5GoldGlovesOF,75

I'm not afraid to say Duran sucked in the outfield this year (and as a leadoff batter, but that's for another post). To your point about deceptive stats that don't include eyeball assessments: Tyler Milligan on WEEI -- sorta the moonslav of literal voices -- tracked misplays by Duran for the entire season. Those didn't just include dropped catches that the official scorer from the home team called hits for their favorite players, but things like weak or bad throws that missed the cutoff or to the wrong base, and bad routes where not even his speed could compensate. Duran had 32 misplays.

Ya, I have to agree with this. With offense way down in the majors, Diaz is on a short list of what is now considered elite batters... Story was just named the Sox' Hitter of the Year by the board, and he led the team in strikeouts. We all know Boston needs more offense, and Yandy could give them another bat like Story's, but with more contact and a lot less Ks. If Diaz is on the market, somebody will overpay with a package that includes a top pitching prospect -- which is what Harrison no longer is considered. So I doubt Tampa accepts Harrison and Hamilton.

I'm just bitter they blew it to the Yankees. If the Sox had gone to Cleveland and got swept instead, none of us would've been surprised, but the ending would have been more positive for even making the playoffs with a ragtag MASH unit. Where I live I've been hearing a lot of crap from Yankee fans, who delude themselves into thinking their club is better than it actually is after knocking off a shell of a contender that had owned them in the summer. How's that working out vs. Toronto... Like I said before, Boston had bad karma coming in, from setting up the team to lose that last regular season game by pitching a minor leaguer with an 0-9 record and 7 ERA. We all know almost every team that has clinched uses the last game as a tune-up to be shared for the actual pitching staff, giving starters "bullpen" innings, and relievers 3-batter minimums to stay sharp. The alternative choice was suspicious. Detroit deserves to lose in the playoffs, too, since they also went through the motions that last day... because both the Tigers and Sox wanted to face the weak-hitting Guardians, and nobody wanted to go the Bronx for three games vs. the Bombers. So let's go, Mariners!

The worst part is the chart shows six other teams in the top nine with the Red Sox -- who are there three times! At least they're consistent at something (besides striking out with runners in scoring position).

LOL Incredible broken down into the prefix and base means not credible. The talent that actually led the Sox in hits in the postseason was Story, Yoshida and Bregman in that order -- not coincidentally Boston's three biggest position player free agent signings. No one else in the Game One starting line-up in the Bronx has been a full-time big league regular for more than two seasons.

Catchers don't when he keeps dropping their throws to 2B.

Are we both talking about the Yandy Diaz who was one of the seven hitters in all of Major League Baseball with a .300 batting average? The same Yandy who cracked 25 home runs -- as many as any Red Sox player -- but with only a 14.1 K-rate? The Y.Diaz with a higher On Base, Slugging, and thus OPS than any full-season regular in Boston? If so, I'll tell you what: not only would I give up the invaluable David Hamilton for him, but since we know how Tampa really operates, to complete this deal I will personally throw in a legal slip of currency featuring Alexander Hamilton on it. Like Tom Cruise's Dad asked while quoting a satisfied college recruiter in Risky Business: "'Princeton can use a guy like Joel?'"

Tucker was the guy the media speculated in the first half of the season would be the next mega-contract, after Soto and Vlad Jr. "A five-tool player who could command as much as half a billion dollars," was the blab. Does anyone really truly think the Red Sox, who in the past two years locked up two, maybe three young outfielders with team-reasonable longterm contracts, would be looking to blow $500 million on another outfielder? Aren't there plenty of other needs at plenty of other positions right now?

Replays show Eaton clearly at 3rd when Jazz stopped Yoshida's ball UP THE MIDDLE. And if his bad throw was "easily caught" for a force-out at first base, the inning was over, and no throw would be made at home. 1. With 2 outs and a 3-2 count, baserunners take off as soon as the pitcher lifts his front foot one centimeter off the ground. 2. With two outs, baserunners also take off on contact. But baserunners in scoring position aren't just running on contact, they're trying to score on contact. If Eaton doesn't slow up, which he never should have because runners going on 3-2, 2 outs are supposed to glance at the plate -- in case there's a wild pitch, walk, K, or ball in play -- then he's at full stride when Yoshida makes contact... and HUDSON IS WIND-MILLING HIM HOME, and he's at least halfway to the plate when the throw is completed...TO FIRST BASE... ... there were two outs, so it DIDN'T MATTER IF JAZZ MAKES A GOOD OR BAD THROW TO FIRST BASE. Eaton at full speed just keeps heading home. It would've been a miracle for first baseman Ben Rice to dive over Yoshida's back, retrieve the bouncing ball from foul territory and from his back or knees make a perfect throw home that catcher Wells would've made a perfect catch and tag on... somehow on the Red Sox fastest runner who most likely was already in the dugout after scoring standing up. Eaton, Hudson and the Red Sox blew scoring the easy go-ahead run late in the game that should've won the 2025 AL Wild Card series. Revisionist history should never change that.

BTV must have meant Josh Hamilton. But David? Yandy has won a batting crown and a Silver Slugger. Hammy won a spot on the postseason roster by homering on the final day of the regular season to help beat the Tigers so they didn't have to face the Yankees.

It's Yandy. The Rays will trade Diaz. He's 34, and Tampa is always willing to deal good players in their 30s they'll never sign for prospects. It's how they stay consistently competitive, and why every year some guy beats us we never heard of before.

If Bregman stays, the Red Sox still have to sign one of Alonso, Schwarber or Bichette. The latter is the best hitter on the market, with a career .907 OPS at Fenway Park. He'd have to be willing to move to 2B or 1B or maybe a DH rotation, but money can be convincing. If Bregman leaves, the Sox realistically need to sign two of Alonso, Schwarber or Bichette. But that happening is unrealistic. We also know there were only three professional big league hitters in the playoff line-up, and all three were all once free agents well-paid to come to Boston. I'd work a trade for Yandy Diaz. Tampa has a team option for '26, but the Rays' MO is to use that so they can deal for prospects, because they're not in the biz of locking up good players in their 30s for market value. Boston can't truly contend without major leaguer hitters at 1B and 2B, along with some kind of upgrade in an overrated outfield. Duran, Rafaela and Abreu have all shown spurts on the verge of stardom, only to continually revert to bad habits that render them impotent. The Sox would love a young core to play on their sustained contenders, but realistically, who in the '25 postseason line-up will be part of that? Narvaez. Baseball seems harder than ever. Too many obstacles prevent young players from consistent improvement. Hopefully, Roman Anthony will be a guy who bucks the trend.

I don't care where the club ranks in runs per game or any other categories, because offense is down all over the big leagues. But I've seen every Red Sox postseason team since 1967, and the '25s were by far the worst hitters. You don't always get what you pay for, but in the Wild Card series, these batters led the Sox in hits: Story 5, Yoshida 4, and Bregman 3. Fans know that's a trio Boston invested in heavily, but imagine the offense without them? Imagine how bad it will be again in 2026 if the front office doesn't invest in more legitimate MLB bats? In the first two playoff games, utility players from Worcester -- Sogard and Eaton -- had two hits apiece... and then both were benched in the finale when the Sox were shutout. Those five guys had 16 of Boston's 19 hits. The mighty Yankees scored all their runs in the elimination game on a pop-up and three grounders, all just out of the reach of robotic Red Sox defenders. But we all know why they lost.

Never met the manager of Studio 54. Disco sucks.

Once at an Arizona Fall League game, I sat on metal benches with a few big league prospects. I asked why a certain player was recently traded, and a reply came quickly: (all the names are still alive, so will use generic descriptions) "30-homer guy was traded for boning manager's wife," said fast guy, who had a cup of coffee.

He actually started against Boston for Northeastern in Spring Training, 2020. But that was the Bloom regime, and they were all too busy scouting and recruiting hundreds of shortstop prospects who could move anywhere on the diamond.

re. 2 -- I'd edit the first verb to Hoping. A week before the trade, Anthony hit his 500-foot grand slam and was finally promoted. Post-script: Roman hit 8 homers for Boston, Raffy hit 20 HRs for San Fran. Postseason: Red Sox scored 6 runs in 3 games, and had a total of 4 extra-base hits. Two were by Quadruple A players... ... the Sox may have faced the greatest pitcher in playoff history, but then again, maybe the '25 Sox were a risk to transform any October starter into Bob Gibson.

His name is Sonny Gray. Bloom is taking over the Cardinals, and you know he'll be shedding payroll like a Golden Retriever in Springtime. He also might covet a few mid-level prospects in the Boston system that he once drafted and signed. Gray is still good -- led the NL in shutout -- and would be a reliable veteran for the rotation. But he is owed at least $40 million ($35M for '26, with a $5M buyout for '27). Breslow can take that on, as long as Bloom agrees to throw in Ivan Herrerra, a 25-year old righty-swinging DH who led the Cards in OBP and Slugging. He also has experience as a back-up backstop. If Bloom insists on pushing Willson Contreras on Brez, then he'll have to take back Yoshida. Or we can just offer him Wong and the locker name plates of Verdugo and Jeter Downs.

Early induced three grounders in a row and the Yankees scored four runs on them.

He's no Sogard.

the count to Rice is 0 and 3

Shhhh, here comes our hitter.

Schlittler throws two pitches for strikes. If he pitched against NY, he'd have more pop-ups. Early throws five pitches for strikes. If he pitched against Boston, he'd have a no-hitter.

I just paid a lip reader to translate what Stanton was saying to this dugout when he stopped running on his fly ball: "Hey guys, I'm going to go hang out at second base for the next 10 minutes while Early makes the rest of you hitters look like total ass."

Nobody can confidently call this pitching match-up, but one guess in this grind of a series is that neither starter will earn a W-L decision...