Dirty Water - the tale of the 2023 Boston Red Sox

so far Urías has walked, singled and at 2B started a double play, not bad

Brutal loss tonight. Down 5-3 heading to the ninth they put runners on the corners. With one out, Urías laces a single to plate a run. Now it's 5-4, runners on first and second. Wong launches a shot towards the Monster which looks promising but is caught right on the track. Reese McGuire (for it is he) takes off on contact and just... keeps going around 3rd?! Gets doubled off by about 80 feet, game over.

Lot of second guessing to go around here. In the top of the 9th, with the score still 4-3, who does Cora bring in to pitch to a string of righties? Leftie "depth" Joe Jacques, who gives up a walk, a single and eventually a run. Why?

The WEEI guys were wondering why Verdugo was a scratch from the game, with no reason given. These are possibly the most important games of the year. He can't PH for McGuire? Pinch run?

If they'd won their last two games they'd be tied for the last WC spot. As it stands they're 4 back of the Jays.

Looking at the play again, Febles (Boston’s 3B coach) is quite clearly signaling “home run” to both McGuire and Urías there, just unconscionable stuff

Oh man you missed the whole Verdugo beef

"I think today we took a step back as a team... As the manager, I got to take charge of this"

Alex Cora on their loss against Toronto today | #RedSox pic.twitter.com/HJxTzu2IOI

— NESN (@NESN) August 5, 2023

Urias is a real nice player, though.

Cora was not happy after the game.

Asked about Verdugo, he reiterated several times that he made a decision not to play him. It is not health-related.

He also said “this is probably one of my worst days here in this organization.”

— Gabrielle Starr (@gfstarr1) August 5, 2023

completely bizarre

Unreal how bad this team is rn lmaooooo

I mean tbh the pen is burnt out but still. They need the injured back yesterday and it’s still today.

It definitely feels over now. Very weird season. Swept by Pirates and Rockies. Owned the Blue Jays til it mattered. Extreme swings of hot and cold are normal but even so. Dugie and Casas were either on fire or couldn't buy a hit. Devers hasn't really looked like himself, swinging for the fences all the time, average way down. Duran is simply not a CF. Lot of parts that don't quite fit. You'd like to play Duvall in CF but then whither Duran & Refsnyder? You'd like Yoshida to DH but then whither Turner? It's all just slightly janked out. There's no such thing as a normal lineup. And let's not even get into the pitching situation. Who's starting? Who's relieving? Is it coincidental that after the front office failed to add any significant pieces the wheels came off? You can say oh, well, this team should have taken that as a vote of confidence and played their balls off but everyone can see how it's all put together with duct tape. I am surprised that Duvall didn't get moved. Not even Dalbec got moved!

Idk I assumed they were never making the playoffs and this is a year for development - which it pretty much has been. Casas + defence training over offseason + a year’s seasoning = a key piece next year. Duran was due more regression. Think the injuries really broke them open, the Houck one was in retrospect probably the worst. Who knows. I really enjoy watching them when they’re going good. Also, Cora needs to stop complaining about their defence when every single player that goes there gets worse!

Btw Dalbec didn’t get moved cos they probably release him, nobody is trading for him

Casas especially after April a rare bright spot, the adjustments have been really encouraging even if he skids every now and then. Urias looks good. Bello, you know how I feel about Bello. Yoshida a classic ofc. Devers very weird up and down year. Idk I think there’s still plenty of year to go, I don’t think they make the playoffs but even if the deadline theory is true, they were still losing winnable games long before that.

Yeah yeah but Dalbec DESTROYS (this is the mandated verb) AAA pitching!!eleventy1!11!!!

xpost Lots of bright spots really, enough that they really had me believing.

I think you should listen to the Bloom interview on inside the monster, he talks about a lot of these things.

I can see them acquiring some SPs in free agency especially with money coming off the books this year. Honestly if Urias really is a guy and Story is legit they probably only need a couple of quality relievers to be serious this year. There’s the bones of a good team there.

Also, stupid decisions like sending Duran to steal in SF. I watch the Giants! I know Bailey has a rocket arm that puts Wong’s to shame! Yet they sent runners against him twice and gave up two outs. You just have to look at the coaching situation as well.

It’s funny cos I started watching the Sox cos my Mariners weren’t doing it at the plate but I have the Mariners on right now and just a better looking team in all respects.

Btw they weren’t swept by the Rockies. You’re thinking of the other bad team that swept them, the Cardinals.

yeah they look good. Big Dumper has owned Sox pitching

xpost Hmm. It felt that way at the time I guess.

look I watch almost every Mariners game and I knew what was going to happen when they threw to Cal low in the zone - he hammers those every time. You think his idol Jason Varitek would have better scouting reports on him than that

the way this team does not play defense is truly frustrating, and it's one of those things that was obvious when they constructed this roster which makes me wonder what they actually care about/prioritize.

Trevor Story went 4-4 today and made some great plays including this

https://x.com/redsoxstats/status/1690790339320098817

Urias looks like a great pickup for the MI as well

No fucking way hahahaha

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4D9Yg_WUAArxI4?format=jpg&name=large

that all seems very mild compared with what i saw on my TV. but even if we take that at face value... is that saying that they estimate he handed a run to the Yanks?

That’s usually what the scorecards mean. I think that probably comes from one of those Penvetta innings where he had to throw a bunch of extra pitches because of not getting the strike zone…Let me check.

so if that play at the plate hadn't been overturned he would have handed TWO runs to them

https://i.postimg.cc/xTB3dnnh/IMG-8035.jpg

I’m guessing it’s this one - two of those are debatable strikes and one of them is on the scorecard. Volpe homers right after that and it’s three runs. The other two runs were solo shots and no issue. Gotta be this AB cos it was the only time he got on all day.

And yeah obviously the pitcher & catcher change their approach up depending on the calls. Thankfully Connor was in for that play at the plate cos Reese McGuire isn’t making it.

I do appreciate the M’s tenderizing Houston’s bullpen a little before the Boston visit

Pausing to lol at Winckowski-Martin-Jansen being described as the “three-headed, four-headed monster in the bullpen”

"I missed on the good side of the ball and it went pretty far and it gave us the lead and we didn't look back"

Triston Casas on his home run and the victory@WebsterOnTV | #RedSox pic.twitter.com/IPDuQkgA8X

— NESN (@NESN) September 4, 2023

2022 Red Sox HR leaders:

Rafael Devers - 27
Trevor Story, JD Martinez - 16
Xander Bogaerts - 15
Bobby Dalbec - 12

2023 Red Sox HR leaders:

Devers - 29
Triston Casas - 23*
Justin Turner - 22
Adam Duvall - 19
Masataka Yoshida - 15*

* Homered today

— Gabrielle Starr (@gfstarr1) September 5, 2023

Last night was the template. Just took 130 games. The lineup hasn't been settled all season and finally with Casas at cleanup it feels like it's getting there. Cora going 'only mashers in the building' tonight

1 Rafaela SS
2 Devers 3B
3 Turner DH
4 Casas 1B
5 Duvall RF
6 Yoshida LF
7 Abreu CF
8 Wong C
9 Valdez 2B

I kind of prefer Urias at 2nd, you know? But yeah, just need to see Story hopefully unlock something at the plate cos he’s a momentum killer atm. Just take pitches and you can walk, Trevor!

Bloom out

Classy stuff

You bring him in to trade Mookie (which Dave D bears a lot of responsibility for), rebuild the farm system, get the next young core together and complement that core with some veteran pieces on short term contracts - and he does exactly that - and loads of people get injured - and then you fire him . ??? Profit!

Great job for the next guy, but I gather this is typical FSG class wrt their GMs. Didn’t they run all the other guys out of town?

Someone at the press conference ask if they are going to root out the anonymous front office sources that were in the Globe stabbing Bloom in the back.

— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) September 14, 2023

Passan cooking the fraud Henry

Over the 15-year stretch during which they won four World Series, here were the Boston Red Sox's payroll ranks in those years: 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 1st.

Over the last four years, they have been under the CBT three times and their payroll this year is 11th.

But it was the GM's fault.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) September 14, 2023

bloom did a bad job but he wasn’t set up to do a good job. ownership is pretty much absent at this point.

Ownership hired him to eat shit basically and he did that. Next guy will benefit

According to @BNightengale, Sam Fuld has emerged as one of the leading candidates to replace Chaim in the Red Sox front office.

Fuld was a finalist in the Red Sox managerial search the last time around. Has worked as Dave Dombrowski’s right-hand man and GM with the Phillies.… pic.twitter.com/drhUKRtI3i

— Tyler Milliken ⚾️ (@tylermilliken_) September 25, 2023

Can 'Superman' save Sox??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4UaxlOoxAM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ9QpRnO6nM

Season so far:

+Story at short
+TRISTON CASAS
+ Chris Martin
+ the bullpen 99% of the time (what’s that stat? 51-3 when leading after six innings)
+ Chris Sale when healthy
+ Bello mostly
+ Abreu & Rafaela
+ Jarren Duran most of the time
+ Justin Turner
+ Masa 90% of the season
+ Kutter Crawford
+ first half Verdugo

- Houck/Sale injuries
- Paxton second half
- Cora not playing Pablito at short enough before Kiké trade
- Duran/Casas injuries
- RISP problems
- JT getting injured and performance falling off a cliff as he tried to play through it
- Duvall cold stretches
- Masa being gassed in August
- Day game Bello
- second half Verdugo :(

Have I missed anything?

+ Connor Wong behind the dish
+ Bernardino (and his story)

- The entire bench staff. Dave Bush. Febles. How come Brasier is good for the Dodgers now? How come Kiké is good. What is going on.
- the fuckin barbells
- Kenley not being the same guy after his 400th save
- the Houck starting experiment
- the Matt Dermody game
- the Kyle Barraclough game
- the baserunning
- the defense

Kiké really isn’t good now, classic change of scene job. He’s reverted to his earlier year performance

https://i.postimg.cc/NMkx9rmM/IMG-9979.jpg

Brasier is a classic Dodgers pitching lab job, supposedly he showed up and Mark Prior was like “Will u throw a cutter” and now he’s elite I guess? Chris Martin credits the Cubs pitching lab with improving him last year so it’s not 100% but yeah the approach is impressive.

Oh yeah Dermody was disgraceful! Every time I see that José Ramirez three homer highlight on mlb.tv I’m like GOOD FOR YOU JOSE!!!

Kenley has been good post-400! Where he’s been bad is due to Cora doing bullshit like running him out in back to back games or two games of a double header. The walk off in SF was insanely bad luck, giving up a homer to JD Davis (the D stands for DFA this guy) in the bottom of the ninth was like a one in a million thing cos that guy can’t hit for shit this year.

I will have a little stats dive in a minute but just watching the games, he puts too many guys on

His recent splits haven’t been great but he’s been sick and playing less so the sample is a bit skewed iirc

His season splits seem to largely follow our known info about him: he pitches badly on short/no rest but also when he’s rusty (which is why Cora has used him in non save situations before)
https://i.postimg.cc/T1LP11ks/IMG-9980.jpg

👀
https://i.postimg.cc/prwLFv4L/IMG-9981.jpg

And crucially he pitches badly in non save situations
https://i.postimg.cc/3rVR6jNQ/IMG-9982.jpg

His two worst OPS against are in 1-run or tie games!

Check the ahead/behind split though - more closely correlates with pitching in a loss or going into the top of the ninth behind (ie a non closing situation)

Lmao…uh…?

Alex Cora said he’s “not ready” to be a GM, that if he felt he was, he would’ve wanted to be a candidate - but made clear to ownership he’s not in that position. He received assurances from owners last week he’ll be back as manager and will be part of the GM search/hiring process

— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) October 1, 2023

https://www.sporcle.com/games/zFordesi/every-2023-red-sox-player
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m o n d e s i - incorrect