TedYazPapiMookie

There are a lot of very short-sighted comments that have been offered in response to your article. The team won in 2018, got completely destroyed by Cora in 2019 then devastated by the Mookie trade which set back the organization a minimum of 5 years which has already been proven. Then Bloom dismantled the rest of the 2018 roster by the time he was fired in 2023. This set back the Red Sox even farther. Breslow was hired to try to restore the greatness the ownership destroyed beginning in 2019. Part of the Bloom debacle was the $70 Million he wasted on contracts for Devers, Story and Yoshida. Thank goodness Breslow was able to recover 8 of the 10 years of Devers contract but we still have two albatross contracts on the books. So, with all this happening what should Breslow do at the trade deadline? Before one answers that question, they should explain what their approach to the future is. For example, all the people saying trade Bregman should be stating that they want to stick a fork in winning for the next 5 years. Personally, that should be the LAST thing we would want for this storied franchise. Being non-competitive for another five years means an entire decade of wasted time being a Red Sox fan if you want the team to be competitive. Many don't so those folks don't care if we win or lose. I do. My belief is that we should build for a 2026 competitive team, so you keep the talented players and do your best to trade the albatross contracts, and the players not needed in 2026. Hitter Keepers - Bregman, Anthony, Duran, Rafaela, Mayer, Campbell, Casas, Toro, Narvaez, Refsnyder and Eaton Expendable Hitters if a return can be gotten for them - Story, Yoshida, Abreu, Gonzalez, Wong Players that belong in AAA in 2026 - Hamilton and Sogard unless somebody mistakenly sees value in them then trade them but that is HIGHLY unlikely. Pitching Keepers - Crochet, Chapman, Giolito Every other pitcher can be traded if a fair offer is made to the Red Sox. Breslow must take the Devers money and supplement the current pitching roster. SP and RP talent adds need to occur. You can't trade Crochet and the idea of trading Chapman to get a prospect is short-sighted thinking. Who can you get on the FA market that is better than Chapman in 2026 if you are trying to win the division? Extend him a year or two. He seems to like playing in Boston but only if the team is moving forward trying to win which can't happen if you deal Bregman. If you don't extend Bregman than nobody needs to be keep except prospects because it will be 5 years until the team is competitive. Let's hope Breslow is NOT bailing on the organization like so many here are suggesting. Extending the losing another 5 years should NOT be an option so Bregman must be extended because this team only has Bregman, Crochet and Chapman as perennial all-stars on the roster. Duran is the next best player who is also being suggested for trade which would set back the chances of winning severely. The trick of recovering from Bloom's destruction isn't going two steps forward and one backward. All steps at this point need to be forward. Trading your depth in the outfield with Yoshida and Abreu makes sense because there are only 3 OF spots and you can't stick with a platoon guy even if he does really well against RH pitchers. Yoshida is the stronger player because he hits both and Yoshida could probably win a GG in RF since the competition is so bad there based on Abreu winning and Verdugo almost winning the year before. The best trade we could make at the deadline is Cora for Bruce Bochy, but I don't think I could wish that on any team other than LAD or NYY and I wouldn't want either of their managers in return!! This trade deadline is a litmus test for Breslow. Let's hope he passes.

Just curious Alex, do you consider Wilyer Abreu's number a bit overstated since he doesn't face lefties? Should he have an asterisk? All three of the other players face both LH and RH players. I believe Boston has faced roughly 40% LH starting pitchers.

Throughout a season players must play through pain. Ripken played 162 each year and played through the pain and is in the Hall of Fame so it can be done but the expectation for the average Joe is less. 2 sits per month means 12 games off out of 162 or 150 games played. There are injuries that could lower that number but the base number each month for hitters that are not catchers is 2 games off. Anything more is a manager wanting to reward bench guys at the cost of losing games. Cora is famous for it. He identifies with bench guys because he was one for his whole 14-year career. The man hit .243 for 14 seasons. After his 28-year-old season he never played more than 100 games a year. He never played the normal 150 (for his era) because he wasn't good enough. Now his proteges take way more than 12 games away from starters. Why? Supposedly to keep the players fresher. If you ever played 150 games, you know it's not an issue of rest, it's simply an issue of politics within the clubhouse.

So, you think Breslow is pulling up guys like Hamilton and Wong and NOT Cora? That may be true, but I find it highly unlikely. Cora played Kiki Hernandez who he baby sat when Kiki was a child and Kiki never hit above .239 during his entire career. Better players sat so he could play a bench person. If a starter takes two days off a month he plays 150 games. If a player can't play 150 games (exclude deaths in the family etc) then they need to find a new profession unless they are a catcher or pitcher. I believe the way the relationship works between a manager and a GM is that the manager has input into the call-up process he isn't simply given guys selected by the GM in a vacuum. Based on the historical choices since 2018, I don't believe Cora had no input in the process. Too many of the same guys being called up under Cora have history with him.

His track record speaks for itself. The cheating is unforgiveable but the racist choices he's made are very disturbing. Baseball should always be about performance to me.

A lot of people would simply say "I disagree" that Cora plays his favorites, but you are always kind enough to take it a step further by saying it makes no sense because you don't see it the same way. Thanks for exaggerating the point. I'm not saying he just started playing his favorites, it's his normal activity as Manager since 2018. Check the history of specific Latin players versus white players. There is prejudice that has been exhibited by Cora since he took over. One of the most blatant was Robles. How many games did he blow for the Red Sox when better relievers were available. Martin Perez, Raffy Devers, Wilyer Abreu, David Hamilton to name a few. He's not 100% pro-Latin and anti-white but a fair evaluation would show his true tendencies. I believe managers should play the best players, not the ones they baby sat as children, not ones from their home country and not ones they became friends with when the they were in college. Those are my rules for a manager. You don't need to agree with them. You have a right disagree and many do that support Cora. Ever notice how Sale struggled with Cora, Price struggled with Cora and Kluber struggled with Cora? But a crap pitcher like Perez thrived under Cora because he pitched far more than his talent should have allotted him? The examples are endless and that's just ONE area of Cora being a bad manager. If he only had one issue as a manager, I wouldn't be so fanatical about my dislike for his managerial skills. The evidence to me is overwhelming and I get that it isn't to you. Which is why we can respectfully disagree but seldom does a disagreement on this site come with respect. Instead, I get it makes no sense not I respectfully disagree.

You clearly addressed the obvious issues with the team but you missed a lot of minor issues impacting the games. Lets start with the things that you criticized that may not have been mistakes. 1 - Duran going for second on a single is a "normal" approach to the game for him. He's usually safe and the lifeless team could have used a spark. It took a perfect throw to get him. For me, that's a smart risk. 2 - Playing the top 3 prospects is a good thing because this team is going nowhere even with Devers. Bloom got rid of almost every once of talent in the organization and Breslow has not yet replaced. Losing Sale was a Breslow mistake but gaining Crochet has been excellent along with Bregman. To increase the talent level the prospects need to play against MLB competition so sending Campbell down was a huge mistake. He's not learning anything while playing lesser competition, he's just losing confidence. Had Cora supported him like Anthony and Mayer he might never have faced the first adversity of his career. Cora mismanages the batting order and is doing a terrible job subbing pitchers throughout the game. The fastest way to get better is fire Cora and bring back Campbell and drop Hamilton, Wong and Sabol and sign a veteran back-up catcher who can hit over .150. As far as being a buyer or a seller at the deadline the answer is both. They need to clear salary from Yoshida and possibly Story at the deadline and if they can get anything for Buehler they should trade him. With Breslow bringing in his own manager I thinks would pick up significantly, especially the clubhouse. Baseball might be fun again for all the players not just those preferred by Cora. The coaching staff needs to dedicate itself to the huge number of prospects on the roster and the new manager needs to use some logic when building the daily line-ups. To improve the defense put the best defenders in the right positions for each player. LF Anthony, CF Duran and RF Rafaela, DH/4th OF Abreu and Rafsnyder. Story until Bregman returns at 3B, Mayer at SS to see if he can play it better than in the minors, Campbell at 2B or SS based on whether Mayer is cutting it at SS. Toro at 1B with Gonzalez as the Corner Infield reserve and Story as the middle infielder reserve. Try Rafaela and Campbell at leadoff and Duran in the 2 hole with Bregman in the 3 hole and Anthony in the 4 hole. See if the top 5 or 6 hitters can be from the prospect group plus Duran. Keep the platoon guy near the bottom of the order with Toro and Narvaez. Long term, it's more likely their skills will rank them as the bottom 3 hitters in 2026 and beyond. Breslow has $30Million a year to fix the pitching so he needs to pick up two excellent arms for the rotation so some of the starters can upgrade the bad relievers we have. Chapman needs to be extended along with Bregman.

I've been a Red Sox fan since 1960 when I got to watch Ted Williams play in his last season. It's interesting that you talk about a Troll problem because I find this site has some of the most obnoxious members that are Red Sox fans and there are a few that are moderators on the site. I'm not sure which is worse being harassed by a Yankee troll or an inexperienced Red Sox fan participating in group think. There is a group think pushed on this site and lots of immature young people who have built relationships with the Alpha writers on this site and they harass anyone with a different point of view than the group think point of view. In the short time I've been on I have one guy insulting me with every write-up he makes, I have many others that simply force Mayer and Anthony down my throat, there are Cora lovers who could care less about his cheating or crap managerial performance. There are very vocal people who don't know enough about math to understand that metrics are simply estimates not facts (that's a big one on this site in particular), there are people who simply flip the new people crap as a rite of passage. Overall, a very unfriendly site with a limited number of baseball people but the ones that reside here are worth staying for. By far the best feature on the site is the "ignored users" feature. Thank you for that it makes things tolerable to the people who don't believe the group think concepts. If you want to upgrade the site, tone down the inexperienced baseball fans who are abusive in their comments and completely ignorant of the ins and outs of baseball at all levels starting at high school going up all the way to the MLB level. They are entitled to their opinions about baseball but should be limited in their insults to new people, heck all people, who don't agree with them. If this is intended to be a club with the alpha writers dominating what opinions will be allowed, you should put that in your advertisements. Lots of young fans seem to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame on this site by genuflecting to the Alpha writers and insulting all those people not in the inner circle. Experienced fans who have actually been part of the game for decades can find a place here once they learn that there is a "ignored user" feature that is critical to limiting the ignorant feedback of the inexperienced fans and can focus on the solid discussions with the experienced fanbase that don't treat this site like twitter.

Thanks for the recap, it was excellent. What are your thoughts about what Cora is doing now with the batting order. I was going through box scores related to Duran and noticed that Duran started a hitting streak on June 2nd that lasted 9 games until June 11th when Boston took its second game from TB and won the series. During that time, he went 12 for 38 for a .316 average. The team went 5-4 winning series versus NY in NYC and TB in BOS. During the NYY series he batted lead-off and had a hit each game batting lead-off. One Friday June 13th vs the NYY in BOS Cora suddenly sat Duran and used Refsnyder as the lead-off man. With a 9-game hit streak naturally Cora chooses to sit the player to cool him off as he often does as he makes his daily managerial mistakes, but he also decides he's not going to lead off with Duran after two years of great success with him. In the series with NY a week earlier Duran lead-off against Rodon and went 1 for 5 with 2 RBIs so there was no need to stop the hitting streak or change the leadoff hitter, it was what I like to call a Cora-ism. An unprovoked, illogical decision by a person not fit to be a manager. The Red Sox sweep the Yankees, and it makes Cora think he was smart making the change much like he did when he moved JD to the 4th slot in the batting order in 2018 at the end of July so Pearce could hit in the 3 spot in the batting order behind Benny and Mookie. Pearce was hot against the Yankees, and Cora thought he was a genius and made the change permanent and JD lost the MVP to Mookie because he lost out on RBIs that had kept Boston in first place all season. Now it's Duran being shortchanged by Cora and since those three games when Duran stopped being the lead-off man and stopped his hitting streak Cora has decided to use multiple lead off men. After they swept NYY they headed out west and Duran went back to leadoff and started a new hit streak. Then, Devers was traded, and Duran went hitless in game 2 of the SEA series and game 3 of the series. Many of the veterans did not do well during the SEA series and then they went to SF where Devers was traded to!! Duran went 2 for 5 in game 1 of the SF series and Boston won. Without Devers Cora chose to DH Duran in Game 2 of the series and SF won. In game 3, another Cora-ism and suddenly Duran was not leading off again. He batted 5th and got 1 hit in a second loss to SF. As BOS moves on to LAA for a 3-game series, Duran is once again the lead-off man and delivers with a hit, but Buehler gets bombed. Game 2 Duran is again pulled from the leadoff spot and pushed to the 5th spot in the batting order. He gets 1 of 5 hits and BOS loses again. Now Cora moves Duran to 2nd in the order and BOS loses again to LAA and only gets 3 hits. That ends the road trip with 5 consecutive losses and Cora flailing with his batting order doing experiments instead of leaving things steady after the shock of losing Devers. It's a rookie move for a guy having 6 years at the helm of a prestigious organization. Apparently, he's learned nothing!! Now the team is home and playing TOR. Duran is returned to leadoff, and he delivers with 1 of 4 hits in a 9-0 bashing by TOR. Bello was bad giving up 11 hits and walks in 6 innings, but the bullpen was worse giving up an additional 6 runs in 3 innings. What are your thoughts about Duran being returned permanently to the lead-off spot and the rest of the order being stabilized with the hottest hitters batting behind Duran. Currently, that is Gonzalez, Refsnyder, Toro, Narvaez, Rafaela and Abreu. Also, Campbell got sent down after 67 games and a .223 batting average while the team keeps Wong after 30 games hitting .151 and Hamilton after 56 games hitting .156. The roster needs hitters. It's bad enough Mayer and Anthony never have had the early success of Campbell and Mayer is still wallowing at .208 after 27 games and Anthony has seen absolutely no traction batting .128 after 17 games. This team has only Eaton batting over .300 and only four regular players batting over .260. Isn't it time to go get some hitting talent? And some pitching talent? If anyone wants to see the team, make a run at the playoffs this year? Or at least prep for 2026? Please share your thoughts.

Fact -- Devers was the worst 3B of all time and his fielding percentage documented how many times he was successful in getting an out when the ball was hit to him regardless if it hit him in the foot which it often did or he reached back-handed and he caught it but tipped over from his lack of balance and couldn't make the play or he charged the ball but was so slow getting to it the runner was safe. You know, these are all the plays Bregman makes that weren't made for 8 seasons. Cora told him he didn't need his glove anymore and that was the smartest thing Cora has EVER done. Breslow and Cora were not in sync when Casas went down, and Cora stuck to his guns and said no glove for Devers and Breslow said he was going to play 1B. Again, Cora was right to not let him play and Breslow while GM spoke out of turn trying to suggest Devers would be a team player about it. Then Devers said no and Breslow looked foolish. When Bregman went down again Cora stuck to his guns and said no Devers at 3B and Breslow once again suggested it as a possibility. At this point, Devers was so pissed at Breslow and Cora for not being in sync and making HIM look bad that he said no on principle. The cord was cut at that point, and we simply had to wait to see where he was going to be shipped. Since losing Devers contract was a HUGE win, there really isn't a need to keep rehashing this event. It's over and Boston came out the winner by adding 8 years of Devers' salary back into the coffers and we got some potential talent as well. That's a win-win. The clubhouse will be better and the defense with Bregman is far, far better. Reap the rewards of this great deal!!

To be fair, Connor Wong was part of the duping of Bloom by Friedman. Wong wasn't good in college, the Dodgers drafted him in the third round in 2017 further documenting Friedman wasn't that great at drafting. His one big draftee was Buehler!!! how ironic that he was his best pick ever!!! Anyway, Wong wasn't good in the lower minors and then just like Jeter Downs he got promoted to the Tulsa AA team at nearly the same time. Just like Jeter Downs he jumped his hitting from .245 at Hi-A to .349 at AA. Jeter Downs jumped from near prospect #200 on the pipeline to 44 when he hit .333 in Tulsa in just 12 games. Wong spent more time there but his meteoric rise in average was similar to Downs and perfect timing for overstating the skills of two players in the Mookie deal. I remember insisting on websites that Wong as the 5th or 6th catcher on the LAD depth chart was a wasted player in the deal just like Downs and even Verdugo since he had severe back issues when he was young. The Mookie deal was a joke, and Friedman sold his apprentice Bloom a bill of goods not a quality trade. When Wong arrived in Boston in 2021, he went to AAA, and he had a mediocre season but he got 13 at bats late in 2021 with the Red Sox so the expectations were high because he hit over .300 in the very limited time in Sep 2021. In 2022, he started again in AAA for 81 games and hit a respectable .288 so they brought him up and he hit .188 in 27 games as I expected he would. With Vazquez gone he was the back-up catcher in 2023. He hit .235 stole 8 bases and did nothing to suggest he was a MLB catcher. His peak appeared to be BACK-UP CATCHER. Then, in 2024, out of nowhere, he started hitting. He had a career year for no apparent reason, and everyone said he's our catcher of the future except I pointed out that he had never been this good in college or the minors so it was probably a career year, and he would regress back to his normal in 2025. He did exactly that, but Cora loves the guy so he's getting chances he didn't deserve. It's time to cut him loose and find someone else at catcher. The scary part is Narvaez is having a year similar to Wong's in 2024. It looks like he too is having a career year and based on his history there is no reason to expect him to not regress in 2026. That's why trading for a catcher or TWO would make lots of sense. Someone with an established history of being good. Or maybe trade for Teel!! hahaha Let's hope Narvaez isn't a one hit wonder like Wong!!!

Would that make us competitive by 2030 when all the deadline prospects might be ready to contribute, and the current prospects will have worked out all their adjustments to the MLB pitching? We created a 5-year gap in winning the day the team gave away Mookie. Give away Bregman and you can add another 5-year gap, especially since Devers is gone now too!!! Is that really the right direction for the organization, to be perpetual prospect gatherers? I wonder if that's how the 86-year drought started?

Interesting story. Never thought much of Brady Anderson and never could understand how he could have such huge divergences in performances at SBs and Hrs. To this day, his 50 HR season is one of the most inexplicable stats of the last 100 years. In 1995 Selig changed the baseball and HRs jumped 26% but Brady only had 16 that year. Then in 1996 he jumped to 50 so the juiced ball may have been a contributing factor but with 16 the first year of the juiced ball, there really is no explanation how a player goes from 16 to 50 to 18 while playing full seasons in all three years. The 12, 53 and 24 sbs in 1991 to 1993 is also bizarre. He simply lives on as a complete enigma!! Great story.

Right. Bregman is not mentoring anyone else except the two privileged guys? Find that hard to believe and the fact that you didn't even read the response tells me everything I need to know. The "other names" in my response were the only players older than Bregman not prospects so your answer clearly didn't address what I wrote. You read a link from Cotillo out of context and mentioned it. Got it. Don't worry I won't question you again knowing you don't really read the comments and put thought into your responses. I get it.

Glad the front office might want to pursue a contract extension with Bregman but it's way over the top when "alleged reports" of him working with Mayer and Anthony are suggested without substantiation. For fans actually watching the games they will see Bregman speaking with most players on the team throughout the game. He's not mentoring players; he's talking baseball with all his teammates much like he did in Houston. Suggesting it's targeted mentoring is fake news. Let's keep the stories real. Does that mean when Story, Refsnyder, Yoshida or Justin Wilson talk to Bregman they are mentoring him since he's younger? NO. It's just two ball players talking baseball. Here is yet another example of the preferential treatment afforded both Mayer and Anthony. Bregman is not specifically set up to mentor the two players, he's there to be a mentor to the young players. Breslow even pointed that out. That's all he's doing, just like the other veteran players. Also, nothing so far suggests that Mayer will play SS instead of Story during the remainder of Story's contract. Lots of Mayer fans hope for that but with his questionable defense in the minors and his .208 batting average the change does NOT seem to be imminent. To suggest playing next to Bregman will bring out the best in Mayer has no basis in fact, it's just a wild conjecture because I believe Mayer will provide his best whether he's at 2B or SS and whether Bregman is directly next to him or not. The actual focus of the article is good because we need Breslow to extend Bregman. The fluff part is one fan providing his support for two prospects and Bregman in a non-objective way. But it is consistent with the bias that exists in the media and with Cora, so it correctly portrays the team group dynamics.

Heck I thought Mayer had already joined the circus!!! If you are saying the head clown wouldn't play Campbell, I think that's an accurate statement!! You know how those clowns like to stick together and have no issues with their humorous performances.

Your rhetoric is very tired. You've beaten both stories to death, inaccurately as usual. The only people that would laugh would be the ignorant baseball fans; the rest are rooting for you to give it a rest. Nobody likes a chronic whiner who can't even restate simply facts accurately.

When Bregman gets back Story needs to be the fourth infielder subbing at SS and 2B once a month and pinch hitting or pinch running the rest of the time. Mayer needs to go to SS to see if he has the skills to play defense at that position, not 2B. Campbell needs to come back up to play 2B to see if he can play the position or go back to his original position at SS if Mayer fails or gets hurt which historically has been one of his biggest issues. First base needs to be a competition between Toro and Gonzalez. LF needs to be Anthony, Duran needs to be in CF and Rafaela in RF and then DH can be shared by Abreu against RH pitchers and Toro/Gonzalez vs LH pitchers. This line-up provides the valuable feedback needed to set a plan for 2026. 2025 is a pipe dream for making the playoffs so do something constructive and start setting the stage for 2026. Dump Buehler if anyone will have him. Dump Yoshida if anyone will have him or seriously consider using him as the DH instead of Abreu and dump Abreu at the deadline since you only need one roster spot for DH if Yoshida is the DH. As far as middle infield goes. The best two middle infielder hitters based on minor league performance are Campbell and Mayer. The team must determine if their original plan of Mayer at SS and Campbell at 2B works. If Campbell struggles at his new position of 2B and Cora won't try Campbell at SS then trade him because another franchise will better respect what he accomplished last year and make him their SS of the future. His return will be higher than others because he gets the least respect for his accomplishments from the Red Sox organization thanks to Cora. When Cora chose to sit him, he made a huge mistake as usual. Breslow can't hang on to players that Cora won't play so trade him while people still remember the Player of the Year award.

HAHAHA wrong tense!!! Wow!! Another one of your famous, "no you are" responses. Also, a tidbit for your education. It's not condescending to present data from Baseball Reference that contradicts your ridiculous opinions. Facts trump opinions when it comes to discussing baseball and all you have are opinions and thank you for pointing out you can precisely measure every word you've spun to change the discussion. It is in black and white and that works against you not for you!! hahaha.

True. I worked backwards from our last game. I forgot the goofy line-up against the Yankees. We catch the Yankees the last several years when they are weak early in the season and then get clobbered late. Let's hope in Sept he runs that same line-up out there to prove the point. He needs Duran at the top of the order. The 3-game sample size of success versus the 4 games sample size of losses is still a lower winning percentage than when Duran is the leadoff man. I do apologize for the oversight on the Yankee series. I should have gone back farther. Once I saw Duran at the leadoff spot I stopped. It's disappointing to not get your input on the second point but as a writer you are trying to please the masses and lots of folks are extremely vocal about the second topic. Thanks for your answer and please realize that when your choices are limited and the team has failed badly prior to Duran, staying with Duran and supporting him rather than tearing him down would be the smart way to go for the manager and fans.

So, your template response again. Lol, too funny and a condescending blurb that completely misquotes what was written so you can feel good about yourself. It's pathetic that you can't engage in baseball conversations without taking things out of context to try to win discussions. You've made being a jerk and artform. Congrats, I'm done with you.

I have no idea how long you've been a fan but if it's been at least 10 years then you should remember two really distinct issues that the team had over the last decade: 1 - They lost Papi after the 2016 season and in 2017 the team was excellent under DD but there was NOBODY that could replace Papi, so DD got JD Martinez for the 2018 season and things clicked. 2 - The great run of winning under DD happened with a kid named Mookie Betts batting lead-off. Then in 2019 Cora screwed up with the pitchers by asking that they report 2 weeks late to Spring Training because they pitched in November. In addition, Cora the inexperienced manager hurt the team with another off-season decision, he changed the batting order from the one that won the World Series. (ha-ha what an idiot). He took Mookie out of the lead-off position and put Benny there. The Red Sox struggled many games on the west coast road trip with the new line-up. It simply didn't work not having Mookie lead off. Ever since Mookie was given away in 2020 the Red Sox lacked an effective lead-off man until Cora finally gave Duran a chance after he relegated him to the 9th hole in 2021 then sent him down to AAA not to resurface until June of 2022. At that time, he proved what some of us already knew, Duran was the best possible lead-off man on the roster as well as the best base stealer and best defensive outfielder despite a couple of early issues as he got familiar with CF in Fenway. Rafaela came up and it should have been obvious to astute baseball fans that he was nearly as fast as Duran, a comparable defender with a stronger arm so he was perfect for RF. Cora doesn't have the baseball acumen to figure out such simple deductions so instead he weakened the defense by moving Duran to LF and putting Rafaela in CF leaving the weakest defender to compete against the really bad RF defenders where he won a GG for being the best of the worst just like Verdugo almost did when he played RF. Abreu was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to steal a gold glove award just like Verdugo almost did. Here are the two key points to this discussion: (1) The Lead Off spot is still Duran's because since they moved him off the spot, the team hasn't won a game (2) To maximize the defense Roman must player LF, Duran CF and Rafaela RF. That leaves Refsnyder the 4th outfielder because he can face righty and lefty pitchers and not have a massive drop-off while Abreu is completely inept at facing left-handed pitchers so WHO GOES is obvious if Abreu isn't used as the DH. Abreu is the obvious choice for who goes. He has the least to offer of the five outfielders with Anthony probably having the most and Duran and Rafaela being a close 2nd and Refsnyder having the fourth most since he doesn't have to sit 40% of the time since he can hit both RH and LH pitchers unlike Abreu.

You're the master of bs. You constantly write things that are taken out of context to misguide readers WOW First, besides being ignorant by not referencing what I wrote about, your quote references a comment that doesn't apply to the topic discussed. That's called "AN OUT OF CONTEXT COMMENT" which you specialize in. The Cora reference is in relationship to him KNOWING HIS COMMENT WAS TRUE ABOUT CF but not about LF and playing him there anyway. That makes Cora either uninformed or a total jerk, you make the choice, I think he's both. Second, the guy has 550 total chances in CF, and you pull up a video from when he was learning CF and lost sight of the ball, a common problem to even the best centerfielders. I've seen Trout have the same problem, but LAA fans aren't jerks because they understand the game and every once in a long while it happens. You, however, reference that video to humiliate a player for your own gratification? What's wrong with you? The facts are 2 errors in 550 total chances. Stick that in your library of facts so you don't embarrass yourself again about Duran and CF.

All your writing has bashed Duran so your comment here is no surprise. Wake up and smell the roses. This guy has been tortured by a prejudicial manager who isn't qualified for his job. He overcame Cora's treatment one time, I believe he will make another comeback from Cora's idiocy again. As soon as Duran gets comfortable being the fastest guy in the outfield playing in LF at Fenway his errors will lessen, and his hitting will return to normal. Fire the buffoon manager and several players will improve immediately and some will drop off. Those that will improve are the ones that have been treated like crap by Cora. They include Duran, Rafaela, Campbell, Houck, Crawford, Buehler, Hendriks and Casas. Those that will show drop-offs because the next manager won't pamper them are - Abreu, Hamilton, Wong, Bello, Whitlock, Newcomb, Bernadino and Winckowski. Dig deep and I think you will find a theme in those names that has existed since the cheater arrived in Boston in 2018. There is a very simple solution here and it doesn't involve Duran in any way!!

Then why was 2024 an all-star year? Did he suddenly take instruction well and then forget how to take instruction? Or maybe, he has issues with playing LF where he has failed on defense compared to CF and his defensive issues have carried over into his hitting. He's made TWO errors in 550 chances in CF. That's his normal and comfortable position. Cora keeps putting round pegs in square holes because he has no idea what he is doing. Fire Cora and I guarantee Duran will significantly improve, just like Sale did when he got away from Cora.