TedYazPapiMookie

Look back to recent seasons and you'll find that history shows a drop off in the second half will happen. The lone exception was 2021 before the new scheduling within the division. With only 13 games vs the AL East but most of them falling into AUG/SEP BOS has failed miserably since the schedule change. We still have Cora so the results should be the same in 2025. Trading should be strategic this season and not to win a playoff spot. What does this team need to increase 2026 talent? 1 - TWO Starting pitchers to sit behind Crochet/Giolito that are better than Sandoval, Houck, Crawford, Bello, Dobbins and Fitts. 2 - This team needs better bullpen arms. Chapman needs to be extended a year and the mediocre relievers that bridge the Starters and Chapman need to be significantly upgraded. 3 - Narvaez has NO HISTORY of being a good hitter until 2025 so he may be a one hit wonder like Wong was last year. We had an excellent long-term solution in Teel, but he was the big cost in getting Crochet. Now we need another Teel-like catcher who is a team leader and a potential all-star. 4 - The insanity at 1B needs to stop. If Casas is NOT the long-term solution, then apparently Campbell is supposed to be, but he IS NOT a proto-typical player for that position. With only one true power hitter in the outfield in Anthony and two speedsters that are doubles hitters more than HR hitters, the corner infield spots need to be power hitters. Bregman is an outstanding hitter but not a big HR guy but an adequate HR guy who is highly productive. Story, Mayer, Campbell and all the slugs Cora uses in the infield are not power guys either. So 1B needs to be a big right-handed power guy with 40 HR capability or we need a catcher like Raleigh or Goodman who can make up for the lack of HRs at the corner infield spots. With 4 needs, Breslow simply must find the teams willing to provide our needs with what BOS has on its MLB roster (Yoshida, Story, Abreu, Refsnyder, Gonzalez, Toro) or its prospects that are blocked by the current prospects being touted so highly (Arias, Garcia, Tibbs, Cespedes, Soto, Rodriguez, Romero, Bleis or Taylor). Breslow needs to be a surgeon who only extracts players that will contribute Day 1 of 2026 and the cost needs to not reduce the immediate value of the ball club so certain players must be off limits (Bregman, Mayer, Campbell, Anthony, Duran, Rafaela, Crochet, Giolito and Chapman). One last reminder, the current team has many hot players that are very likely to cool off significantly because they are playing above their skill level. They include Abreu, Gonzalez, Toro, Narvaez, Eaton, Refsnyder and Sogard. On the other hand, Story, Anthony, Mayer, Campbell, Rafaela and Duran should all raise their hitting the second half. Each time the schedule hits a weak patch translated into a winning streak two bad things happen; First, fans get their hopes up more than they should and second, Cora's tenure get extended leading to yet another dismal AUG/SEP performance. I hope Breslow gets HIS manager before the 2026 season begins so the playoffs become a real possibility.

I want to compliment you on the research that went into your article and ask you a few questions. 1 - The premise that BOS would trade for a catcher prospect after they gave up Teel in their deal to get Crochet, what was the basis of that choice compared to the alternative of getting a more experienced catcher? Teel was on the verge of being an MLB #1 catcher and now is with CWS. Why would Breslow want to take a step backwards with regard to finding the catcher of the future? Last year everyone thought Wong had stepped up and become the C of the future except his history suggested he was more of a pretender than a keeper, especially since Friedman gave him up. It turns out 2025 seems to suggest that he was a pretender. Now Narvaez coming from the Yankees is having an outstanding year. In fact, it's a career year for a guy who toiled in the minors from 2016 to 2024 when he got a NYY call-up for 6 games and hit .231. His minor league history is actually worse than Wong's was. He only hit .300 once in 8 seasons so far and that was at Hi-A in 2022 where he hit .304 and recently, he went to the Venezuelan Winter League and showcased a .377 average in 24 games against lesser competition. I have my doubts about Narvaez just like I had with Wong. Teel on the other hand had built a strong reputation and looked to be the next coming of Fisk or Varitek depending on how much of his full potential he achieved. So, the idea of needing a catcher is a great one!!! I'm only asking you why Breslow shouldn't aim hire for a proven catcher to be the #1 in 2026 with either Narvaez or Wong being the back-up? You made a logical argument for your choices, I simply think we need to aim higher for a more experienced catcher and then consider a catcher in the draft this year in the second round. I got a lot of grief from some of the more vocal participants on the website for suggesting Raleigh but thinking big isn't a common practice by many of the participants on the website. I figure anything Friedman can do; Breslow can do so go big or go home. Find a player you can overpay for but is worth it like Friedman did with Mookie, Freddy and Ohtani is smart baseball. Boston has the money to get a Raleigh and the prospects to make that happen so why not take a shot. 2 - Boston Bateman is an interesting choice. He doesn't have much data to look at so I'm impressed with the depth of your knowledge about him. His one season on Baseball Reference doesn't show anything exceptional at A ball but he does come from a hotbed of great HS programs in Southern California and ranked well with Perfect Game. His size for me is a double-edged sword. At 6-8 240 he is awfully large for a 19-year-old. CC Sabathia comes to mind. If he can pitch like him, that would be great. His weight could also be a potential problem. Your comparison to Tolle was very interesting. Tolle being an accomplished College player that is 3 years older but 2 inches smaller and 10 pounds heavier would create quite the starting rotation with the current BOS starters. It would look like a basketball team with some very big forwards!! I agree that this is the type of SP that BOS should be seeking to bolster our current IL pitchers with limited experience (Houck, Crawford and Sandoval). Thanks again for putting together such a well-researched article. It's articles like this one that make this website a fun place to find out opinions from knowledgeable baseball fans. Great job.

Great data without context. To put it into context you need to explain why a team with such an average record can be ranked so high in categories that should create wins but don't. Do they score over 10 runs a game during blow outs more often accounting for the absurdly high ranking? And then during normal games struggle to score runs? If so, does that sixth best runs scored stat mean anything? Do you see it as a team who beats up bad pitchers but struggles with good ones? Does that constitute a good offensive team that could win in the playoffs when they will see good pitchers not the clowns, they run the score up on? Data needs context. For metric supporters like you, this wrongfully suggests things that simply aren't true based on the "estimates in a vacuum" that you provided and thrive on. This is why averaging, and normalization is a faulty baseball estimating approach to providing meaningful data. If you want to show comparative stats you need to show the whole picture. Ranking is what metrics is all about and why it's meaningless with respect to precision. To begin with, how do the 30 teams compare with respect to the pitching they have faced in all their games this year? Are the teams with a favorable schedule with respect to opposing pitchers being evaluated equally with those with those facing the most elite pitchers? That's why what you posted is meaningless without context but is an approach most media commentators and TV personalities related to baseball use. Gross generalizations that simply don't apply. A team on a hot streak hardly ever gets an asterisk that explains they just played the weakest part of the schedule. Hey, the team is hot and that's all the analysts have time for and it's completely out of context like your data above. SO, to be fair, you actually say the darndest things not me.

Obviously, you struggle with the concept of two different topics and how concepts apply to them. Let me enlighten you since you didn't get the obvious distinction. 1 - The 2025 comparison you referenced when someone CHERRY PICKED data is a common trick that people use to try to misuse stats by segmenting winning time frames for their arguments. 2 - The discussion about Rafaela relates to what CORA did to him. It's not a comparison between players it is a statement of fact related to how Cora has mistreated Rafaela over time and the impact his actions have on players. Since you didn't understand the difference between this concept and a comparison between two players, I might be wasting my time trying to explain this to you, I'm guessing you are very inexperienced in baseball but here goes anyway. Netflix showed the devastation Cora's actions had on Duran and then Cora did the same to Rafaela and it devastated him based on how he dramatically dropped off from his successful minor league career just like Duran did. Rafaela came up much like Campbell and was awesome. Spectacular catches in CF and he hit .305 through his first 20 games in 2023. He batted leadoff and thrived at it. By SEP 24th, 2023, he was hitting .294 with a .799 OPS as the leadoff man for BOS. The team under Cora shut down like they always do in SEP vs the AL East and they lost 3 of their last 5 games to TB (1) and BAL (4). They got shutout by Glasnow and both leadoff man Rafaela and #2 hitter Abreu went 0 for 4. Then Dean Kremer shut them out the next game versus BAL with Rafaela going 0 for 4 while BOS got just 3 hits. Then BOS beat John Means 3-0 with Rafaela going 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored as leadoff man. BOS had 4 hits that game. The next game CORA benched Rafaela and BOS lost 5-2 vs Kyle Gibson. Then the last game of the season Cora benched Rafaela yet again and continued to use Verdugo as the leadoff man. The end of season brought Rafaela average down from .294 to .241!!! Yep, 23 good games got ruined by 3 starts where nobody hit for the Red Sox to end the season and on top of that Rafaela's days of leading off which went very well ended. In 2024 Duran became the leadoff man and Rafaela never made it to the top of the order again and was relegated to the 9th spot for most of the season despite being more productive than the platoon guy who got to bat 2 when played in games where RH pitchers started. The demotion allegedly was due to performance so the point #2 that you mentioned related to how Cora doesn't use a performance system for upgrading and downgrading players. If he had, Rafaela would have earned a top 3 status several times over the last year and a half. See that's why the current data was important and that's why this use of data was COMPLETELY different than the other example which was cherry picking related to a comparison. The whole point was if a player performs well, he should be rewarded and that distinction should have been obvious to any knowledgeable baseball fan not looking to take a shot at someone. You have an unusual sense of humor. I'm guessing it's embarrassing to not understand things and try to make fun of other people and to have it blow up in your face.

Duran has a career average against LH pitchers of .237 and Abreu has a career average vs LH pitchers of .196. You really need to understand OPS better. It's really a poorly constructed derivative stat. What it is comprised of is the following: Average, Isolated Power and Walk Rate. OBP is BA and Walk Rate and SLG is Isolated Power and BA so BA is actually counted twice in OPS!!! Why? It made the math easier for fans. No actual baseball reason. So lets better understand the difference between the Power hitting Abreu and the all around hitter Duran BA measures hand/eye coordination and ability to put the ball in play ISO measures extra base hits and Walk rate measures one's batting eye BA against lefties are .237 vs .196 for Duran vs Abreu. In comparison, against righties they are .279 vs .272. The differential for Duran is .042 and for Abreu it's .076 nearly double that of Duran. Duran's walk rate vs LH pitchers and RH pitchers is .046 and .058 and Abreu's splits are .075 and .069. Duran walks roughly the same % of the time vs both RH and LH pitchers and the same is true for Abreu except Abreu actually walks slightly more vs LH pitchers. Abreu's .271 and .341 OBPs are 70 points different because of the bad batting average vs LH pitchers. The walks don't off set the problem with OBP versus RH and LH pitchers for Abreu. Next is slugging percentage and the ISO portion of it. Abreu the power hitter has a .103 ISO vs LH pitchers and a .232 ISO vs RH pitchers. That's more than double what he does vs LH pitchers. (.129 points higher) Duran on the other hand has a .100 ISO vs LH pitchers and a .171 vs RH pitchers. A 71 point difference vs Abreu's 129 point difference. That means all of the advantage Abreu has in power is lost against LH pitchers. Duran's OPS vs LH pitchers is .617 and vs RH pitchers is .826 and Abreu's OPS vs LH pitchers is .570 and vs RH pitchers is .845. Those are the facts about their careers. It's your call to choose a subset of data that helps make your point but that is called cherry picking!! Note your OPS is .678 vs his actual OPS of .570 and note that Duran's according to you is .580 vs his actual OPS vs LH pitchers of .617. The season is barely half over and Abreu has historically fallen off in the second half so why not take the entire career number since both careers are so young? Or maybe we should just take a day when Abreu does better than Duran against a LH Pitcher? The comparable stats are not to be cherry picked like you did. If you want to claim Abreu has been hotter than Duran so far this season, I have no problem with that. It's true so far. But the season isn't over and the true history suggests that this "point in time" advantage is NOT representative of season long performances. There is NO QUESTION that Abreu can't hit LH pitchers and if you want to argue we should throw out Duran's far better past performances vs LH pitchers so you can claim Abreu is actually better go ahead. Everyone knows it's a point in time anomaly not the truth. Picking the right segment of data can show almost anything as you have just proven to everyone. Sorry but you lose this discussion for using a too small sample size.

Abreu is a part time player who can't hit lefties. He shouldn't be in the mix for defense since he only starts roughly 60% of the time. Rafaela has the strongest arm so he belongs in RF. The fact that it's the toughest field for 81 of the game further supports that decision. Duran has an incredible record on defense in CF. End of story. No reason to move him from CF. Anthony is the next Yaz/Ted so he fits in the legend of BOS left fielders and his defensive skills are third best. We have no idea whether Duran could play right field but he has the weakest arm so he shouldn't. That leaves the maximized defense with Anthony in LF, Duran in CF and Rafaela in RF like Mookie the true gold glover that owned the position until they gave him away.

Your interpretation of Campbell's minor league positions and mine don't agree. The organization was committed to Mayer being the SS, so they pushed Campbell to 2B just like when he was forced to 2B in college due to another incumbent SS. They didn't start Campbell at SS after they drafted him in 2023 due to Mayer. What that has to do with my comments about Cora is very unclear since nothing I wrote about Cora tied to that time period. At the end of 2023 Mayer was hurt again so 2024 became a trial period for Campbell playing SS in case Mayer turned out to be injury prone or a bust since his fielding % was close to Devers in the minors. Campbell outperformed Mayer at SS in 2024 on defense and he out hit Mayer so logically one would think he would get a shot at SS in 2025 as the best performer in the minors in 2024 and the fact that Story played 2B in BOS during 2022 and was not a long-term solution. But Cora intervened and chose to stick with Story pushing Campbell back to 2B keeping the path for Mayer clear from better players who might prove to be the best answer at SS. Cora has a history of protecting spots for players not deserving of them. He never let any of the better qualified 3Bs try out to be the starter ahead of Devers until Bregman finally got the chance. It took 8 seasons. Eight seasons from now if Cora is still managing, I'm sure an unqualified guy like Mayer will be playing subpar defense like Devers did but will continue to own the position. That's Cora's track record of ineptitude. So, you basically flew off the handle with some ridiculous comments about Cora during a time frame that was never mentioned in my comments related to Cora. I hope this response clarifies things in your mind about how we got to this point with Campbell. Clearly your issues with Campbell drive exaggerated and unfounded comments about Campbell's ability. I guess any competition for Mayer is unwanted to Mayer fans. To each his own.

Your opinions don't align with any of the facts, so they are unsubstantiated opinions. Its fine that you believe whatever you believe but when they don't align with facts, it's hard to justify what you are saying. They come across as random insights without documentation. The concept of maximizing talent doesn't seem to fit into your opinions. The best OFer is Rafaela and playing him in the toughest position is logical as opposed to an emotional response that simply states what you want. Duran's multi-year performance in CF clearly qualifies him as the second-best CF on the team and since we need Rafaela in RF this should be a no brainer. There is too little data on Anthony to conclusively say he's not a better CF than Duran, but I believe time will prove out the fact that he is the third best defender among Rafaela, Duran and Abreu. As far as Abreu goes, he can't hit left-handed pitchers, so he needs to be a part time player at best, or the team needs to live with his 72-point differential between hitting RH pitchers .262 and LH pitchers .196. Since they face LH pitchers roughly 40 percent of the time that means the hitting is severely weakened if Abreu bats in 40 percent of their games against LH SPs. To me, that's unacceptable. His value only comes from platooning and his defense isn't good enough to be used when he is platooning so he becomes a 60% of the time DH. That's why I say trade him and let the other team figure out how to use his very limited set of skills. FYI... your analysis of Anthony's outfield skills does not align with most scouting information I've seen. Bernie Pleshkoff writes "Defensively, Anthony has a strong and accurate arm, but he is probably an average defender. He could be comfortable playing either corner outfield position." Baseball America writes "He most likely will become a power-hitting corner down the road, though the Red Sox won't rush him off center field." So most opinions of his defense vary from strong arm but not a CFer to an average corner OFer. That's why he is perfect for 81 games in LF in Fenway and the other 81 games in LF in parks with normal dimensions.

Seriously. You make a statement but don't explain why you think it and somehow that's on me? Interesting logic. I thought my comment might get you to provide insight into why you said what you said but instead you dodge the explanation. OK. Let's not talk about it but you did write what I asked about whether it was not a previous topic of yours or not.

So, you don't think they are better than they played but you didn't explain why so the discussion ends without a worthy comment to discuss. I think they are much better than they played because they need a real manager to set proper line-ups, handle the bullpen properly and not over play the scrubs. I am glad you don't think Duran belongs in RF and it's for the season I said he doesn't have the arm that Rafaela has. So we agree but leaving him in LF is a huge mistake considering the facts of how great he played in CF and how great Rafaela would be in RF. The defense would significantly be upgraded without Abreu. Check the stats. He's going to be the fourth best defender if Anthony is better than him because both Duran and Rafaela have beat him in a year where he won a GG because his competition was nowhere near as good as that faced by our two CFs. Having Rafaela in RF means the best defender with the stronger arm than Duran is in RF. That's exactly what you want in every park. Fenway is an 81-game exception since RF is the most difficult field but your statement about defensive value being minimized is a gross exaggeration that is completely incorrect based on the numbers. Campbell played 55 games in the minors at 2B after being a SS his whole life and put up a .976 fielding percentage learning his new position. Mayer played SS his whole life like Campbell and played 269 games or 5 times as many as Campbell in the minors with an abysmal .953 fielding percentage while Campbell only got 36 games at SS in 2024 in the minors and had a .971 fielding percentage. Those are facts that prove your comments to be an opinion inconsistent with the facts. Why are you so far off with your opinions? Your assumptions. You think Cora knows what he's doing. He doesn't. He's an idiot when it comes to selecting positions for players. No better example than him not using past performance to play Duran in CF. Or not using Campbell's FAR superior performance in the minors to give Campbell SS initially when he was brought to the MLB out of Spring Training. Cora is clueless as a manager as evidenced by his thousands of mistakes that happen daily that I have documented. Next, your bias against Campbell is evident. The guy is a SS forced to play 2B at the mlb level and while doing it he's playing two outfield positions as well and learning 1B because Cora is an idiot. He's a freakin 23-year-old rookie who was drafted in 2023 - two short years ago. How can he be judged on anything when his MLB experience was designed for him to fail? Name another top ranked rookie who breaks into the majors as a utility player not at his normal position and is asked to learn 4 of the 8 positions on the field in his first months at the MLB level. I can't think of any other rookie tasked so poorly by their manager because no manager is as dumb as Cora, or as prejudiced as Cora. Hamilton sucks and is hitting .176 and has played nearly as many games as Campbell did when he got sent down. That's called Cora favoritism. Also, if Casas is back next year why have Campbell learn 1B? Is he replacing Casas? It can't be for the wasted 2025 season. There is no point to Campbell wasting time in the minors except it keeps him from proving that he's a better SS than Mayer. That's called Cora favoritism. The 2025 team could have been a playoff team with a REAL manager. The talent has improved and if played in the correct positions with the right batting order this team wins many more games and isn't a .500 team. If that had occurred Breslow might have gone out and got additional quality pitching to make a run at the playoffs but as it stands now, this team is a hot mess with no direction except chaos from the manager. Thank goodness for Breslow's pitching acquisitions other than Buehler, they are keeping a weak hitting team with a crap batting order from failing miserably. Once the weak part of the schedule they are in is complete, they are likely to do what they have done all season. Any winning streak will be matched by a losing streak. That's the Cora way!! The sooner he's fired the sooner Breslow can take HIS team into the future.

Here is a recap of the team's winnings by series 1 @Texas LOSS 2@ BAL Win 3 STL Win (SWEEP) 4 TOR LOSS 5 @CWS LOSS 6 @TB Win 7 CWS Win 8 SEA LOSS 9 @CLE Win 10 @TOR LOSS 11 MIN LOSS 12 TEX Win 13 @KC Win 14 @DET LOSS (SWEEP) 15 ATL LOSS 16 NYM Win 17 BAL TIE (2-2) 18 @MIL LOSS (SWEEP) 19 @ATL W 20 LAA LOSS 21 @NYY WIN 22 TB WIN 23 NYY WIN (SWEEP) 24 @SEA Win 25 @SF LOSS 26 @LAA LOSS (SWEEP) 27 TOR LOSS 28 CIN WIN 29 @WAS WIN After 29 series the Red Sox are 15-13-1. The series are listed in groups of four and the first 5 clusters all ended up being 2-2. That's .500 after 20 series. Then BOS started varying hot and cold so the 6th cluster was 4-0 not 2-2 and then the 7th was 1-3 with WAS starting the 8th cluster with a WIN. After the next series with COL the opponents get much tougher. So this cluster of four is WAS, COL, TB and CHC so it's likely to finish 2-2 like the first 5 clusters of 4. Then things escalate. Cluster 9 includes PHI, LAD, MIN and HOU. The 10th cluster is KC, SD, HOU and MIA. The 11th cluster is BAL, NYY, BAL and PIT as we see an incrase in AL East games. Cluster 12 includes CLE, ARI, OAK and NYY. The final cluster of 4 series includes OAK, TB, TOR and DET. A series with DET that could match up Crochet and Skubal unless DET has clinched and are lining up Skubal for the first game in the playoffs. A bye for DET could mean Skubal's last regular season start will be at Fenway. Starting at Cluster 9 it's hard to imagine BOS will break out and grow from a .500 team to a 90 win or more team during their last 20 series. It's possible but not likely. If it is to happen, the Cluster 9 series versus PHI, LAD, MIN and HOU can't be a disaster. Boston will need to win more than lose during those 4 series because the 9-game gap from 81 wins to 90 won't be easy to close with a 6-6 record during the Cluster 9 series. Time would be running out too fast and yet how likely is it BOS can win 6 of 12 versus PHI in PHI, LA in BOS, MIN in MIN and HOU in BOS? Time will tell.

You need to consider buy or sell on a trade-by-trade basis not in the generalities everyone seems to be suggesting. Start with your GOAL - 1) It's not buy or sell, it's try to win this year while looking to the future OR 2) look to the future and forget about the 2025 season as a goal, let any current success be icing on the cake as we prepare for 2026. My hope is Breslow chooses the latter. If he does, he realizes that he can't replace Chapman for 2026 like he can Story, Yoshida, Abreu and a bunch of farm players blocked by the great young team in the majors now. If that's the case, he extends Bregman and Chapman a year or two. Then he deals Story while he's hot and gets Yoshida into the DH spot to show he has value and then trades him. That means more payroll for 2026 or maybe just comparable payroll if he extends Bregman and Chapman. What does this team need going forward? Simple. Pitching. They need to use their farm system to add quality SPs from teams that are sellers. Edward Cabrera was suggested and that's a great idea. Sandy Alcantara was suggested and he's risky but he would up the talent level of the pitching staff significantly even if it takes to 2026 to get him back to his old talent level after his TJ surgery. The buyers or sellers paradigm is something the media forces on the public. Each trade should have a long-term goal that it fulfills. This team is not experienced enough to make a legitimate run at a Division Title or a lengthy playoff run. It's a year away if all choices with regard to talent focus on the future not a desperate effort to salvage 2025. In the long run, 2025 is nothing more than a steppingstone to the sustained success in the future.

Sell off redundant future assets only. Abreu is redundant and can't hit lefties. Casas is being replaced by a better prospect so that's not selling off a future asset either. I would love to see Story's salary dumped so the money can be used more effectively and if he stays hot like today, they should make that happen before he does his usual regression to the mean. With most teams hovering around .500 it's easy to think about BOS making the bottom of the playoff spots but you have to consider Cora is the manager who has failed to keep the team performing in August and September in all years except 2021 when he couldn't destroy their chances like the other years. Selling off talent was Bloom's thing. Breslow blew the Sale deal but otherwise has done well adding net talent. If he can lose Story's and Yoshida's payroll, he will be a rock star. The return on any trades at the deadline needs to set up 2026 but if it bumps the talent enough to make BOS close to making the playoffs in 2025, that's icing on the cake. We have two offensive positions that have potential issues in that Casas doesn't have the upside of most of the other young players in the starting line-up so an upgrade may be needed, and Narvaez hasn't proven to be reliable year to year. If he is, then back-up catcher is all we need to fill out the offense. The starting staff needs SP3 and SP4. Buehler was a nice experiment that failed, and it seems likely that Sandoval will be the same. Giolito could be a success story if he continues into the future pitching the way he's pitching now. Houck and Crawford need to get right to help this team in future. Bello seems to me to be a SP5 as his ceiling. Breslow needs to fix the pitching staff now that the offense is lining up well going forward.

If you saw today's game, Story might be heating up temporarily so there is no better time to unload his salary than the trade deadline. We can add so much more talent with that same money. I get that you think this team is probably better than they have played but with Cora managing August/September when they play the AL East the most has normally been a reversal of the early season success they have against the AL East. I see no reason for that not happening again in 2025. If nothing else, Cora is CONSISTENTLY bad. They could put Duran in RF, but you are again asking him to play a NEW field rather than the field where he has 2 errors in 550 total chances. That' makes no sense. Rafaela is a rock star on defense, and he will transition much more smoothly than Duran would. Heck if Verdugo and Abreu can play right and rank so highly in comparison to other RFers, how hard can it be? Neither is above average at defense. Rafaela should be a platinum defender pretty much wherever he plays. You might be right that they won't do the moves as they should but that doesn't make them the wrong moves, just the wrong choices by Cora and the front office. You play the players at the positions they are best at based on past performance. Duran is clearly a CF. Rafaela, a defensive rock star, can play right field better than anyone else in the organization and everyone has made out Anthony to be the next coming of Yaz and Ted so play him in LF where the greatest BOS players have played. Campbell outplayed the other young infielders in the minors at his normal position of SS. He did a fine job at learning 2B in the minors and even showed well in the outfield. You completely underestimate this kid's skills on offense and defense. No other current rookie has put up numbers that match his April numbers, so his ceiling remains higher than Mayer and Anthony so far. I do believe Anthony is going to get hot and exceed his ceiling long-term, but I don't believe Mayer will since he couldn't in the minors.

Larry, Severino has always been disliked for being a Yankee but he's very comparable to Giolito. He's a bit inconsistent but above league average. Springs has had an interesting career. He stunk in Tex as a reliever, then the pandemic year in BOS was a disaster, then TB got him and fixed him and made him a starter and he was very good at it. Then he had to get TJ surgery and came back from it in late 2024 with TB and only got a few starts and they weren't great, so he got moved to OAK. This year he started badly and then he started looking like the dominant Springs from his TB days. After 5 bad starts in April he has started 12 games with only 1 bad start. He has not given up more than 3 runs in the 11 other starts with his last four starts not exceeding 2 runs and he's pitched 5 or more innings in 11 of the 12 starts with 8 of the 12 being 6 or more innings. So, he is an innings eater with an ERA that dropped from 6.04 to 4.11 over the 12 starts and an excellent history prior to the TJ surgery. That's why I like him and filling two mid spots in the rotation would be huge for BOS. I'm not an Abreu fan like the other outfielders so I say give them Abreu his time is now because Duran, Rafaela and Anthony are all much better than him in the future.

Adding talent immediately is the result. When you add talent, the goal is to improve which they should. Putting BOS into the race for the last WC spot should happen. My personal opinion on whether they can make the last WC spot is based on my disbelief in the manager not the players added. In his six years as manager, CORA chokes down the stretch when his talent is marginal except in 2021. His bonehead line-ups, lack of timely pitching substitutions and his over resting his best players will consistently bite him as it always does. Make the deal and fire Cora and I believe they could finish higher than the last WC spot.

Let's be fair. First, Duran is an incredible centerfielder and an average left fielder. Cora is screwing up by playing him in centerfield. He needs to move Rafaela to the most difficult field in Fenway, right field so both CF and RF have the top two defenders. RF is such a weak position that being given a GG for playing RF in the AL is not too much better than a participation trophy. Heck, another just slightly above average outfielder named Verdugo almost won it the year before Abreu won it. It's a joke. Put Rafaela in RF and he'll be a Platinum Glove winner for years. Lastly, in the tradition of the great Boston players, we need Anthony in right field just like Yaz and Ted. That outfield will be the best in baseball. In the infield, Bregman had an early adjustment period but is now much more like the GG at 3B from last year. Mayer is supposed to be the SS of the future but struggled terribly in the minors and Campbell a natural SS since he was young should be given the first shot at SS but won't get that because of Cora. Mayer will get that, and the bias is strong enough that if he's just average and maybe even below average like Devers, he'll probably keep the unearned position. The tough question is, can Campbell successfully convert to 2B or is that why they were trying him at 1B? If they refuse to let him win the SS position, then he needs to maximize his skill at one of the other two positions because they need his bat in the line-up. Campbell already flashed greatness at hitting and now he needs to get back to the MLB to finalize his adjustments so he can thrive again. Hopefully, at some point soon Mayer will have flashes of greatness like Campbell, and it looks like Anthony might be turning the corner to fulfill the great expectations for him. People need to realize that the two infield rookies are going to struggle especially Campbell while learning the 2B position at the MLB level. Keeping Casas at 1B should be the long-term solution but it's so hard to tell with Cora's inconsistencies. He might pick Toro over Casas; he really doesn't have a good grasp for talent. By 2026 this team should be much better defensively if they slot the players in their best positions and at batting if they once again figure out a logical batting order based on skillsets of the hitters.

It's not. They have next to no shot at the playoffs this year. Best case the last WC spot but it's a huge, long shot. This is to build for next year. Story needs to be an expensive reserve or get hot and be another trade at the deadline to clear salary, and Campbell needs to be starting again to work his way through his adjustments. The minor leagues are doing nothing for him. They are delaying his growth as a player.

Rafaela has the top numbers for the month and Cora doesn't consider him in the top 3 spots in the order. Says everything about why the team loses so much. Bad manager. Duran is lefty, Rafaela is righty, Anthony is lefty, Narvaez is righty, Abreu is lefty, Toro is righty, Mayer is lefty, Campbell is righty and Story is righty. Hamilton back in AAA, Gonzalez reserve infielder, Refsnyder reserve OF/DH when LH pitchers start and Abreu sits, Wong back-up catcher. Eaton 13th man as IF reserve.

Trade deadline action - OAK sends Kurtz, Severino, Springs costing $31.3 Million to Boston for Casas, Houck, Crawford, Gonzalez and Yoshida costing $24 Million plus prospects Arias and Garcia. This is a salary dump for OAK that BOS absorbs for Kurtz and two quality starters to replace our current young starters that are hurt plus two highly ranked prospects and a quality DH in Yoshida. This adds enough talent immediately to put BOS back in the race for a wild card spot. C: Carlos Narvaez ($0.80M) 1B: Nick Kurtz ($0.80M) 2B: Marcello Mayer ($0.80M) 3B: Alex Bregman ($25.00M) SS: Kristian Campbell ($1.25M) LF: Roman Anthony ($0.80M) CF: Jarren Duran ($4.90M) RF: Ceddanne Rafaela ($1.25M) DH: Wilyer Abreu ($0.80M) 4th OF: Rob Refsnyder ($2.25M) Utility: Abraham Toro ($1.00M) Utility: Trevor Story ($23.3M) Backup C: Connor Wong ($0.80M) SP1: Garrett Crochet ($3.80M) SP2: Lucas Giolito ($19.00M) SP3: Luis Severino ($20.00M) SP4: Jeffrey Springs ($10.5M) SP5: Brayan Bello ($2.66M) RP: Aroldis Chapman ($10.75M) RP: Justin Wilson ($2.25M) RP: Greg Weissert ($0.80M) RP: Hunter Dobbins ($0.80M) RP: Richard Fitts ($0.80M) RP: Jordan Hicks ($12.50M) RP: Garrett Whitlock ($5.50M) RP: Liam Hendricks ($6.00M) Payroll is 33.70% under budget

To me drafting Gavin Kilen makes no sense. We have an all-star quality 2B wasting time in the minors and we have far bigger needs at pitching. Think about where our future weaknesses are!! C - Narvaez in his first year doing well but no track record of success and Wong is a one-time wonder. We need at least one catcher and we need for Narvaez to have sustainable success. 1B - Casas will be back and Toro has proven to be an excellent reserve corner infielder 2B - Campbell is in the process of dealing with his first adversity in baseball and is wasting his time in the Minors. He will be a fixture in the offense going forward. Story makes for an expensive reserve going forward because he can't put together a good enough season to have value to other teams. SS - Mayer needs to prove he can field and then he'll be a fixture in Boston for years with Story being his back-up as well. 3B - Bregman needs to be extended if the team is to compete before 2030. Toro is an excellent reserve at 3B as well. OF - LF - Anthony is a fixture going forward, CF - Duran should be a fixture going forward, RF- Rafaela will be an annual platinum glove winner in RF going forward since it's an incredibly weak field in RF in the AL. Refsnyder/Abreu can play the role of DH/4th OF. Other than catcher, there isn't a great need for hitters, the current ones simply need to develop their skills to their full potential. PITCHING As of today, we have Crochet as the ace. Giolito and Dobbins look like they might be keepers for 2026. Chapman should be a keeper for 2026 because the chances of replacing him with a comparable closer is very low. Wilson and Weissert look like keeper relievers. Beyond that we have question marks. This draft has to be all about pitching not hitting. We need college pitchers that will arrive quickly or simply unicorn HS pitchers who can hit 100 regularly. Anderson and Doyle should be gone by the 15th pick. Hernandez a HS unicorn will probably be gone too. Jamie Arnold would be excellent but he's not likely to be there. Tyler Bremner could fall to 15 so it's likely he will be one of the best SPs available at 15. The challenging part about college pitchers is that a high-profile performance at the CWS can jump a guy far more than he deserves to jump. That's why when a Cade Anderson or Liam Doyle come out of nowhere and leap to the top of the list you ask yourself is he a smart pick over the more consistent performers over time like Jamie Arnold or Tyler Bremner. Frankly, if Arnold or Bremner are available, I would take them, but I don't think they will be. So that means a unicorn HS pitcher or a guy who was incredible last year and has dropped significantly like Montgomery last year. Jace Laviolette led the rankings for most of the off season and preseason leading up to this draft and now he's at 19 in the recent mock drafts on BA. He may be the lone exception to drafting college SPs or unicorn HS SPs with the 15th pick. Unicorn SP/SS in HS that should be available at 15 include Jack Bauer, Josh Hammond, Quentin Young and Steele Hall. All have very high ceilings but will take longer to develop than college SPs. Lastly, since catcher is a bit of an IFFY position without Teel, if Narvaez pulls a Wong and is also a one-year wonder, we will still need a more permanent solution at Catcher. I believe Owen Jenkins may have the best upside, but nobody jumps out as a stud, so we really need Narvaez to be the catcher of the future for Boston.

I am also a fan of Jack Bauer if he is available. We have to see who drops because the most recent Mock Draft on BA has shown a few outstanding players dropping because others have done well at the College World Series. The top two pitchers in my book are Seth Hernandez and Jamie Arnold. Because of his performance at the CWS Kade Anderson has jumped to the top of many charts with respect to the #1 pick. I prefer Hernandez and Arnold. If they drop to 15 it's a no brainer. I doubt they will. If nobody drops significantly, then we need to look at Bauer, Owen Jenkins at Catcher, Josh Hammond SS/P, a sleeper Elly De Le Cruz type SS named Quentin Young and a very young Steele Hall.

Thank you for that feedback. I currently have eight members who are on my ignore lists due to abusive comments. I will keep your comments in mind as one of them seeks out my comments to slam them and I'd prefer he simply avoid commenting if he disagrees Again, I appreciate the olive branch.