5GoldGlovesOF,75

Witty post.

Does the front office? How much does fandom trust them to know? Tolle and Early are evidence that Brelsow and Bailey's Flying Circus knows pitching. But consider the injury-prone or injury-affected performances of the position player prospects touted to be the core of the next great Red Sox team. These strapping young studs should be regulars on the field, not the IL. At least Rafaela seems durable enough; maybe because he's wiry and not muscle-bound? Good pitchers always have a disdain for batters; it's part of what makes them effective... does this make ex-pitchers in charge less effective to evaluate position players? I don't know, but I do know that The Password led the entire Red Sox system in home runs combined the past two years on a club desperate for power even last season... and Brez traded him for more pitchers.

Home Run! When's the last time you can remember the Red Sox scoring on a single? Did you know the Yankees and Red Sox have the exact same team batting average and same amount of doubles, and that New York has only more hit than Boston? And yet the Yanks lead the league in runs scored, while the Sox are dead last... NY has scored 70 more runs than BOS... Two facts: New York can reach the seats-- 68 HRs tops the AL -- and Boston can't -- 33 HRs bottoms the AL; and NY also leads in walks, because pitchers don't want to throw them strikes, which means there's more guys on base when a Yankee hits a pop-up to right field in the Bronx. The Red Sox, who don't know the strike zone, are second-to-last in BBs. Breslow needs to fire all team cooks for not serving the weak Sox enough protein... and carrots!

When the trade was announced, Brez said, "And I also feel like he's a good fit for our park just given the profile of hitting the ball in the air to the pull side" The only thing Durbin pulls when he hits the ball in the air is his head. That's why we see so many infield pop-ups; it's not that he's too weak to hit the ball to the outfield, he's continually taking his eye off the ball on contact. It happens when batters try to yank pitches... at all levels.

That Red Sox team opening 2022 was coming off an '21 offseason when Kike hit more homers than the '26 Flops. I don't know any Brewers fans, but if I did I'd ask them what kind of hitter Durbin was in '25. Because I suspect he's being ordered to uppercut and try to pull everything, which as we've seen has only produced easy grounders or pop-ups that aren't even out of the infield when he pulls his head. Remember, Breslow told us after the trade that Durbin was going to be a fly ball pull hitter at Fenway and hit more home runs this year. On baseball-ref, they have a section called Hit Trajectory that breaks down each guy's batting average on hits per by Line Drive, Ground Ball, Fly Ball or Bunt. The highest for most batters is Line Drives, of course; last year Durbin hit .607 on liners (too many Atom Balls). Aaron Judge's career batting average on fly balls is .401 because 40% of his flies can't be caught. Wanna know what Caleb Durbin hit on fly balls in his rookie year? He batted .137: 18-for-131. But Brez says he's going to be a fly ball hitter, and he'll fire all the coaches who disagree!

When I typed this over and over this winter I thought I was a voice of reason. Unfortunately, giving an opinion that disagrees with the ego in charge -- or even just reporting the facts -- may be called a voice of treason by the commander in grief.

Of course it's not Yoshida's fault -- they won't even let him play most of the time. It's just a brutal contrast for this front office that all decade long has opted for things like letting Schwarber leave and instead overpaying for an inferior bat from the other side of the world that they apparently scouted for years playing in an inferior league. I agree they can still contend for a wild card, though every win is going to feel like recovering from double hernia surgery. But I also don't think the vets who aren't hitting will get all season to snap out of it. The sub-.600 guys probably have by the end of June at the latest before major changes take effect. And I'm not counting on Anthony to return and become Ted Williams or Ted Danson or Anson Williams... (well, maybe Potsy). His injury is from swinging the bat -- just like Casas, who's never been the same for various reasons since.

Arias got pulled from the line-up in the middle of Saturday's game for a non-injury related issue that his new skipper called "Manager's decision." May want to let the 20-year old ferment for awhile.

I know you're setting me up for this line: this offense has been doing a lot of whacking... except for bat barrels on pitches. If we're all really honest with ourselves, the entire starting line-up was suspicious going into the season except for three guys: Contreras, Abreu and Anthony. With Willson, we had no reason to think he wouldn't at least match his average offensive seasons. Abreu and Anthony were young enough to expect improvement, but all of us expected they'd be at least as good as last year. One is better, the other injured (really have to wonder how long that's affected his poor ABs). Durbin was the guy we knew nothing about except that he was a finalist for Rookie of the Year. Sophomore slumps are no surprise, but downgrading from AP courses and still failing remedials to being on the verge of dropping out entirely before you're even an upperclassmen is...

I totally expect our high-priced DH to get as hot as the high-priced DH in Philadelphia. Then we'll see how fast the Red Sox rise under their new manager. Don't laugh just because Schwarber has 20 home runs and Yoshida has ZERO. At least he has 20 hits this year.

We're fans and want our team to always try to improve. Isn't that a definition of fans -- nobody wants their favorites to be less competitive. But the clubs who refuse to invest or at least -- Brez help us -- complete the starting line-up with quality big leaguers and balance the roster... those whose ownership won't allow such loyalty to their fanbase will wind up instead trading for replacements who can't hit the ball out of the infield. And who really knows how an offense with Bregman, Marte and Alonso would work if all those guys surrounded Anthony in the heart of the order. Would the Sox be better off without Suarez and Gray and instead have veteran bats supporting a rotation of a Crochet, Tolle and Early? Put it this way: it can't get much worse than these first two months.

Bupt could pthey pronounce silenpt pees?

Bird weren't dinosaurs -- though they've been around since then, sent to Earth to monitor all the native species. Birds are also how we can tell that people are aliens. too. Notice birds in nature, how they hop around branches and on the ground amongst indigenous neighbors like squirrels and rabbits. But when a person gets too near, they always fly away. Unless it's a Red Sox player with a bat in his hand.

All the dinosaurs died except for snapping turtles.

I am hung up on things the Red Sox do badly that have less to do with God-given physical talent and more to do with thought processes that can be improved. I read somewhere -- maybe here this week -- the Sox players had above-average sprint speed. But we all know how hard it is for them to reach base this year. And last night, in another one-run game, we had baserunners picked off or caught stealing at 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Uncanny.

Sogard started the first two games in the Wild Card series and hit .333 in the playoffs. How could you mock a guy whose name is chanted three times in every game before the bottom of the 8th inning by the entire Fenway Park crowd.

That's why I was in favor of upping Tracy, a young manager the young players are already familiar playing for. It's not his fault they're just not that good. But there are certain policy changes his bosses need to let him make immediately: 1. since it's a fact they can't hit, everybody better learn how to bunt again, and do it in every inning there's a ghost runner on second the rest of the season; 2. since it's a fact they don't know the strike zone, the entire offense should be banned from challenging any strike calls the rest of the season. Save them for our catchers for close, late games.

Today. Story on the IL. Sogard up. We've got our starting second baseman back from our last playoff team.

Dombro didn't look for a young yes-man who'd be thankful for the opportunity and do whatever he's told. Instead, he went right after ex-big league managers with experience handling veteran players. But here's the real contrast we all notice: Schwarber and Harper 30 home runs, Boston Red Sox 32.

Just don't trade pitchers to the Brewers. Or the Braves. Or the Yankees. Or the Cardinals. Basically, any team that will face the Red Sox.

Might as well; Red Sox batters can't reach it in the air.

It has to be because the offense lost the tutelage of Bregman. And I know I may be repeating myself to infinity, but thankfully that can be quantified: 3.141592653589793, At least, that's what a NASA engineer states online he uses "for JPL's highest accuracy calculations, which are for interplanetary navigation..." ... or for pieholes as inept as me trying to navigate the Red Sox' otherworldly batting stats on fangraphs (I could just round it off to 3.14 -- hey, that's their runs scored per week!)

I personally never thought the Red Sox were just "a" bat short. Not to go deep in October. They lost two stars in the batting order from a year ago, not to mention several other specialists who contributed. People forget Romy was their lone .300 hitter or that only half a dozen teammates had more plate appearances. Even if you counted on Anthony to replace Devers -- I didn't -- they were two different hitters: a classic masher who opponents feared (especially in New York), and a more discerning batter who was an On Base machine... Losing Bregman, though, compounds the gaping Raffy hole in the lineup. I'm talking specifically about talent (not this season's stats), because even if Durbin repeats his rookie year, he's a downgrade. The Duran and Story wipeouts suck, but no diehard Sox fan is really shocked. It's more of a surprise that Abreu looks like a legitimate All-Star. Contreras replaced last year's Opening Day first baseman and clean-up man -- Casas -- and Will is what we always hoped Tris could be at the plate, and ten times better at 1B. But Boston never filled -- and is still missing -- two quality bats smackdab in the heart of the order.

Yes! Your best line -- Tolle batted clean-up and hit homers in college. Just don't bat him leadoff in Boston, like the Dodgers do with their two-way superduperstar.

Best defense and Suarez firing blanks: exactly what Breslow said the plan would be for Boston's strengths... ... and exactly why he should be fired. But before he leaves, fans should serve him a nice sirloin steak dinner -- without utensils. And then award him a brand new car -- only it's missing the back tires. It's ok, Brez, our plan was to prevent heart disease and reckless driving. You'll go hungry and won't get anywhere, but it's working.