Tuesday 2/18/25
Signs suggesting that the 2025 Red Sox will be a mess are already in evidence here in mid-February. You can start to tell now that they could be in for a long year.
I didn't realize that this Alex Bregman deal had an opt clause for him after the first year. If he does well--and I don't think he will--he's going to want to leave. If he doesn't do well, he's going to want to stay.
The idea of a guy who is a third baseman becoming a second baseman at any time, let alone in his thirties, is asinine. Do you know why second base is such an important defensive position? Do you know what so much of Bill Mazeroski's value was in? Why he is one of the all-time great defenders? It's turning the double play. Double plays are huge. Turning them, not hitting into them. You can't just become this master of the pivot and the feed all of a sudden.
Then we have Rafael Devers, the Butterball Man. This guy. Shows up out of shape, and then says that he won't switch positions so that Bregman can play third.
Devers is like the worst fielding third baseman in the AL. He's actually the worst--dead last--in a bunch of metrics. He's a DH, all the more so with that flabby body of his. The contract they gave him was insane. And it was given to him solely as a sop to the fans so that John Henry, nasty ass human trash, could try and look good/like he cares.
That's also the only reason they signed Bregman who they shouldn't have signed and who also only signed because he could leave after a year, no one offered him as much and it's mid-February, and his wife is taking classes at Harvard Business School and has to be here anyway.
Then Henry had someone take a photo of him smoking his victory cigar as if to say, "What a great signing by me, that's right, by me motherfuckers."
You'd think he'd just locked up Babe Ruth in 1921 instead of a declining 20 home run, 70 RBI guy whose gone from leading the league in walks to landing in the mid-forties. And who doesn't have a position on the team. And who during his press conference told everyone how great he is. Sure thing, pal. Eddie Matthews over here.
What a shit show this is already. It's February 18.
Want to talk about the player that Rafael Devers actually is, rather than the player he's perceived to be? This bloated, overrated player with his albatross of a contract. You know how many times Devers has finished in the top ten in MVP voting? That would be as many times as me: Zero.
He loses you a bunch of games with his defense. His only value is his offense. But they're paying him like he's this all-around top-tier player and he's a one-dimensional player who isn't that great at his one thing--this isn't one of the top twenty hitters in the game--and injuries are an issue because he can't get himself in shape.
I detest a lack of professionalism. I remember Devers complaining, too, about the Sox brass not getting the team help at the trade deadline, but they bring in someone who can play Devers' position better than he can and this selfish prick is like, "No, I'm not moving so the team can be better. I want what I want for me."
You blow in the field, brother. And this guy is so out of shape now that if he's just a DH he won't be hurt as much. I'd be mortified. "I'm in such bad shape that if I have to field a position--even one without wear and tear like third base--I'll break down."
Big slugger, right? Star hitter? Remember: No decline years yet. He's still in his twenties. His career OPS+? 126. That's not very impressive, is it? Superstar bat? Please. Spare me that nonsense. What Devers could do--and what he won't do--is make the move that's best for the team--which he's going to have to do anyway if they want him to--and get in shape and become a top-level hitter; a forty home run, 125 RBI, .300 guy with the .950 OPS+. Hitting machine.
That won't happen. If they make him move--and I think there's a good chance they will--he'll probably pout, may balloon up, and you may get a bad first two months from him.
Here are some eye-opening numbers...
Devers' WAR/162: 3.7.
Not so hot.
Bregman's WAR/162: 5.8
Surprisingly outstanding, actually. But also misleading.
Bregman was excellent during his age twenty-four and twenty-five seasons (2025 will be his age thirty-one season). He was far better then than at any other time. He hasn't come close to being what he was. His WAR in those two years was 7.9 and 8.9. The latter was in 2019, when Bregman finished second in the MVP voting to Mike Trout.
And you know what? He should have won the MVP that year. Trout is so overrated and Bregman had the better stats--including the better WAR, which is Trout's thing--and was on the better team. He got robbed that year because ignorant baseball writers had this need to throw themselves at Trout who will be forgotten after he retires. No smart person--not that there will be any--looking back on that player and knowing baseball history will understand how he was as hyped as he was. The numbers won't be there and there won't have been a single big moment.
In 2019, Bregman led the AL in walks with 119. Nice. He had 690 plate appearances. Last year, in 44 walks in 634 plate appearances. Yikes. That's the sign of a hitter who is about to lose it completely. Fall off the proverbial cliff, if they haven't already. And he didn't last year--his other numbers were respectable. But you're on the cliff's edge when this is what has happened.
People will say that Bregman has done well in his career at Fenway. That's fine. But they also seem to think that his Fenway numbers will continue to be excellent. I don't know that. He's not the same hitter who was racking up a bunch of those numbers. When a player starts walking a lot less, it usually means they're bat has slowed down. They can't let the ball get as deep as they did earlier--they see it for less time. They have to cheat more so the fastball isn't blown past them. That makes them more susceptible to everything else.
Here is a truth about baseball in its current state, which no one else has said, and I'm going to say here. Every team plays the same way. It's a bland game. Every team gets its marching orders from the computer and the analytics guys. Baseball is station to station. There is so much downtime within each game. Walks, strikeouts, or the home run. There isn't one team that plays this style, and this team that plays that style. It's all the same color: beige. You can't fall in love with how a team plays. Like so much in our world, it's all just the same shit, no variety.
What appeal then comes down to for the fans--not for me, because I find it unappealing; but I love baseball, and I also have no life, which means I follow the game--are stars. And that means embracing stars like they're your personal friend by referring to them by their first name on social media like you just hang out because people are insane and lonely and delusional and talking about the stars. It's not about watching the game. It's about posting about stars.
The Red Sox have no stars. It's hard to believe that this is the same organization that once had Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, and Manny Ramirez on the same team. For years. We're talking off the charts superstar level. That was nuts. And then they had all of these other stars who weren't at that level of stardom but stars in their own right, and also very good ballplayers who were familiar faces and part of the fabric of Boston and New England. A Jason Varitek.
They have nothing anywhere close to that now. You can't duct-tape a team together in this awful age and have anyone care. Unless something remarkable happens. Like 2013. But that team still had its stars. Not as many as before, but Ortiz was there, you had Pedroia, and, to a lesser degree, Lester, who was another fabric guy, if you will.
Alex Cora always sounds to me like a guy who'd rather be somewhere else and yet he's here.
I don't like knowing in the teeth of Boston winter that the Red Sox are going to suck come the season that doesn't begin until basically April. And the owner is doing this victory cigar stick-it-in-the-fans face photo? What the hell is that? This ghoul. Who bought and gave The Boston Globe to his girlfriend to run. I have stuff coming up on The Boston Globe, too, by the way, because that place is chock full of heinous people. Wait until we get to the op-ed editors. Kind of strange that Mr. Op-ed and Mr. Boston isn't in that opinion section and has never been in it, isn't it? It's probably for lack of trying and ability and track record, right? Or do you think we have blatant discrimination at work? Gee, I wonder how this will all play out when I put the facts and the truth and the comparisons out there.
But yeah, the Sox. I don't see this going well. It could even be worse than it's been over the last few years.
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