I don't talk about this much on here, but when I'm not writing up blog posts, I'm an aspiring screenwriter. It's what I went to college for. That whole business is who you know, I don't know many people, hence the 'aspiring' part. A few years back, around the same time as the Bryce Harper free agency sweepstakes, I wrote a massive script, long enough to even be a miniseries at this point, about a bunch of GMs and presidents that come to Vegas to poach the biggest star in the game to come to their team. I had a ton of fun working on it, there was a lot of good character stuff in there.
What was cool was that, though I was using real teams like the Yankees, Mariners, Brewers, Red Sox, Pirates, etc, and though I name-dropped actual MLB players, like Corey Seager, Nolan Arenado, Manny Machado and David Ortiz, I also had to weave in the fiction, and concoct new MLB player characters that'd had lived-in careers and lives to this point. One of the things I did in this script was tell the story of a Japanese player who came up with the Hanshin Tigers, crossed over to the states in the late 90s, after Hideo Nomo, signed a long deal with the Red Sox, pitched fairly well until blowing out his arm. By the time he's recovered from Tommy John surgery, in this altered reality the story takes place in, the Sox have won the 2004 World Series without him, and he's promptly cut from the team. It's an all-too-uncommon story, and its implications drive some of the narrative and some character decisions.
I bring this up because the name of this Japanese Red Sox player, as I wrote in this script from 2019, was Masahide Yoshida. Folks...I was four letters off, and had the wrong position. But I think I predicted the future.
Masataka Yoshida may not be an adept defenseman, but he's been one of the biggest reasons for Boston fans to be cheerful since the start of the season. Yoshida is batting .304, with 39 RBIs, 8 home runs and 78 hits. The man is a contact machine with enough oomph to chase the occasional long ball, as the Brewers found out earlier this season. Even factoring strong campaigns by Alex Verdugo and Justin Turner, ironically both former Dodgers, Yoshida is the Red Sox' best hitter this year, and he's been one of the defining forces of a lineup trying to center itself without Xander Bogaerts or, for the time being, Trevor Story.
Yoshida's outfield follies do point to a terrifying trend on this Red Sox team, which may explain why they're in last; the Sox' defense is downright atrocious this year. As good as somebody like Rafael Devers or Jarren Duran can hit, their defensive numbers hold them back. This team has also yielded famously unwise defensive choices, like Reese McGuire, Kiké Hernandez and Adam Duvall. Yoshida is just another of the many, it seems. Having an outfield consisting of Duvall, Yoshida and Duran is, to say the least, not a great look. Especially in Fenway, which is a park that needs spry defenders in that outfield. Once Verdugo comes back they'll be a little better off, but yeesh.
Even worse, the Red Sox are currently working with a rotation consisting of Brayan Bello, James Paxton, Garrett Whitlock, Kutter Crawford and several question marks. The plan seems to be using an opener and letting Brandon Walter do the brunt of the work, but...do they just not trust him in inning one? It's a very dire scenario for a team that thought they'd be getting more work out of Chris Sale, Nick Pivetta and Corey Kluber this year. And with the lack of immediate gems coming up as rotation options, it may continue to look this dire.
The Sox, even with their strengths, have too many flagrant weaknesses to be taken seriously as a contender. They may sit at .500 at the bottom of the AL East, but I don't think they can outgun the titans with all that's holding them back. Even with Yoshida.
Coming Tonight: The Cardinals gave him up for a rental, so that's robbed us of having yet another young Cardinals outfielder terrorize NL pitchers.
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