Interviewing For POBO

Dear Therapudlian:

Thank you for applying for the President of Baseball Operations (POBO) position with the Boston Red Sox. As part of the interview process, please share your plan for us to compete for multiple World Championships while maintaining a payroll that can be set frequently below the level that triggers penalties.

RIP Tim Wakefield

Sigh.  I really don’t have anything to add to the headline but I think the man richly deserves a thread in his honor.  There are so many things to be said about Tim Wakefield who for many of us was on the short list of our favorite players of his or any Red Sox era.  Wakefield the player was very good, Wakefield the man was a Roberto Clemente Award winner which should tell you all you need to know.  His work with the Jimmy Fund was well known even though he often did it under the shade of ...

Over and Out

Well there’s one question answered for the off season as the Sox have let yet another General Manager go as they have fired Chaim Bloom.  This is not a particularly stunning turn of events, three last place finishes in four years is not going to have your bosses exactly enamored of your performance (well, if you are the A’s GM maybe).  Anyway, while this is big news I think it’s more interesting to look back briefly but then look forward.

And when I say look back I find myself looking (cue ...

We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

The Red Sox schedule… It doesn’t look good.

Three Trades

Well the Red Sox are throwing down the gauntlet to even the most skeptical among us. This may not be a great team but they ARE in playoff contention and you don’t sit back and wait in years where that happens.  At the same time I think most Sox fans want the right mix of going for it and not giving up the future.  That should probably create a bit of a challenge for GM Chaim Bloom and his merry band of number crunchers as July 31 approaches.  There is still a pretty sizable part of me that ...

Halfwayish to Something

With the baseball world taking its traditional midseason break it’s time to revisit the local nine and how things rolled in the first half;

MVP - Alex Verdugo - I think you could go a number of different directions here.  Depending on how you want to look at it I think you could make a case for Verdugo, James Paxton, Brayan Bello and even Jarren Duran.  But in the end I’m going with Dugie.  A bit of a…something in Cleveland when he was benched for failing to hustle on a ground ball but he ...

The Case for Doing Nothing

With the trade deadline just a few weeks away there is much chatter building about what the Red Sox should be looking to do.  Some want the *NSYNC deadline approach (“buy buy buy”) and some want a Barenaked Ladies approach (“sell sell sell”).  But I am here to talk about the less exciting but potentially more lucrative “don’t do a damned thing” approach.

Let’s start with this.  The Red Sox are a flawed team.  The holes are obvious and have been since the winter.  The pitching is thin (and ...

Where We Headed?

So I’ve been pondering this a bit lately and jacksone made the following comment that I think helped me narrow my thoughts down;

What do all of you expect or hope for next year? Because for me, this team and organization is still a year away from legit contention. There may be a solid wild card run next in ‘24, but I am not expecting any sort of postseason success. 2025, for sure, I expect them to contend and be a legit force.

That Was a Week

I’ll say this, my fears that the Boston Red Sox would not be interesting in 2023 have been put to bed pretty strongly.  They aren’t particularly, y’know, good.  But they have been interesting and entertaining which is about as good as it gets I suppose all things considered.  The Sox had what can best be described as a challenging week, really a week and a half when you factor in the Tampa series, and I think all things considered 3-3 on the trip through Cleveland and the Bronx was kind of what ...

Feeling A Draft

With the Sox’ 2023 season going so swimmingly, really everything is just perfect, I figure now is a good time to look ahead a bit to next month’s draft.  In all seriousness the College World Series starts next Thursday with Regional play currently going on and Super Regionals starting this weekend so players of note are going to be on display for various college teams.  I am far from a draft wiz so I am not going to try and make any real analysis of the guys out there.  I highly recommend ...

The First Third

With the Sox having completed the first third of their schedule on an 84-78 pace I’m feeling purdy smart.  Having said that they’ve gotten here in a path that frankly I’ve found dramatically different than I anticipated with the most noticeable difference being that a team I thought would be pretty dull when the season started has actually been pretty entertaining.  They bookended the first 54 with two entertaining losses; rallying from 8-2 down to lose 10-9 on Opening Day and then last night’s ...

Lining Up The Minors

With the big club both playing well and actually being interesting the minors have been under the Walter O’Reilly (IYKYK) a bit.  But as with the big club the early returns are relatively positive down on the farm.  Let’s take a moment to look at the state of things there.

1B - Niko Kavadas - AA - .220/.404/.317 - As stat lines go that is definitely one.  In 109 PA Kavadas has got 64 TTO events; 38K, 24BB and 2 homers.  The K:BB rate is good but to find success the long ball is going to have ...

The Only Game In Town (except the Celtics, but I don’t care about the Celtics. No you shut up)

With the National Hockey League having decided to cancel this year’s playoffs it looks like the only option for Boston sports fans is the Local Nine.  After a month of baseball things are decidedly adequate.  The Sox so far have about played to expectations clocking in at 15-14 with a potent offense (3rd in runs/game) and a pungent pitching staff (12th in runs/game).  Not coincidentally the defense has also been poor with only juggernauts Kansas City, Oakland and Chicago below them in Defensive ...

Reality Check After Series Six

The Red Sox have played OK, and I think it’s OK to say so.

Shrug Emoji

I dunno.

I mean really, what the hell has this all been about?  Four series in and had the Sox won on Patriots’ Day it would have been the first time in their 123 year history that all of their first four series were sweeps.  They actually came close in 2021 before losing the fourth game of the fourth series by a run as well.

Anyway, have we learned anything in the first few weeks? I don’t really think so.  Mostly it seems that we have just confirmed that most of what we expected when the ...

Opening Weekend Opinions

So the first weekend of the season is in the books and I feel comfortable calling it “eventful.”  I don’t remember who said it after the Opener but the Orioles and Red Sox looked very much like the fourth and fifth placed teams they are widely predicted to be.  With that said some random thoughts;

Good:

- OK, the Boston Red Sox are going to score some runs.  The offense was both impressive and relentless.  Say what you want about Kiké Hernandez but he’s a hell of a hitter to have ...

Over/Under

OK let’s do this thing I guess.  I’ll be honest, not a lot of excitement for the season.  I don’t think the Sox will be bad, I think they will be uninteresting.  Masataka Yoshida might be the most important acquisition they have made since Schilling.  Not the best, just most important.  If he turns out to be a star this team gets a lot more interesting.  The willingness to let guys go without replacement in recent years has really been a drag.

Wins - 79.5 - Jose says: Over - Like I said, ...

Yoshida In The Spotlight

Masataka Yoshida has had a pretty damn good WBC, with a tournament record 13 RBI before tonight’s final vs. USA, fueled by a 1413 OPS. That’s around the same level as the headline-grabbing Trea Turner (1429) and Shohei Ohtani (1421). He also had an outfield assist in last night’s game, cutting a runner down at home, although that was more a byproduct of an aggressive but bad baserunning decision. I think I’m going to like this guy.

The Rostah

Well, baseball is back soon and it is time to start trying to figure out who the 2023 Boston Red Sox will be.  To say this team is a bit unsettled is an understatement but moves and options should help us pull things together a bit.

Of course a lot of unknowns remain.  There will be injuries and someone will show up at camp and dazzle us then go 1 for 19 and never be heard from again.  Let’s take a look at our expectations for the March 30th team;

INFIELD: Triston Casas, Christian Arroyo, ...

The Future Starts Now (Hopefully)

Hey all, sorry for the continued absence.  It’s been an interesting (and pretty crummy) off-season and I think we can agree and accept that the 2023 will not be one we look back at and say “wow, that was awesome!”

Winter Weekend was pretty illuminating.  The anger of the fan base was on display and while I felt it was a bit much I can’t say it was wrong.  The approach this winter has been pretty poor.  My biggest issue with Chaim Bloom has been his lack of decisiveness.  This goes back ...

Updates

Jose’s life got crazy and he hasn’t posted a thread. My life got crazy and I haven’t posted a thread. Meanwhile Boston’s roster got crazy and there’s no thread. Let’s correct one of those, and give some updates.

Responding to Failure

Let’s start with a couple of things.  First an apology I had to step away earlier in the year (and frankly probably won’t post as much going forward) for a variety of reasons.  Ironically I stepped away just as the Sox got hot, alas it didn’t last.

Second, please join me in wishing everyone in the Sox’ spring training home of Fort Myers and surrounding areas the best as they recover from the devastation of Hurricane Ian.  As many of you know from my regular trips my parents have a condo in ...

Dead Line

As of this moment Boston is in last place, and not playing well. They are also, with a solidly mediocre 50-50 record, 3.5 games out of a playoff spot. They are Schrödinger’s Baseball Team. They are simultaneously dead and alive.

The trade deadline is 6 PM on Tuesday 8/2. Between now and then they need to choose which side of the line they’re on, and act accordingly.

Hey Now

All-star voting has begun, and various Red Sox players have various vote totals*. Let’s take a few minutes to consider the case for them by position.

*I was trying to come up with an evergreen statement on the vote status. This might have gone too far. I could be talking about Brayan Bello, or Walt Dropo, for all you can tell.

Now That’s A Road Trip

On the morning of June 2nd the Boston Red Sox headed for sunny California for a fairly terrifying road trip.  The quality of competition was not particularly frightening but I am old enough to be able to recite chapter and verse on how west coast road trips have turned Red Sox’ seasons sour.  Sitting at 24-27 the Sox had righted the ship but were still climbing out of their early season hole.  Fast forward to this morning and the Sox are 32-29 having laid waste to the left coasters in fairly ...

Righting The Ship

After a nightmare of April and a pretty bad start to May the Sox righted the ship and finished the month (plus a day) with a 15-14 record.  This is not exactly gangbusters but works out to an 84-78 pace which is fairly consistent with most expectations for the Sox.  Of course the April issue puts them in a hole but after that dreadful month the overall record of 24-27 is still disappointing.  A few quick notes;

- The Sox have a 28-23 Pythagorean Record which would have them 5th in the AL.  In ...

One Step Forward

For the first time in 2022 the Boston Red Sox are starting to look like the team we have expected to see.  They have gone 5-3 over the last week and change and they have done so while playing five of those games against last season’s World Series combatants.  After what can best be called a nightmare start the Sox are pulling it together.  The offense has gotten hot scoring 46 runs in the 8 games and save for one memorable inning Tuesday night the pitching has been very good as well.  The call ...

Unacceptable

We can bicker about this that and the other thing but the simple reality is that the Boston Red Sox are not performing anywhere near where they should be and are in a position that on May 8th they are already in a world of hurt.  Trying to figure out why this is happening is beyond my skillset.  The talent on this roster is sufficient to be considerably better than they are.  Even if we accept that they overachieved last year, and no one would really argue that, they are not a 70 win team ...

Well At Least April Is Over

To be fair I also considered “that sucked” as a title for this piece and frankly that would have been just as accurate.  Sometimes there are things you can say and sometimes there aren’t.  This is one of the latter times right now.  We can talk about the failure to get a right-handed bat in the outfield or a platoon partner for Bobby Dalbec but the reality is that the problems on this team are the guys that we shouldn’t have to worry about.  Xander Bogaerts (.918 vs .862) and JD Martinez (.906 ...

Lining Up The Minors

With the big club clicking like a well-oiled machine (shut up, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it) I thought it might be a good time to take a look at what is happening on other teams who go by “Red Sox.”  And just in the interest of keeping it simple let’s acknowledge here and now that all numbers in this piece suffer from small sample size warnings.

1B - Triston Casas - AAA - Honestly there is no way that Casas wouldn’t be the player I would focus on here.  Bobby Dalbec is not exactly ...