TedYazPapiMookie

Ryan, better read up on what metrics are and how they are fabricated (calculated). Data is generated when a player gets an assist, put out or error. Estimates are created when a party tries to determine if something like a run was saved. To do that you must first fabricate a set of rules for what makes for a run saved, then you have to apply it to a completely unique set of circumstances in a fair way. Who gets to decide if the determination is fair? An umpire? No. A sportswriter? No. A fan? Yes, in a way. A PERSON or set of PEOPLE who get hired to make judgements unbeknownst to the public so there is no opportunity to disagree with their decisions. You must simply trust their estimates are correct. That's why it's an estimate not a fact/stat. Facts/stats are base data. Estimates are derivative data. BIG DIFFERENCE in accuracy. Are there mistakes made in gathering facts thanks to biased or simply bad score keeping? Yes, but those mistakes are catalysts to even bigger mistakes in the downstream estimates. I think Arias is the heir apparent at shortstop until he proves he isn't. Mayer was supposed to be but his fielding percentage in the minors was miserable. Heck, it wasn't that much better than Devers!!! OUCH. Arias is only at AA and has done a much better job defensively than Mayer did BUT he can't hit MLB pitching at this point in time so let Story stick at SS until Arias is ready or trade for a legitimate MLB SS who is defensively better than Story and then move him to 2B where he will be the same guy that he is playing SS with the same skills. He'll need to transition his throwing motion to accommodate the position change and that may make him a worse 2B, even if the throw is shorter. Age really isn't as big of an impact to the elite players. Nolan Arenado is still a better 3B defensively than nearly all other 3Bs and he's ancient in the minds of many young people (35) but great hands don't typical fall off as fast as running speed, bat speed or pitch recognition. Story may keep getting worse. He has 4 errors, but he might not error again before April ends. Devers beginning in 2018 his first full season had 5 errors through April and finished with 24, 8 errors in 2019 and finished with 22, 3 errors in 2021 and finished with 22, 0 errors in 2022 and finished with 14, 1 error in 2023 and finished with 19, 1 error in 2024 and finished with 12 in a shortened season of 130 games. What does this show? Starting bad doesn't mean ending the season bad, starting good doesn't mean ending the season good. Story has played just 19 games and people are extrapolating his errors in a straight line, but they don't occur that way as I have shown with Devers. Devers has a .944 fielding % at 3B and Story has a .977 fielding % over 10 years, one more year than Devers. His history suggests he will regress to his mean, so I'll take a .977 fielding % any day!! When the weather warms up and Story starts hitting people won't focus on his defense. This is much ado about nothing. Players have bad stretches and come out of it. Aren't we all hoping that is what's happening to Anthony's offense? No need to pile on Story because someone wants Mayer to be the new SS. He's a below league average defender historically. I'm more worried about him getting hurt than making errors. We failed in 2025 when Bregman got hurt and Story is the new top dog that we need in the line-up. That doesn't bode well for the team except we have a much-improved pitching staff that is handcuffed by the manager.

Metrics are estimates NOT STATS. Some people incorrectly use the word stats to try to legitimize fake facts like metrics, but they are wrong, they are simply collective GUESSES at what happened during a baseball game(s). Are you familiar with the word "rationalization"? In 2025, Story at age 33 put up numbers that were comparable with his great years in Colorado. Is Boston now as hitting friendly as Colorado? Is his age really impacting his performance? Nothing you wrote suggests he needs to move. It was simply a rationalization to try to prove the point that Alex/Alan made. Sorry, it missed the mark. 2025 validates that Coors didn't make him great, he did and 2025 proved that he's not falling off, he was injured and it impacted his play when he first got to Boston. He's still the best player on the team and deserves the respect of real baseball fans, not modern-day mathletes.

So you don't consider that a petty comment?

Think of his contract. Think of his history. Think of how many players have rough patches and recover. We are witnessing the same thing in Crochet. Should we make him a reliever? No. Why? Because his history at being a starter is known and he's just going through a rough patch. Same is true for Story. The length of being great at something buys the person patience from the fans. Story has earned more patience than Crochet has earned. Fans should respect all he's done and give things time to shake out. It's mid-April for Pete's sake.

You continue to use insignificant segments to evaluate players. A guy is hot for a week, and you like him and he's practically a HOFER. A guy has a couple of weeks that contradict his entire fielding history, and you are all over the guy. It's not like Boston has a better defensive SS on the MLB roster. AAA has at least two and who knows below AAA. Face it, Mayer is a bust defensively and offensively and Story is the current player with the best pedigree on offense and defense. The data backs up both factual statements. You are full of generalizations because they are part of the metric generation that doesn't care about accuracy. You make enormous assumptions that are not true and they are said with such conviction you seem to think that validates them. It doesn't. It's just a loud wrong commentary that falls on the public's deaf ears.

Here is another helpful hint to you Alan about defensive metrics. The number of balls played (total chances) varies greatly by position. That's why fielding percentage adjusts for the difference by creating a success for the fielder. Abreu has 493 total chances and 13 errors over two full seasons and two partial seasons. He won GG in the two full seasons with a total of with 228 chances and 7 errors in 2024 and 227 chances and 5 errors in 2025. By comparison, Rafaela has played 2 partial and 2 full seasons as well. In 2024 he had 187 chances and made 3 errors and in 2025 he had 332 chances with 5 errors. So during his two full years Abreu made 12 errors and won two gold gloves and Rafaela made 8 errors and won one GG. Overall, In 2024 when Abreu got his first bogus GG he had a fielding percentage of .969 and LEAGUE AVERAGE was .986 nearly 20 points higher!!!! That's why I consider it bogus. In 2025, Abreu got his second bogus GG he had a fielding percentage of .978 and LEAGUE AVERAGE was .987 (9 points higher to be league average!!). In 2026 Mayer has made 2 errors in 52 chances for a .962 fielding percentage with League Average being .988 so he's just 26 points below league average. That sure sounds like he is consistently bad at fielding since it's very similar to his minor league numbers. His hype is beyond disgusting. The guy is at best a league average player and at worst a DFA waiting to happen. Good thing he's connected.

Your comment shows your ignorance for defensive statistics. You should do your homework on fielding percentage. He had 19 errors in a whopping 635 chances and a fielding percentage of .970. Mayer's fielding percentage at SS in the minors was .953 which stinks. In the majors, he's gotten an out on 1 of 2 chances for a fielding percentage of .500!!! WOW that's impressive.

Ryan, you and your tag team partner Alan are "INVENTING" crap about Story in hopes of helping Mayer. That's inappropriate as a writer. Stick to FACTS not your spin to hurt one player and help another. Story is a better defender than Mayer in his sleep!!! In the minors when Mayer played SS he had 928 total chances and made 44 errors for a fielding percentage of .953!!!!!!!!!!! Enough said. Story in the MLB has had 4031 total chances with 98 errors for a fielding percentage of .977 over the last 10 years. Last year it was .970 and in 2024 it was .989. Those are numbers that Mayer has never been close to based on a significant number of total chances. You must be one of those guys like Alan who takes an incredibly insignificant number of games or plays and extrapolates it to suggest something that is completely untrue both from a mathematical perspective and a hind-sight 20/20 perspective. Mayer should be in AAA based on both his hitting and fielding. Story has started slowly and always improves as the weather warms up. You story is totally bogus.

Since when do you care about defensive accuracy? You watch Abreu lead the team in errors and get gold gloves and praise him. I don't respect your knowledge of the game because of many things but when it comes to complaints it's always targeted with an agenda. You want the crap defender Mayer at SS which is crap. Today's Story is the follow-up to your lead-in. You are fooling nobody. You always have an agenda!!

This article is a hatchet job on Story. Why? The writer has always supported Mayer as the SS of the future and picking on Story puts thoughts in the head of the incompetent manager and front office about needing change. No change is needed. This is a rudderless ship with Cora at the wheel and the merry-go-round line-ups are just reinforcement of his incompetence. Current averages of the players don't actually reflect their skills. That often happens at the beginning of a season and to pick out ONLY ONE individual as this author did is irresponsible. Is Durbin's .127 average likely to be representative of Durbin? No. How about Duran's .167? No. Mayer's .188? Maybe. Narvaez's .195? Yes. Story's .208? NO but the author went after him anyway!! How about the great Roman Anthony's .246? Maybe because he's just a second-year player who may regress from his initial success like Devers did. On the upside, can Yoshida maintain his .286 average? i think so. Can Contreras maintain his .298 average? HIGHLY UNLIKELY since his career average is .258 and over the last several years it's hovered around .260. How about Rafaela and his .300 average? Maybe. He's in his 3rd full season at age 25 and could be coming into his own as a hitter, especially if he is finally returned to the top of the order where he performed in the minors and had great success. What about Abreu's .333 average? NO WAY. In his 2 full seasons in Boston, he's hit .253 and .247 against mostly right-handed pitchers BUT he's hit .316 and .296 in March/April meaning he drops back roughly 50 points after April until the end of the season. It's mid-April and I believe his April numbers once again will be his peak for the season. And I can't emphasize enough that it's mostly against right-handed pitchers limiting his value to the team significantly. BA vs LH pitchers in his career .218 vs .270 versus RH pitchers. His value is grossly over-stated by many fans, reporters and front office personnel based on ACTUAL performance to date. If you rank the players on this team offensively you have no great offensive players!!! If you rank the players for defensive skills, you have two outstanding players if they are played at their proper positions (Rafaela and Duran). On offense, here are the facts about each starter: 1 - Story (one good season out of four but the best pedigree on the team for his career) 2 - Anthony (had a good initial season that was cut short but has great potential but not lengthy success that is needed to be considered an elite hitter.) 3 - Rafaela (a non-favorite of Cora's punished since he arrived in Boston by forcing him to the bottom of the order despite his huge clutch factor) 4 - Duran (another non-favorite of Cora who has been an outstanding leadoff man who lost his job to the latest player on the fast track to fame forced by the organization. Anthony is no lead-off man, he's just the latest player being touted as a star since Devers is gone. Duran has been an all-star but the writer reflects many biased fans opinions about Duran. He should be the starting centerfielder and lead-off hitter but we have a horrible manager. 5 - Contreras (like Story he has a good pedigree at hitting FOR A CATCHER NOT A 1B!!! He's on a four-year decline and was a bad choice by Breslow. His attitude is a major question because it's hard to tell if he fires up teammates or embarrasses them with his temper and outbursts. Does he create fear in opposing pitchers? Nope) 6 - Abreu (streak hitter, streak fielder and best friend to Cora. Nobody gets more undeserved playing time than this platoon hitter who can't seem to hitter right-handed or left-handed pitchers consistently. He also makes the most errors in the outfield and somehow wins gold gloves which completely negates the validity of the gold glove award. This guy constantly swings for the fences, so he's seen as having power like Chris Davis of BAL or Jim Kingman in the old days with the Cubs. Not only does Abreu not have the clutch gene like Rafaela, but he also has the arrogance of Devers which makes him very unlikeable especially in light of the favoritism he gets from Cora. 7 - Mayer (an unproven 4th pick in the draft in 2021 that has continued to get huge support from the organization and Cora. His mediocre numbers in the minors suggested a league average shortstop on offense and defense and he's not proven anything beyond that in the MLB. He's an injury prone player who has had multiple wrist/hand injuries which significantly impacts the ability of the player to hit for power historically. I think Campbell would be far ahead of him if the CLUB and CORA actually gave him the same support that Mayer gets. Had Breslow sold the CWS on Mayer not Teel our organization would be far stronger today. Instead, we have no future C, 3B, SS, 2B or 1B. Casas should have been the future 1B, Campbell should have been the future SS or Bogaerts should have been the current SS, Bregman should have been the short-term 3B so a future 3B could be drafted The Crochet deal was GREAT BUT guys like Abreu and Mayer should have been used not Teel or Meidroth. 8 - Narvaez (A Yankee cast-off for good reason, this guy is an excellent back-up catcher but not a front-line catcher. Like Wong, he's a ONE YEAR WONDER. Each catcher had career years and then fell back to the previous level. His offense is negligible. He's acceptable when hot and miserable when cold and over below league average. 9 - Durbin (newest member doesn't have enough history to say much. Not impressive so far but he needs more at bats. Unfortunately, he's a HUGE step down from Bregman. Bregman should be the norm on a team that pretends to seek being a contender. This team is pretending to seek such lofty goals but realistically is a great pitching crap hitting team. 81 games jump out as an estimate of wins. This team is devastated by the loss of Bregman as opposed to loss of the more highly revered Devers who left without any impact. No quality 1B is killing the team. No quality 2B is killing the team. STORY is just fine overall despite starting slowly. No quality 3B is killing the team. NO Anthony in LF, Duran in CF and Rafaela in RF is killing the team. No batting Duran and Rafaela at the top of the order is killing the team. Most importantly, no quality MANAGER is killing the team. Pitching substitutions can be blamed for more than half the loses. That's on CORA. Overall, this article was a hit article on Story. One person's misguided opinion on the performance of the best hitter on the team now that Bregman is gone. Anthony slumping wasn't even mentioned. His 54 points lower batting average than Rafaela who bats 9th is one of the biggest reasons the Red Sox are failing miserably. Did the author mention Mayer is batting .188? That's lower than Campbell was batting when he was sent to AAA. Yoshida is batting .286 and should be the full time DH batting near the top of the order. Maybe if the order was Rafaela, Anthony, Story, Yoshida, Contreras, Abreu, Narvaez, Durbin and Duran the team might score more runs!!! Maybe if Abreu was traded Yoshida would get the permanent position he came to the US to play and the outfield would make far less errors than they have during the last two seasons!! There is no easy way to fix this team and there is no chance it will happen under Cora.

This article is so off base it's ridiculous. Abreu started the same way last season and hit .219 after April 30th. Hardly a performance to suggest a top player in baseball. HE IS A JOURNEYMAN WHO CAN'T HIT LEFT-HANDED PITCHERS. If Cora wasn't the manager, AND HE SHOULDN'T BE, Abreu would be just a bench guy who comes up when right-handed relievers are trying to finish up a game. He can't hit lefties, he's not clutch, he leads the outfield in errors despite winning bogus gold gloves, he is a bad base runner and because of his tight relationship with Cora he gets opportunities that aren't given to Rafaela who is a FAR, FAR better baseball player. This article is a massive hyperbole with NO FACTS to justify its existence. This writer is so clearly a misguided fan who doesn't have a clue about the game. Why not take ONE GOOD GAME and declare him a HOFER? It's just as ridiculous as this article. He's a bad journeyman player who can't hit lefties and can't field above league average yet wins GGs thanks to CORA. A good manager would have Rafaela the far superior defender guarding right field where the distance from the plate is 302 down the line and 380 in right-center field. Those dimensions translate using bogus outfield metrics into a massive bump in performance to anyone playing right field. Verdugo almost won a GG in right field the one year he was in Boston and then the guy with the most errors two years in a row wins the GG both years. It's a travesty and shows just how bogus the underlying concepts of metrics are. They are a joke. Next time, pick a guy who can perform all year not just in two-week spurts. It's this type of exaggeration that creates myths from players with little skill like Blake Swihart and Jeter Downs. You want to write about a budding star that has NOT been over hyped because he's a white guy in a Latin community of players, look to Connelly Early. He blows away Bello on skills but has yet to get close to the amount of love provided by Cora since he showed up in Boston. MERITOCRICY is such an important word in good baseball organizations. It doesn't exist in the Red Sox organization and that's why since Dombrowski left, this team has abjectly failed and will continue to fail until spots are once again earned not handed out based on relationships. For that to happen, CORA MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you rank the skill of the current starting staff it is: 1. Crochet 2 Early 3 Gray 4 Suarez 5 TBD - Bello and about a half dozen other pitchers make for weak candidates for the SP5 spot. I'll take Tolle even if he doesn't find a change-up before he gets called up. The Red Sox MUST have great pitching to stay in the middle of the pack in the AL East. Losing Bregman's offense and defense has crippled the offense. Anthony is a fine prospect just like Campbell was a year ago, but slumps happen as we saw with Campbell last year. Anthony may experience something similar and Mayer, the weakest hitter of the three, is likely to experience it too this year if he can stay healthy. Contreras is NOT an upgrade from Casas; he's a fading veteran in his final seasons. He's fiery if you want to be politically correct or he's a hot head if you simply want to be accurate. He doesn't add chemistry like Bregman did. Breslow needs to find a fifth starter who will keep the team in the game, a manager who will keep the team in the game by making smarter substitutions when the starter comes out and at least two bats to upgrade the catching spot and the 3rd base spot. Campbell should be given a shot once he gets his hitting rhythm back, and Casas should go to 1B as soon as he's healthy so Contreras and Yoshida can handle the DH spot. Abreu should be a pinch hitter once he cools off after April. Actually, while Abreu is hot, TRADE HIM because his value is peaking but his skill at hitting remains the same (inconsistent and below average). Trade Abreu for Teel and fix the long-term catching position. This team has regressed without Bregman. Gray and Suarez will help once they get going but the hitting was all smoke and mirrors last year. Anthony like other recent star players has regressed. Mayer has yet to establish and hitting skills at the MLB level other than mediocre ones like he did in the minors except for 2024. He can't seem to prove 2024 was a real reflection of his skills at hitting. The other 4 years remain the best documentation of his skills. Breslow needs to shake the team out of it's funk by firing Cora and making an impactful trade that clears out Cora's favorites, so the clubhouse chemistry improves. Trade Abreu, Mayer and Narvaez to the Chicago White Sox for Teel, Miguel Vargas and Hagen Smith. That solves the 3B issue, the catching issue when Teel comes off the IL and adds a quality arm. It also fixes the outfield to be Anthony, Duran and Rafaela, it allows the team to bring up the best AAA infielder to play 2B and if Cora is gone this team will jump in the standings and get back to where Red Sox fans expect them to be.

As a follow-up to what I continue to say........ FIRE CORA!!!!! Early goes into the 5th inning and gets the first guy easily and gets pulled at 86 pitches. WHY? Because Cora has no idea what a pitcher can do and what indicates he needs to come out. This clown did the same thing to Sale back when Boston had Sale and he underperformed compared to ALL OTHER YEARS of his career. That's not on Sale it's on the worst manager in the game, CORA. Tonight, Early should have finished the inning and stayed under 100 pitches and keep the team in the lead. Instead, for the fourth time this season, Cora pulled the starter and brought in the WRONG reliever, and they lost the lead and eventually the game. It's time to fire Cora!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please put fans out of their misery and get a REAL MANAGER!!!!!! This is a 4 and 8 team and half the losses came from poor relief choices by Cora. Tonight will be the 5th loss due to CORA and the team only has 4 wins!!! FIRE CORA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GIVE THE RED SOX A CHANCE TO WIN JUST LIKE YOU DID WITH MOVING DEVERS. BOTH CORA AND DEVERS ARE BAD FOR THE CLUBHOUSE, THE RESULTS OF GAMES AND THE IMAGE OF THE BALL CLUB.

Once again, the writer missed the mark by using fake data from Savant. It should have been clear to anyone in the stadium that Early's last start had to do with the wind. As a pitcher he needs to adjust to the different conditions presented at Fenway Park. The wind blew from first to third making his breaking pitches exaggerated from left to right causing him to miss the inside corner on righties and outside corner to lefties. You can call it a lack of control and worry about it, or you can factually without bogus Savant numbers evaluate it as a learning experience for a young pitcher who isn't all that familiar with the impact of wind at Fenway. Had the wind been just the opposite going from 3rd to 1st his breaking pitches would have stayed straighter than usual and his control would have been good, but his pitches would have been more hittable. These are lessons all pitchers have to learn and this kid is the real deal. The biggest concern to me is fighting the propaganda presented by uninformed writers. Guys like Cora who know NOTHING about pitching might read something like this article and draw incorrect conclusions that will impact his pathetic decision making. Next time, write about things you know about. This kid Early is awesome and will be the ace of the staff in the near future because he's like a young version of Crochet only better.

Lots of hype and no performance. That's Mayer's motto. He didn't deserve to be the fourth pick but Bloom was a horrible GM. The front office has tried to cover for Mayer's shortcomings in the field in the minors and his mediocre hitting in the minors considering he was the 4th pick in the draft. Campbell in 2025 got shuffled into oblivion because in 2024 he embarrassed Mayer by completely outperforming both Mayer and Anthony in the minors and the quick demotion in 2025 was all about expectations. NOBODY expected Campbell to be the elite prospect going into 2025 and they had to prove he wasn't by over-reacting to his struggles after he put up huge numbers for the first month of the season. Devers never got pulled like Campbell and his fielding was significantly worse than what Campbell did in his debut at 2B not SS Campbell's normal position. Mayer has so many things going against him that he should be back in AAA. First, his 3rd or is it fourth wrist injury that ended things in 2025 is one that doesn't usually heal well. His power will be significantly reduced by it and he wasn't that good a hitter anyway based on his minor league performance. His fielding percentage was .953 slightly better than Devers' minor league fielding percentage and yet he was marketed by the team to be a good defender using fabricated estimates that have no basis in reality. Cora is pushing this guy just like he did Devers. Devers NEVER could field but Cora suggested he was improving all the time. Those were lies. Mayer is a mediocre player not a star and it's apparent to baseball people not dedicated to hyping him. Campbell has more skills. Anthony has far more skills. Rafaela is a far better player, and Duran is a far better player. Benintendi came up and could hit well initially until the Red Sox coaching staff helped him make adjustments and he lost his skill to hit to all fields. Mayer is starting out with limited hitting skills so to think the coaching staff will improve him is a joke. Also, where was this dedication to the player with regard to Campbell who actually torched the minor league pitchers compared to Mayer? I guess the poor kid that overachieves isn't nearly as important as the rich influential kid who purchased his success prior to the draft. It's a common story these days. Select High School programs cater to the rich and all the publicity that can be bought by parents to move their child up the rankings. It's commonplace since 1990. I don't see the trend changing so I try my best to point out the under privileged players like Campbell who perform at high levels despite NO SUPPORT from the organization. That's why I'm rooting for Cora to be fired and the ownership to sell to somebody who knows baseball and can implement a system that emphasizes performance not politics when evaluating players. I say sell high and move Mayer before he becomes the next Jeter Downs. While they are at it, maybe they can trade Abreu for Teel so we don't have to watch Narvaez and Wong struggle all year.

Why 2026 could end up being a disaster. 1 - Cora is manager despite all his failings. He came to Boston with no MLB experience except being a weak player for a decade and a bench coach with an excellent Houston organization who ended up cheating to win. After many years he still can't set a daily line-up because his player evaluation is biased and his knowledge of how to use long-time accepted rules of thumb in setting a batting order was never learned as a player. Also, his complete lack of knowledge on handling a pitching staff bites the team in the rear-end at least 4 games a week and often multiple times per game. As a former bench coach, his big skill was speaking two languages. Half a decade later it still is. Motivated team? Nope. Choices made based on performance not personal relationships is the norm. An understanding of how to set your team based on their skillsets? Nope. All his experience hasn't expanded his knowledge. What has Cora done since he was handed a guaranteed winning team in 2018? We used his knowledge of cheating from Houston to attempt to cheat in Boston and was fortunate to escape with no conviction for his Boston activities with the Media Room. He created a divide between Ownership and the best GM in team history and then destroyed the chances of post-World Series winning by telling pitchers to show up two weeks late for Spring Training which led to a series of pitching injuries in 2019. That in turn impacted ownership to give up their franchise player for nothing in an embarrassing trade with the new GM's mentor. He got invited back after being convicted of a crime that should have ended his career. Why? To keep a relationship with the Dominican Republic Baseball Academy? Who knows? The public wasn't informed by ownership why they would rehire a convicted cheater, they just did it and disappeared to avoid any fallout. Nearly a decade has gone by since Cora arrived, and Cora has had a losing record with no Division Titles, rings or legitimate post season appearances where they had comparable talent to those they opposed. That's still true today. 2 - Ownership is weak and confused as to how to profit from sustained winning. Their formula is to win then turnover the team in their prime. Yes, it's not a winning strategy. The peaks have been high and short lived for them and the demolition history has been long and devastating. Bloom did the biggest butcher job under the premise of building the farm system but that never happened. Cherrington made enough mistakes to cost the owners millions in profits and create a general distrust in GMs. Heck, even when the GMs were doing things right (Theo and DD) they still fired the GM. Breslow shot life back into a dead franchise in 2025 and the owners sucked the life back out so the 2026 season will be a time to accumulate profits not make another run at winning. 3 - Fan base. Boston fans of old are being replaced by short concentration fans who like the winning but otherwise don't care much if they aren't winning. They focus on people not success. That's why an unsuccessful and untalented manager (Cora) and GM (Bloom) never got run out of town when their lacking talent and success were made public quickly after being hired. The percentage of diehard fans has dropped so dramatically. Those of us who have been supporting the team a half century are now fading into the sunset with age and the new generation simply lacks passion due to the many life distractions that exist today and no history of living their lives around the game. The Mookie trade should have created a massive uproar in Boston, instead, the uproar came from LA where they stole a generational player. If the team continues to skid in April, May attendance will be dismal based on the current fan base loyalty. 4 - NESN and the media. Just like the press does on most topics, it obscures the truth when it comes to specific players, managers, GMs and owners. Politically correct ideas and values for the Boston area have left the fans confused about who contributes to the success of the Red Sox and who tears down the success of the Red Sox. Public opinion is completely controlled by the media so players like Abreu, Mayer, Narvaez/Wong, Contreras and Bello are hyped well beyond their skill levels. In the meantime, the core guys who carry the club don't get the recognition they deserve by the press. Those players include Duran, Rafaela, Yoshida, Casas, Campbell, Houck and Crawford. Yes, Crochet is great and the press is fair to hype him. Early is going to be great but the press focuses on Anthony only when it comes to young stars. They tried to include Mayer with Anthony, but the actual skill levels are so radically different they looked foolish. Maybe if Cora was gone and the front office stopped dictating the viewpoints on players the fans might start enjoying all the players on the roster not just the entitled ones. So, will 2026 end up a disaster? Time will tell. Breslow could trade for a catcher, 3B, 2B, 1B and clear out some of the over-hyped players and improve the team, but that seems unlikely. Cora could be fired but that too seems unlikely despite being obvious. Tolle could find an off-speed pitch and get promoted and Suarez and Gray could start pitching like they are capable and maybe the team could win more games with their pitching. That would be nice. If Crochet had a lengthy injury, the team probably would tank for a high draft pick. The spectrum of success is huge in 2026. They could win 81 games as is, 90 with improvements and 70 with injuries. Let's hope for the 90 with improvements.

Before ANYONE gets excited about the highly over-rated Abreu's early season heroics, look back just one year and see what he did in April and then after April. He hit .295 with an OPS of .965 through April. He finished the year hitting .247 by hitting .219 after April 30th. His OPS finished at a weak .786 almost .200 points below his first month of the season. In 2024, he hit .316 in April and .233 in May. He finished with a .253 average and .781 OPS. Remember, these numbers are primarily against right-handed pitchers because his career against left-handed pitchers is .216 with a .616 OPS!! So, slow the jets on Abreu being an all-star this season. Be happy with him simply not sucking after April like both other years. His sample size is two full seasons because he came up late in 2023 and didn't have to maintain his fast start because the season was over before his annual dip after his annual quick start occurred. Without Bregman this year, the offense should be significantly less effective at scoring and preventing scoring. Story had a career year last year for him based on age, Duran flourishes as a hitter in CF and is playing left due to a pathetic manager not realizing what makes each player excel, Mayer is and has been a disappointment at hitting and fielding most of his career in the minors and has only played defense well since making the MLB. Anthony is ONE guy and can't carry the team. He misses Bregman's bat behind him in the order. Contreras is on a four-year decline so counting on him is pure optimism and Narvaez needs to hit for the season not just the start of the season to be a legit catcher. So why are we so far behind expectations? ONE - Cora is still mismanaging the team and has cost us half our loses with bad pitching decisions. TWO - Other than Crochet and Early, the rest of the pitchers are incredibly inconsistent. Tolle needs to get an off-speed pitch and join the rotation. Gray and Suarez were supposed to be much better than they have shown, hopefully, that's only a temporary issue but many pitchers simply can't join the AL East and succeed after pitching in lesser divisions. Bello is like Mayers, he's simply over-rated and expecting anything more than a journeyman's performance is extremely optimistic. Compare the strengths vs the weaknesses of this team: WEAKNESSES 1 - Manager 2 - Catcher 3 - 3rd base 4 - 2nd base 5 - 1st base 6 - Right Field 7 - DH 8 - SP 3, SP 4 and SP 5 (Crochet and Early only two not a weakness as of today) 9 - All relievers not named Chapman and Whitlock STRENGTHS Crochet, Early, Chapman, Whitlock, Story, Rafaela, Duran How many wins should that translate to? 81? Losing Bregman doubles the negative impact by exposing Cora's daily mistakes even more. Bad pitching choices in relief kills the team, bad positioning of players like Duran in LF hurts the team along with Rafaela not playing RF. Adding a bad 3B, a weak 1B and using a returning early round draft pick that has done nothing but disappoint the organization over the years all contribute to a big step down from 2025. This will be very hard on the fans, and I sure hope the call for Cora's head is loud and effective. He should be gone before May to fix the chemistry on this team.

Take a hard look at this pitching staff. The two biggest issues are talent and a very bad Manager. TALENT There is Crochet, a top 2 AL SP to anchor the staff is great. Connelly Early the next ACE of the staff will keep the team in games and continue to improve. Has an outside chance of making the All-Star team with Crochet. Sonny Gray, a guy who flourishes with non-competitive teams. His time in NY was a disaster. Don't be shocked if the same happens in Boston. He's 36 and put up a 3.42 and 1.20 in Oakland through 2016 (10 years ago in a town with no pressure). He spent 3 years in CIN another town with no pressure and put up 3.49 and 1.15. 2 years in STL another low-pressure place and he put up 4.07 and 1.16. 2 years in MIN yet another low-pressure place with a 2.90 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. 2 years in NYY with high pressure and his numbers jump to 4.51 and 1.42 back in 2017 and 2018. Now, 8 years later he goes to his second high pressure town and team, and he begins with a 4-inning effort with a 6.75 ERA and 1.75 WHIP. Yes, it's a small sample. Yes, it resembles his downfall in NY the other high-pressure position he had in his career. I believe Early will have the far more effective season than Gray (our current #2 SP based on Cora's opinion). Ranger Suarez, coming from Philly he is used to pressure and has performed well in it. His first start was not good, but his upside seems higher than Gray's. He's 6 years younger and his 8 years with PHI led to a 3.38 ERA and 1.27 WHIP in a small ballpark. Those are great indicators of success for him in BOS. When things shake out, he will likely have better numbers than Gray and should be the #3 SP in the rotation. Brayan Bello, hyped as a prospect he has been a disappointment. He's only 27 years old but hasn't provided reliable pitching for his first three and 1/3 full seasons. ERAs ranging from 3.35 (only one under 4) to 4.71 and WHIPS varying between 1.24 (only one 1.34) to 1.78 he's a bottom of the rotation pitcher who has been treated with more respect than Early who truly is a great prospect. 2025 can be looked at as him finally developing or it could be like our catchers, a one-year wonder scenario. We see this all the time with Cora and the Red Sox front office and NESN. Bello, on a good team, should be the 6th or 7th starter not the 5th starter. If Houck was healthy, he should be slotted ahead of him along with Crawford and Sandoval. So, bottom-line, this staff is mediocre. Two great pitchers at the top, one very good pitcher in the middle of the rotation, one SP2 who should be a SP4 and one journeyman who shouldn't be there. Breslow needs to find help because of item two listed above. BAD MANAGER Couple the mediocre SP talent (not including Crochet, Early and Suarez) with a terrible manager who never should have received the honor of being a Red Sox manager and you have a disaster waiting to happen. Until Cora figures out WHEN the right time is to pull a starting pitcher and WHO should come in to keep the baserunners from scoring, Boston's ERA and WHIP will be higher than it should be. It's not that the bullpen is terrible, it's completely misused by an unknowledgeable manager whose only skills include interpersonal relationships with specific players on his team, upper management, ownership, the media and the grounds crew. Managing the roster is done poorly. Managing game situations is done poorly. Managing the batting order is done poorly. Managing the starters based on meritocracy is done very poorly. Managing the starting rotation is done poorly and last but not least managing pitching substitutions is done horribly. Breslow needs to fire Cora to improve results, or Cora will be talking with ownership about finding a new GM. Breslow needs to fix the problem just like he did when Devers was shipped elsewhere and Bregman was brought in to fix the hole at 3B that now exists again. Fire Cora and trade for a reliable 3B, Catcher, 2B and fix the positions in the OF. Abreu needs to go before he repeats his .219 average against mostly right-handed batters in 2025 after April 30th. The gold gloves are created by hole in the metric created by the dimensions of Fenway and his power is good but not timely or consistent. Rafaela, Duran and Anthony needs to be the outfield this season and Boston is weak at every infield position other than SS. Contreras will continue his rapid decline in hitting. Mayer will prove he isn't the player the front office and Cora suggest he is and we desperately need a 3B the caliber of a Bregman. After 5 games we've seen 1 win by Crochet, two back-to-back losses when Cora relieved the starter at the wrong time with the wrong reliever, two SPs not good enough to stop the HOU hitting. Lack of skill and a bad manager is a lot to overcome.

Crocket is a great pitcher but winning a Cy Young in the same league with Skubal is going to be very difficult. They are top 5 pitchers like in the old days when Koufax would beat out Drysdale, Gibson, Marichal and all the top AL SPs (only one CY Young award each year until Koufax retired). The difference is it took Koufax 9 years to be good enough to win a Cy Young award and he had a losing record for his first 6 seasons. Then in 1963 he suddenly became dominant and won 3 of the next 4 Cy Young awards against all MLB pitchers. He finished 3rd behind Dean Chance and Larry Jackson in 1964. Crochet and Skubal are both ahead of Koufax in achieving greatness. Crochet finished second to Skubal in his 5th season and Skubal has won back-to-back Cy Youngs starting in his fifth season. The good news is that Paul Skene is in the National League, so Crochet doesn't have to compete against him for a Cy Young. Skene finished 3rd in the NL in the Cy Young vote as a rookie and won it in year 2. Step back for a moment and put this into perspective. Koufax albeit a questionable choice for the HOF with his limited seasons of greatness (4) was the most dominant pitcher in the early 60s but it took nearly a decade for him to achieve his greatness. Skenes, Skubal and Crochet have done it in less than half the time it took Koufax to become great. That speaks volumes about the quality of pitching in 2026. Yes, hitters may be diluted compared to the sixties thanks to all the additional teams today, but the greatness should not go unnoticed. We are very fortunate to have Crochet and with some luck and a better new manager I believe some day he will have a shot at the Cy Young award, post Cora.

It looks to me we have the same issue on the Red Sox as the last 5 years, bad manager. Uberstine could be a great pitcher, but when the manager is clueless with respect to making pitching changes, sometimes the quality of the pitcher still can't win games. Take today's game and yesterday's game in Cincinnati. Today, Early throws an excellent game and leaves when Cora decides that his pitch count is more important than winning. At 96 pitches, Early should have stayed in to get the double play like several times earlier in the game but instead, he's pulled for Weissert who had been ineffective the day before. This is classic Cora. Bad choice switches a win to a loss. 5 years he's been doing this and he still gets to manage. It's a travesty. The season is 3 games old, and we have two losses due to poor choices after the starter comes out. Yesterday, Gray wasn't pitching well but the bullpen must stop rallies before they change the outcome of games. The bullpen only has Whitlock who can do that consistently. Weissert is gasoline on the fire. Why do the Red Sox ERAs end up higher than they should, the percentage of times the base runners left on by the starter score. Early should have given up ZERO runs but instead got tagged for a run because of a bad choice by Cora. He did to Sale, Eovaldi and so many of the pitchers over the last 5 years, somebody should have noticed by now. They need to take all pitching decisions out of the hands of Cora. I'm going to track losses caused by the Manager's poor decision making with respect to pitching substitutions. Right now, he is 2 for 2 in losses that shouldn't have happened, but he made the wrong choice. Let's hope someone informs Cora when he finally gets Uberstine as to what types of situations he can be successful in. Clearly, Weissert cannot fill the role Whitlock had in the old days of following the starter so inherited runs when playing from ahead are not allowed to score. I bet the next time the same situation occurs to the starter Cora makes the exact same mistake once again. If nothing else, he's consistent at being bad at substituting SPs.

Connor Wong is a one-time wonder. So is Narvaez. The future was tossed into a trade with Chicago to get Crochet when Teel should have been off limits. Now there is no future catcher on the horizon. Boston needs to find a viable future catcher like Teel. Until they do, catcher and 2nd base will be two holes that need to be filled for years to come. Frankly, 3B is weak now without Bregman and 1B is weak with a converted old catcher trying to stop his massive decline over the last three years. It's hard to believe but Story who forgot how to play for 3 years is now the most attractive player in the Red Sox infield. Hard to believe, but it's true. Mayer is a joke, Contreras is a has been, both catchers are one year wonders and lets hope Durbin can put up decent numbers. Casas, Campbell, Yoshida have all been dismissed as invaluable players without any justification for those decisions by the horrific manager. Abreu is an enigma. A player who can't field yet wins gold gloves due to the screwed-up metrics that get applied in right field of Fenway Park, who also hit .219 after April in 2025 but has become more prominent in Cora's eyes after that fail. Even Jarren Duran who has been nothing but good for Boston yet has about a 50% fan support which makes no sense especially when his boss can't figure out that he should be the full time CF with Rafaela in RF. And last but not least, it's a real conundrum how Cora is liked by fans considering his sinister history in HOU and then again in BOS. It's funny how adding Breslow has created a dichotomy of success. On the one hand we have a great pitching staff that keeps getting better. On the other hand, we have worsening defense even after finally eliminating Devers' stone hands because the manager who has no baseball acumen can't figure out where the outfielders should play, he refuses to use meritocracy to define who plays and where they bat in the batting order and after years of being wrong with pitching substitutions, he hasn't learned a thing from all his experience. Since Cora arrived, the team has failed in the last two months of the season consistently. That is not a coincidence, it's a lack of acumen by the manager. Much like two years ago when Devers was on the team, you must rid the team of the biggest problem. That problem now is Cora.

Who will play once Mayer reinjures his wrist for the fourth time? Also, his defense was substandard in the minor leagues, yet you expect him to be a gold glove player at the MLB level? Kinda like Abreu leads the outfield in errors but gets to be a gold glover despite all his mistakes? Mayer fielded at a .953 pace at shortstop in the minors. Does that sound like a gold glover to you? And like Abreu who hit .219 after April in 2025 while facing mostly right-handed pitchers, you think Mayer will bounce back from his third wrist injury in four years? Why? Because Bloom wasted the fourth pick in the draft and now the Red Sox have to sell it as if it wasn't a huge mistake? Numbers don't lie and wrist injuries don't heal easily and they reduce the batter's ability to hit for power. I'll ask again, who gets to start at 2B once Mayer is out? Besides catcher, 2B is the second biggest issue in the Red Sox line-up. Hopefully, all the pitching additions will allow this team to be average hitters and defenders in hopes of staying with TOR, NYY and BAL.

Connelly Early will be the next big thing in Boston as he surpasses Crochet in performance over the next two years. Fantasy players should grab this guy in keeper leagues.

Based on his age and his improving maturity, he has a great chance to be a perennial all-star due to his stellar defense, his speed, his "clutch factor" and his willingness to work hard even when his manager and front office treat him radically different from lesser stars like Mayer and Abreu.