June 5: The Red Sox announced this morning that Martin has now been placed on the 15-day IL due to anxiety. Kelly has indeed been recalled from Triple-A Worcester.
Martin, 38, has pitched 21 1/3 innings for Boston this season and logged a 4.22 ERA with a 28.2% strikeout rate against an exceptional 2.4% walk rate. He allowed three runs and two of the four homers he’s surrendered all season during his last appearance on May 30. His IL placement is retroactive to June 2, although given the nature of his absence, there’s no way of telling how long he might be away from the team. For now, Martin will understandably take some time to focus on his mental health.
Kelly, 29, will rejoin the Sox after previously posting a 2.16 ERA over 11 appearances (16 2/3 innings) earlier in the season. He’s also fired 10 2/3 scoreless innings in Worcester. Despite those pristine earned run averages, Kelly has battled significant command troubles. He’s walked 20% of his Triple-A opponents this season and 13.9% of his big league opponents. He’ll need to cut down on the free passes if he’s to continue finding this level of success.
June 4, 6:05pm: Per Ian Browne of MLB.com on X, the Sox didn’t make a roster move with the pitchers prior to the game, so Martin is still on the roster while Kelly is not.
3:10pm: The Red Sox announced that they have placed outfielder Wilyer Abreu on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 3, due to a right ankle sprain. Catcher Tyler Heineman has been recalled in a corresponding move. Manager Álex Cora announced the Abreu news prior to the official announcement on WEEI’s Jones and Mego, with Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic among those to relay the news on X. Chris Cotillo of MassLive previously reported the Heineman recall on X.
Cora also said, per McCaffrey on X, that outfielder Tyler O’Neill is going to start a rehab assignment with Worcester tonight. The plan is for him to play just one rehab game and then be reinstated tomorrow, though there’s a possibility he stays with Worcester for a second contest. That makes it possible that Heineman’s stay on the active roster will be brief.
Right-hander Zack Kelly is also coming up, per tweets from Cotillo as well as Tommy Cassell of Worcester T&G Sports, though that has not been announced by the club. Right-hander Chris Martin will be placed on the 15-day IL in a corresponding move, per Cotillo on X. The club hasn’t announced a reason for Martin’s IL stint but he has been battling soreness in his non-throwing shoulder this year.
Abreu’s injury is unfortunate for the Sox in many ways, one of which is how his injury came about. The outfielder appeared to hurt himself via a misstep walking down the dugout steps, with video relayed on X by Tyler Milliken, associate producer of Zolak & Bertrand on 98.5 The Sports Hub.
That frustrating injury will rob the Sox of a player who has emerged as a key piece of the club. Since his debut last year, he has taken 274 plate appearances for the Sox. His 26.3% strikeout rate in that time is a bit on the high side but he’s also walked at a 10.2% rate and hit eight home runs. His .286/.358/.482 batting line translates to a wRC+ of 131. He’s also stolen 10 bases and received strong grades for his outfield defense.
He is hoping for a short stint on the IL, per Alex Speier of The Boston Globe on X, saying that an MRI revealed nothing but a lot of inflammation and swelling. But it will nonetheless compound an injury problem that has beset the Boston position player group. Abreu joins O’Neill, Trevor Story, Triston Casas, Vaughn Grissom, Romy González and Masataka Yoshida on the IL. With all of those injuries, Heineman was the only healthy position player not already on the roster.
For today, Jarren Duran, Rob Refsnyder and Bobby Dalbec are in the starting outfield while Ceddanne Rafaela has moved to shortstop. O’Neill will rejoin the outfield rotation in the coming days, as mentioned.
Thats a tough Throttle
Don’t let the glimmer of four rings this century get in your eyes and bloat your frustration and bitterness.
The Yanks are looking good this year and perhaps they’ll win one and Chip Away for a few more in the next couple years. They’ve always been great and it seems like the Sox are up always looking up at the Yanks in the standings.
This is getting very old!
He`s been a major bright spot on this team. Hopefully it’s only a brief absence
The trade for Abreu is one of the rare deals the Sox have made where they got the upper hand.
Agreed. This and acquiring Pivetta were the clear best trades made during the Bloom era.
Nick Pivetta for a combined 22.1 IP of 9.37 ERA and 2.44 WHIP. I didn’t like it initially but I was wrong, total fleece.
It’s hard to believe how badly that turned out for Philly. Pivetta was likely to be demoted anyway, but the guys we sent them were probably just mediocre, but they outright combusted.
Win-win. Boston got a good player, we in Philly were able to not have to worry about Pivetta again. Don’t think it would have ever worked here.
No. It was not a win-win. Give me a break.
Dark – Naw man, the win for the Phillies was it forced Klentak out the door. It was one of the last trades, if not the last trade, that he made.
You can thank the Pivetta trade for landing Dombrowski.
Steve – That’s a given man, nobody has to even think about the two best trades Bloom made. In fact they were the two best moves he made, period. And to think, some people here literally cried about Vazquez leaving … I mean seriously? Dude sucked as a catcher and he’s got a .376 OPS right now. I’d rather have Sandy Leon back than Vazquez.
The third best move? A guy that I’ve praised since the beginning, I was the first one to say “Great move, this guy is a keeper” …. Bernardino. He is strikingly similar to Eovaldi, just a tough old school pitcher who doesn’t do any of the lame theatrics that so many other pitchers do …. no pointing to the sky, pounding his chest or any of that nonsense.
The pickups of Schreiber and Whitlock were also nice. But Bloom had to sort through a long list of mediocrities to find the few bullpen gems.
Bloom was very reluctant to trade his better talent, so he let them walk as free agents. Makes no sense – those are the guys you are most likely to get a meaningful return for.
TFF1y and Fever – Be fair. Bloom sucked. End of story.
Bruin1012 – Nothing wrong with being optimistic about some of Bloom’s guys, I’m just pointing out they are all far behind the normal schedule for development as players. Have you noticed that Mayer’s defense is comparable to Devers in the minors? That’s scary
Breaking down his hitting this year after the bad 2023 we see he’s played 49 games at AA at age 21. His average is the best of his career at .305 his OBP is .364 for his walk rate is .059 which is acceptable but not great like a first round pick, his slugging is .498 so his isolated power is .193. Again, not great for a first round pick. He’s stolen 11 of 13 bases so he has decent speed and he has just 6 HRs so he’s more of a contact hitter than a power hitter so far this year.
This is his fourth season since being drafted and he’s progressed to being an average player at AA. Not what anyone expected with the fourth pick. Disappointing is his current adjective. Can he turn things around? Sure, if the original expectations were accurate rather than the misguided beliefs of a completely uninformed skills evaluator like Bloom.
Everyone hopes he will turn out as expected rather than as yet another over hyped star like Jeter Downs but it’s too early to know. If Downs did nothing but prove how wrong people are about judging players on bat speed and launch angle he has established himself as a great benchmark for what doesn’t make you a great player.
Nobody likes to see players regress but there is a lot of that happening in the Boston Farm System of Bloom draftees. The hype still seems to be there and hopefully at least one will be something over a league average player.
Since we have years to wait for the team to rebound from what Bloom did to it, we have time to give guys like Mayer to develop as players. They all can’t be like Casas and Houck or even Duran or Bello. Some will turn into Dalbecs and if they are first round picks, it speaks volumes to Bloom’s skills.
TF – Nobody is denying that, but as they say every squirrel gets a nut at least once in a while! Haha!
Even the worst GM/POBO/Manager in baseball history makes at least a couple good decisions.
Of course… Wouldn’t argue that Bloom was a good GM. That said, his primary purpose in the organization was to deflect attention from the real problem — an ownership group that is determined to strip-mine the team.
He did a good job of that.
TFF – Last year would have been a great choice for the Netflix documentary.
My understanding is they started filming in ST this year, so all the BS that went on in the front office last offseason will remain confidential forever.
It isn’t terribly confidential…. Stuff leaks. No interest in watching a crappy documentary on a crappy organization that can’t get its act together.
I do like Breslow, but the rest of the front office is a mess.
TFF – Yeah I think most of us really like Breslow. Sadly I think once his contract is up, which will be when he’s gained a ton of knowledge and experience, he will likely move on to another organization.
one of the most underrated players in the game. get well soon
dasit – He’s on track to win ROY, I wouldn’t call that underrated. Dude can hit and he’s made some great catches too.
Luis Gil.
Lord – If he continues to pitch the way he has, definitely. But throughout history so many pitchers have started strong and then faded, I think the odds are against him.
He’s a unique guy, pitched 29 innings in 2021 but still considered a rookie 3 years later.
Yes. 2022 was supposed to be his rookie year, but then he blew his elbow out and had TJS, maintaining his rookie status.
The one thing that will work against him is the Yankees will eventually have to restrict his innings due to this being his first season back. The problem is he keeps pitching so well that he’s making it impossible to restrict his innings. He’d be one of the top couple of candidates for the Cy Young if the season ended today.
Lord – Absolutely agree, he’s been phenomenal. Last offseason when I said the Yanks pitching would be very good with Cortes and Rodon rebounding, I did not expect Gil to be part of the mix. One of a few great SP stories thus far.
outside of boston and maybe philadelphia most fans aren’t aware that he’s roy material (or they mix him up with other abreus)
Dasit – Agreed. Right now Sportsbook has him 3rd behind Gil and Mason Miller.
Dasit and Fever – Gil changed his entire future by getting command of his stuff and slowing his walk rate. Lots of guys have great stuff but don’t have command. EROD is a great esample for Boston fans. Gil since gaining command is a force to deal with. I’d rank him 2nd behind Cole on the Yankee staff. The big issue will be his durability this year. His future is huge.
So nowthe bench is filled out with DFA material in total, if discount Refsnyder who should by all rights be the DH/1b.
For those interested..
tyler heineman
Bobby dalbec
Jamie Westbrook
Garret cooper
None of those are worth 10c. none will play any role in the future of this (or any) mlb team meaningfully, yet for some reason? The sox FO refuses to ditch any 1 of them to promote just *1* of the legit kids they have and give them a chance.
it’s getting old fast seeing disgraceful rejects at the mlb level on the Sox bench this year, not to mention taking up half of the starting 9 with the injuries they have had.
Who would you like to see them call up?
Sound like a broken record last nearly a season pointing out the positive virtues of chase meidroth and his career .400 obp at the Milb level since he was drafted, the fact he plays a capable SS/2b and 3b. So what if he’s a singles hitter who has below average speed? I am old enough to remember those same knocks being used against Wade boggs and his taking too long being promoted to MLB originally.
Other than meidroth?
Nick Sogard, 26, maybe 27YO and also plays 2b/ss/3b. he’s got some power and is better than that quartet of rejects named in above posts. he needs a 40 man spot.
A guy some here have been calling to add is Niko Kavalas, big dude, lots of power, but slow bat who may get exposed with anyone with velocity for those not seen his milb games. still.. i’d take him over Garret cooper in a heartbeat.
All these guys promoted would open up spots for the top guys who REALLY need to be at AAA. Marcello Myer and Kyle Teel, teating up AA and nothing left to prove at that level, yet wasting away at Portland and blocked.
It all starts when dead weight is removed at the mlb level.
I am with you on Kavadas. Give him a shot over Cooper and Smith. I watched him a few times on the Cape with Harwich. He is huge and can hit for power and really cannot be worse than their current production.
I would also like to see them give Meidroth a shot, especially with PT available at 2B, though I guess Valdez can also use that experience. Hopefully productively.
Kavadas can’t be too much worse than Dom Smith, and if he somehow IS worse then at least we’ve learned something.
TFF – Did you see Smith make TWO errors at first base alright tonight. How the hell does a first baseman make TWO errors in the same game???
@FPG, I was working tonight. But that’s okay, I’ve seen errors before. I’ll pass on pulling that video.
TFF – I hear ya! Bad enough we have to relive this season on Netflix next year. Or at least I do, I’m a glutton. LOL
You work 12 hour shifts, or just rotate? I’m basically on call 16 hours a day.
I thought that with Bloom he was going to have a continuous flow of talent to the major leagues.
The talent you are seeing in the majors thus far was drafted/signed under Dombrowski. That isn’t an indictment of Bloom, but an acknowledgment of the timeline for player development. Draft-to-majors typically takes two years for a top college pick, 5 years for a high school pick, and even longer for an IFA signed as a young teen.
Bloom was focusing on high school talent in the draft, at least until Teel, and the 2020 draft was both truncated and pretty much a washout. His draft picks will start emerging in 2025, and there should be a steady flow of them over the next few years,
This isn’t the NFL…
TFF17 – Your timetable is spot on.. I think your optimism on any Bloom drafted is over stated. Anthony looked like the only one and that’s questionable now. Mayer’s mediocre start to his career needs to be pumped up on overdrive by the front office if they ever hope to land any talent for him. Personally, I’ll take Rafaela at SS over Mayer but there are others in the system too. Yorke was a wasted pick. So much hype by Bloom’s monstrous marketing team and so little substance. The drought in the minors has officially started as there are only a few DD players still left there. We can’t deal for talent because we have none in the minors to offer that could draw an all-star to our current roster.
I’m more optimistic about the minor leaguers than you are…
Trollfree/KD17 has an unmitigated bias against anything bloom related including his draft picks. His assessment on Mayer much like all of his assessments is so far off it’s laughable
Mayer has looked better and better this year it’s becoming apparent health was the biggest factor for him. He’s really starting to hit he has the most extra base hits in the minor leagues he’s hitting over .300 and his peripherals are getting stronger every day. The eye test also says this guy can hit. He should be in AAA soon as long as he can stay healthy.
Kyle Teel offensively is ready for AAA as well but they are working on his defense so probably won’t be moved until later in the year to AAA. Offensively he has been Portlands best hitter since May 1st. He started slowly but he is as tough an out as there is in AA right now. Since May 1 he’s slashing .357/.447/.571 he’s been a monster after a short adjustment period.
I wouldn’t worry about Roman Anthony either. He’s a kid from Florida that really struggled with the cold in April in Maine. He was heating up before getting injured since May 1st he has slashed .280/.415/.453 he’s walked nearly 20% of the time and he has dropped his k rate from 33.3% in April to a much more manageable 24.5%. It’s also important to remember Anthony just turned 20 he’s still very young and he’s adjusting his swing on the fly to not hit all the worm burners and lift the ball in the air more. I’m not concerned about Anthony at all.
The future is very bright for those three prospects.
He doesn’t have bias. He’s a troll. Him having “bias” insinuates he actually has an opinion. He’s just here to wind you up.
Remember that these guys are young. As hitters age into the 25-27 range, many of those doubles turn into home runs. Natural part of the process. All three are likely to be good future major leaguers.
Don’t forget Bleis, Cespedes, and Perales. They don’t get as much air time as the “big three” but if anything they have even greater potential.
in fairness He has an opinion. He’s just wrong all of the time. He and Fever pitch guy can still be trolls/. They both pretty terrible at trolling though
Cespedes is in the FCL I can’t comment on him since I haven’t seen him. I have watched Bleis quite a bit and he worries me he’s still young but I can’t quite remember someone who pops the ball up as much as this guy does. He pulls off pitches all the time a very heavy pull approach occasionally he hits the ball really hard and he’s a bat speed hero but he has to change his approach higher level pitchers will eat his lunch. He needs to let the ball eat a bit start going the other way at this point he’s an easy out unless you make a mistake throw fastball in and he obliterates that pitch.
Perales has had a nice run but he has to throw more strikes to be effective the higher he goes. There is no question about the stuff and barring injury his floor to me is an end of the game pitcher with high end stuff. If he can harness that control and more importantly his command the sky is truly the limit.
I’m also a big fan of ERC his stuff is really good and as he adds healthy wait his velocity continues to increase. He has a true starters mix heavy sinking two seamer, hammer curve, above average changeup and he’s developing a slider at times it looks good so I think he gets there with the slider development. He’s young and very thin as his body matures he’s just going to get better and better.
Teel’s defense just needs some polish but he’s getting there/
Definitely still some growth needed for the younger three, but they have some great tools to work with. Could be stars, could be total busts, but have to trust them to be the best they can be.
It’s comment’s like KD17’s that make me hope that MLB trade rumors will add a laugh emoji.
What is wrong with you people nick Yorke recently got promoted to aaa and is already hitting .333 but not one mention of him here seems like only troll free follows the prospects
I follow them, just haven’t been impressed with Yorke. His numbers at AA didn’t merit promotion, as far as I can tell, and a .333 batting average over a single week means nothing. Put aside the insults, and tell me why you believe he still merits consideration as a future 2B? Or are you seeing him as an OF?
It appears to me that he is being groomed for a bench role at this point. And honestly I find Lugo to be the more exciting prospect at this stage.
Troll free/KD17 doesn’t follow the prospects and you can that based on his analysis.
I have a somewhat higher opinion of Yorke than TF does but he isn’t considered one of the top 5 overall prospects in the system. He still has time to become a useful MLB player with the possibility of more.
although I haven’t dug into all of the advanced metrics I believe what warranted his promotion was that many of those indicated that Yorke was performing at a higher level than what his traditional stats were showing. I’ll defer to Bruin on this one he is very good with his project analysis.
Interesting! He had improved his contact rate, but his triple slash line was down from 2023. I figured he was being promoted more due to time at level than performance, but I don’t have access to pitch level data on minor leaguers and could easily be missing something.
TF – My understanding is they are both the same person, with him creating the Sinister handle a while ago as a response to people who wisely noticed how similar his posts were to JoeBrady.
Personally I’m glad I don’t see any of them anymore, gives me more time to do what I love the most …. talkin’ baseball.
So what are your predictions for the upcoming games against the Phillies and Yankees?
Will the Phillies suffer from jetlag after the London Series?
Why isn’t Crawford officially penciled in Tuesday against Wheeler? Is he hiding an injury?
Will Soto be back to full health?
The highlight of the week for me will be Pivetta & Houck vs Phillies.
Kyle Teel offensively is ready for AAA as well but they are working on his defense so probably won’t be moved until later in the year to AAA.
======================
I’m late on this, but Teel occupies a position where we are fairly strong. Wong has a career 3.8 bWAR in about one season of PAs.
He might make an attractive trade chip in another year.
there is a 0.0 chance the sox entertain trading Teel regardless of how well Wong is playing.
Bobby Dalbec to the rescue
Blobby gotta go!
Yup Dalbac hitting a solid .143 while you need a power hitter at first base and we have Smith hitting a solid .200. Breslow you put together some team this year!
AL – I still blame most things on Cora so dump the cheater and lets see if Dalbec has the same reaction as Sale has.
And playing RF last night, which was a joke. Did you see him running in the wrong direction on that HR ball?
Triple A Bobby
That’s why they keep him. lol
Sure, why not.
Man, eff this season
swan – We knew that going in though, didn’t we? Ownership had no desire to win, not even after the embarrassment of two consecutive last place finishes. Anybody who thought the owners gave a damn about winning should realize by now how wrong they were.
Can’t wait for Full Throttle Part 2 at the end of the season when they finish in last place for the third year in a row or 4th year in 5 years all together. Another year of a 5th rate Operations guy in Breslow. The highlight of the season will be the trade deadline when Breslow will give up established players for garbage. Twelve games out after they drop tonight’s game to Atlanta. Another wasted year. Wake up John Henry !
You have to judge the quality of the 40 man roster, not just the Opening Day starting lineup. Pretty much everybody on the 40 man roster will contribute over the course of the season, so carrying zeros hurts the team.
Plenty of opportunity to sign more talented players that they passed on, which is why the depth is thin this year, I like the job that Breslow is done, but you can’t expect miracles when you demand that he slash payroll. You can’t contend without spending money, unless you are really bad (not talking 78 wins) for a long time (not talking five years). The Red Sox don’t qualify for competitive balance picks like the Orioles and Rays, so that is a tougher road for the Red Sox to follow.
TFF17 – Simple litmus test……
In 2018 how many all-stars? How about 2020 to 2024?
The all-stars other than Devers (1/2 all star technically) all got “Get out of jail free” cards from Bloom. No talent left so
NO Success.
A good year would be 78 wins for the third season in a row.
If you limit your offers, you won’t land very many stars. Other teams will he happy to pay them if you don’t.
Potentially three All-Stars this year, though likely only two.
TFF17 = 3 all-stars. Devers looks good on paper thanks to fixes score keepers are doing to his errors. I would have voted for Casas and he stayed heatthy and I would have chosen Houck if I was the manager of the AL All-Stars.
Are those your potential 3? Or did you include O’Neill instead based on his fast start?
Duran is borderline, if you look at the full package., bat plus speed plus defense. O’Neill is nowhere close to being an All-Star.
What you mean borderline soto and tucker are hurt even if they are healthy who else has better numbers other than judge you people are haters
I mean that I believe Duran deserves to be taken as a reserve. The All Star team typically includes six outfielders, and I believe Duran is among the top six. (Fourth after the three you name.) The injuries to Soto and Tucker are both more recent than my comment, and neither seems serious.
All Star selections are sometimes a little funny, but I would be disappointed if Duran were left off. Do you see six better outfielders in the AL? Who am I missing?!?
Calling a player a borderline all star isn’t hating. It’s an accurate description of where Duran is at and that’s not insulting at all. Keep in mind you have to take players from every team. Brent Rooker might make (although it will most likely be miller) but at least Rooker’s numbers this year warrant consideration. Alverez could be considered a LF.
I certainly didn’t mean it as a negative comment on Duran! His strengths are his defense, and his baserunning, though, and those categories have traditionally been overlooked in All Star selection. There is also a reputational element, and he was not widely viewed as a star (or even a potential star) coming into this season, Hope he makes it, just not shocked if he gets overlooked.
TFF – So very true about offers. I still point to Friedman’s quote, something along the line of teams that are not willing to offer players more than what they value them at will likely not sign many of those players.
In other words, you have to be flexible and sometimes spend more than what you initially intended.
TF – I think there’s a good chance the Sox all-stars will be Houck, Duran and Wong.
TFF – I’ve mentioned this in other threads, it all depends on the criteria used for selections. Some players are named because of what they’ve done March-June, other players are named because of what they’ve done for years.
If you’re gonna base it on just 2024 performance, AL outfielders have been generally weak this year. So while Duran’s 2024 performance might not be good enough for consideration in prior years, I think this year it is good enough. Too bad he’s not allowed to run more, as stolen bases is a glamorous stat.
We feel like we’re underperformed to this point…. God do I feel like I’m at work… stupidest lines in sports last 6 months… full throttle/ All in/ we think we’re underperforming and Clark isn’t the only reason In resurgence of wnba…
At the end of the day there should be total transparency about our intentional approach to moving forward with this opportunity.
It’s disgusting how Clark is so hated by Adam silver the creep who defended her takedown and how is McAfee not fired yet
you do know that Adam Silver isn’t the commissioner of the WNBA right?
They’re killing the Golden Goose. Without Clark, right or wrong, they can all go back to flying coach and having to land off-season jobs.
I’ve said this before – fire the entire strength and conditioning department. Literally their entire roster has been on the DL and we just hit June. Something isn’t right here. These are supposed to be elite athletes and they can’t even walk without injuring themselves, never mind performing on the field, which is their job. It’s absolutely absurd at this point.
Surprised they said Martin’s DL was anxiety! For the HIPPA law and his status as being injured. I will pray for his recovery!
UWP – Every player who goes on the IL has to have the reason revealed.
HIPAA applies only to healthcare providers, not employers.
“That makes it possible that Heineman’s stay on the active roster will be brief.“
There is something humorous about the sentence.
Sam Kennedy made the comment the other day that the Sox were underperforming! Wow with all the injuries and half baked team how could he make such a comment? I think Cora has done an excellent job for what he has to work with, the real problem is the president and the ownership that doesn’t have a clue. We are headed for ten years of .500 ball. I am glad to see people not watching or attending games, maybe ownership will now get the message
If you begin from the premise that every word which leaves Sam Kennedy’s mouth is a self-serving lie, then you won’t be too far off.
Kennedy is a huge part of the problem, leading ownership by the nose down this path. (He is actually a part owner of the FSG.) Of course they are willing to be led, so that doesn’t absolve Henry and the others from blame.
No need for a decade of mediocrity. They could contend in 2025-2026 if they wanted.
tff – With their financial resources, the Red Sox could contend every year if they wanted … including this one.
What stopped them from trading for Soto?
What stopped them from signing Shota, Lugo, etc?
Why did they have to trade Sale when there were so many other 2B options including Rafaela?
This notion that some people here (not directing it at you) believe the Red Sox must tank/selloff to become a contender is laughable. Look how fast the Rangers (2023) and Yankees (2024) improved.
tff17
If you begin from the premise that every word which leaves Sam Kennedy’s mouth is a self-serving lie,
====================
I think this is inappropriate. I believe that Kennedy is merely an idiot.
For the glorious past 20 years, the one constant is not a single person on the RS, except for the GM and manager, should ever talk to the press.
And yet they go out and spank the Braves.
That’s baseball for you! Anything can happen on a given night. Heck, we’ve had a steal of home!
TFF17 and Whyhayzee – Here is my theory on spanking the Braves.
If you have a tough schedule ahead and you have a not so good pitcher do you throw the pitcher versus a bad team like Boston who have been shut out and not scoring or do you throw the bad pitcher to the lions and let him get eaten alive by a good team? That’s how Boston has been winning against good teams. A guy like Houck or Bello faces a horrible pitcher from the opponent.
It’s not so much baseball as it is the schedule and raising a teams chances of winning more games. It doesn’t always work out as ATL learned but the odds are good they will still win the same number of games because the good pitcher saved for the other team will probably win. Only Boston gains from the escalating pitching injuries in baseball because they get to draw the odd man out of the opponents rotation. This could keep them at .500 until the all-star game.
Don’t make excuses for the Braves, I’m sure they would love to put an ace on the mound for every single game, but they have to play the schedule just like everybody else.
Props to Pivetta for throwing a great game, too.
Important not to lose track of the personal and competitive aspect of all of this. That’s part of baseball.
For what its worth… There are ten teams in the majors that are over .500 at this time. The other 20 are either at .500 (like the Red Sox) or below .500. That’s as close as you are going to get to a characterization of “good” teams.
The Red Sox have a 7-17 record against those top teams, but just 35 remaining games against them (a slightly lower percentage than over the first 62, 35% vs. 39%). I wouldn’t necessarily say that it gets meaningfully “easier” from here, but at least it doesn’t get more difficult.
Can’t really say they belong in the playoffs when they are playing 7-17 baseball against playoff teams, though. That’s a recipe for an ass-whupping.
TFF – As of your posting I think there were 4 teams that were exactly at .500 and now there’s only two. Now there’s 11 with a winning record, and the Sox are 14-24 against them.
What I’m getting at, it probably makes more sense to classify Top Ten as “Good” and Middle Ten as “Mediocre” and Bottom Ten as “Bad”. I’m not gonna crunch those numbers though. LOL!
FWIW – Minnesota is 10th-best at 33-29. I don’t consider the Red Sox to be a “Good” team just because they are one game over .500
It changes from day to day — but there is a pretty big gap between the .500-ish teams and the ten I listed, and it is somewhat more stable than the standard stat you cite.
I’m not confident that the Twins really belong in that first group, as they have a negative run differential. To me the Red Sox, Mariners, and Twins are all in a pretty similar boat. The Tigers too if you want. But you gotta draw the line somewhere!
The exact breakdown isn’t necessarily 10-10-10. You often have more than 10 teams in the middle, a handful of really bad teams at the bottom, and anywhere from 8-12 that really belong in the playoffs depending on how you define it. There are five truly crappy teams in the game right now, the A’s, Angels, Rockies, Marlins, and White Sox. Want to know why? Look at yesterday’s game — Houck is a very good pitcher, but he completely dominated them. The Red Sox lineup is pretty average, and THEY also dominated. The White Sox could probably trounce any minor league team, but that just highlights the huge gap between AAA and the majors. If relegation were a thing, they would be the perfect candidate.
In between you have an awful lot of teams with 27-33 wins (currently 16). Astros aside, these teams are pretenders, not contenders. Will probably see 3-4 of them in the playoffs, but that’s just because MLB wants to give everybody a participation prize. With a tighter playoff structure they wouldn’t even have a remote chance. I struggle to get excited about the (maybe) 16% chance of the Red Sox winning that third Wild Card, and the right to be wiped 0-2 in the first round.
TFF – I’m at work so can address only one thing ATM, please don’t get me started about Run Differential! LOL!
It’s so easy to distort the quality of a team when their hitters are fortunate enough to face non-MLB caliber pitchers and position players.
The number of times a team can outscore their opponent is the only true measurement of said team.
Last year the Brewers were 11th in Run Differential but had the 5th most wins.
In 2021 the Mariners had a -.3 RDPG which was 18th in MLB, but they won 90 games which was 10th-most.
FPG, it’s just a number. You can’t expect it to tell the whole story, and it doesn’t absolve you from using your brain. Discarding all numbers is as big a mistake as trusting them slavishly.
In any case, the Twins are not a great team. You can draw a line between them and the Red Sox, but it isn’t a night-and-day difference.
You confuse the matter when you bring in ordinals. There are a lot of teams closely grouped in the middle of the distribution, so the difference between 10th and 18th is relatively minor, as is the difference between 5th and 11th.
Known fact that teams with a run differential that is worse than their W-L tend to do worse going forward, while teams with a run differential that is better than their W-L tend to improve their records. So run differential has some predictive value above and beyond W-L.
So don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater, just learn what the numbers can and can’t tell you, and use them appropriately.
The standard deviation on a 162 sample binomial is 6+ wins, so we should be totally unsurprised to see that much randomness in results. And roughly 1/3 of all outcomes will fall outside +-1 standard deviation in a normal distribution.
Now a binomial model isn’t perfect, but experience tells us that there are going to be at least half a dozen teams per year with an actual record that is 6 or more wins off their Pythagorean record. I’m more surprised that there were were only two such teams in 2022 than I am by the 7 in 2023 or 2021.
I totally agree that championships are awarded based on actual W-L, but a strong run differential is a key piece to that. You don’t build a team thinking, “I want the opposition to outscore us as long as we have what it takes to win the close games.” That’s a recipe for mediocrity.
And this is why the Red Sox still have a chance. Aside from a handful of truly awful teams, everybody else MIGHT put together a run that vaults them into the playoffs. It happened with the Red Sox in 2021, with a team that wasn’t fundamentally any stronger than this year’s crew.
But if you put together a powerhouse team like the Yankees this year, you don’t have to rely on luck, your odds improve massively. The Dodgers have been a little unlucky so far this year (based on run differential) — think they care?!? Conversely, the Blue Jays aren’t as crappy as their run differential makes them look, but neither are they ticked for the playoffs unless they get their act together.
Either put together a great team, in which case luck doesn’t matter, or put together a team that is merely decent and hope you get lucky.
TF – My theory is a simple one, a team’s chances are hugely dependent on it’s starting pitcher for that day.
Schwellenbach was pitching in only his 2nd MLB game and Kerr is one of their worst relievers, so both getting pounded was not a surprise.
As for the Atlanta hitters getting shut out, it’s Pivetta …. he has a history of near-no-hitters when he’s on.
So the 9-0 result really wasn’t surprising to me.
TFF – Your last paragraph is almost exactly what I had written earlier elsewhere! LOL!!
Of course I agree that Run Differential has value, all I’m saying is you can’t judge a team by just that. So we are on the same page :O)
TFF – I pretty much agree, the only thing I disagree on is that luck doesn’t matter if you have a great team.
Injuries are often the result of bad luck, the greatest teams need luck to keep their best players healthy.
Why not offer the Bloom trash for Luis Robert and Garrett Crochet? Remember, we are short of talent and Robert and Crochet are talent.
These are the opportunities we have been passing over for years now.
The Red Sox have been passing on these opportunities because ownership isn’t willing to pay these guys. And if you don’t extend them as free agents, then they are only around for 2-3 years.
Biggest need, and one not met from within the organization, is for a RHH power hitter. I would at least inquire on Vlad, as he could be a young Manny, i realize he has been inconsistent to date, but he is still early in his career.
Thinking Mayer and Teel will be at least solid, though, and at two positions of organizational need. My guess is that other teams have a strong understanding of their talent and value, so it is unreasonable to expect that you will be able to trade “trash” for a star.
TFF17 – I don’t see Vlad going anywhere and we have nothing worth offering for him.
We need a RH power hitter because we gave away JD and Bogaerts and before that Mookie. We had all the talent we needed and in the right spots other than Devers and Bloom kept the trash and threw away the talented players. Now we limp on defense thanks to Devers, we waste millions on millions with Story, Yoshida, Giolito and Devers. It’s very ugly and there is no leadership in the ownership, the front office or the dugout. This year may resemble 2021 in that the players are doing better than expected but the team is hapless. There is no direction, just profits that fund other sports for the umbrella company.
There hasn’t been anything to suggest Mayer or Teel are going to be anything other than league average. Teel’s 68 games is such a small sample and while the average is good the power is league average and the walk rate in the minors is exceptionally high so that’s his greatest attribute so far, he walks well!! Mayer is 245 games into his minor league career and has only made it to AA. His fielding percentage at SS is .875 which is WORSE than Devers’ in the minors. He is inconsistent. He lacks power, has decent speed and is hitting .251 while in AA at age 21. Maybe he should have gone to college to improve his skills.
Boston has loaded up the hype on Mayer and before everyone figures out he’s a bust, they need to trade him. They waited too long with Jeter Downs so the hot potatoes went from CIN, to LAD to BOS and then DFA. Lets give Mayer to someone unsuspecting of his lack of talent and lets get value that is proven not a long shot hope like Mayer.
JD Martinez is getting old, he can’t be the solution over the next five years. Bogaerts isn’t even a power hitter any more, he is fading fast physically. So while I agree that we need a RHH power hitter, the second half is mostly off base. Betts is the only one of those three with a future.
The team has a lot more young talent than in 2021 (which was a veteran team), and there is a lot more in the minors today. So it is in a very different situation than 2021, much improved. Ownership could choose to contend next year if they wanted.
Agreed that Mayer and Teel might be merely average, but as above your focus on that is missing the point. If you can fill positions with solidly average players on the cheap, then you have the resources to reach for the stars. This is a big way that this team is different from 2021.
What is missing is the $150M of payroll (relative to the competition) that they have cut from the budget since 2019. A fraction of that amount would put them back in real contention. If they invested the full amount sensibly (would take multiple years to do so), they would be near the top of the league.
Breslow is a much smarter GM than Bloom, and over time you will see that in the results (even if it isn’t already clear), but there is no substitute for that kind of payroll gap. Other teams also have smart guys in charge, and they have smart guys with a lot more money to spend.
You have no idea what you’re talking about when it comes to Mayer. You are cherry picking meaningless stats or just invent them to support your logical fallacies . Mayer is regarded as one of the top prospects in the game I’ll trust the exports over someone like you with an ax to grind
TFF17 = The point wasn’t that we need guys like JD and Bogey for the future, the point was we missed the productive years since 2020 when Mookie got shoved out the door and then the rest of the 2018 team. 2020 to 2024 could have had all-stars and excellent players but it didn’t.
RH power hitters that play 3B were available. Chapman would have changed this team completely. The defense would have improved dramatically and with Devers at DH and Chapman hitting where Yoshida has the offense would have been better too. Add the upgrade in pitching and this team could be winning 15 extra games with that ONE SIMPLE MOVE.
The 2021 team was veteran which is why it succeeded. But it was mismanaged as it is today and that cost them a shot at being great. When Houck who breaks in with 3 starts as the top minor league starting pitcher and wins all three games with a 0.53 ERA then gets only 13 starts the next year so crap pitchers like E-ROD, Richards and Perez can carry the load despite Houck having an ERA of 3.52 which was a full point lower than the other three clowns. You can understand that today’s issues are no different than in 2021. Cora is a moron and has no idea how to manage pitchers and Devers killed the pitching staff with his errors whether the scorekeepers counted them or not.
Was the farm system better then? It had Houck coming out , Casas coming out, Duran coming out, Bello coming out, and it had Rafaela and Abreu close to coming out. You think today’s farm system is as strong? I’ts not even close. The farm system has slumped from the graduation of the best players in the farm system. The farm system is right where it was after Devers came out. Thanks to Bloom there will be a drought for several years much like what Cherington produced before DD took over.
Teel and Mayer “filling positions” IS NOT what Duran, Houck, Bello, Rafaela, Abreu all did. They are legitimate candidates for being all-stars in the future not place holders. Teel could be legitimate but Mayer has done nothing to suggest he will be or Yorke or almost every player in the top 10 prospects for Boston. Bloom was as bad at drafting as he was everything else. Breslow will need to stock the minors like DD did after Cherington failed miserably. That takes time. Target 2028 as the first time Breslow’s guys will impact the ball club. Hopefully some will make it to the majors in 2026 or 2027 but more likely than not it will be 2028.
So until then we watch the current young guys get better and we pray that ownership sees their improvement and starts acting on trying to win by acquiring all-star talent to go with them and dumping the dead weight like Yoshida, Story, Giolito,and trading guys like Martin and Jansen to improve the weak areas. Hendrik will be a fine closer at an excellent price so the bull pen just needs a few live arms that can learn from the new coaching staff.
You are a better GM than Bloom so suggesting Breslow is better than Bloom means absolutely nothing. I hope he finds a way to fill the gaps so the team can ascend from the .500 level talent we have now. As always, the simplest fix is firing Cora and moving Devers to DH if you want to win more. Not likely to happen despite how logical it is. Thus, a very limited future. in the next few years while Breslow is here. He has 3 years left on his clock at the end of this season. Lets hope he is more effective than Bloom so we can be proud of the team again even if the owners fire him for no apparent reason.
Smart guys with more money to spend. That’s only because Bloom wasted such a huge portion of a normal payroll on an OFFENSE ONLY 3B, a marketing stunt left fielder whose only strength is his OBP, a SS that was inferior to the one they had at a lower cost and an unqualified manager.
Bloom painted himself into a corner with his bad choices then stepped out the door and gave the problem to Breslow. Ownership tied Breslow’s hands and asked him if he could figure a way out. Like anyone with a desire to prove himself, he said yes when the obvious answer was no.
The organization went on hold for 5 seasons with the Mookie deal. Now the hold will last a full decade if not longer thanks to who Henry reports to with his profits and his bad choices that started with firing DD. KC is far more likely to have a WS ring before BOS, that’s how sad things are right now. We all love the youngsters but if you can’t fire Cora and move Devers you can’t do your job and the fans pay for it for a very long time.
You overstate the impact of adding Chapman, but the bigger point is that you can’t add top free agents when you are slashing the payroll year after year – and those you can get on the relative cheap are usually not those you want.
Too much focus on “errors”, the modern defensive systems just look at whether the play is made or not. Devers rates out as below average, but not anywhere close to what you pretend. If he made all the plays you want him to make, he would have to be the second coming of Brooks Robinson. That wouldn’t be a bad thing, but it isn’t a reasonable expectation,
You know perfectly well that Abreu wasn’t in the farm system back then.
And no, I’m not a better GM than anybody. I have some quiet connections, but I know perfectly well that I’m not a professional. Don’t get too caught up in the hyperbole, sometimes you have to step back and look at the larger picture.
KD17’s assessment of the farm system is not rooted in any form of reality as is his evaluation of Marcelo Mayer. He’s again doing a poor job of trolling and picking his next target for his disdain. I’ll trust the experts that do this for a living that rank the Sox farm in the top half of the league and Mayer in the top 10 prospects overall vs.KD who has an ax to grind and has to resort to insulting people and poorly trolling to make his point.
Agreed, I listen to the experts when they talk, always beginning from the presumption that they know a lot more than I do. I’m really liking what I’m hearing on the Big Three, but also on Bleis, Cespedes, and Perales. Prospect development isn’t just about minor league numbers, there is also a strong element of raw tools in the assessment, and these guys have high-end tools.
That said, I’m not about to anoint any of them as future stars. First they have to get to the majors, make the necessary adjustments, and THEN they need to work to elevate their games. They have time and tools on their side, but it is by no means a sure thing.
Right. No one should be anointing any of them and there’s basically no such thing as a sure thing when it comes to prospects. that said I like their chances to be impact MLB players.
TFF the Red Sox minors have quite a bit of talent coming no one will convince otherwise. The problem though is while I think the Red Sox have a lot of talent coming it’s below the talent level of Baltimore and if the Yankees are willing to carry a 250-300 million payroll it’s going to be very tough going for the next few years. It doesn’t help that Baltimore has new ownership and that dysfunctional previous ownership isn’t going to hold them back.
Marcelo Mayer has been really good this year he is a doubles hitting machine he was a lucky in April with his fast start but he’s been really good since May 1st his K rate is dropping his line drive rate is going up north of 30% since May 1st he should be in AAA soon. The fact is Mayer hasn’t been healthy and he appears to be healthy this year and it also appears a healthy Mayer can hit. He is going to have to stay healthy this year it’s really the only thing holding him back.
Kyle Teel started a little slow but when the calendar turned to May he has simply been one of the best hitters in the minor leagues. The kid is a line drive machine that rips balls all over the field he’s been Portlands best hitter since May 1. He struggled with strikeouts some in April but he has corrected that. He’s a fabulous talent and every Red Sox fan should be excited about that guy.
Roman Anthony also struggled in April which isn’t surprising a Florida kid dealing with Portland in April he was wearing so many layers it wasn’t surprising that he struck out as much as he did. Since May 1st he has been a different hitter as well. Since May 1st the just turned 20 year old has hit to a slash of .289/.417/.494. He’s also going through a swing change there trying to get him to hit less worm killers. I’m not worried about Roman Anthony at all and ant knowledgeable Red Sox fan shouldn’t be either.
The big three are very high end prospects. Mathew Lugo has put himself on the map as well he has had a fabulous start to the season. He has made some adjustments and looks like a different hitter his he is hammering the ball and got the call to Worcester and has just kept up smoking the ball. He was scarily hit on the wrist today had to leave the game hopefully it’s not serious he was in the midst of a huge breakout.
I’m not going to make the argument that Bloom did a good job with the big club because I don’t think he did, how much of that is being hamstrung by management is another argument. What we will see is Bloom did admirable job of drafting and international signings. This will be proved over the next few seasons.
The reality is there is so much talent coming it’s going to be up to Breslow to make some good trade decisions. The ball is left in Breslow’s court but Bloom certainly didn’t leave the cupboard’s bare.
Agreed, the Red Sox have a solid stable of 50 and 55 grade talents, but the big three aren’t really 60 grade talents. Still, quantity has a quality all its own, and if ownership is willing to spend the money then they can add a couple superstars to help serve as the backbone. Neither Pedro nor Manny was a product of the Red Sox farm system.
Respectfully disagree as Mayer has consistently been ranked in the 60 range. since he was drafted.
Fangraphs has him at 50 still, SoxProspects at 5.5 (55). Might be moving up to a 60, and that is within his ceiling for sure, but that might be a little high for an expectation?
Probably depends on which pundits you follow.
BA has him at 60, so does MLB.com. I tend to hold BA in the highest regard as they are the gold standard for the industry. Fangraphs is notoriously down on Mayer for some weird inexplicable reason and they seem to be a massive outlier.
60 is not a high at all for him. He came out of high school with a 60 grade. The only average to below average grade he had was his speed.
I agree, BA is the leader, but I do not have a subscription. I tend to be suspicious of MLB.com rankings.
Think Fangraphs was overreacting to the early career defensive concerns, and they haven’t updated in a year and a half.
Regardless, 50 or 60 he is the next shortstop for the Red Sox.
Here’s a tougher question – who is the next 2B? Grissom has had a poor start, and did not impress the scout that Sean McAdam recently quoted. Yorke has bombed. How do you see the future of the position?
I haven’t given up on Yorke or Grissom yet. I do think Yorke will fair much better at AAA as it’s a better hitters park. Although that might artificially raise expectations of him again. That said Grissom is probably the safest bet to establish himself as the 2B of the. present and future. Another name to consider is Kristian Campbell. He’s really played very well
A name on the roster that has impressed this year with the big league club and could slide over is David Hamilton. regardless the sox do have some options.
Coming into this season I really wasn’t expecting much of Hamilton, but he has surprised me. Weak arm, but he is otherwise playing well in a platoon role.
I’m not giving up on Grissom, just concerned… Any more than that would feel like “piling on” at this point.
I have pretty much given up on Yorke, but would welcome hearing why he will be an average ML regular if you are seeing something that I don’t?
Agreed that Campbell has been impressive, and has added power to his game this year.
I think i said it in an above post but some of the advanced metrics on Yorke have been kinder on him than his traditional stats. His exit velocities have been higher this season. He has cut down on his strike out percentage to a more reasonable 18% and improved his walk rate as well too indicated a better eye. He’s also been a touch unlucky on his BABIP. that said I think Bruin can speak to his advanced stats more than I can so I’l defer to him.
Acell Yorke is very interesting here’s my take on Nick Yorke.
He burst on the scene in 2021 he was really good in A ball. He was using the whole field and he was hitting line drives. He was completely dominant at that level from June on. Most people don’t remember how slow he started he was awful in May of 2021 but from June on he was simply one of the best hitters in the minors statistically. There were some red flags though because upon his deserved promotion to High A he started to get pull happy and he was rewarded for that approach hitting home runs at an unsustainable rate. So red flags were present even in 2021. We can discount 2022 completely because he was either injured or playing injured all season.
2023 was a very up and down season for Nick Yorke on one hand he become an very good defensive second baseman but he was still pulling the ball too much and trying to launch with an uppercut home run swing. I was commenting in this last year he has to get back to the line drive all fields approach that he had in single A in order to win his prospect status.
If we look at 2024 the eye test and the stats say he is trying to let the ball eat and using the entire field. His line drive rate is back up there around his 2021 numbers. His exit velocities are very good they aren’t elite like a Roman Anthony but he hits the ball quite hard. Acell you are right he has been babip this year he has hit a lot of atom balls and im quite sure the Boston brass sees this and promoted him similar to Anthony last year when he was promoted from Salem to Greenville despite having, on the surface, statistics that didn’t warrant a promotion.
It would not surprise at all to see Yorke take off at Worcester in the much friendlier hitting environment. I’m pretty sure he will be traded at some point especially if he takes off at the AAA level but imo he’s going to be a big leaguer just maybe not with the Red Sox. We easily can see the kids a hard worker he has gone from a very poor defender to a very good defender at second and every year he improves defensively. I can’t begin to tell how good defensively he has become.
Thanks for the detail! I saw his plate discipline had improved, and that he was using the whole field again, but don’t have access to exit velocities. His defensive improvement is also key – you rate a weak defensive 2B very differently from how you rate a stronger defender.
Very much hope you are right.
I’m muting and reporting you. TF. I will gladly listen to all, and treat all with respect, because THAT is the kind of fan that I am. I’m sorry you are a different kind of fan, but at this point there is no further possibility of productive discussion.
Stop lying and trolling. We never agreed to anything and you’re the only person that is, bullying and harassing other posters.
*not agreeing. it’s same story with you KD17. stop bullying and harassing other posters.
Bruin – I totally agree time will tell if Bloom’s prospects pan out, but in terms of pitching prospects wouldn’t you agree with everyone else that Bloom did indeed leave the cupboard bare?
I’m checking out of the comment sections here, no fun talking to people who spend their energy on chest-puffing and insults. GLTA, and Go Red Sox!
I’m sorry that someone like KD17/Trolled ran you off. that’s unfortunate.
Sounds like Mathew Lugo avoided disaster X-rays are negative on the wrist hopefully he will be back next week. Good to Yoshida and Sogard just goes hard also Yorke shoots a line drive the other way great start for him at AAA.
Bruin – I hope they promote Yorke to the majors soon, they need a spark and he could provide one. They hit rock bottom today, scoring just one earned run in consecutive games against possibly the worst MLB team over the past century.
Yeah yesterday’s starting pitcher for the ChiSox is good, but to not get anything except a Dalbec solo homerun today off a guy with a near 10 ERA who issued 5 walks in 4 innings is inexcusable.
BTW one of their top pitching prospects, Luis Perales, left the game today due to a serious-looking arm injury.
Yup Fever was watching that game when it happened it doesn’t look good.
Bruin – I respect your opinion of Bello because I know you watched him a lot in the minors. Not sure if you watched tonight’s game, but he really hit rock bottom. Even the announcers and the studio analysts (including Tom Caron) bashed him for not only his performance but also his meltdown which included intentionally kicking the baseball like a child. This is his third season in the majors, and he seems to be getting much worse not better.
In your opinion, does Bello have the mental toughness to be a major league pitcher? Will he improve and mature with age? He’s 25 now, this is supposed to be when he’s at his peak. He seems to mentally be the polar opposite of Houck, which is why their performances are so vastly different.
I mean if he’s this bad today, against a putrid ChiSox team that didn’t even play their best player (Robert), what will happen when Bello faces teams like the Yankees next week (assuming he gets the extra day off and therefore doesn’t pitch against the Phillies)?
Bello is having a tough time right now. I watched the game today as well as the Worcester game.
The strike zone was very poor by Porter in fact Cora was booted out after arguing about that putrid strike zone consistency. Still Bello is struggling right now. He really seems to be searching for that changeup and Inhabe to agree with the announcers today his sinker is to high in the zone. He’s still getting a ton of ground balls and the talent is still there imo he’s just going through a rough patch and he will bounce out of it. The real issue with Bello is he needs a good infield defense due to a heavy ground ball approach. Then again Houck has that same heavy ground ball approach and has been great this year. My guess is that Bailey gets through to him and he will be much better in the near future.
95 comments are hidden because you muted the comment authors
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I found this amusing, since I only have maybe 3-4 posters on mute.
And it makes the thread a lot more enjoyable to read through.