Some scattered ideas on the Red Sox because the truck pulls into JetBlue Park in Fort Myers…
1. The Red Sox are doing a heck of a job alienating each their fanbase and former gamers this winter, with Matt Barnes the newest longtime participant they’ve irritated.
While Barnes was trustworthy {and professional} in his goodbye press convention this week, he shared extra on the Jared Carrabis podcast about what occurred when chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom instructed him he was being designated for project.
“I was like ‘why? What’s the logic there?’ You have to explain this to me because I need to know what you’re thinking,” Barnes stated he instructed Bloom. “And it was essentially like, roster construction with having to have some flexible pieces, and on paper, analytically, the last two months of the season were, he didn’t say lucky, but insinuated that.”
Barnes then instructed the Carrabis podcast it “makes me happy” that the Red Sox shall be paying a part of his wage whereas he pitches for the Marlins this season, and that he has June 27, when the Marlins are in Boston, “circled on my calendar.”
It’s not shocking Barnes needs to stay it to his former group now, however this half is shocking: why on earth have been the Red Sox losing worthwhile ninth-inning alternatives on Barnes within the ultimate two months of the 2022 season if they really thought he wasn’t superb?
If their “on-paper analytics” have been indicating he sucked in August and September and was solely getting fortunate, why did they maintain sending him out within the ninth inning after they might’ve been giving the ball to younger gamers who would possibly truly profit from a confidence enhance and expertise closing out video games?
Here’s another nugget from Barnes, who instructed the Globe what many within the group should’ve been eager about the Sox’ lack of ability to retain any gamers from the 2011 draft:
“Honestly, the person that I would have expected to stay in Boston there for their entire career from that draft would be Mookie,” Barnes stated. “The fact that he isn’t there is still crazy to me. But such is the nature of the business, right?”
2. FanGraphs expects the Red Sox to win 82 video games, although they go away room for enchancment if gamers like Connor Wong, Reese McGuire, Bobby Dalbec and Adalberto Mondesi take big steps ahead.
Take that info with you to MGM Springfield.
3. If the Red Sox farm system is as unhealthy as Keith Law thinks it’s, this group is in deep trouble.
Law, who labored within the Blue Jays entrance workplace earlier than transitioning into a task within the media, listed his prime 30 farm programs for The Athletic this week and the Red Sox got here in at No. 23.
“Their group of position-player prospects is probably in the upper half of farm systems, but their group of pitching prospects is one of the weakest,” he wrote.
At least ESPN thinks otherwise, with Kiley McDaniel itemizing the Red Sox’ farm system at No. 14.
The concept is identical: Marcelo Mayer and Triston Casas might be stars, however past that, it’s like enjoying the lottery.
4. Good luck to Justin Turner if he plans on carrying No. 2 this season.
The Sox’ web site has Turner listed as No. 2, the quantity worn by Xander Bogaerts throughout nearly all of his 10 years in Boston, and the quantity worn by the late Jerry Remy, who typically stated Bogaerts was his all-time favourite Red Sox participant.
5. Between the Sox by no means severely getting into the Bogaerts sweepstakes, their lack of ability to signal any top-tier free brokers, their lack of want in retaining any of their very own free brokers and the way in which they dealt with the Barnes scenario, they’re prone to enter the yr as an unlikable group.
At the very least, they’re setting themselves as much as play the us-against-the-world card.
It labored nicely in 2018, when the Red Sox gained 108 video games within the common season then claimed to be underestimated underdogs within the postseason.
6. There’s no denying that supervisor Alex Cora doesn’t look good in Evan Drellich’s new e-book, “Winning Fixes Everything,” that comes out on Feb. 14.
As detailed within the Herald this week, new particulars from 2017 and 2018 paint Cora as an indignant, insecure and infrequently unstable bench coach of the Astros who then joined the Sox in ’18 and instructed them, “We stole the (expletive) World Series (in 2017).”
But earlier than judging Cora as the only real villain of 2017 and a man who by no means realized his lesson, learn the whole e-book first.
The whole trade failed to deal with the widespread abuse of know-how to steal indicators, and commissioner Rob Manfred wasn’t as aggressive as he wanted to be to close it down sooner.
Cora appears to have a method of crossing the road extra egregiously and maybe extra typically than most, or no less than he made sufficient enemies alongside the way in which to get referred to as out for it. But he’s not alone.
The Astros, Dodgers, Yankees and Red Sox are amongst those that confirmed an absence of discretion of their willingness to cheat lately, in accordance with the e-book, which is a must-read for baseball followers.
7. Lastly, a little bit of optimism for Red Sox followers: the latest member of the baseball Hall of Fame, Scott Rolen, is taken into account one of many closest comparisons to Rafael Devers by way of his age 25 season, in accordance with Baseball Reference.
And whereas Rolen had an equally-impressive begin to his profession, he solely acquired higher with age, successful six of his eight Gold Gloves, incomes all seven of his All-Star Game appearances and getting MVP votes 3 times after his age 25 season.
Source: www.bostonherald.com