It’s finally Roman Anthony time. The Red Sox announced that the top prospect in baseball has been selected to the roster. Fellow outfielder Wilyer Abreu has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a left oblique strain. First baseman/outfielder Ryan Noda has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot.
Anthony, now 21, has been at or near the top of prospect lists for a while now. The Sox grabbed him with the 79th overall pick in 2022, a compensation pick they received after Eduardo Rodríguez rejected a qualifying offer and signed with the Tigers.
After a brief professional debut in that 2022 season, he took off in 2023. He climbed from Single-A to High-A to Double-A, putting up a combined .272/.403/.466 line and 140 wRC+. That made him a consensus top 25 prospect in the sport coming into 2024. He raised his stock even higher last year, slashing .291/.396/.498 for a 147 wRC+ between Double-A and Triple-A.
In addition to that work at the plate, Anthony tallied double-digit stolen base totals in both 2023 and 2024. He is also considered a strong outfield defender. By the end of 2024, he was already the #1 prospect in the league for some outlets. Some publications bumped him to #2 once Roki Sasaki was signed by the Dodgers, though others kept Anthony in the top spot.
Between Anthony, Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer, and Kyle Teel, the Sox had four tremendous prospects generating excitement this past offseason. The four were often mentioned in trade rumors and Teel was eventually flipped to the White Sox as part of the Garrett Crochet deal, though the other three remained and still provided a lot of optimism about the future.
Coming into 2025, with that hype and already having 35 big league games under his belt, a quick promotion for Anthony seemed possible. However, his time in Triple-A has dragged on, despite murmuring from all corners of the baseball world.
Initially, some of that was justified. He was dealing with some shoulder soreness in April and spent some time where he was only serving as the designated hitter and not playing the field. But that quickly passed and he kept putting up huge numbers at the plate. The question then became one of playing time in Boston. The Sox have spent most of this year with a crowded outfield mix consisting of Abreu, Jarren Duran and Ceddanne Rafaela, with Rob Refsnyder and Campbell also factoring in.
That didn’t leave a clean path for Anthony to get playing time, especially with Rafael Devers taking up the designated hitter spot on an everyday basis. Still, many were calling for the Sox to simply call him up and figure it out.
Those calls grew louder when the Sox lost both of their corner infielders. First, Triston Casas suffered a season-ending knee injury. That led to much speculation about Devers getting plugged in at first in order to open at-bats for Anthony, or perhaps Anthony taking first base himself. Understandably, the Sox didn’t want to mess with Anthony’s development as an outfielder, so they never gave much consideration to that. Devers was unwilling to try his hand at first base. Then third baseman Alex Bregman went on the IL with a quad injury that could keep him out for a couple of months, but the Sox never seemed to really consider the possibility of asking Devers about going back there.
As all that was going on, Anthony continued to put up massive numbers for Worcester. As of today, he has a .288/.423/.491 line and 146 wRC+. He has ten home runs and three steals in 58 games. His 19.2% walk rate is almost as high as his 21.1% strikeout rate. Now, finally, it seems like this Abreu injury will open the door for him to get to the big leagues.
As the season drags along, the playing time puzzle might return. That will depend on Abreu’s injury and how long it will take him to get back. At some point, maybe Masataka Yoshida will finally get healthy and re-enter the equation.
It’s possible things will work out organically. Other injuries may arise before those guys heal up. Anthony might struggle, as even the best prospects can sometimes need a bit of time to get their feet wet in the big leagues. Campbell also followed a hot April with a rough May. If he doesn’t get back on track, perhaps he could get optioned to the minors with Rafaela moving to the infield. But on the other hand, Rafaela is the best defensive center fielder of the bunch. Duran and Anthony can play up the middle but each is considered a better fit for a corner. There’s also the shortstop question, as Trevor Story has been heating up of late but is having a bad season overall. Mayer is up to cover for Bregman at third but hasn’t quite fully clicked in the big leagues yet.
There will also be long-term things to be sorted out. The crowded outfield situation has led to trade rumors surrounding Duran. Bregman could opt out after this season and it’s unclear if the Sox would be willing to return Devers to that spot. Casas is expected back by next year’s spring training but he has also been in trade rumors. Devers isn’t willing to play there now but perhaps he would be more amenable with an offseason to prepare. Campbell has dabbled with some first base drills but hasn’t officially played there yet.
In time, there should be more clarity on the club’s long-term plans. For now, Sox fans can get excited about Anthony’s emergence and hope that it helps turn around a middling season. The Sox are currently 32-35, fourth in the American League East and four games back of a Wild Card spot. Even if they can’t engineer a comeback this year, players like Anthony, Mayer, Campbell, Rafael, Duran, Abreu and others can be affordably controlled for years to come, giving the club an exciting core to build around.
As a consensus top prospect, Anthony is eligible for the prospect promotion incentive. Since the Sox didn’t promote him early enough to get a full service year the traditional way, they won’t be able to earn an extra draft pick based on awards voting this year. Anthony can technically earn himself a full year of service time by finishing in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting, though that will be tough to do. Players like Jacob Wilson, Shane Smith and even Anthony’s teammate Carlos Narváez have a big headstart on him. Even if he performs well, it would be hard to catch up to those guys with more than a third of the season already in the books.
If Anthony manages to pull that off, he would hasten his path to free agency by a year. Otherwise, he would be on pace to hit the open market after 2031 at the earliest, though future optional assignments could also impact that timeline.
Noda, 29, was just acquired from the Angels a few weeks ago in a cash deal. He’s a three true outcomes guy, with lots of homers and walks but also strikeouts. In 606 big league plate appearances, he has a 34.2% strikeout rate, 15% walk rate and 17 homers. That adds up to a .212/.344/.369 line and 107 wRC+. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has 574 minor league plate appearances with 25 home runs, a 16% walk rate and 28.2% strikeout rate. That leads to a .259/.395/.474 line and 125 wRC+.
The Sox grabbed him for extra first base depth with the Casas injury but now risk losing him. DFA limbo can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so Boston could take five days to explore trade interest. He is still optionable for the rest of this year and one additional season. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the Sox as non-roster depth.
Christopher Smith of MassLive first reported that Anthony was being promoted. A few minutes earlier, Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported that a promotion was possible. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first noted that Abreu was going on the IL, though Alex Speier of The Boston Globe had previously suggested that an IL stint for Abreu was likely.
Photos courtesy of Ashley Green, Imagn Images
Trade him to the Braves for Acuna
Your mom.
I just meant she is shrewd. Although from the Marlin side that is an easy yes.
Well someone has to be
I can’t imagine how unfulfilled ones life has to be to anonymously troll social media or any sort. Let alone someone who has to go to a random sports sight and do so, must have a lot of time on your hands and almost assuredly severe low testosterone issues and a habit of sitting while urinating….
Sitting while urinating is underrated but the freedom of a standing pee is hard to deny.
I really didn’t mean the post as a cruel troll and tried to temper it by saying his mother is a shrewd lady. I would say that making a mom joke is just an automatic response when given an easy opening. It is very immature of me but don’t you ever want to act like a 15 year old while on the internet?
It is unfortunate to live in a time when a 3rd party reading a post on the internet can have their Cornhole literally cry in anguish at the perceived injustice of a “your mom” joke. It seems like you might have just enough testosterone to feel like you need to be the hero no one asked for.
Stevie Steve totally shut that joke down with his reply. I respect him for it and probably won’t be a child next time, no promises though.
That’s what she said
You offend me!
do you know who isn’t feeling unfulfilled?
@Wade The guy comes on here and just posts ignorant stuff to I assume try and instigate. Most of the comments tho are so outlandish, they add nothing of value.
It in no way offends or affects me. It’s odd to say the least doing such a thing. Coming on here just posting random baseball related things not derived in opinion or attempting any form of discussion.
I 100% read your comment as a reply to mine I apologize.
Only if he knows a Football Slider.
Not at all towards yours Wade. You clearly are here as a fan of the sport and to discuss it.
Breslow dies of laughter while blocking your number.
Not a Red Sox fan but super excited for this move. I can’t wait to see him in major league action.
horace – As the Sox play the Rays right now, I think back to Boston’s last #1 overall MLB prospect and Tampa’s last #1 overall MLB prospect.
I really hope Roman’s career ends up better than both!!!!
Benintendi and Franco, maybe?
Good that they called Anthony up finally, but he’ll struggle to get PT just as Mayer is frequently benched. They’d do better if they were to send Cora down.
Wait – You got it!! As they say, no such thing as a sure thing. But I do really believe Roman will be among the Top Ten players in MLB at some point in his career. He reminds me of Harper, having great success ever since he was a little kid.
Yeah it does seem the Sox lied again when they insisted Mayer and Anthony would play every day once they get called up. As long as Story stays healthy he’s gonna be a starting middle infielder every day. When Bregman returns maybe they will slide Mayer over to 2B and KC to first base, although the way Toro and Romy have been playing makes it hard to take them out of the lineup.
Now 6 losses back in the WC race and 5 teams they need to catch, not looking good.
FPG- the Sox are gonna wreck Mayer before long. They moved his position to accommodate Story, who is past his prime, and, they’re essentially turning him into a platoon player by sitting him against mediocre lefties and playing Toro, who couldn’t hold on with the Mariners and is a career 1 WAR player.
Sad – Story’s prime was about 3 years before he signed with the Red Sox! He’s not going anywhere though, except maybe shifting to 2B. They need to keep Mayer at 3B because with Bregman leaving there’s no chance Devers goes back to 3B.
I’m not worried about Mayer mentally, he’s SoCal laid back. KC is the only one I worry about mentally.
Two things I’ve noticed more and more. Cora’s demeanor has changed, he’s showing a lot of anger and he’s not as confident anymore. The pressure is clearly starting to get to him.
And the players are tuning him out. STILL Rafaela has that vicious uppercut swing in late game situations when all they really need is to advance the runners. When he talks to players they ignore him and walk away.
It’s such a young team now, player development is the most important part of Cora’s job right now …. even more important than winning. If he continues to fail, I really see him being replaced after the season.
More fantasy from Fever Pitch Guy who has no idea what is going on in the Red Sox dugout and clubhouse. The players are playing hard for Cora as far as I can tell. Narvaez sits near Cora during games learning from him. Campbell is doing just fine. He is hitting and walking again, so it looks like he has made adjustments. Rafaela has improved and I think he will keep improving. I’m not a big Cora fan. I think he is basically an average manager. However, Fever Pitch Guy’s unfounded garbage needs to be called out.
I’m not going to lie. When story went to Boston I was upset thinking he would have been the perfect 3B for the Giants. I’m so glad we dodged that bullet and had room for Chapman instead.
Anthony for stowers/norby would be right up there with trading crochet to the royals for rich hill…
How about Chris Archer to the Bucs for Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows and a player to be named later (Shane Baz).
TradeAcuna: At least you are on message.
I suspect if the Braves throw in the towel they move Ozuna, who is a FA, and move Acuna to DH to preserve his body. Maybe someone goes big with an offer for him
Red Sox not only says no but blocks the phone number from future calls.
I see you’ve been taking MSN’s advice.
I guess they couldn’t ignore the 497ft Grand Slam any longer
I think taking the Yankees series showed the season is on life support but not dead.
More importantly to henry. They’re secure that super 2 isn’t a factor
I hate this aspect of modern sports fandom.
There is no readily apparent indicator that the Red Sox focus on arbitration and super two factors. That does NOT mean that they don’t, but speculation or (at best) mediocre inductive reasoning is not deduction or proof.
On top of that, there has been a very obvious baseball reason (the tight OF playing time situation) for Boston to not hurry to bring Anthony up.
Again, that does not prove they didn’t consider such things, but it’s ugly and toxic to pretend that it was a central factor in this.
Hey Mr. Henry I didn’t know you had an account here.
I believe there are and were baseball reasons why he has been in AAA.
But
If the super 2 cutoff just passed thats not a random coincidence.
Longinus — Totally agree with how you put it.
Life comes at you naturally, and if it doesn’t then you need to make a change so it does come naturally.
I think that’s correct. Fans want to see top prospects IMMEDIATELY. Clubs have to factor in other issues. If there was an injury on May 1 to one of the OFers, Anthony likely would have been up already.
And if he would have been called up May 1st the team would have been looking for reasons to send him back down to avoid super 2.
I believe it passed on the 6th, I might be wrong
Long – I’ll bite, what exactly would you consider a “readily apparent indicator”?
Please don’t tell me you believe nothing is true unless there’s physical evidence such as a recording of the Red Sox front office acknowledging the service time manipulation. We already have one of *those* people here.
In Roman’s case there’s well documented preponderance of the evidence.
He’s been the top overall MLB prospect since last year (not counting Roki).
He had a strong spring training.
He has absolutely dominated AAA pitching since last year.
He can play all three outfield positions well with his versatility.
His AAA manager said there’s no benefit to keeping him in Woosta any longer.
Red Sox are more inclined to promote strong prospects if they are willing to sign a team-friendly extension, as Campbell did. Roman has indicated he prefers to go year-to-year.
Red Sox refused to promote Mayer until a longterm injury to Bregman forced their hand.
As for motive, keeping Roman down long enough guarantees he doesn’t earn a full year of service time this season.
Tight outfield playing time? Abreu regularly sits against LHP and Rafaela is a below average hitter capable of playing 2B, 3B and shortstop.
Bottom line, Anthony could have easily become a starting outfielder with the Red Sox long before today.
Now prove to me you’re not just playing the contrarian. with your “ugly and toxic” comment.
Lord – The fans clamoring for top prospects to be promoted is often the result of said players being overhyped. It’s been like that for decades, not just with the current ownership.
The insinuation that fans having a better than ever understanding of the economics of the pro sports business model being “ugly and toxic” is hilarious. Yeah, sorry we’re on to the games you’re playing Mr Henry, and aren’t stupid enough to believe you when you cry poverty.
(the tight OF playing time situation)
==========================
There was a -0- chance that Anthony was going to take playing time away from Abreu, Rafaela, Duran, or Devers.
-0-
Nothing to do service status.
Longinus, so that he is coming up 3 days after the cutoff for super two status last season and within a few days for the last 4 seasons is not an indication of at least part of the reason they waited? Tens of millions of dollars are on the line and you are trying to say that it had no bearing on their decision? Really?
Longinus = the roman soldier who stabbed Jesus in the side with a spear as he hung on the cross. Interesting that you associate with him.
GaSox – How ya liking Story now? He’s doing it all …. great defense, stealing bases, and lots of big hits. Maybe he’ll tie or win it tonight?
Maybe he’s our version of Javier Baez? Hell, even DJL is up to league average now!
Fever, I always hate it when a guy, clearly in his twilight, causes major disruptions to playing time/positional alignment of young new players. Even worse when it’s a guy who historically hasn’t contributed much to the team, and worse yet when he’s commanding an outrageous contract. I’d have gathered never had story and re-extended/kept bogey prior to his opt out.
But, alas, ship has sailed. Story is *almost* earning his salary at this point at least. For a little while anyways.
And, he’s a good mentor and influence taking the kids under him a little, along with duran… too bad raffy never attempted to step up for such a role, and, tank god bregman does.
Twilight jumped the shark for sho when the other boy became a wolf
GaSox – I get what you’re saying, but there usually is no clear-cut “twilight” warning that flashes when a player is done.
BTW – Did you intentionally reference Duquette’s comment about Clemens? LOL!!
Let’s put it this way, money is a factor. If a player sucks for a few months and he’s making near-minimum, sure it’s easier to cut him loose. But when you’re making big money like Baez, Story and so many other players the last thing you want to do is give up on them too soon.
Clemens is one classic example, here’s another.
Do you remember in 2009 a 33-year-old Papi struggled so bad that literally every day the media and fans were screaming for him to be released.
It was June, just like now, and in 213 PA’s Ortiz was batting .186 with just one homerun and a .566 OPS.
But you know what? The Sox held onto him and for the final 4 months of the season he had 27 homers and a .911 OPS.
There’s just way too many examples of players being written off, only to make a spectacular comeback and perform well for many more years.
Believe me, if Story was truly done I’d be very vocal about it. You know I was against his signing since Day One, and I tempered my expectations when everyone else here went nuts about his incredible hitting streak in early 2022.
But now? Simply too soon, and his veteran leadership is also needed as well.
FPG- maybe its me, because I want Mayer and SS and not third, BUT……
Shouldn’t the Sox be moving Story to 3B or 1B so that he gets so upset or embarrassed that he opts out? Because sitting comfortably at SS doesn’t make him want to search for a new job, does it?
Sad – unless Story quickly makes friends at BALCO he isn’t going to opt out. No one is going to give him close to that kind of money. That’s a huge chunk of change to throw away.
Sad – No player is gonna give up that much money just to spite a team.
Opting out would be giving the Sox what they want, it’s not the best way to get back at them ;o)
FpG and Joemo – i agree with both your points. I guess a boy could dream, no?
Yep! Also if Story somehow plays good enough to consider opting out, then that more than likely means the Sox are in the playoffs and I can’t complain about that outcome.
He just needs to not look completely lost at the plate for an extended period of time between these little hot streaks he goes on.
He’s in transit to Tampa and will be in tonight’s lineup batting 5th.
The game is in Boston, I certainly hope he isn’t on his way to Tampa
He took a wrong turn past Albuquerque…
Trust me. He’s heading to Tampa. : -)
I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonopah.
Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made;
Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed.
And if you give me weed, whites, and wine-
And you show me a sign
I’ll be willin’ to be movin’!
That 500 footer is what sent him to the majors
Abreu getting hurt is what sent him to the majors.
That 500 footer counts exactly the same as a 350 foot wall scraper, so what difference does it make?
Hiflew – The 500 footer was hit with the Gold Ball, therefore counts for much more.
FINALLY
I’m hoping this frees up a Jarren Duran deal to SF for one of the Giants’ excellent young arm prospects.
Duran isn’t being moved he’s arguably the best all around player on the team and controllable through 2028..more likely abreau or rafaela
You won’t get much for Abreu and Rafaela. And Rafaela was signed long term.
Cora- you think there’s no trade value in a gold glove corner OF who has shown some real pop in his bat, and four (practically) free salary years left?
I don’t think we will get nearly as much for Abreu as Duran. I could be wrong, but Abreu is a .250 hitter with some pop. Duran has more tools. He runs, hits, steals bags, and hits for power.
I hate the idea of trading Duran but you have to give to get and there’s clearly a logjam in the outfield. Duran has also been coveted by other teams like the Padres, according to writers here…
CtD- I agree with you whole heartedly. I just don’t see the need to trade Duran.
He’s not bringing back the 1A or stud SP the Sox need.
So, unless hes part of a deal for Paul Skenes, I’m holding…
Fair enough. I wouldn’t want to trade Duran for something not so big either
Cora the Destroya
You won’t get much for Abreu and Rafaela
=======================
Rafaela is a beast and should never be traded. Abreu is good, but his splits are weak. That will diminish his trade value.
But at the end of the day, and OF of Duran, Rafaela & Anthony will be about as good as anyone.
The problem i think is we all value Duran very highly and most teams will not give us back the mlb talent we would need to make dealing Duran worth it considering the sox are trying to compete in 2026 and possibly still 2025
Poolhall- I feel you’re correct, in that, Duran is not bringing back a #1 or 1A starter by himself. That’s all we could be trading him for.
I wouldn’t trade Duran for a position player, unless its a top five 1B.
He’s good, cheap and ours. No reason to trade him
Giants are keeping all their pitching, pitching & defense are the name of the game. We can’t hit worth a crap, but we can pitch & play D.
Not sure Duran’s bat would do well in SF.
Duran won’t hit homers but SF is a gap hitters paradise.
Does he hit a lot of gaps? Gappers?
Last season he did lol…
I think Hicks will go. Wants to start and I’ll think Buster will be looking for that opportunity for him. One or both of Beck and Hjelle could probably go as well. Both are probably worthy of being in someone’s bullpen.
I agree with you but I think it would have to be Painter from the Phillies as they are now desperate for outfield help during this latest losing streak.. The writing is on the wall and Duran will be 29 vs Anthony at 21. No one is not expendable just ask Nomar. I like Duran don’t get me wrong but he’s a means to an end.
Duran might not be enough for Painter although if I am the redsox, I am good w that deal.
if they punting on season, send Chapman and Duran for Painter and another b prospect
PHILLIES would be all in this season and Duran helps them during this window as well.
PAINTER and Crochet could be co Aces for next great Sox team
I can’t imagine the Phillies are trading Painter, even for Duran.
If I’m the Sox and have set my mind to trading Duran, the only two destinations for him are Dan Diego or Seattle
Everyone is in the immediate mode. The RS want to have a sustained presence in leading the American League. They need pitching help, but better to let the youngsters mature while the pitching develops in the minor leagues. Keep the young players. Sure, they will make mistakes and struggle, but they will still be exciting.
One other consideration is to convert Anthony to a first baseman. Casas is not the answer, and the RS have not had a promising first baseman since Harry Agganis.
Anthony isn’t the one to convert to 1B… keep an eye on blaze Jordan though
Burg – If Casas goes, Devers will be the longterm first baseman.
Fever, I’ll jinx him but blaze has a 1.000 fld pct *combined* for all of 2025 playing both 3b/1b, both in AA and AAA IIRC…
I see him as your corner IF of the future, especially if bregman opts out and mayer slides to 3B in deference to the stronger SS options in the minors coming along
Burgs, we had a promising young first baseman named Rizzo once. Unfortunately, shipped him off in an ill-fated trade and had to watch him gain immortality with the Cubs instead.
GaSox – Yeah it just amazes me when people here want to devalue a really good player by moving him from a difficult position that he has mastered to the easiest position in baseball … and at Age 22 no less.
I mean if the Sox had 6 Cy Young caliber starting pitchers and needed a mopup guy, would you move Crochet to that mopup role? That’s exactly what Anthony (or Duran) to first base is.
GaSox – Did you mean Mayer slides to 2B? I don’t understand what he has to do with first base.
In 2026 it will be either Casas, Devers, Campbell or Jordan at first base with Casas/Devers having the inside track.
Fever – mayer at 3B. Arias at SS. Jordan at 1B. Devers should be a dh the rest of his career, with ST reps at 1B for injury depth in a pinch.
No mayer at 2b. Mayer’s only connection to 1b is that he takes up the 3b slot, bumping Jordan to 1B
GaSox – Okay you’re thinking way down the road with Arias.
What about Cespedes at 3B?
BTW – Pap just went off on Rafaela during pregame, without naming him he said “You’re a table setter, know your role”.
Fever. We’ve got this season plus two more of story. No way I can imagine him opting out of $50m, plus the $5m buyout on top of that.
Arias I expect to see AA this season. It’s not a big stretch to think he might be ready before story is out of town.
I get he’s only in high A as a result of an early april promotion, but, he’s clearly much better than the competition at that level
IMO, by the time Arias is ready, there won’t be enough left on Story’s deal to impede a trade. Even a 2028 debut by Arias might be slightly aggressive.
GASox- I’ve been thinking about it, doesn’t it make more sense to play Mayer at SS and move Story (present hot streak aside) to another position to make him more uncomfortable in a Sox uniform and perhaps give him a reason to opt out?
Probably still won’t opt out, but it couldn’t hurt
Sad – remember, story has moved before… more than once actually, both to get his $$$ and for team need. He’s not going to care about being out of position.
Despite the fact he’s 33 this November, given his injury history, nobody is beating that guarantee from Boston- $55/2 over his remaining deal with buyout. I don’t think story even gets offered $60/4 with his injuries the past few years.
The question for the sox is the bregman issue… you let him walk after this season, and, 3B is a need that mayer can fill, especially considering his body is better suited for a move off ss eventually anyways. If you believe in Arias, it makes the swap easier.
GASox- great points!
I was thinking more of Story to First base for the rest of this season.
We can mull it over and wait for the inevitable Story injury to happen. LOL
GaSox – I think Story is exactly what they need for the next two years, a veteran shortstop who can lead and teach the kids. He’s currently 9th in DRS, ironically tied with Xander, so he’s a decent fielder. If he finishes the season with at least a .750 OPS then my offseason expectations will be met. He is definitely locked in right now.
It’s looking very likely Abreu will be activated in a week, at which time KC will be sent down. Cora has absolutely ruined the kid. He’s the worst 2B in MLB, making another non-official error last night. It’s pretty bad when you get removed from the game to bring in Hamilton as a defensive replacement. But it’s not like his bat was missed, poor kid has just a .627 OPS in his last 15 games and has just one hit in his last 8 AB’s.
Sad – It doesn’t look good for Cora that even the outfielders have struggled mightily this season.
Did you know they lead MLB with 15 errors, 50% more than the 2nd-worst team.
Fever – its hard to blame the kids when the manager fosters an ‘i don’t care’ attitude.
All he says is, well, we have to do better. Oh well.
I remember when unfocused boneheaded defensive plays with your head not in the game got you benched for a game or two.
GaSox – Don’t forget to add the “right?” at the end, which he always does to try and sound like the smartest person in the room.
BTW – I decided to stay in Marietta again. I figure I won’t be leaving Truist until well after midnight, so I don’t want to then make that drive to the airport hotel especially with them closing the highway overnight for construction.
In the morning if I take 285 instead of 75 I should be okay during rush hour, right?
Fever, I-285 usually stacks up in the morning pretty bad, depending which side of the city you’re on and inner vs outer loop.
If you want to be safe, head down the airport early, beat the traffic.
Google maps directions usually let’s you set a time of day and projects the traffic for you, adjusting the driving time. Problem is what time of day the breakdowns and idiots start hitting each other begins. That’s going to be your bigger headache.
GaSox – Thanks for the advice. Going from Marietta to the airport, so West side of the city. Not sure what you mean by inner loop vs outer? Boarding is at 9:30AM so I figure leave Marietta by 7AM? Hafta return the rental so that takes 30 minutes or so.
They don’t have express toll lanes in the Atlanta area, do they? Just the HOV lanes which are in effect 24/7 like CT.
I adopted outer vs inner loop, because, 285 goes in a circle… if you get on it westbound on top, you wind up eventually going east towards 75/85 by the bottom. It’s not really a true east/west road.
But the outer loop always goes counterclockwise, and the innerloop will always be clockwise.
No express lanes, just HOV still within the ring. Now outside of ATL, they *do* have express toll lanes, basically past the 285 loop up and down 75 and 85. Just nothing within.
I might push it to 630-ish to be on the safe side.
On outer loop the i-20/285 interchange on the west-side can get messy. People headed in from douglasville/lithia springs/westward coming into the city. Plus, *all* truck traffic except local deliveries is required to jump from i-20 to 285. So any trucks coming from AL/I20W and headed down i-20 will use the same route you’re going, either to pickup 75/85south, or, continue on i20E, because the lower half of the loop has less distance and avoids the ga400 fiasco at the top end.
Likewise, the trucks headed south on 75 from TN jump on that western side of 285 up by marietta.
GaSox – Awesome, thank you so much!
Yeah I was wondering if each loop is only one direction. LOL
He’s not God. but it’s time to see what the kid has.
Sounds like Wilyer to the IL
Yep, it even states as much in the article.
All aboard the Roman Anthony hype train.
Can’t edit this anymore but Abreu has largely sat against LHP so that’s why he was out of the starting lineup the past two games.
One of his relatives comes into my work pretty often, and he’s gonna be so excited when I see him next.
I heard he’s overrated. Any truth to that?
All prospects are overrated. That is inherent to your value being based on what you could do rather than what you are doing/have done.
Prospects aren’t overrated. It’s just part of the struggle to communicate the nature of the value. There is a reason that high end players require bundles of prospect talent to acquire, but likewise every team needs both controllable cheap producers as well as upside in order to be able to contend for extended periods of time (much much more true for smaller market teams).
Prospects are properly rated in general, though certainly some hype messages overrate their likely immediate performance. Many others don’t make that mistake.
This is where you and others conflate baseball value with economic value. Their total value is a function of both. But until they have produced something of value on the baseball field, their baseball value is zero.
The key is, as you said, no one knows how much baseball value any prospect is going to produce. That means any and all attempts to put a valuation on what any prospect is worth are hypothetical. With modern day analytical tools we have decent enough methods I won’t call it a total arbitrary guess, but the reality is still that most prospects do not end up providing a whole lot of value. The best attempts to quantify a bust rate for baseball prospects that I’ve read is around 70%. We know this and yet we still put all our hopes and dreams into them (at least the highly rated ones). Teams wouldn’t trade for players they think are going to be bad, but will still trade for boatloads of these players that they know are still going to end up being mostly bad. Why? Because they are projecting best case scenarios, and that is inherently over-valuing when you know the odds are that strong of never sniffing the best case scenario.
DirtyWater – When valuing a player on what they have done….. you greatly over value what they WILL do!! Angels – Josh Hamilton, Red Sox – Carl Crawford, Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez…..
Rookies 7 years of low cost control, have options, coming into their prime may get over hyped by the media, but their value to organizations is so great that they are extended as a rule rather than an exception. It is hard to over value many rookies based on the current CBA.
Yes, all prospects have a baseline economic value because they are artificially cheap labor due to the CBA. That’s really the only actual tangible value prospects have since their future as a baseball player is unknowable and extremely likely to be unsuccessful. Any value you assign to them beyond the baseline financial value from being the cheapest attainable labor source is based on an expectation of them defying the established probabilities that suggest how unlikely they are to provide enough baseball value to justify having a long term roster spot. When they have yet to take the field in the big leagues, there is nothing but conjecture to base this expectation on. You are overestimating their chances of successfully becoming a valuable baseball player. Or put simply, overrating them.
And on your first point, I understand, but it ties into my point about the future being unknowable. On some things we certainly have the tools to make better guesses than we can on others, but at the end of the day even the most sophisticated projections, forecasts, or whatever you want to call them are all still guesswork. And while it is by no means a perfect system either, it is a little bit easier to guess what an established big leaguer with a demonstrated track record of performance is likely to do in an upcoming season or even the next 3 upcoming seasons, compared to a 22-24 year old kid getting his first taste of action. For every Ronald Acuna or Jackson Chourio there are 5 or 6 Jose Bautistas, a couple dozen Rob Refsnyders, and 50 Blake Swiharts.
The problem I have with your 70% figure is that it’s true of prospects in general. I don’t know the numbers off hand but I believe that number starts dropping the higher on the top 100 list you get. When a prospect gets into the top 10 I’d wager the chances of success is much greater than a guy in the bottom half of prospect lists and I’m pretty confident that #1 overall prospects succeed at a pretty good rate. Even if they don’t hit the ground running, health permitting, eventually they’re likely to be solid big league contributors. Much more than the 30% chance you’re giving them
You know, that’s a good point and I’m curious about that figure too. So I did some digging on it to get an idea. I took the Baseball America top 10 prospects every year from 2005 to 2015, excluded Japanese free agents like Matsuzaka and Tanaka, and excluded the 3 guys who died young (Oscar Taveras, Jose Fernandez, and Tyler Skaggs). Once you remove duplicates as some guys appeared in the preseason top 10 more than once, you are left with 84 unique players.
To be fair, some of them are still playing, but they’re all in their mid 30’s by now so the ultimate numbers shouldn’t end up too drastically different. But based on the numbers today, from Baseball-Reference, the median career for a BA Top 10 prospect from that 10 year sample is a guy who sticks around for 12 years and produces 16.5 career WAR. That’s essentially the career of a role player, perhaps a guy who has a few years being a decent starter but a far cry from what such an elite prospect is supposed to end up being.
Taking it further, I assigned all players into a bucket using Fangraphs’ WAR guide. A scrub produces 0-1 WAR, a role player produces 1-2 WAR, a solid starter produces 2-3 WAR, a good player produces 3-4 WAR, an All-Star produces 4-5 WAR, a superstar produces 5-6 WAR, and an MVP produces 6+ WAR.
The percentages on who fell into each grouping, based on their average WAR per season? As pretty much everyone would expect, the shape of the data is that of a pyramid. 37% of these guys profiled as scrubs, 27% as role players, 18% as solid starters, 11% as good players, 6% as All Stars, and exactly 1 player, Mike Trout, who hit the superstar threshold.
So depending on where you draw the line for what is fair to expect for the career arc of a top 10 prospect, you could argue the bust rate for the top 10 is anywhere from 60% to 90%.. If you use a career average WAR per season of 3.0 or above as the line, the bust rate of the BA Top 10 would actually be 80%.
Now, I’m not going to argue that this was a comprehensive enough of a dive to move the line from the original 70% figure I said I’m comfortable with. Based on my rudimentary findings I think that number sounds like a strong figure to conclude with. But I think my numbers illustrate the point perfectly that most prospects do not end up providing value commensurate with the expectations placed on them.
Dirty – one problem with prospect rankings is they’re based on a curve.
Some years you’ve got a lot more *talent* where your number 11 prospect would’ve been the top dog in a different year.
That’s one reason you leave out for failure rate of top rated prospects. It’s not based on an absolute potential grade of 100 for example, it’s a relative curve compared to who else is around. And then, add insult to injury, they quantify potential, which is pure projection guesswork. It’s how a low a guy with few established skills outranks guys ready for mlb debuts.
Just because someone is currently a better player doesn’t make them a higher rated prospect… pretty screwy system when you consider so many guys have a 3-6 year journey to a debut
I agree. My answer focused on the top 10 because he mentioned the top 10. I also didn’t use my analysis to try and change the argument from the original 70% bust rate I quoted, because it was fairly surface level analysis and there’s plenty of “noise” or other confounding factors I didn’t care to put the time in to examine or account for. For example, I could’ve gone deeper on examining guys’ peak WAR vs. career WAR, or taken a really close look to see how many guys became valuable for the team that actually drafted them, vs. how many were later bloomers and didn’t figure it out until their second or third team.
Taking a closer look at the top 10 is pretty self explanatory. These are the guys that are by and large supposed to be the up and coming future stars of the game. Unlike the majority of Minor League players, these guys have been identified as talented enough to have a chance at the next level, so they carry an expectation that they will become valuable baseball players. Because of that, people fall into the false belief that these so-called “blue chip” prospects are a safer bet to produce blue chip results when they get the call. As I laid out, most are not.
Of course, sometimes a can’t miss prospect doesn’t miss. Even in the years with weaker top 10s, I don’t recall there being any classes that had a top 10 without at least 1 guy who did deliver on his potential. And you are correct that there are some years that look pretty barren and some years that are loaded. Trying to quantify those differences would be another level a more robust analysis than my own could look at. But I think mine does enough to fairly conclude you’ve got about a 1 in 3 chance of any given “top prospect” to pan out.
I don’t have a problem with the prospect rankings being graded on a curve, I get what they are trying to do which is rank which Minor League guys are most likely to be the next good Major League guys. That is why they call them prospects, it’s like prospecting for gold. Guys who have exciting tools that look like they should translate to higher levels of competition are more exciting prospects than guys who are ready to be steadily mediocre right now.
And to your last point, exactly. Prospects are overrated because we think about them in terms of what they might be, because that’s the only frame of reference we have for them. Not all great players were great prospects, and not all great prospects become great players. I think of it in terms of quadrants. There are non-prospects who are nothing, there are non-prospects who defy the odds and become good pros, and there are good prospects who bust, and good prospects who live up to the hype.
I guess the thing is that he has massive power. how that is going to translate into real in game play is yet to be seen but I guess the time to see is now
I’m debating if we should put him in the Hall now, or next week.
Split the difference, we’ll schedule it for Friday
York – Where did you hear he’s from Toronto?
It’s not true, he’s from West Palm.
-27 wRC+? Yep, overrated. He’s from Toronto…
The Roman Empire has arrived.
Better than the Evil Empire, they just beat 2/3!!!
Is his middle name Mark?
Is his baby mama named Cleopatra?
Tough name, didn’t that empire collapse?
Yeah after about 500 years, and some would argue over 1500 years, so I think if Boston gets even a small fraction of that they will be happy.
Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire this time might be what, 6-7 years with Henry ruling.
Pax Romana!
Why was everyone so mad at him the other day for not signing. Some people need to get some lives.
Not signing what?
Wade – Some people here think every young player should agree to a team friendly contract like Campbell did.
I know, it’s silly to think that way. Roman knows how good he is and he’s been quite healthy throughout his pro career.
When he gets an RBI I hope they say he’s “putting up Roman Numerals”
Interesting they are calling him up now. It may be a cup of coffee if Abreu isn’t out that long.
If he hits the question is will they deal Abreu or Duran? They are the most likely to get dealt.
Calling up the three studs means they are not going back down. Unless they struggle mightily all three are here to stay. This is not a shuttle to and then from Fenway.
Duran must be traded now. Sell high on him for several reasons.
Age, game style based on speed, and not enough power to keep him. With his years of control and the top of his game now you can still command a hefty return.
Do it now.
If he’s only half as good as everybody says he is , he’s a HOFer …
olm – He’s the #1 overall MLB prospect just like 10D and Wander, so what could possibly go wrong???
Benny was a good young player. I’d take his first six pre-FA years back any day of the week. And. Pay his first 6 pre-fa years salary, for any mlb team.
Franco, we think, had a thing for the underage girls… but we don’t know how his baseball talents would’ve worked out. Franco came from an island culture in a country with lots of… social issues.
Roman Anthony doesn’t have that background or issues waiting to influence him back home, not to that degree.
Now, if your point is that Anthony may not be instant HOF based on #1 status, I’m good with that approach.
GaSox – 10D did play well his first couple years in Boston, but he certainly didn’t live up to #1 overall expectations. He went from a 5-WAR player to a 3-WAR player and a Zero-WAR player since 2023.
Wander’s trial is resuming and now he’s got gun charges against him, he’s looking at 30 years behind bars. What a waste of talent, he was the closest thing to Rickey we’ve seen in a long time. I was at the game in Tampa when he made his MLB debut, what an exciting time.
All I’m saying with Roman is there’s no such thing as a sure thing. I agree he won’t have off the field issues, but maybe injury issues or anxiety issues or who knows.
Fever Pitch Guy — Wander Franco definitely didn’t play ball with someone he should’ve. You disobey when you have a weakness like this and of course its over. Just ask the folks on the List. If you play along your secrets are covered up.
I don’t see Abreu, Duran or Rafaela getting traded. I think Hamilton gets demoted when Abreu comes off the IL and Rafaela plays a lot more infield.
Yeah, I can see Rafaela being a Brock Holt type of guy. He can play multiple positions which sees him play 4 days a week.
mike – The way Cora likes to overmanage, Rafaela could play in every game even if he doesn’t start every game.
Hamiltons more valuable than a demotion. I see them trading him for a reliever. Or at least thats what I would do
Fenway – I’d love to see Cora expand to a 5-man bench and keep Hamilton, but he will never give up one of his relievers.
“Rafaela plays a lot more infield.”
So Red Sox management should go back on their promise before the season of keeping him in the OF? That worked so well the first time they did it.
Sometimes I feel like people forget the type of results and errors rafaela was putting up on the IF.
I see no way to trade Rafaela. He’s doing great, still trending upwards, and we have him for 7 more years.
Joe- I’m not really dying to trade Rafaela either. Maybe one spot for him is in Miami as part of a deal for Alcantara, but other than that hes our super utility, Swiss army knife. All Star, a la Ben Zobrist
Yeah, because they’ve shown they never go back on the word they give players
Trade Abreu to White Sox for Vaughn & young B+ prospect…
no chance..Vaughn is batting 185 ..and a dfa candidate any of romy, toro or multiple minor league options are better than him..while abreau is a gold glove power hitting of with years of control.
dan – So many ChiSox fans want to trade Vaughn, he must really be bad!
He’s grindy and socially awkward in season like Jimmy Fallon and lot of my Red Sox fan friends, will fit right in
About time. I saw him play a game in AA Asheville a couple of years ago, and the last minor leaguer I saw in person who was so obviously better than the rest of the players were a low-A Ronald Acuña Jr. and a AAA Magglio Ordóñez.
Asheville is A+ and used to be Single A.
You are correct, high A. Brain cramp there.
Slow curve A+, Brick House C-
Good luck to the kid!
Anthony should be coming up to play 1B tonight. As soon as Casas got hurt, they should have moved him there. He’d be ready by now. But apparently: “Understandably, the Sox didn’t want to mess with Anthony’s development as an outfielder, so they never gave much consideration to that.” One question: Why were they willing to do that to KC? C. Rafaela?
:Anthony should be coming up to play 1B tonight”
Thankfully, they didnt. You’d seriously bench Toro right now?
Yes
I’m Wade Boggs I know stuff.
He went 7 for 13 against the Yankees in a must win series and currently holds a .926 OPS. Offensively, Toro and Romy have been carrying the team for the past week.
Why is everyone trying to fix the parts that aint broken? Red Sox need pitching, first and foremost. A firstbaseman replace should come if/when Toro, Romy and Noda all fall flat.
Toro can’t play first and is barely better than Devers at 3rd. It’s too late now. Anthony is here and is not going to play 1B. Just saying what they should have done, and I didn’t like the excuse as to why they didn’t move him to 1B a month ago.
Reggie- pitching aside, Toro has been a fringe player for 5 years, and couldn’t stick with the Mariners. He’s a career 1 WAR player, has a career batting avg hovering in the .220’s, is 29yo and can’t field pretty much anywhere.
We’re supposed to believe that his one great month is the foreshadowing of a resurgence never before seen in the history of mlb?
“5 years”
So seasons of 78, 87, 109 and 18 ab’s count as full seasons? WAR is accumulative of time played, so both of your points conveniently are exaggerated by a lack of playing time.
“never seen before in the history of baseball”
What? You’ve never heard of a late bloomer before? Look up Jose Bautista or Edwin Encarcion’s career.
———————
I am not saying Toro is the answer. Try to follow me on this:
1) It isnt broke, dont waste time and resources trying to fix it.
2) Starting Pitching is broke, and needs immediate attention (like trading an OF for an SP)
3) Theres 50+ days until the trading deadline, so plenty of time to feel things out. Youve got Romy and Noda who may work out as well.
4) Moving your star young stud out of the OF just because a problem MIGHT arise is straight up dumb.
this yankee fan is excited to see what he can do. baseball is better when both teams are strong
cool, this means that the red sox are going to have amazing financial flexibility in the future
ballz – If they end up eating a bunch of contracts like Yoshida, Story etc then they lose that flexibility. They need to make better decisions and stop pissing away money on high priced pitchers making comeback attempts.
apparently you didn’t get the reference.
bag – Oh I get it now, it was sarcasm about the Sox spending.
I agree with you, as long as Fenway continues to be a tourist destination there’s not much incentive for FSG to spend.
it was in regards to the mookie betts trade – they said when it happened that fans should be excited about the financial flexibility that it provided the team rather than upset that he was traded away
bag – Thanks, I didn’t remember that part.
What I did remember is ownership saying the trade will allow them to extend homegrown stars going forward …. and then 2 years later they let Xander walk.
Can’t trust anything this ownership group says.
Fever- those high priced pitchers are all short term deals. They won’t effect us badly beyond 1 to 2 years
You conveinently left that part out
Unlike what teams got for Montgomery and Burnes…
I remember lots of clamoring to sign those guys.
Reality is, FA pitching is literally a crapshoot these days. The focus on spin rate and high offspeed usage, plus hurling at max effort rather than painting the zone, you’re going to lose guys for 1-2 years regularly. Even Cole went down which was a fairly solid contract up to that point.
I’m thinking of coming up with an event that’s similar to major league pitching. The marathon hurdles will be 26 miles, 385 yards, with a three foot high hurdle every 50 yards. What could possibly go wrong?
The last 923rd hurdle will be 5 yards past the finish line.
Hayzee- my money is on a guy like devers to represent the sox in that one… just let him bullrush and crash through the hurdles instead of jump them.
Maybe tape pics of sox brass on the bars to give him extra motivation.
As an admitted lobbyist at the time for Boston signing him, I do wonder what Jordan Montgomery’s 2024/2025 might have looked like if he’d signed with a team by, say, early February in 2024 and had a whole, normal Spring Training last year. Maybe a similar dip in performance -> injury, but maybe not.
GA SOX FAN- i think you’re right, in a way. Is there ever going to be a time when you need to sign a guy for 8yrs knowing youre only getting 5 good ones and even those are a crap shoot, then yes, there is going to be a time that. will happen. (unless the new CBA corrects that somehow)
Smarter than that is getting guys with a few years left that have different skills t offer the SP staff. I’d like to get Luis Castillo (i talked about it prior to the season). 2 1/2 years left at approx $25mm per. Or dropping a few more prospects for Alcantara, 2 more years at $20ish mm.
there are probably other examples as well….
How come Dave Dombrowski can obtain Jesus Luzardo?
The reality is, the Front Office needs to get their heads out of their spreadheets and start considering options beyond analytics.
How come Dave Dombrowski can obtain Jesus Luzardo?
==========================
I read that at least one team turned him down on injury concerns. He’s gotten absolutely shelled his last two starts, usually indicating an injury or he’s tipping his pitches. And he missed significant time in 2022 and 2024.
Joe- I’m making a point about outside the box thinking in the front office, of which the Red Sox have none. Even if I was specifically talking about obtaining Jesus Luzardo, he would be the co-best SP on the Sox this year. So, even if I was talking specifically about him it would’ve been a great help.
Don’t be so literal LOL
Now fire the coaching staff before they have a chance to ruin him
Tang – you took the words out of my mouth!
My first thought was, he goes to right field and plays 90+ games there. Don’t start moving him around like Cora and the front office have done to everyone else.
Baseball is a craft, and a jack of all trades is a master of none.
Sad – You should see tonight’s game …. two official errors on Bernie and Roman, an unofficial error on Mayer, an unofficial error on Toro, an unofficial error on Duran ….. it’s beyond sad how bad the fielding and fundamentals are.
I’d rather have Abreu in RF, Roman in LF and Duran in CF.
FPG- watching the carnage with you. The defense is a systemic organizational failure, plain and simple.
If you watched last night’s game on ESPN, Eduardo Perez said that they should have never moved Devers off third. They could’ve played Bregman at 2B. Then finished the thought by saying the Didgers won the World Series with Max Muncy ar 3B.
The Sox are actually a WORSE defensive team without Devers on the field.
Sad – Yep that was talked about a lot during the offseason and spring training. Sure, keeping Devers at 3B this season would mean weak defense at the position …. but it would also mean:
1) Presumably stronger defense at 2B with Bregman
2) Yoshida’s much-needed bat at DH
3) No season-long drama
4) Campbell wouldn’t have been rushed into a promotion
That’s the difference between tunnel vision and big picture.
It’s not like devers is making that defense better though. He doesn’t belong on the field. Unfortunately, a lot of them don’t though.
Tang – I don’t think you understand how bad KC has been at 2B.
He’s got the 2nd-worst DRS in MLB at -11 and he’s got the worst OAA at -7 and the worst Range at -5 and the worst DEF at -4.6
Devers is better at 3B than KC is at 2B, the Red Sox are paying the price for playing Bregman at 3B instead of 2B.
BTW speaking of errors, when Rafaela scored in the 10th inning he took off his helmet and looked around wondering why his teammates weren’t mobbing him. That’s because the moron thought he scored the game-winning run instead of the game-tying run.
Never in my life do I recall a Red Sox player with his head up his butt more than Rafaela.
Um, Steve Lyons?
Guys not playing there natural positions has led to a breakdown of fundamentals. Cannot be blamed for all of them though. Young players are prone to making more mistakes,as they are still learning. Can a high baseball IQ be taught or learned? Stealing a line from Bill Belicheck: situational baseball….. ie: if this happens you gotta do this ,if that happens you must do that ,ect. Lets get the basics down. Seems as an organization we have lost sight of this.
cdc – Considering the Red Sox have led MLB in errors since 2022, I don’t think it can be blamed on the current youngins.
It’s definitely proof the manager and coaching staff aren’t doing their job, and that’s because the players are getting a bunch of hitting analytics shoved down their throats all the time and they simply don’t have the time to devote to fielding.
They’d rather have the players spend all their time on exit velo and launch angle than on fielding fundamentals, this has been confirmed by Loumer.
Got to remember the old sox hitting philosophy… move the line. Exhaust the SP. Get to the BP early and chew them up.
Remember all those sox teams that basically lead the majors in pitches per PA?
Now we sell out for power to get an extra 15-20hrs a year team-wide.
hayzee – Lyons is somewhat before my time. I obviously remember the pants incident, but not much else about his mental focus.
GaSox – I hear ya, and the strikeout totals prove that out.
They simply over-emphasize homeruns way too much with the Wally Head and whatnot.
Maybe they should start putting on a Tessie Head whenever they successfully advance a runner.
Put a bounty on SP… each time the SP gets pulled by the opposing manager, the batters to face him in his final frame pitched get $1000 each.
Bet we see a lot better pitch selection. Only cost half a million bucks for the remaining season too
His nickname was Psycho.
He got traded for Seaver.
Dang it, Seaver got injured and couldn’t pitch in the 86 postseason. He would have been better than Nipper.
Ted Williams got hurt right before the ’46 series. Tony C got beaned in ’67. Jim Rice injured in ’75. Seaver in ’86.
I always thought the curse was an injury curse. Jim Rice in ’75? They would have beaten the Reds, no question.
hayzee – I knew all that except for the Ted injury, I was just wondering what kind of things Lyons did. I thought the Psycho nickname was from the pants incident.
If Rice had been healthy, sure they win the WS. I often wonder if 2004 would have then been less special …..I don’t think so, it still would have been 29 years and the comeback is what made it really amazing.
If Pesky doesn’t hold onto the ball, do the Sox win in ’46?
Getting back to Lyons, he was a good announcer for national games and NESN then something happened …. can’t remember what.
There’s been some real characters on NESN, do you remember Jack Welch? He got the gig only because of his relationship with John Henry, but wow was Jack a loose cannon. He makes Papelbon look like Deven Marrero,
Duran misplayed a ball again last night , how they called it a hit is criminal. Did you see it ? He just looks uncomfortable sometimes. Anthony made a nice play in right. Mayer and Story both made nice plays on tricky hops. I still think the younger players defense will improve with time. The players know hitting will get them paid Definitely need a better balance between hitting and defensive reps in the minor leagues.
cdc – Yep I saw it, official scorer is often quite generous. After the play Loumer said the season started with expectations of all three starting outfielders contending for a Gold Glove …. hard to believe how bad they’ve been thus far.
Early in the season some people here said it was just the cold weather causing the errors ….. well, can’t use that excuse in May and June.
Yes Anthony had a good all-around game, maybe because his family was right next to the dugout. LOL
So his grandfather, brother and Dad are all named Tony? So legally they are Anthony Anthony? Really? LOL
BTW – It was surprising the Rays TWICE let easy fly balls drop in between multiple players capable of catching them. How can they not know the importance of communication?
Well luck always evens out, so I’ll happily take the win. .
GSF
Yes, they would wear out the starters to get to the middle relievers.The Sox would feast on them. Those teams had Ortiz and Ramirez batting 3 & 4. Now we have Toro and Narvaez. Not quite as intimidating. Though they have done a good job recently. It’s a different time now. The new rules, technology and statistics have brought changes to the game. The stolen base is a weapon again.
cdc – One of the biggest problems with the Red Sox is their aggressive approach to hitting and their belief strikeouts are not bad. Other than staying out of double plays sometimes, nothing good comes from strikeouts.
This is why Yoshida is sorely missed, he’s one of the best contact hitters in the game.
The number of times the Red Sox fail to bring home a runner on 3B with less than 2 outs, and fail to advance runners on 1B or 2B with nobody out, is maddening.
Fever, one thing I learned about Anthony’s debut that gives his performance a free pass in my book – because the red sox delayed telling him to come, he was wearing another AAA ballplayers cleats, glove, and even using someone else’s bat.
You heard right – borrowed shoes, glove and bat – because his equipment had left on a bus to Lehigh Valley and he had nothing for the game!
So, he had shoes molded to someone else’s feet, a glove molded to someone else’s hand and unfamiliar, and, a different bat than his personal choice.
If I were him, I’m sure it would’ve thrown my game off that first night, call-up jitters aside
Anthony’s family certainly got a bunch of camera time. Probably the best seats in the house. It’s not just the Sox who make mental errors. Physically, Mayer reminds me of Mark Belhorn . We need Buehler to bounce back from his “embarrassing” last start and earn his contract tonight. I think he will.
cdc – Roman seems like a really serious dude, doesn’t smile much and when he does it seems forced. He didn’t even look at his family as he walked right by them into the dugout. LOL
And I hafta laugh at the people who rushed to get a custom Anthony 48 jersey …… that’s what ya get for wanting to be first, hopefully they will learn the value of patience.
Yeah Buehler will likely be decent tonight, hopefully build some trade value like Giolito did last night.
cdc- another Red Sox special, don’t forget that Duran learned the OF at the major league level also!
The Red Sox played a scrimmage game before the World Series in 1946 and Ted got hit in the elbow. He never used it as an excuse.
In 1975, my closest friend in my graduating class wrote in my yearbook, “Watch the Red Sox win the World Series!” He was killed in September so that World Series was very tough. It’s still a trigger to watch the Fisk home run but I smile now because of 2004, 2007, 2013, 2018. It’s a good millennium so far.
Sad – Did you know in Mookie’s very first MLB game he misplayed an Ichiro fly ball into a triple.
So Roman is in good company!
In fact, here it is!!!
youtube.com/watch?v=qupbevFyVhQ
I did notice Anthony brushing off his family on the way by. Lol. Very cool my all-time favorite player Fred Lynn gave Anthony a shout-out
I don’t see the Sox trading Giolito , Buehler,or any starting pitching. Not sure why you would say that. I certainly don’t see them being out of contention for the wild card by the trade deadline.
Cdc- just this very morning (after now taking series against the rays and yanks) I’m coming around to *listening* to punting the WC and moving all these 1 expiring deals *if* you get some *good* quality prospects.
Lots of ifs.
Then in the off-season you make a compelling offer for top of rotation SP via trade and maybe wade into the deepend on a FA SP – cease/king/etc.
But sometimes it’s better to give up a borderline WC if you can get an absolute haul and build a juggernaut for a 5-6 year run.
cdc – Based on where they are in the standings right now, and the schedule they have ahead of them.
I hope they can truly turn things around and get back into the race, but there are so many factors working against them.
What do you consider to still be in contention at the trade deadline? How many games back and how many teams in front of them do you think would make them buyers instead of sellers?
FPG- based on last season they were 4 games out of WC position at the deadline, and essentially punted. Bringing in a backup catcher, and two middle of the road relievers.
I am hoping that unless they are already in WC position at the deadline they are sellers. get rid of all the expiring contracts, extra weight and dead wood.
Sox currently have a 22% playoff chance according to Fangragph
I understand your thinking,but I don’t believe it will happen. It would mean a complete collapse. That’s very unlikely to occur. A half empty Fenway Park for the final 2 months of the season would certainly piss off J. Henry and company. Also not sure what kind of return would the Sox receive.
cdc – They are currently 2 games below .500
A complete collapse isn’t required to miss the postseason, they could have a winning record the rest of the season and still miss the playoffs. You usually need at least 85 wins to make the postseason.
Reality is they’ve dug themselves a hole that will be difficult to get out of.
FPG
Difficult but not impossible. There is talent on this team. I’m a “homer” I know. The Mets last season came from way back. Solid efforts recently by Bello, Giolito,and Buehler give me and the Nation some hope. Need Crochet to dominate the Yankees tonight. Continue winning each series. A clean mistake free ballgame.
cdc – Oh I absolutely believe it’s possible, I’ve said all season that Mayer/Roman would likely provide a spark and it seems they have.
Injuries and managerial decisions will be the biggest factors.
They’ve got four rookies starting almost every day, there’s going to be some growing pains.
To answer my own question, I think they need to be within 5 games of the WC at the trade deadline to be buyers instead of sellers. If they are 7+ games back, it would be difficult to hold onto guys like Chapman and Buehler.
The Mets were only 2 losses back in the WC on June 13th and only a half game out at the trade deadline. Their path was much easier, not to mention they had a much easier remaining schedule.
It would be nice if they broke him in slowly, throwing him into the fire is not a good thing for this young man!
Had they not changed the rules, they could’ve made him a roaming fourth OF this whole time!!!
Too bad he can’t pitch
Good luck to the kid, let’s see what he can do now.
“already having 35 big league games under his belt”
No, he started 2025 with 35 Triple-A games under his belt.
Good luck. Hopefully, he’s around long term. I still don’t believe they gave away Mookie. However, Anthony for Skenes would be interesting. What team says No.
They didn’t give Mookie away. They tried to extend him. He said he wanted to explore free agency, so they traded him. Then before he “explored free agency”, he signed a long term deal with LA. Could the Sox have gotten more? I think they tried… The Dodgers came up with the best package, and they all have been a complete bust.
The mookie return was weighed down by tagging on prices money, which, either bloom wanted gone to churn and buy prospects because Henry tightened purse strings to fund his NHL investment, or, the org was unhappy about his interactions, particularly that plane ride, and wanted him out. Take your pick, only reasons to be so focused on moving a still nominally useful piece and losing huge on your return.
New- the Sox came nowhere close to the number that Mookie deserved to be offered. They offended him. So, in my mind they wanted a deep home town discount or he could walk.
Every team in baseball, besides a select few, decided that he was a rental because he was going to free agency. This is what depressed a trade return on prospects. i dont think the Dodgers offered their best package, i think they were smart enough to know that they didnt need to..
Maybe the Sox were just blinded by getting Jeter back…..
Sad.Sox 3
the Sox came nowhere close to the number that Mookie deserved to be offered.
======================
They offered him more than he signed with LA for. Some of that had to do with Covid, but he took less.
Joe – IIRC, there was also a big signing bonus, and, staring down an anticipated lockout looming on the horizon as well.
Joe- I could be wrong, but MB got $365m for 12, from the Dodgers. Mookie denies the speculation that the Red Sox offered him $300 for 10yrs.
si.com/mlb/red-sox/news/mookie-betts-denies-report…
Sad – He got $307M from the Dodgers.
The $300M that was supposedly offered by the Red Sox was verbal only, and it included heavy deferrals.
“The narrative that Betts wanted out seemingly came out of nowhere and never had any substantive proof behind it. ”
Yeah right, we know where it came from …. Red Sox front office, it’s what they always do.
Well, 1st Major League Error out of the way…..
Craig – It brought a tear to Cora’s eye, he’s already a true Red Sox player now ;O)
Wow he’s from Parkland? Was he there when that tragic shooting happened?
Lyman – No, he transferred there 2 years after. He was in middle school when the shooting happened.
LB
Chad Finn wrote a great piece on the tragedy that befell Lyman Bostock. A sad and unfortunate story. Unbelievable really.
Touching all the Bases (tatb) was Finns platform. IMO,Finn is one of the finest writers in the country. Maybe you already have read , but if not ,it is worth the effort.
cdc – I agree, Finn is one Chad I’d be happy to hang with.
Wasn’t he shot in Chicago?? ONE of the things I’m definitely not proud of living here my whole life….
olm – You really didn’t get it?
Hanging chad?
The Gore election?
I thought for sure you’d get that one! LOL
The game is called “CLUE” and I don’t have one…Lol!!
FPG
Very entertaining game. Sox got a couple of breaks. Huge
Crochet dominating Judge over this game and the previous one until Judge showed us why he is the most feared hitter in all of MLB. No problems with leaving him in there. Narvaez ,wow, big time.
He’s going to be good but he is way overhyped
I was able to get Roman Anthony on my fantasy team. I don’t think he’s going to struggle much.
He got a raucous chorus of boos in his first game. Great fans!
Yep, some fans are messed up in Boston.
HHAHAHA red sox are desperate, go yankees
Wrong. Mayer and Anthony were given as much time as possible in AAA before injury made their promotions necessary. Coming into this season, Mayer had never played in AAA and Anthony had only played 35 games in AAA.
I don’t feel injury makes you *need* Anthony the way the infield has issues. You know, you could cover the OF by playing refsnyder and KC there as coverage.
But, the injury *did* remove an excuse blocking Anthony, and, thr schedule surpassing super-two did the rest.
Ironically, some of the things the org pushed as an excuse for keeping Anthony down you say on display in his debut. So it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes to get past the call-up jitters.
He had a good mental approach in some of those situations, including with an opportunity to win the game.
Chris Taylor 80 playoff games, is now an angel. That sounds pretty cool. believe me, I it’s a sign, of angel ring 2025 year. That would make it two World Series appearances, with two wins. This year, they are breaking all kinds of records. While ohtani breaks his old records (Ruth).
Roman is going to struggle the first month or so…just like Jackson Holliday did.
Thank you. I’m not sure anyone else mentioned this. Virtually every hitter struggles when they hit the majors. Lesser known prospects, with no detailed book on them, sometimes succeed, but only for a short while.
YAZ, Tony Conigliaro, George Scott, Reggie Smith, Carlton Fisk, Dustin Pedroia, Xander Bogaerts, Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans, Mookie Betts. Let’s see if Roman is on that level.
Jack Brohamer Jerry Remy
Felix Mantilla.
Devers, Mayer, Meidroth, Casas and Teel would have been a good infield — with Anthony, Duran and Abreu in the OF — a couple of years with that group playing together and the Red Sox would have been in contention. Crochet is an Ace, has been good for Boston but that crew of rookies liked to play together. Devers could have played third base for a couple more seasons. Breslow messed it all up.
The Red Sox’ current record is a reflection of their lack of effective pitching while they’ve scored the second most runs in the league. They need more starting pitching like Crochet, not less.
YBC: Agreed and the lack of starters going deep into games has taken a toll on the bullpen.
YBC – So true, if only the Sox were lucky enough to have someone like Chris Sale ….
Should liven up the GameDay atmosphere for those of us who adore the classics. Having sewn up the Roman Anthony now they need the Persian Darius, Alexander the Great, Vlad the Impaler and Atilla the Hun
Duran+Devers
For
Mariners
SP Castillo/ 3B Williamson
Kirby, Williamson ,Garver, polo for Duran/Devers
You’ll have to take some bad contracts. Mariners need some offense immediately
Kirby is your ace for your younger group of players coming up
Im benching jackson merril (whos slumping in terms of fantasy baseball) for you. you better not sell Roman