5GoldGlovesOF,75

Yes, they can if Early throws a complete game... ...(the plan was to save Oviedo as long man for Suarez' start).

Dunno -- after playing and watching for over half a century, I just need qualitative data to notice when pitchers, managers and teams pitch around a feared hitter to get to the next guy. A lot of times, I was very close to the action -- like in the on deck circle (because often the next guy was me).

In any inning -- because a leadoff walk is almost guaranteed to score every time. When my cousin pitched and fell behind the first batter, it became a major stressor. All he could think about is Don't walk the leadoff man! If he did, it got to the point where my cousin would point at the guy when he reached 1st and just wave him around... so everyone could start fresh.

The key to Anthony's batting success -- not on base percentage -- is going to be to find really good protection from whoever hits directly after him, most likely 2nd in the order. Because if Anthony starts maiming defensive players, like when he almost killed Sal Stewart Thursday, then he's not going to see many good pitches to hit. A good #2 batter, say a .300 hitter or .500 slugger, can make the difference between Roman leading the league in hard-hit balls vs. just hard-hit rate.

They both had historic seasons, and even Cora said Judge was clearly the MVP. My point was that if I didn't know their names, for two guys with similar offense (not just HRs and RBIs, but Raleigh was 2nd in runs and walks, 4th in OPS), that I'd subjectively give an edge to the catcher. Before WAR even existed good catchers on winning teams often got their share of MVP votes by expert observers. My first year as a fan was 1968 when pennant winner Detroit's Denny McLain was the unanimous AL MVP. His catcher Bill Freehan finished 2nd, presumably for helping McLain win 31 games. In retrospect, Yaz led the league that season with 10.5 WAR and finished 9th in the voting... but he wasn't even the Red Sox MVP, as Hawk Harrelson had big hits all year and finished 3rd. When I played D3 our centerfielder was drafted because scouts liked his arm and his wheels - two tools you can't teach. But our catcher was voted team MVP. He hit about .250.

I knew I could count on a numbers person to jump all over that post. Here, let's delete "wild card" and "first place" and call them two great teams! Now... again... on a great team: a catcher who hits 60 home runs -- and all the other things he does to make them great -- is way more valuable than an outfielder who hits 60 home runs. Seriously.

If I didn't know their names and you asked me who's more valuable between two great hitters -- an outfielder who maybe gets to make one play an inning on a wild card team, or a catcher involved in every single pitch for a club that comes in first place -- it's not even close.

Mike Timlin made fun of my son when they took a pic together.👍 Bronson Arroyo... only started 293 more MLB games and threw 1,847.1 innings after leaving Boston 👎

An all-time great offseason may be Theo Epstein's first in 2002-03 when he acquired Todd Walker, Bill Mueller, Kevin Millar and David Ortiz. He also added Brandon Lyon off waivers and a year later traded him for Curt Schilling.

But wearing stripes means something -- that uniform design was introduced in New York in the 1820s for prison uniforms.

Ceddanne with another slice of clutch pie. That doesn't mean he's a repeating decimal, just that he never ends... like 22 divided by 7 on my calculator that ran out of room: 3.142857142857143infinity Of course, 7 for 22 is a pretty good modern batting average: .31818181818181818181818.... which could mean a lot of different batters ate a piece of pie -- or three kept repeating the same dessert... ...like Rafaela, Story and Duran coming through with RBI hits; meanwhile Anthony was 0fer with men on base, though he did come through with a clutch challenge. On base four times, almost killed the first baseman -- what a leadoff man!

I cannot wait for the added Check the CHECK challenge next year. They're trying it out in the minors, with the official angle 45 degrees from top of the barrel to the knob -- videos show the dotted line extending from a righty bat basically parallel to the first base foul line. It will make pitchers go ballistic and supposedly they will be immediately ejected if they throw a fit... ... because mark my words: the Check challenge will change baseball and add offense, which is a good thing. I saw Mookie get banged last night on a literal check swing with his bat at a 90 degree angle from his biggest supporter... Baseball needs to accept this, because pitchers on every single team now throw 100 mph, which humans cannot hit unless they start swings early. It's time for batters -- with the best hand-eye coordination in the world -- to get rewarded for split-second pitch recognition that stops their bats at offspeed pitches.

Meidroth has more homers than the entire Red Sox team! Hamilton's OPS is a thousand points higher than Durbin's! Hicks has more walks -- in two-thirds of an inning -- than the entire Red Sox pitching staff!

Is this the game thread? Pitch clock, starters throwing strikes, almost half over already.

No prob- yikes

Meanwhile, Tony Vitello, the new manager of the Giants, was hired directly from the college ranks because of his energetic baseball acumen... ... and in his first game as a big league manager last night, he bats his best hitter third in the order.

Opinion noted, even if your first and last points contradict. If Anthony's skills differentiate him from his teammates -- like experts everywhere are claiming -- then management freaking better get the most out of his production. My point about the batting order this entire decade is that the Red Sox have always had too many strikeout machines and not enough contact hitters. We're about to see if that kind of club -- led by starting pitching -- can do what some reporters and fan addicts predict: possibly win the division, most likely make the playoffs, and maybe just maybe go deep into the postseason.

I know you agree with the modern metric study that refutes the tradition of batting your best hitter 3rd that baseball minds have been doing for parts of three centuries. And that's ok, as the industry has embraced the trend to bat a guy 2nd so he gets more ABs. But managers have to consider their roster and the best way to produce as many runs. If he has only two good on-base guys and one elite batter, then the latter might be best used immediately after them. Batting Anthony after the two worst on-base men -- presumably the #8-9 guys -- seems inexcusable. On this offense, it may be even more egregious than Zimmer in 1978 batting two of his worst on-base regulars #1-2 in front of four Red Sox Hall of Famers (but at least Rice-Yaz-Fisk and Lynn could drive each other in)... The reason I wouldn't bat Roman 4th is I want to make sure my best power hitter always gets up in the first inning with a chance to give me a quick lead. I felt the same when Devers was here -- he batted 3rd last night and had one of SF's three hits. This debate is endless. DeRosa batted Schwarber clean-up in the WBC, but he followed Judge -- the game's best all-around hitter last year -- with Witt, maybe the game's fastest star hitter at leadoff.

I like your order, but Cora's not going to demote Story; AC doesn't read forums, so he actually believes what he sees in Spring Training. As for wherever Anthony bats, it's ideal as long as guys are getting on base in front of him. No matter how optimistic people are about the rest of the returning regulars, they're all career .250 hitters with big swing and miss. Roman is the best hitter with the most consistent hard contact rates, so it's imperative this offense positions him to drive in as many runs as possible. I understand getting the best OBP guy the most ABs possible, but in this offense he'll be more valuable with the most RBI opportunities.

The big change in his approach has been that Story is not flailing as much at outside pitches but intentionally hitting them to the opposite field. It's nothing new for good batters at any level, mainly because it keeps their head on the ball, which is the key to contact. And fans have been hearing it for years on broadcasts from guys with experience like Remy and Merloni (or watching it for the past four decades since Boggs played Jai-Alai with the Monstah).

But anyone who's watched a pitch challenge knows that if just one stitch of a ball outside the Strike Zone Width touches anywhere on the perimeter of the rectangle, that is also a strike.

Not disagreeing, because I've already said Early will be the most consistent starter in a rotation where injuries and age are bound to be a factor. Everyone is touting starting depth as the Red Sox strength, so it's not ludicrous to call that depth the key to the season.

I'm more interested in how the fresh Guiness affects the Red Sox left-handed hitters in Cincy... and Lodolo, once-coveted by a fan forum, starts the season on the IL (come on Tito -- couldn't he have just used his non-pitching hand to hold the mug).

A few points read elsewhere this AM: Four of the top five teams in Fielding Independent Pitching metrics last season didn't make the postseason... but the Top Five in runs scored all made the playoffs. The Red Sox offense is missing their top four batters vs. left-handed pitching from a year ago: Romy, Refsnyder, Bregman, Devers. And yet, over 50 percent of posters on the most infamous Red Sox fan forum pick Boston to win the AL East. Yow.

As a longtime coach, I always tell my batters to be ready to cover 26 inches -- because for some reason amateur umps like to give pitchers with stuff that moves at least two balls off the outside corner. (Now let's see how many posters can resist the temptation to reply to that description). With two strikes you gotta protect, but on pitches clearly beyond the zone sometimes that just means fouling it off to force another pitch -- and hopefully get a mistake. It just sucks that you might hit a dribbler back to the pitcher, which is the best scenario for a guy like Perdomo on a pitch four inches below his knee... but hey, maybe the pitcher comes from the Boston system, which trains moundsmen to throw away grounders into the outfield.