Dirty Water - the tale of the 2023 Boston Red Sox

Despite my best efforts I’m vaguely invested in this team now. It’s the classic band of misfits thing, I think, although unlike the 2010 Giants, they don’t have pitching. Otoh that Giants team would bite 2023 Red Sox’s collective hands off for even one of their hot hitters.

It remains to be seen how their season will actually play out. Have enjoyed the rise and redemption of Jarren Duran, Triston Casas has his own thread, and ofc my absolute secret favourite Kiké! Not even mentioning Masa and his hitting streak (RIP), Bello’s promise, Chris Sale veering between throwing flames and throwing phones…

It’s an incredibly interesting team to watch, not least for the fact that they never seem to give up. Despite all this, I still cannot characterise them as a good team - the starting pitching is too much of a problem. But they are entertaining af!

they really are. the pen is so good it always feels like there's a chance, even when they lose. tough schedule rn tho

while we're throwing around accolades it's been immensely gratifying to see connor wong turning into a real major league catcher. he's a tough nut!

Kenley Jansen has been pretty great closing out games, but honestly Brasier makes me 🫣🫣🫣

Yes, how did I fail to mention him! He’s got a great arm!

Sale was so great against the Phillies, had never seen him pitch live in anything like his vintage form before and he looked incredible for three innings, before the Phillies cracked him in the 4th and he did this Sale vmic:

Chris Sale is not pleased with how the fourth inning went. pic.twitter.com/QbCSjfbwqN

— Jamie Gatlin (@JamieGatlin17) May 6, 2023

casas finally gets a meaningful dinger to provide kenley j with some breathing room. and he absolutely crushed it, a no doubter all the way

lol @ finally

His May is off to a great start. Loved Duran with the base.

Boston Red Sox center fielder Jarren Duran reacts with the base after hitting a double during an MLB baseball game against the Atlanta Braves in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 📸 EPA/Erik S. Lesser#epaimages #sports #mlb #georgia pic.twitter.com/7oHZfWj1MS

— EPA Images (@EPA_Images) May 11, 2023

This post was tailor made for you, Tracer Hand

https://www.overthemonster.com/platform/2023/4/27/23698692/off-day-recommendation-no-red-sox-baseball-moby-dick

So good. This other maura otm! The link above was weird for me but this one works

https://www.overthemonster.com/2023/4/27/23698692/off-day-recommendation-no-red-sox-baseball-moby-dick

Sale 8IP, 3H, 1R, 1BB, 9K

DON’T JINX IT

I feel like it’s okay, that part’s in the books

kenley on the other hand

Second night in a row!

Kiké makes a better throw the game’s still tied, maybe even over

But yeah he has just not had it at all

Triston would have got that

Messy, two blown saves in a row. Cardinals have that murderer’s row in the lineup but even so.

Some credit has to go to Contreras who admitted to deliberately fucking with Jansen by appearing as if 'alert and ready' yet keeping one foot just out of the batter's box until right after Jansen started his motion. I didn't understand it in real time but the pitch clock violations weren't for being late delivering the ball, they were for Jansen 'quick pitching' before Contreras was purportedly ready in the box. I anticipate they will all learn from this and I also anticipate Kiké moving on from short soon please god, but Jansen's dip in velocity is pretty concerning, it was mainly 92-93 after throwing, what, 99mph on the game he broke 400?

Strange the turns a season can take, now it's all about the relievers blowing starting gems.

The other day I read a sub-hed somewhere that said something like "after Jansen and Yoshida's heroics, Boston the clear winner of the winter free agent market" I mean, Jansen's latest two meltdowns aside that's quite a turnaround from the unanimous consensus that Bloom had one of the most disappointing offseasons in recent memory

Yeah I was reading that as well, pure shithousing. Tactically and technically within the rules but not great, it’s a loophole I hadn’t personally seen exploited this season. No doubt every single pitcher will be told to look at their feet as well now.

Really think not putting in Casas to pitch top of the ninth was a mistake, I don’t think that shitty throw ends up like that if he’s on first. I like Turner a lot but he’s not a first baseman at all, let alone your guy you want there in that situation.

Can Story play short when he comes back?

lol, “to pitch”. To play.

I meant to say re Jansen, he clearly emptied the tank for that 400. He probably desperately wanted to make up for the previous night, and then got tripped up by those calls. His command looked bad but a lot more things had to go wrong for that save to go last night.

I’ve read that Boston want Mondesi at SS and Story at 2B because of concerns they have about Story’s arm but the ideal world rarely appears so who knows

Isn’t Story’s arm supposed to have been fixed by surgery? I guess they’ll find out when he completes rehab.

Brasier finally DFA’d 🙏

Great news to wake up to after seeing that box score. Ugh!

Ugly stuff

Alex Verdugo called and led a team meeting a couple of hours before first pitch tonight, reports @bradfo.

We all saw him set the tone by beating out a grounder to open the bottom of the first. But it seems he set the tone hours before that. pic.twitter.com/lFWOgn86Ow

— Boston Sports Gordo (@BOSSportsGordo) May 17, 2023

he's a solid player but for reasons i can't fully explain i don't like that guy

There’s a pretty troubling story about him from his Dodger days.

I remember that. When Kapler was coaching an LA farm team? iirc Verdugo wasn’t accused of anything but the situation was terrible and Kapler should have called the police.

btw how about Pablo Reyes??

<i>A week ago, Reyes was playing for the A’s Triple-A affiliate, unable to find a spot on the worst team in baseball. In need of middle infield help with Christian Arroyo out, the Sox acquired him for cash, and the 29-year-old has gone 8-for-19, including 2-for-5 with a pair of two-run doubles leading to a career-high four RBI Wednesday.<I>

nice pickup but can he handle bbcode

lol i don't know what's happened to me

I remember that. When Kapler was coaching an LA farm team? iirc Verdugo wasn’t accused of anything but the situation was terrible and Kapler should have called the police.

lol i don't know what's happened to me

I don't know whether I'm coming or going!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwSr04oWcAMeZNE?format=jpg&name=large

Alex Cora just now with @GreshFauriaWEEI announced they will be moving Corey Kluber to the Pen in the wake of Houck’s strong last performance

— WEEI Red Sox Network (@SoxBooth) May 24, 2023

He could blow saves

he’s not great first time through the order or any time through the order

He’ll be blowing dust off his cleats.

might simply have been too embarrassed to DFA their opening-day starter after less than two months

Yeah. I think they were probably gentler with him given that Cora was talking about “mechanical adjustments” that needed to be done like three days ago. If an SP is genuinely trying to get better - and Kluber’s a pretty professional seeming guy, so assume this was the case - they probably merit a slightly gentler pushoff. But who knows?

Btw - BELLO. Genuinely a shining ray of light on this team.

It's early but he really seems like he might be pretty special.

Can we discuss this play, Tracer Hand?!

Kutter Crawford. Athlete. 😳 pic.twitter.com/TuUxx3Nnv4

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 28, 2023

it’s worth noting what a good read that was from casas s well to stretch himself into foul territory and give kutter a clean target to throw to

Yeah this is the conversation I was having with you the other day re first base fielding right? Does his handedness impact on that play at all?

idk if anything I think being a rightie actually helps him there? mookieproof to thread

I watched the Bello innings and then the scores of last night’s game. Pretty rough outing for Bello but he only allowed one run, despite the best efforts of that guy who is not a shortstop. His skyhigh pitch count in the first two innings with all the sloppy breaking balls reminded me of a classic bad Zito outing in the 2012 NLDS against the Reds(!). And Joely Rodriguez isn’t Tim Lincecum.

Actually, just looking through his pitching sequences, it looks like Maguire kept calling for his slider, which was a ball 99% of the time? Wtf?

I should really look at it in more detail but yeah, I don’t think Maguire is much of a catcher.

I am here because I do not want to talk about the Mariners. 🫣🫣🫣

The Red Sox are .500 and have a run differential of -3 when President Biden takes a tumble

June 18, 2022
🇻🇮falls over on bike
⚾️ BOS loses to STL 2-11

June 1, 2023
🇻🇮tripped on flat ground
⚾️BOS beats CIN 8-2 pic.twitter.com/QpDhKP5RR3

— Coop (@coop_leon) June 2, 2023

seems like chris sale might be out for awhile, depending on what the MRI says. he'd been on fire of late too, peak level performance.

Is there actual news? I’ve been enjoying watching him all season, love this slender psycho

Shoulder soreness which I guess could maybe just be soreness, I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but cora didn't seem optimistic.

Possible IL stint for Chris Sale, Cora said. He’s still sore and at least been ruled out for his next start. Doctors are reviewing MRI and Cora said the Red Sox will know more later on.
If placed on IL, Kluber (paternity list) will take his spot and Sherriff will stay

— Christopher Smith (@SmittyOnMLB) June 2, 2023

one last rodeo for the klubinator

Alex Cora just confirmed on @NESN that Chris Sale will go to the IL. Said he hopes he didn’t hurt the shoulder any more by ramping it up on the couple of fastballs he threw to the final batter.

— Tom Caron (blue checkmark redacted) (@TomCaron) June 2, 2023

This quite frankly sucks!

Dermody is a hateful dipshit, but there are a lot of hateful dipshits. Chaim Bloom's quotes in this piece, however, are enraging. https://t.co/iVPk0ufzKh

— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) June 8, 2023

Scrolling though his tweeter, the homophobia is one of many, many things wrong with this dude.

Hopefully he gets booed so loudly it gets in his peabrain and then he gets promptly shelled back to whatever minor/international league he came from.

(sorry Sox fans)

I personally hope he gets lit up and then DFAed

uhhhm so was the tweet a "mistake" or a "statement of his beliefs" that the red sox should respect????? fucking hell

It’s so bad

Going through the likes tab of tonight’s starter for the Red Sox! Very normal behavior on display here! pic.twitter.com/HKdAVdyRZF

— Fitzy Mo Peña (@FitzyMoPena) June 8, 2023

what a f’n loser

I personally hope he gets lit up and then DFAed

:D

Will they do the same with Kluber though

if devers got caught with something like this, i could at least understand why the sox/bloom would go to great lengths to excuse it. but this guy is the absolute definition of replacement player! why wouldn’t you just get another quad-a guy (being generous) who *isn’t* an obvious bigot?

Right?????

https://t.co/Mr85r1oyVM pic.twitter.com/0V9uEGyEAa

— sam (@redsoxsam_) June 9, 2023

Chris Sale on the 60 day IL 😩

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyNNRx2XwAEtT10?format=jpg&name=large