TedYazPapiMookie

First, it's presumptuous to suggest he would be a folk hero of the playoffs because Cora is manager and will probably find a way to finish one game behind the last WC spot. Second, Eaton hasn't been good since college, and he played at a weaker school which inflated his talents. He has done well in September BUT you failed to point out he can't hit on the road. Home .371 average and .891 OPS Road .235 average and .631 OPS This is their Schedule - 3 games AT TB, 3 games AT TOR and 3 games at home vs DET. Seems like he's going to have to learn to hit on the road if he's going to save our bacon vs DET. Good luck with that. Maybe Cora should shake up the line-up and give the better players at the bottom of the order a chance to hit in the spots that are ice cold at the top of the order. September failure is nothing new, Cora has failed miserably in September since he arrived and had a great team who won despite his poor choices. Once Bloom dumped the talent, Cora's mistakes were magnified, and failure has been a constant for half a decade. Cora's September Record: 2024 - 11-15 2023 - 8-19 2022 - 12-14 2021 - 14-11 2019 - 11-15 5 seasons without the championship roster - 56-74 in September In 2025 - 7-8 with 9 games left. 83-70 record with 9 left to play means Boston needs to win 6 of 9 to have 89 wins which is borderline enough to make WC3. BOS 9 games - at TB, TOR and 3 at home vs DET CLE 9 games - at MIN and 6 at home versus DET and TEX TEX 9 games - 6 at home vs MIA and MIN and at CLE CLE is on a roll with a 7-game winning streak and are 9-1 in their last 10. BOS is 5-5 in their last 10 and lost their last game. TEX is 6-4 in their last 10 and thanks to HOU they are on a 4-game losing streak. Since MIN has not played well lately and TB has won 2 in a row, by the time the first series ends for each team there is a good chance CLE will likely have the 3rd WC spot or be tied for it. Since both teams play DET then it comes down to whether CLE will beat TEX more than BOS will beat TOR. Looks like another miserable September record for Cora. Maybe Breslow should find a manager before he looks for an unnecessary GM!!

Robert, can we be confident in Narvaez performing in the future? Let's look at Wong first. He was a mediocre catcher (ranked 6th in the depth chart at the start of 2020) after three seasons in LA so it cost Friedman nothing to include him in the ridiculous deal for Mookie. In 2021, after COVID. he hit .256 in AAA for Boston. As a back-up catcher his numbers were solid but clearly, he wasn't a starting catcher. In 2022 he hit .288 at AAA which led Boston to think he could be a MLB catcher but when promoted he flopped hitting .188. In 2023, he proved to be the back-up catcher that his career suggested and finished with a .235 average. In 2024, he broke out with a career year hitting nearly 50 points higher than any other MLB season. Boston fans said we had our future catcher while I argued his one-time wonder season didn't reflect his real skills. There would be a big regression in 2025. His 2025 numbers are .204/270/.255/.525 proving the regression was EXACTLY what happened. Does a leopard change his spots? NOPE. Wong at best is a journeyman back-up catcher or maybe a career minor leaguer depending on 2026. Carlos Narvaez is another pre-COVID catcher. For the Yankees he played in 2017 to 2019 and provided mediocre hitting around .250 at the lowest levels of the minors. He took off 2020 like most minor league players and came back in 2021 and had yet another mediocre season at best. In 2022, he played ONLY at Hi-A at age 22 and hit .194 leading the Yankees to consider DFAing him. In 2023 he went to Venezuela's Winter League where he continued to be average at best. At AA and AAA in 2023 he hit .235 and .240. Allowing him to barely hang on to a spot in the Yankee farm system. In 2024, he played at AAA and hit a mediocre .254 and got promoted to the Yankees for 6 games in September. He hit .231 in those 6 games further showing his mediocrity as a hitter but his strength was always defense not offense. In December Boston acquired him and he went back to the Venezuela Winter league and showed signs of life on offense hitting .377 in 24 games. That was over 100 points higher than any other season. Then, in 2025 he shocked everyone by hitting .273 in the first half of the season. I explained at the time that we had a lot of over performing players that would regress, and they did. In the second half Narvaez is hitting .192. The good news is in September he's hitting a respectable .263 after being under .200 the previous two months. So, with no prior history of success at hitting much like Wong last year, do you really think Narvaez will be an adequate hitter to start in 2026? He's a great back-up catcher since he's so outstanding on defense but don't we need a catcher that is good on offense and defense like Teel? I can see Wong being DFA's in 2026 and Narvaez being the back-up catcher, but can we really take the chance that he will suddenly hit again rather than copy the history of Wong not being able to repeat his career year? Without Teel in the farm system, Boston needs to find a new long-term catching solution this off-season. I think the odds of Narvaez being anything more than a back-up in 2026 is low. Boston could force it and find out it's not the answer in 2026, but a smart GM would plan for finding a better solution for a team that should compete for the Division title.

He did the second time he was hired. So much for a know it all that doesn't. Consistently not reading the comment at face value seems to be an issue. It's really important to comprehend comments and not read into them your perspective. Apology accepted.

In 2019 after DD was fired a triumvirate of non-qualified GMs were a temporary solution before the owners stuck a knife in the hearts of the Red Sox fans and hired Bloom. One of the three incompetents was Ferreira. What made all three incompetent? 1 - INEXPERIENCE the same thing that made Cora incompetent to be the manager. The same thing that made Bloom incompetent. How did her incompetence set back the Red Sox? In 2019 the idiot Cora decided to change the mechanics of our best pitcher Chris Sale during the season (in May). The change led to inflammation in the elbow, and he hit the IL and we lost him for a while then he brought him back and made it worse in August shortly before Dd got fired for wanting to sign Mookie to a LT contract that would keep the franchise player in Boston. The new GMs including Ferreira should have insisted on TJ surgery immediately because by having September surgery he would have recovered in time for the 2021 season including spring training. Instead, the three incompetent temps didn't act responsibly and let the issue slide until Bloom came on board. Then Blood let it slide until COVID was declared in March. The August to March delay cost Sale a year of active playing time and it allowed Bloom to further destroy the championship team. So, no thanks to ANY unqualified GM. THEY MUST HAVE EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH BRESLOW. We can't afford another mistake like not letting Breslow pick his own manager. We'll be lucky to make the playoffs with Cora running the show incompetently despite all the talent Breslow has added. The formula for success has always been about experienced people in key positions. There is a reason we were great under Dombrowski and Theo. There is a reason Tito had so much success and even Farrell. You can't let diversity create a cancer that replaces the true need for meritocracy when making business decisions. The country has proven that diversity is NOT a successful business model and it's not even good as a political model as the left has proven. We need the MOST QUALIFIED PERSON regardless of race, creed, color or political affiliation. The same is true whether we are talking about owners, front office, managers, coaches or players. The long time American value of meritocracy needs to be returned to the forefront of society to improve the productivity of the baseball team, American business and American politics. Success is dependent on those who can identify the real successful, experienced people to hire.

There are no internal options that are qualified, but we all know that never matters when it comes to Cora.

I agree. Two bad moves by Breslow. Sale and Priester. Nobody is perfect but are we better off than when we had Bloom. Absolutely. We can do so much with $260 Million.

Hyperbole. That's a word used when something is exaggerated. This story fits the description. Most fans simply want to ask where he's been for 3 years, and will he EVER play at this level again for BOS? Everyone is happy that Story started to earn his money in year 4 of his 6-year contract but should anyone care that he's done this just one time for BOS? This is a perfect example of the issues with modern fans. Measuring things is not the focus of baseball. Consistent performance and winning should be the focus and frankly the Story one time surge has no significance whatsoever except that it's yet another irrelevant set of data.

Wow, adding another level of bureaucracy is always a wise move! NOT The Devers deal was a godsend. Breslow should be extended by several years for that move. The results speak for themselves. The cancer was removed, and they paid us $260 Million for it. That was brilliant!!! The team has been dog crap for 5 years and Breslow radically improved it and you speak of him as if he failed. Bloom failed as badly as Devers played defense. Breslow has been a breath of fresh air, but he needs to get his own manager to put the team at the top of the division in 2026. Cora is the albatross that destroys the chances for success in Boston. With the talent this year, he should be several games ahead of Toronto not barely holding on to the last WC spot like he will be in two weeks.

Everything you wrote is categorically wrong and shows a complete lack of baseball knowledge. Stop embarrassing yourself with ridiculous berating of Boston prospects. Clearly your comments about him at Georgia Tech shows you never played college baseball in a scholarship situation at a big university. Go ask a real player from a major university how scholarships work and who gets priority. You are so naive in your comments!! That's why I continually ask that you not comment on my comments. You can try to brow beat the others who may not have any significant experience, but you simply embarrass yourself discussing baseball with me. Stop while you are behind. I've politely asked that for months.

Not related to Campbell, Rafaela or Duran. I just like to keep presenting facts, so fans don't have to rely on uninformed opinions. For one month, he proved he has the talent to succeed at the MLB level. That was a better start than Anthony had, a better start than Mayer had and pretty much all other recent prospects except maybe Rafaela. His inability to deal with his first experience with failure is not unusual many players have experienced it. Trout came up late in 2011 and played 40 games and hit .220, less than Campbell. He started 2012 at AAA and graduated to the MLB in 20 games and never looked back. Babe Ruth in 1914 he was an outstanding pitcher playing for a minor league team called the Baltimore Orioles. To raise money, they sold Ruth to the Red Sox for four games, but Boston liked their other pitchers and returned hm to the Orioles. As a two-way player he went 2 for 10 for Boston in 1914 before being returned to Baltimore. In 1915, he never looked back as a two way player for Boston. The future is never certain based on a short segment of performance. If your eyes are so keen, maybe you should contact Campbell and let him know what changed after his first month so he can rejoin the team before the playoffs.

If the Sox can win 4 of 9 versus the AL East they will make the playoffs.

Its amazing how Campbell's future is being decided by a partial season at age 23 less than two years after being drafted. It's like everything he did in his first 22 years doesn't matter. Wow, it's so typical of the inexperienced Red Sox fan base. What have you done lately is always the most important factor in evaluating players. It's never about the proven success of a player, it's about the last few weeks of play. I'm still rooting for him to be traded so he can stop all the current discounting of his great success until 2025 by the front office, his manager and the ignorant portion of the fan base. Looking at his history, he was an outstanding SS at a top HS program in Georgia, he was a top ranked SS in the most elite select baseball in the country (Perfect Game). He was NOT marketed heavily by his family through the early years like Mayer and Anthony so he wasn't recruited like them, but he went to Georgia Tech after proving his skills in the Northwood Summer League at age 20 when Georgia Tech red-shirted him since he wasn't highly marketed. His first and only year at Georgia Tech at age 21 he was converted to 2B and played 34 games at the position after many years of games at SS. In June of 2023 he's drafted in the fourth round by BOS and immediately goes to ROK ball and after 8 games he's hitting .391 with an OPS of 1.082. Because he was drafted in June his time in 2023 was limited but he still got a promotion to Hi-A for 14 more games. He hit .267 with a .822 OPS. At ROK he got 4 starts at 2B and made 1 error in 14 chances. At Hi-A he got 10 starts at 2B and made no errors in 29 chances. At this point in his career after playing SS for years he had played 34 college games at 2B and 14 starts at 2B so his 48 starts at 2B hardly makes him a 2B after playing shortstop his whole life. In 2024, he played 40 games at Hi-A, 56 games at AA and 19 games at AAA where he hit .306/.362/.286 respectively with OPS numbers of .976/1.045/.897 in his first full season in the minors. Defensively, with Mayer getting injured yet again in 2023, Boston chose to play Campbell at his normal position of SS once he was promoted to AA. He got 21 starts with 1 error in 67 total chances (.984 FLD %) and 11 starts at AAA playing SS where he made 2 errors in 40 total chances. By comparison Mayer (the preordained SS of the future for BOS) started 65 games at SS and had 10 errors at AA in 212 total chances (.953 FLD %) in 2024 as comparison to Campbell at SS his primary position. So coming into 2024 Campbell's history on defense was that he played his entire HS and elite select baseball at SS, 34 games at Georgia Tech at 2B, 60 games started at 2B in the minors, 32 games started at SS in the minors and 31 games in the 3 OF positions. From all this experience we take his 54 games at 2B in the MLB after playing roughly 60 games in the minors at the same position and 34 games in college and decide he's no good at 2B because his fielding percentage dropped from .974 to .968 going from the minors to the majors while learning 1B and playing a few games in the outfield at age 23? League Fielding % at 2B in 2025 is .982. So he played below league average. You can throw out all the contrived metrics on defense since they have no validity. It's all about executing plays hit to you. Imagined circumstances used in the highly inaccurate metric calculations are meaningless since they are hypothetic not real. So we have Bregman who won't opt out, Story who will be here at least 2 more years, the injury prone Mayer who is a "chosen one" and will play 2B if Bregman and Story remain. We have an excellent cheap 1B in Nate Lowe who should be resigned to compete with Casas or at least back him up. We have Anthony in LF, Duran in CF and Rafaela in RF with Abreu DH/4th outfielder. There is no future for Campbell in Boston. Trade him for more pitching depth and give the poor kid a chance to play in a quality organization that wants him. He got a long term contract because he has been GREAT his entire life until May of 2025. He deserves a ton of respect for his accomplishments from the Red Sox organization and fans but he's not getting it so trade him and release him from Cora jail and front office stupidity. Let the kid find a spot on a team that supports him. He's not like Anthony and Mayer, he has no silver spoon. He EARNED everything he's achieved and the first time he struggles he gets crapped on by the entire gamit of people who should be supporting him - Cora, the front office and the ignorant segment of the fan base. He deserves better. He should be applauded for all he has overcome to get to where he was at the start of the 2025 season. He's not a utility player who should bat at the bottom of the order like Duran was and now Rafaela is. He's a potential annual all-star that needs the support of the organization and his manager just like Duran and Rafaela. Instead, let's keep watching the Hamiltons and Abreus of the world despite their obvious limitations. One guy needs to steal 1B to get on and the other guy simply can't hit lefties!!! What a joke!! Give the kid a break and trade him to keep his chances for success alive not buried in the minors.

$40 Million a year is still an overpay for Bregman who roughly produces a 4.0 WAR and an OPS+ around 125 over the last several years. Yes, teams could out bid the $40 Million for his 32 and 33 year old seasons but if they do they can have him. As good as he's been this year, his numbers are fairly comparable to recent previous seasons. His value appears to be much greater because he has made such a huge difference when compared to Devers on defense. He increased team wins by at least 10 games by simply being an above average 3B versus a horrendous 3B like we've all been used to for the last 8 years. Not all teams will enjoy the same wins gained by Boston because nobody else had a 3B as terrible as Devers on defense. That makes the $40 Million dollar cost not likely to be matched by other teams unless they are simply wealthy and want to hurt the Red Sox. $80 Million the next two years could be extended by one season as a sign of good faith to Bregman without hurting Boston future because the young players will keep costs down for the next several years. Otherwise, if Bregman thinks he's worth more than $40 Million at age 32 after 4 slightly above league average seasons, he can opt out and find out if the market is going to pay a more ridiculous amount than Boston is willing to pay him the next two years.

Past performance (ie the facts not opinions from uninformed individuals) shows Story is the #1 SS defender, Campbell is the #2 defender at shortstop. Your theories are irrelevant. Your opinion is biased. Nothing new just the same old hate. So, you've been wrong for 17 years? That's an impressive streak. Trade Campbell and release him to be the all-star SS in a less biased organization. That's the best solution for him just like it was for Mookie. Bias in the Red Sox organization will exist until Cora is gone.

Seeing metrics related to pitching creates a false knowledge of the future of a pitcher. What makes Tolle interesting after a small sample size is his ability to locate at a high speed. We've seen him locate and we've seen him not locate. Immediately he reminded me of EROD. EROD always had above average stuff and no ability to consistently deliver his stuff. The same will be true for Tolle. When he consistently delivers his stuff to the planned locations, he'll be outstanding. When he can't locate, he'll get clobbered. All the pretend metrics may look impressive, but it's all a bunch of crap that fans fall in love with as if it has meaning. The fascination with measurements and simulation is so mind boggling to old school baseball fans and mind numbing to the baseball generation that grew up on video games. Metrics give uneducated fans a basis for trying to discuss baseball with actual baseball fans who know the game and don't have to pretend they understand the game because they can quote meaningless estimates generated by theoretical mathematicians not baseball fans.

Mookie signs with Boston if not for the systemic ignorance of the ownership group. The shortchanging of their stars has been a problem since they bought the organization. That doesn't mean he needed to put up with it. Ask a dozen of his predecessors who ended up going elsewhere. Remember, this organization promoted Swihart as a better prospect than Mookie. He got the Duran, Rafaela and Campbell treatment as a player. Nothing but disrespect. He's happy in LAD and I'm happy for him to get clear of the organization and Cora since they pigeon-holed him instead of treating him like they did Devers, Mayer and Anthony.

Mayer had 29 chances at 2B with no errors. Ridiculously small sample size to evaluate a player? Absolutely. Mayer had 68 chances at 3B with one error. Again, an incredibly small sample size again? Absolutely. Mayer had 2 chances at SS and made one error. If you count the first two then you need to include this ridiculously small sample size as well and it proves he can't play shortstop just like the data from his minor league career showed since he had 44 errors in less than 1000 chances for a .953 fielding percentage. How many chances did Mayer have at 2B and 3B in the minors? 45 with 3 errors at 2B and 15 with 1 error at 3B. Since you like drawing conclusions when it suits you from extremely small sample sizes, what do the minor league stats tell you about Mayer as a 2B and 3B? Normal analysts consider the sample size far too small but again if it suits your agenda I'm guessing he is a super star at both positions. hahaha So, when you say Mayer played good defense for a total of just 99 total chances with 97 of them being at unfamiliar positions is that valid considering the number of plays? Or is this just another example of privilege extended to Mayer? He proved absolutely NOTHING to me about his defense splitting two unfamiliar positions for 99 total chances. That's how normal baseball fans evaluate players. Sample size is important and drawing conclusions from a split set of positions totaling 99 chances is a ridiculous conclusion. It's truly meaningless in the big picture. He needs a lot more chances to override his bad performance in the minors. Campbell had 222 total chances at his new position of 2B. In the minors he had 232 chances at 2B with 6 errors and in the majors, he had 222 chances at 2B with 7 errors. Considering this was his first MLB season at a fairly new position, I disagree with your assessment that he was not good. He was roughly league average at his first attempt at playing at the MLB level. That should never be considered a negative as you have suggested. FYI.... when you suggest something incorrect like you did above it is hardly a fact, it's called a wrong opinion or an inaccurate opinion based on the data. Also, If I write more than five words and tax your brain too much let me suggest you simply don't read my so-called novelettes. I'm providing a Simple solution for a simple mind.

Anthony in LF (replaced by Refsnyder), Duran in CF and Rafaela in RF. Prototypical players at each position. Anthony the power hitter with the least speed in the outfield. Duran the prototypical CF with speed, fearless and a solid arm. Rafaela with speed, fearless and the best outfield arm. Most people remember that Mookie was the same as Rafaela defensively. Best arm, fearless and fast. Most people remember JBJ like Duran but Duran hits better and steals more bases. Most people remember Williams, Yaz, Rice and now Anthony as the top hitter who had the least outfield speed during their years on the team. This should be a no brainer but since Cora has no brain he will never figure it out!!! And the defense will never be maximized, like the days with Devers at 3B. We all see how maximizing infield defense makes such a huge difference with Bregman, when will someone finally tell Cora to wake up and smell the roses in the outfield? Probably never and he's not going to figure it out, that takes baseball acumen which he lacks completely.

Once again, you missed the point of the comments so you can rant about theories you believe to be true but aren't. The comment was about support not performance. That's precisely why I continue to ask you not to comment on my posts. Also, the writer appears to be as off topic as you since he gave you a thumbs up, very much the mob mentality I've discussed in the past. FYI.... your AAA report was completely bogus. I follow him daily and watch video so keep your bogus data to yourself. If you understood the game better, you would know that players go on hot streaks and cold streaks, and his 2025 season has seen him go hot early in his MLB career unlike the other prospects then when he struggled the reaction by the big club led by the idiot manager was to simply dump him. Did they bat him third when things were going badly? Nope. Thats the treatment reserved for Anthony and despite his humiliating numbers Anthony rebounded because they had his back. I'm not sure Mayer ever had much of a hot streak this year but for a short while he hit a few home runs but as usual he got hurt. They carried him while his average and overall performance was less than Campbell's. Why? Because they have his back. Mayer should have been sent down when he had failed as long as Campbell did, but they kept him in the majors because once again, they have his back. This should be very clear to any knowledgeable baseball fan that there is a double standard in the organization that's been there since Henry bought the club. When Swihart is the golden boy not Mookie, you know there are issues. When Mayer is preferred over Campbell, you know there are issues. It's just that simple. You rationalizing the team's behavior doesn't make the obvious not true, it simply speaks to your loyalties not your baseball knowledge. Like I've stated before, trade the kid so he can rebuild his confidence with an organization that appreciates him. Maybe trade him to Milwaukee like Priester so he has the support of the organization. He sure as heck has no support right now from BOSTON'S MLB manager, the front office or the poorly informed segment of the fan base (the segment that makes ridiculous comments about him being a utility player and he has no position). Give the kid a break and trade him so he can develop into the all-star that showed his elite skills in 2024 and every year before that!!!

He was sent down hitting .223 on June 20th while hitting at the bottom of the order while Anthony hit 3rd in the line-up while hitting under .100. Being treated equally? I don't see it. By the all-star break the team was doing better and he was hitting again and guys like Hamilton, Sogard and others were brought up, so he has missed out on the experience of being in a pennant race. Did the other guys need the experience when they won't be on the team in a year or two? NOPE. The kid was Minor League Player of the Year, an honor a guy like Hamilton or Sogard would never have the skill to earn. So why keep him down so long after he made his adjustments? Lack of respect. I don't' take issue with him being sent down I take issue with him staying down to learn positions that they went out and filled at the MLB level. The whole season has been a waste of time for him. That's why I say trade him for his sake. Based on his performance prior to this season, Campbell never struggled like Mayer did in the minors. Only Anthony and Campbell were pretty much studs their whole career. Anthony struggled for the first time at the start of his call-up but was completely supported and Campbell proved he belonged for the first month and then struggled for the first time. Now the entire fan base is down him just like Duran two years ago and Rafaela last year. It's a horrible way to run an organization. Respect for his achievements prior to this season should have been greater than both Anthony and Mayer since he out performed them in 2024. The initial promotion had NOTHING to do with respect, it was about where the hole in the line-up was. Anthony had Duran, Rafaela and Abreu in front of him. Mayer had Story in front of him and Campbell had nobody blocking him so he got the call-up. Your comment about that being respectful isn't true. It was all about the roster not respect.

My point is - Campbell being treated like crap by Cora means his future will be maximized if he is traded so he can find a place where the fan base is fair to him and the manager has a clue about baseball. This young exciting SS who was asked to learn 2B, then outfield (2 positions) then 1B after winning the Minor League Player of the Year award has been completely disrespected and we all know once that happens in Boston, they are going to want to leave like Mookie did. Trade him now and let him find a team that loves him like LAD fans, front office and ownership love Mookie. The kid deserves better. He should have gotten the Anthony/Mayer treatment instead he's not even getting the treatment of slugs like Hamilton, Wong. Abreu and Sogard. Trade him because he will be shown far more respect than BOS gives him and that means more trade value than expected by the BOS haters.

Haters and haters. Funny how some guys get support from certain writers and others don't. Trashing Campbell is ridiculous, but this inexperienced writer and baseball fan continues to miss the mark on certain players. So, take his comments with a grain of salt. The team is going so well, and this writer keeps choosing to be negative about specific players he has a bias against. Here's is a suggestion, write another fluff story about Abreu, Hamilton or maybe Mayer and stop picking on Duran, Rafaela and Campbell, especially in the middle of a pennant race!!!

Slumps happen and then they end, and players return to normal. If there is no underlying injury at the center of his slump, it will simply be a matter of time before he comes out of it. He has had slumps every season of his career and this season has been so exceptional that it's not surprising that he's finally having one. Let's hope it ends soon, or we know Cora will do something irrational and it will impact the team's chances of winning.

Ryan is a nice pitcher. He's not all-star material unless he's playing for a bad franchise and he's clearly not elite with his numbers so why waste prospects on him? The team now has Crochet, Tolle, Giolito and Bello who are all looking better than the 29-year-old Ryan. Is he better than May? Probably but May might start improving working with the Breslow staff of pitching coaches. Also, they have both Houck and Kutter coming back under control as potential #5 SPs not to mention the upside potential of Witherspoon and other recent farm hands that have been added in the last two years. The pitching is now deep enough to withstand injuries unlike in the past. That's all a credit to Breslow. Also, Miami has many young stars that might be cheaper so let Breslow's group analyze their potential before considering slightly above average pitchers like Ryan.

With Cora still the manager setting the illogical line-ups and subbing the wrong pitchers regularly, it's hard to be optimistic. There are 3 teams that are close enough to easily knock the Red Sox from the playoff picture so NOTHING is a given at this point. Boston has been streaky all season and seem to beat the better teams and lose to the lesser teams. The schedule theoretically includes just one "weak" team the As but they have upset many this year. The Yankees have lost to Boston like they have often done in recent years early in the season and they have gotten beaten by the Yankees late in the season so expected the dominance to continue with Judge out of his funk seems unlikely. Finishing with the Rays is good because they have fallen off, the Blue Jays is rough since they have owned us this year and the Tigers who will match Skubal versus Crochet making it a very, very tough match-up. The good news is if they may have clinched and they won't care about matchups; they will be focused on setting their rotation for the post-season. As we all have seen, losing Devers was HUGE. Bregman's made more great plays at 3B than Devers did in 8 seasons and has prevented so many runs by killing rallies that would have happened with Devers at 3B. As MVP of the team, we desperately need Bregman to come out of his slump and we need Cora to wake up and smell the coffee by playing the starters more often and by putting Anthony in LF, Duran in CF and Rafaela in RF with Yoshida at DH. Bregman, Story and Lowe are locks in the infield and playing musical chairs with the scrubs at 2B is fine if Cora has an overwhelming need to play everyone more than they should. We shouldn't expect much from the catchers so they should be batting at the bottom of the order. Playing everyone in their best team defensive position should also help the players get comfortable hitting down the stretch. Injuries will be key to the success of the team in the final month. The pitching needs to hold up in September and the team needs to keep scoring for Crochet and Giolito. Let's hope things work out but the range of potential standings is extremely varied. This team could win anywhere from 85 to 95 games. I believe the last WC spot will have at least 87 wins.