a first baseman: 1st NL 2022, 2021; 1st in AL 2019...

"We're gonna take care of this kid," said Cora, about a grown man wearing a costume full of colorful logos and name and number on his back.

It's March -- the month the regular season begins. If I'm a contender, I want my top pitchers getting ready together, drilling and practicing with the team, stretching it out and working up pitch counts in exhibition games... ... not glued to their cells awaiting reprieve from Warden Boras. I dont care if he has his own camp; it's not the same and clock digits are flashing.

Nolan Ryan. He was the first star pitcher in the 1970s noted for some bad records on bad teams. Despite leading the AL in stats like Ks, IP, CG, SHO, H9 (and no H9), Ryan lost 15 games a year for almost a decade. On the Angels, he was the Mike Trout of pitchers. The Ryan season that should end this debate, however, was 1987 on a below-.500 Houston club. That's when he led the NL in ERA, Ks, FIP, H9, K9, ERA+, K/BB... but for some reason only finished 5th in Cy Young voting, with 0 1st place votes. Maybe it was his won-loss record: 8-16.