The Roman Empire: Boston Red Sox 2025

https://i.imgur.com/yeC4Q7K.jpeg

THEY’RE READY. But are they?

https://i.imgur.com/1M6MVEO.jpeg

Where/how much does Ceddanne play?
Can Trevor Story make it through a season?
Will they actually play Yoshida in the outfield?
Is this Casas’s last year on the team?
Will Garrett Crochet be great, or merely good?
Will I ever stop booing Aroldis Chapman? (No.)

All these questions, and more, answered in this thread!

Ceddanne’s swing decisions have been excellent in spring training. He’s like a different hitter in that respect. Going to create some difficult decisions.

We’ll see. Didn’t he hit over 300 in spring training last year? Really like him but we looked for the same last year and it didn’t quite play out.

I didn’t see those ABs but I’ve been paying attention this time and he really does not chase and miss, it’s wild.

Ceddy (R) would look to be a lock for CF. Putting Duran (L) in LF and Abreyu (L) in right. But whither the Roman Empire? Whither Yoshida? Two too many OFs by my lights, with Ref a cheap backup rightie and Campbell able to play out there too.

Kcam is marked for the infield I think but I could see him in a utility role. It’s genuinely shocking to me Abreu is still on the roster. Ofc, trading Duran solves a lot of problems. I would guess Anthony won’t be on the Opening Day regardless? Passan says the whole Devers shitshow is for due to management really wanting to clear a path for Kcam.

What’s almost more interesting to me is Mayer cos Story can opt out at the end of the year, which he could do if he has a good year, and would be the least messy solution going.

🙏

ESPN had a pretty lol piece on the Red Sox incredible training methods for delivering a golden generation of hitters… that boiled down to “they take a lot of very fancy BP.”

There were some interesting nuggets in that Passan piece but that is pretty fair actually. It’s not really that different from what most teams do but it was framed like Boston had cracked a secret code

I was kind of surprised seeing people talk about that article like it was the gospel, but I don’t think Passan has seriously covered the team for years so it’s a big deal.

I think the initial bat speed training program was introduced by Chaim when he overhauled the minors.

I need this yesterday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iCBiPLXnjA

https://dnm.nflximg.net/api/v6/2DuQlx0fM4wd1nzqm5BFBi6ILa8/AAAAQZOYARZDvYxYORTO_fRGQD8uWL-XshmwGW6VTLHJ-tfRmIdz_rHh2Uw6C-GJBw2b9awjVi5Ijn4ffz_L0wXOC-JK6KO8TCmZga3jJvseplfs4v97G_mWWZeCoJ1FKHx8PTnahITMDxBSFpFrzsYxh2un.jpg?r=b8c

lfg

Connor Wong is so photogenic

He’s got a face made to be superimposed over a horizon at 50% opacity

This top 5 fucks IMO. From the bad site:

Cora is leaning toward a top five in batting order of Duran, Devers, Bregman, Casas and Story

Kristian Campbell has made the opening day roster!

pretty expensive DH they got in the lineup with Devers

It's not my money

The BoSox invented the expensive DH.

I think they would handle his fielding at third fine if he didn’t cop an injury 2/3 of the way through every season and limp to the end of the year while his production falls off a cliff. It’s what it is. Mishandled by the org imo.

It’s genuinely shocking to me Abreu is still on the roster.

i for one am quite happy he was on the roster today

I don’t mean it in a Wilyer is bad way, I mean it in a Roman Anthony is coming way. My actual preference to trade OFers would be Duran before Wilyer any day btw because Duran is 29 this year and his legs aren’t going to last forever.

I wrote about the last time Wilyer carved up the Rangers here: Post by Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac) from Jack Morris Pitching to the Score, David Eckstein Doing All the Little Things: The Baseball Intangibles Thread on ILX - Jack Morris Pitching to the Score, David Eckstein Doing All the Little Things: The Baseball Intangibles Thread

another hat trick for devers. now 0-for-19 with 15 Ks. i'm told he has yet to hit the ball out of the infield

Yeah we know

Chris Davis' record is in jeopardy.

Imagine enjoying this

never forget

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DkiP5fZZlU

Hey Shasta I’m not sure why you’re gloating over this, feel free to post somewhere else though. Not sure why anyone would be enjoying Devers of all fucking players struggling, not when he shares a clubhouse with two cheats and a woman beater.

Really fucking fun.
https://i.imgur.com/yTMaUib.jpeg

i am no more gloating about this than i was when mentioning that the pirates keep getting walked-off

Didn’t say you were

ayo, Devers' struggles are not immune from critique. I wish him well, but if being paid $25M+/yr to roleplay as a fetid turd circling in the toilet for 5 days straight, it's fair game to get called out imho.

While I welcome your enthusiasm, this board has a long history of griping about shitty starts fwiw. Iirc it was one of the primary reasons I created this board some 21 years ago tyvm. You should have heard the choice words I had for BarryZeetz back in the day, you may have sprained a finger FP-ing me.

✌️

i wonder if there's reason for extra concern due to his fairly tepid 2024 second half (54 games, 5 HR, .244/.325/.402)...maybe there's some lingering issue.

So that’s definitely a theory. Not sure if you know this, don’t expect fans of other teams to know this but here’s basically the theory rn. To do this I have to give you the backstory.

2024 season - Devers injured his left shoulder on the last day of spring training swinging at an offspeed pitch on the Trajekt. I saw a whole Red Sox series in April last year and I never saw Devers once because they refused to IL him at the beginning of the season.

things I learned about in baseball this week/how i learned to stop worrying and love baseball

Anyway, after this stop start to the season he went off and started hitting - really hitting. Skipped the All Star Game cos he was banged up. All was fine until July, when he fell over making a play in Colorado and hurt his other shoulder.

After this, his production fell off a cliff. Despite repeated insistence that he was fine, he looked like a ghost of himself at the plate and continued to deteriorate. Remember that game where Cole walked him with bases empty? That was in either late August or September and he’d looked like a shell of himself for a while.

Anyway he got put on the IL the penultimate week of the season as the whole lineup died around him, and that was that.

A lot of the speculation about the move to DH is to keep him healthy because he usually finishes the season banged up and not producing. His last home run was in August.

After the season, there were questions about whether he’d get surgery but he didn’t. They just rested him. I don’t know how this works for MLB players, if he could refuse surgery if recommended or even if it was. He showed up at spring training in Fort Myers in January. Hadn’t swung a bat since they finally shut him down in September.

Spring training was sidelined by the whole 3B shitshow but while he was taking ground balls at 3B he wasn’t appearing in ST games, instead he was hitting live BP in the backfields. He only had something like 15 spring training plate appearances and sat out the Mexico trip to stay in Fort Myers getting ready.

The team and Devers both claim that he is healthy. One of the beat reporters say that his MRIs are clean. So the theory is it isn’t an injury, but that doesn’t mean playing through multiple injuries for so long last season didn’t fuck something up. If he was playing most of the season compensating for one shoulder, and then struggling to compensate with two, and then didn’t pick up a bat until spring training, it’s not hard to see where things can go wrong.

There’s also the mental factor but he looks different at the plate. Stance is far more open, his front foot isn’t steady. Who knows what’s going on there? And there’s also the mental factor, but he’s been fighting off pitches and working counts. But he hasn’t made contact for the most part, barely even any groundouts and no fly outs.

Tl;dr I couldn’t tell you, but it’s really difficult to watch and I think the way they handled him has been terrible. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there’s something lingering from last season or something else going on; this organisation is never honest about player injuries.

this is a really interesting situation and also a test of alex cora as a manager

devers seems completely lost but also he's making $30m in each of the next nine seasons, so . . . what do you do? give him a day off? move him down in the order? put him at third and move bregman elsewhere (which would be absurd)?

(i mean 20+ years ago people (understandably) shit on joe torre for his bullpen management -- i'm sure scott proctor's arm still keeps him up at night -- but he somehow made all those assholes play to their potential)

three games ago cora was saying “it’s just two games”. something has clearly been wrong. yesterday he looked like he was starting to catch up to the heater. so maybe he just figures it out. but quite arguably the red sox have dropped 2-3 games because raffy simply wasn’t ready. seems really dumb from multiple perspectives.

Devers' average bat speed:
2023, 73.4 mph (70th percentile)
2024, 72.5 mph (60th percentile)
2025, 70.3 mph (30th percentile)

crochet 6/170 by the way

Stats pointed out bat speed situation isn’t as dire as all that because that average bat speed number is being dragged down by some of the ABs where he was taking half-hearted cuts. Sample size still too small on that.

Jim Rice was talking about what he saw watching him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne9BaCMoa2Y

I think Cora intends to make him play through it. It doesn’t help that basically everyone else started off ice cold bar like Abreu and Kristian Campbell.

And definitely think the fact he didn’t swing at all this offseason is a huge part of it. I don’t get what he was doing in January in Fort Myers if they aren’t helping him get ready - maybe rehabbing the shoulders, and those injuries were worse last year than we thought?

man i love jim rice.

i couldn’t help noticing refsnyder last night getting on top of a fastball a good 3 inches above the zone. he musta kept that back elbow down! it’s funny because most kids are taught to really hike up that back elbow.

xpost Do you remember Cora et al kind of made a big deal about Raffy’s off-season strength and conditioning regimen this year, saying that they basically told Raffy he wasn’t allowed to use his usual guy, and that the Red Sox were going to provide him with team support for that? i guess with the thinking that Raffy’s guy had not been doing a great job and the team guy would get him more in line with where he needed to be. So… how’d that work out??

makes sense about the bat speed.

It’s difficult to know because based on how he looks at the plate and in general it really looks as though he didn’t do anything which again makes me think his shoulders must have been incredibly fucked up.

This is the problem with guys playing through injuries.

from january:

The Red Sox have also made efforts to change up Devers’ offseason training program after he wore down in the second half last year and finished the season on the injured list with nagging soreness in both shoulders. The revised program included a week-long stay in Boston so Devers could work with head strength and conditioning coach Kiyoshi Momose and an early arrival at Fenway South.

“He was here a few weeks ago,” Cora said.” He was here for a week training with Kiyoshi and all that. That’s a big step, to get out of his comfort zone and come to Boston. I think the weather was great around that time, it was only like 25 degrees when he was here.

“He’ll be in Fort Myers early. He usually goes to Tampa and now, he’s not doing that. Next week, he’s gonna be in Fort Myers.”

For now, barring an addition of someone like Arenado, Devers is expected to once again man third base for the Red Sox (though they’re clearly open to a large-scale infield shakeup). Improving his defense has always been a priority and is once again one as spring approaches. New infield coach José Flores will travel to Fort Myers to get an early start with Devers soon.

After three-plus months off, Devers is healthy.

“The most important thing is that the shoulders are in a good spot,” Cora said. “Baseball stuff, he hasn’t done much. He hasn’t swung or thrown or whatever. Now, that’s the reason he’s going to Fort Myers. We’ve got plenty of time and he’ll be ready.”

I think it doesn’t help that Cora damaged his relationship with him too, I don’t think this is about him DHing, it’s very much more about his lack of buildup and the reason they need him to DH is to prevent things like the injury shitshow from last year right?

xp just a very bizarre situation all around. At the very least Breslow and Cora lied for months, including to Devers himself. Sean McAdam reported this a few weeks back:

Facing question after question one afternoon shortly after Alex Bregman was introduced with great fanfare, Devers provided one stoneface “No” after another when reporters asked about his stance on surrendering third.
He wasn’t playful. He wasn’t coy. He was angry, and he didn’t do much to hide it. It didn’t help that whenever Devers spoke with Red Sox management over the winter, he was assured that speculation about Bregman or Nolan Arenado was just that, and owed more to the media pushing unfounded rumors.

on top of all that it is just wild to me that they would let Raffy hit in the No.2 spot day after day when he is CLEARLY not ready. either cora et al know he's not ready and let him hit there anyway, or they actually do think he's ready... both options are like fuckin yikes.

I think Cora wants him to play out of it and not destroy his confidence further?

Feel like the fact this is the first time the team has expectations in a while is adding to this. The most beloved guy in the clubhouse is struggling, almost everyone is pressing, it’s a lot going on. Hopefully the off day today they can find some time to relax, hopefully Casas has his stash with him or something. I was looking at the David Ortiz slump referenced in Pedroia’s laser show rant and Pedroia straight up says…” It’s 60 ABs.” And he was right, Ortiz had a huge May and finished the season with an OPS+ of 137.

Mookieproof otm, Cora needs to earn his money here.

aww man how happy raffy looked after hit #1. a really nice moment.

A game designed by a guy and his son, turned up on my FB wall:

https://i.postimg.cc/T31T0FGx/fenway.jpg

That is beautiful! Reminds me a little of Deadball

http://wmakers.net/deadball

Nice to know there's still stuff out there--played APBA, Strat-o-Matic, and something called Innings (loose-leaf in a binder; can't find an image) as a teenager.

(Dice-based games, I mean--obviously lots of digital games.)

This team is actually even less watchable than last year’s

Well this was a pleasant surprise to wake up to. I’ve gotten so used to them not scoring after they fifth inning that I just assumed this was over. As Flemming said in the bottom of the second - “this place needs a jolt”.

just learned that there is a yacht rock promo night this season

https://www.mlb.com/redsox/tickets/promotions/themes/yacht-rock

https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/t_16x9/t_w1024/v1746822620/mlb/qbojvkxomlordkxik9v4.jpg

Hopefully this Boston-based band is somehow involved:

https://www.neonlighthouseband.com/yachtrockboston

Is "Sweet Caroline" yacht rock?

I'm far from a scholar, but I'd say definitely not. Way too early, and also more of a...singer-songwriter version of Sunshine Pop?

Bringing up Roman Anthony is not going to fix this

I read a bizarre stat today that throughout most of this disastrous month of May, and up to now, Red Sox relievers are second in the AL with a 2.68 ERA?? I feel like Boston has blown half its games

You’d have to look at inherited runs scoring in that I think but the short outings from non-Crochet pitchers are killing the pen already. The pen is pretty good but it’s struggling for exactly that reason. There’s also a ton of errors contributing to unearned runs I’d imagine.

It’s not like the season hasn’t been a mess but they are just joyless, even when they were winning the vibes felt off? Stick a fork in this season. 2023 team were deeply flawed and much less talented but so much more fun to watch because it felt like they were having fun when they’re winning. It’s just very depressing right now. Hopefully Cora gets fired though.

When Devers and Bregman were raking the vibes were pretty good. It's funny how winning will do that

Nah I think the vibe has been off all season

When Devers and Bregman were raking the vibes were pretty good. It's funny how winning will do that

but even then they weren't winning all that much.

I’m so out on this team but they just called up Roman Anthony. I’m fucking DONE with having to watch Aroldis Chapman though, can’t fucking stand it.

From yesterday’s dugout interview with Giolito:

Jahmai Webster: “You mention that youthful energy. We just saw it after Marcelo hit his second big league home run. You gave him the double kisses. Is that part of what you guys are going to continue to do as the season goes along?”

Giolito: “Yeah. Celo and I developed a little bit of a bond when I was going through my rehab outing. So, you know, I give him a couple of kisses on the cheek for the home run. If he’s able to put up 20 this year - we’re already in June, so he’s got some work to do - but if he puts up 20 then I’ll have a nice gift for him at the end of the year.” Big shit-eating grin.

“That’ll be nice. I’m sure that motivates him to, uh, keep going.”

https://i.imgur.com/wdjMZIk.jpeg

Might motivate Roman Anthony in a different way though

Incredible insight into this shitshow. I follow this team pretty closely and the Anthony stuff was new to me.

https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/article/inside-the-absolute-s-show-that-led-to-the-boston-red-soxs-trade-of-rafael-devers-220018400.html

Meanwhile, Breslow has grown increasingly insulated.

“Thanks, Bres, you f***ing stiff,”

Lol wow

they’ve always courted this much drama but they used to try to win too

FSG loves shooting themselves in the foot and then recovering with aplomb.

With Liverpool they drove off Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes to give Klopp total control and it worked for a bit but also kind of didn't in part because they didn't invest enough - as soon as he retires they smartly give Edwards and Hughes the keys to the kingdom, hire a coach with less power and spend the first real offseason setting records for transfer spending.

They tried earlier to make the same kind of move bringing back Epstein and spending big on Devers but they've just continued shooting themselves in the foot.

_“Thanks, Bres, you f***ing stiff,” _


Lol wow

According to multiple sources, Devers was also upset when the rookie Campbell volunteered to play first base this season — interpreting it as a slight to his own stature.

All I can see when Devers is on the field is a huge plug of chaw with a baseball player attached to it. Does he just get fined every game, pay it and move on? He's going to be sad when he has to have his face amputated.

Passan dropped an essential read about this whole shitshow

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/45539218/inside-breakup-rafael-devers-boston-red-sox-trade-san-francisco-giants-mlb

With Liverpool they drove off Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes to give Klopp total control and it worked for a bit but also kind of didn't in part because they didn't invest enough - as soon as he retires they smartly give Edwards and Hughes the keys to the kingdom, hire a coach with less power and spend the first real offseason setting records for transfer spending.

Was reading this thread as a Liverpool fan cos I know some of the FSG anger rises/subsides from one club to the other, but this isn't true really. firstly, Hughes joined Liverpool after Klopp left, but you may have confused him with Julian Ward. More than that I think the generally accepted story is that Edwards and later Ward were in a sort of power struggle with Klopp and left as a result. Maybe that means some blame for FSG but not really clear.

As for spending, you omitted the part where Liverpool spent a miniscule amount of money last summer, and because the three midfielders they signed the summer before (with no Hughes or Edwards) were such astute signings, they won the league.

Now, having done that, they are spending big to consolidate. I'm happy Michael Edwards is back and Richard Hughes seems to be doing a brilliant job, but FSG have done brilliantly for Liverpool, recently and in general. This is a club that were absolutely nowhere when they took over and having lost a totemic manager like Klopp goes and wins the league in the new coach's first season.

FSG has owned the pittsburgh penguins (that's an ice hockey team) for the last few years and i have no complaints. it's a salary cap league and the team is in a down cycle, but they seem fully willing to allocate appropriate resources

I forgot they owned them but you don't really hear much about them. I mean, they seem p good at this, they have basically brought glory to two teams that spent decades witnessing false dawns. Maybe with Liverpool it was a case of a really retrograde institution needing to be run in a smarter more modern way, and perhaps that is very achievable for a large sports ownership company, but they rebooted the whole club, taking a lot of flak at the start when there were the inevitable bumps in the road. They have made so many good decisions and put such a sustainable structure in place, and it's the best team for half a lifetime.

Weird situation where a group of players (Trevor Story and Wilyer Abreu among them) visited the White House yesterday for a tour arranged by themselves (not the team). For whatever reason they met Trump, circumstances unclear. Because it wasn’t a team sanctioned visit, no real questions can be answered by team PR. It’s such an appalling look.

https://archive.is/fuynE

The only saving grace is an aside in a Boston Globe article that says the attendees weren’t expecting to either meet Trump or have the visit publicised, so shout out to Margo Martin I guess?

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/red-sox-players-meet-trump-at-white-house/3759239/

undefeated since the visit lol

Against two of the worst teams in the league

as a commenter elsewhere suggests, we could put this another way - the red sox are undefeated since ceddanne raffaela decided not to go to the white house

i never could remember how many double letters to put in his name ^^ until i realised his first name has all the ones you think it might be and his last name has none that you think it might be

I was at Fenway a week ago for the dodgers game that they held on to win 4-3 and it was ELECTRIC. a little sleepy at first, and buehler did some buehlerin', laboring, walking guys, throwing more than 100 pitches in less than 5 innings, but in the 5th roman anthony hit a triple that absolutely lit the place up. i don't think i've ever seen a triple hit to the left-field corner before. in the box score it was fielded by mookie betts (the shortstop). and, i guess, in reality, though at that point he was backing up the play deep in left. and the very next pitch? Bregman sends it over the Monster to take a lead that boston would never relinquish. it's been underrated how nails the Boston bullpen has been. Third best in the bigs since the start of June.

Anyway the play of the game wasn't any of that. The play of the game came in the 8th. Aroldis came in and i turned to my boys and was like "watch the radar gun on this guy". first pitch was a sinker measured at 95. ok. the next pitch a slider. the next pitch a splitter at 93. what the hell's going on? he hasn't yet thrown a fastball. finally on the fourth pitch he comes in with the four-seamer and it ticks over at 93mph. what in the world? murmurs in the stands. it's 3-1. then chapman takes too long and the batter takes first on a pitch clock violation. then Chapman walks Mookie, velocity still down. now it's Shohei. Chapman gives up an absolutely towering fly ball towards the Monster and starts WALKING OFF THE FIELD while the ball's still in the air. there are no outs. he's not walking towards the red sox dugout, either, he's walking past the third base line. huh?? the ball settles softly into Anthony's glove on the warning track. Cora runs out, the trainer runs out, something's up, Hicks starts warming in the pen, Chapman comes out. Sore back like he later claimed? who knows but his fastball was MIA. Next batter is Teoscar Hernandez who has looked baffled all day, but he battles Hicks and eventually smokes a line shot to 2B, where Ceddanne grabs it and immediately RUNS and LEAPS like SUPERMAN toward 2B, tagging it just as Mookie dives back. Safe! or is it?? All of us in the stands have leapt to our feet and are maniacally miming putting headphones on, and indeed, Boston challenges. the Fenway video operators put the play up on the jumbotron and Mookie is clearly out. the crowd ROARS. all the Red Sox players leave the field while the umps are still deliberating lol.

it was interesting to see the crowd's reaction every time Mookie came to the plate - deep, loud, sustained applause.

it was also a bit unsettling how many dodgers fans were there. every time shohei came to the plate they all held their phones up in landscape mode lol. They were also massively outnumbering Boston fans at the concession stands inside, which had been staffed by scabs. the concession workers were on strike against Aramark outside the park, and doing a very well organised, very fun set of pickets that were impossible to miss. They were handing out baseball cards featuring concession workers, with stats on the back like where in the park they worked and how many years they'd been at it. That said? i got three Italian sausages outside the park (which was fine with the strikers) and three drinks, didn't even ask how much it was going to cost and I got dinged for SIXTY FIVE DOLLARS. what the everloving fuck. take me out to the con game. i was livid but i paid, of course i paid.

anyway you just couldn't have scripted it better. shohei didn't do too much but at least we got to see him rip a scorcher back up the middle at one point, topspinning off the dirt into center field. and we got a look at what would turn out to be Boston's #4 of the future, Dustin May, who, apart from that tough 5th inning, handled the Boston lineup pretty cleanly. judging by the media image provided on the jumbotron he appears to shave his own eyebrows, which is disturbing, but let's see.

Aroldis came in

Yankees are falling apart, Tampa's almost buried, and suddenly the Red Sox are only three back--last thing I ever expected. And Chapman's pitching like it's 2012.

yeah this is starting to get interesting.

They're relentless right now. I know the details are wildly different, but I wonder if the Devers trade will be broadly viewed as comparable to Garciaparra in 2004, an improbable turnaround after trading away a one-time fan favourite and face of the franchise.

yeah this is starting to get interesting.

Too bad the team is incredibly unlikeable though

They're relentless right now. I know the details are wildly different, but I wonder if the Devers trade will be broadly viewed as comparable to Garciaparra in 2004, an improbable turnaround after trading away a one-time fan favourite and face of the franchise.

Nomar was on a team stacked with HoFers. It’s the pitching and Roman Anthony winning games for this team. Regardless, I couldn’t be less interested in their success rn. Team has sickened me one time too many this year.

they may not be HoFers but Jarren Duran's been winning games for this team, and Trevor Story (!) and Ceddanne Raffaela. The whole team is playing great (apart from like, Toro and David Hamilton, who Cora seems obsessed with getting starts for...) and how about the curious case of Romy Gonzalez? He just keeps hitting. i love Ceddy and Roman and Mayer (RIP) and god I love Narvaez, and Bello, and Gio, who's lowkey the smartest, funniest guy on the team.. and so many more of them. and I love Bregman! i realise that for you he's on the wrong side of the Devers drama, but that's not his fault.

do I like Aroldis Chapman? no. I hate seeing his leering face staring up at me from the top of a game story. I wish he was gone like yesterday. When he hurt himself vs LA I was like God strike me down but I wish for that man's baseball career to be ruined. Do i like that some of these dudes went to shake Trump's hand? of course not. though I'm not surprised by it. gyac you know as well as anyone this is essentially a MAGA league. am I convinced by Duran's contrition on his slur? Not really. I understand if these things get in the way of enjoying this team's current success. and of course snivelling little Breslow up there in his quarter zips and his Republican donations and his calibration of his internal alignment and how Devers was handled. but this is my team. not Breslow's. mine. and I can't remember the last time we won like this.

I understand if these things get in the way of enjoying this team's current success

And fuck Jarren Duran, I wish they’d traded the walking slur.

Definitely a different team makeup from 2004--"I know the details are wildly different"--but what's comparable are the shockwaves the Garciaparra/Devers trades sent throughout baseball (I remember my own shock about Nomar vividly) and the unexpected turnaround. Checked back--the 2004 team was 8.5 games out when the trade was made, the 2025 team 6.5 behind.

Team chemistry is a weird and mysterious thing. I'm not sure why the Jays seem to have it this year. Or: what comes first, the chemistry or the winning?

Anthony locked up for 8 years @ 130m

Seems low!

There are various additional incentives, many of which he’ll hit I imagine

Anyway I was reading an article about this and I was struck by the picture they used, thinking it looked familiar. Then I was like oh yeah that’s what it is

https://i.imgur.com/hbjhN5W.jpeg

Based on Harmon Killebrew, I always thought, but the designer says no. That nose sure does look like Killebrew...

https://news.sportslogos.net/2011/05/17/rip-mlb-logo-mystery-man/

Disastrous