5GoldGlovesOF,75

Historical friction

The Red Sox may not make the postseason this year even if they trade for legit bats, but here's the thing: There are none in the pipeline that are going to balance the lineup and make them contenders next year or maybe not even the year after. Boston needs star power now and for next year and the next season of actual ring contention. Someone posted a list of next winter's free agents -- it's not good, with not much help for the batting order there. So if a legit bopper in his prime is available now, why wouldn't anyone trade from the system's number one depth -- minor league pitching? Is it because we're all looking forward to more years of pitcher's duels trying to scratch out meager runs or praying for an average stick to reach the seats once a game with someone on base?

They were afraid he'd become a complete superstar and they'd have to trade him to the Dodgers after refusing to pay him fair market value when he entered his prime. They weren't afraid to risk $60 million over eight years, knowing they'd probably lose that to him in a few rounds of arbitration if he lived up to his Barry Bonds nickname. A multi-billion dollar company can afford to pay the IKFs of the world $6 million per to sit on the bench.

Hey, teams can win without home runs (they just don't wear red socks). In the two games in KC won on HRs by Contreras and Duran, Boston was 1-for-5 and 2-for-11 with RISP. They don't just need one more bat, they need about five more corked ones.

I saw a kid bunt for an inside-the-park home run once in Little League. Is it possible for a batter to get hot vs. a bad team and sustain the heat for another week? If so, Duran's club could be in a wild card spot soon... ... or he can at least up his trade value -- if you read Theo Epstein's quotes this week, Brez is working right now on adding a bat. Hope it's an Alvarez model.

When the Sox played Milwaukee, Pat Murphy had nothing but good things to say about Durbin. That manager must know a little about baseball, since the Brewers are always in first place.

Yep, but I saw him rip a line drive RBI-single up the middle last night, head right down on the swing like a good baseball hitter. Maybe it's because he didn't pull his head, drop his shoulder and uppercut, trying to pull the ball in the air!

I have no idea if either has made a difference on their new teams, but the club Suarez joined is in last place and the one Bregman joined is in first place. We can compare batting stats or WAR or games played, but there's just no way to quantify their total effect on won-loss records. I learned this from the Driveline guy the Red Sox didn't fire.

Yeaaay STATS! Let's pick some more off the cherry tree: Story as a Red Sox, 2022-26: 8 WAR Bogaerts in MLB, '22-26: 14 WAR We all know Xander is overpaid in SD, and we all know Trevor has been a bust in 80% of his Boston career and easily one of the worst Sox free agent signings of the century.

Yup, there's really no sense anyone can argue against Father Time, but I liked reading Shaugnessy last week remind all that Xander Bogaerts always was, alway is, and will always be a better ballplayer than Trevor Story.

On a team that stinks at hitting, the last thing I want to see as a fan is the front office trade the only sure threat in the batting order because they sucked so bad at their own roster construction. Of course, also-rans that don't dwell in Boston regularly deal desirable parts for prospects every summer. But after what we've seen from the team-extended faces of the franchise these days, do we really want to see some of the only good Red Sox get swapped for more "can't-miss" heroes of the future (that none of us know will ever come)? Ready to hurry up and wait again?

Bullpen gets a Blow Minus, and the rotation gets a Be Positive. There's always that one challenging kid in class like Bello who diverts 90% of the teacher's time to attempt to "reengage" him, thus robbing all the other students of instructional opportunities in an otherwise a positive learning environment. At least during assessments, Bello gets extended time and setting... with no pitch counts.

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.