Year Four of the Chaim Bloom experience, and we're back to low-budget Sox everybody! Corey Kluber and Reese McGuire are crucial starting options, baby! Go Sox!
Obviously people aren't happy. Bogaerts left, Vazquez left, Eovaldi left, Martinez left, the big new pieces are people like Masataka Yoshida, Justin Turner and Kenley Jansen, and so much money is going towards people like Trevor Story and James Paxton who are hurt and have nothing to contribute.
But...at least Adam Duvall's hitting a lot of home runs, right! 12 RBIs, that's pretty great for a guy who they took a flier on, right? Bet you guys want more of stories like that and not, y'know, young players coming up and inheriting the team or something.
The shitty part is the Red Sox have TRIED to develop people over the past few years, and have tried bringing people like Michael Chavis, Jeter Downs, Josh Winckowski, Brayan Bello, Triston Casas and Jarren Duran into the fold, and a lot of them just haven't worked out. The Sox have had like 10 prospects in a row that just haven't worked in the majors, and a lot of their current team is made up of great players like Garrett Whitlock, Nick Pivetta, John Schreiber, Zack Kelly and Alex Verdugo, NONE OF WHOM actually came up in the Sox' organization.
I was walking the backfields of Fenway South in Fort Myers last month, watching some of the Red Sox prospects warming up, taking fungoes and BP, and I genuinely wondered how many of them would actually perform to expectations in Boston. Somebody like Rafael Devers or even Tanner Houck is an anomaly these days, as we get people like Bobby Dalbec and Triston Casas who just can't keep it together at the MLB level. All Boston has to do is look over at the Rays, Orioles and Yankees, who've had exceptional development programs as of late and have ALL been producing great prospects lately. The O's just had Grayson Rodriguez start a nice game against Texas, the Yanks had Jhony Brito throw a gem against the Giants, and the Rays have Taj Bradley waiting on their 40-man for Josh Fleming to screw up again. Who do the Red Sox have? Casas is hitting .130, Yoshida's a 29-year-old rookie, and there's nobody on this team younger than Rafael Devers who's looking to make a huge impact on the team.
For right now, the Sox kinda have to get their kicks with performances like Duvall's, or people like Kenley Jansen or Justin Turner. There's not enough to really think 'long run' right now, and they just need to make sure they're performing well enough as is, with who they've got. The kids'll be there eventually. This probably means the Sox might be a last place team again, but for the amount of rings they've had since 2004, they're due, I think.
Coming Tomorrow- A guy that hit a home run today in a rare moment where his team isn't making me giggle.
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