Baseball From Beantown

  We'll continue our offseason grades with the National League Central, where the Cubs look to overtake the Brewers for the top spot. But watch out for a pair of teams who look to jump into contention in the expanded wild card era.  Chicago Cubs: A The Cubs had an impressive offseason despite losing one of the best players in baseball in Kyle Tucker. Alex Bregman was the headline signing, and will provide right handed power to go along with Michael Busch. His leadership skills are also a major plus to a young Cubs team. Trading for Edward Cabrera gives the Cubs one of the highest upside rotations, albeit one that comes with major health questions. Justin Steele will return at some point in the first half, but he hasn’t pitched a full season since 2023. Cabrera has a lengthy injury history, and rookie talent Cade Horton missed the Cubs wild card round. The Cubs return breakout starter Matthew Boyd, as well as Shota Imanaga, who accepted the qualifying offer from the Cubs. The...

Wi th pitchers and catchers reporting to camp in just a few days, the offseason is all but over. There are still a handful of high impact free agents left on the market, and late trades are always certain, but it's just about time to hand out some offseason grades. I'll start here with the NL East, which is shaping up to be one of the most competitive divisions in baseball. Atlanta Braves: B The Braves signed one of my favorite players heading into the offseason in utility man Mike Yastrzemski, who can play all over the diamond. They pair him with another great utility man in Mauricio Dubon, giving them one of the best benches in the league. The injury of Ha-Seong Kim hurts, but Dubon and Jorge Mateo should do well enough at SS until Kim gets back. I like Robert Suarez as a pitcher, but giving him a 3 year deal is certainly an interesting choice, especially for a 34 year old reliever who throws his fastballs 75% of the time. The biggest question is if the Braves rotation can ...

        All in all, the Red Sox bullpen has performed well above expectations this season. Anchored by offseason acquisition Aroldis Chapman turning back the clock a decade or so, the Sox have gotten good performance from a number of relievers, with Garrett Whitlock, Greg Weissert, Justin Wilson, and Steven Matz all performing well. Despite this, the Red Sox bullpen has seemed rather top heavy at times. While there is reason for optimism, such as the imminent return of Justin Slaten and the hope Jordan Hicks can find something, too many times has the Red Sox bullpen depth cost them games. A prime example comes in the form of Saturdays 7-5 win over Miami. With a 5 run lead in the 9th, Isiah Campbell could only record 2 outs while allowing 3 runs and forcing Cora to turn to Chapman with the tying run at the plate. This led to Chapman being unavailable to pitch in Sunday's game, where the Red Sox blew a 3-2 lead in the 9th in a game they would lose 5-3. We've ...

          After homering in back to back games this week against the Astro's, Romans triple slash sat at an impressive .286/.406/.451. Yet somehow you feel there is more in the tank? Coming into this series, Anthony had hit just 2 homeruns in his first 200 PAs. And so, despite the otherworldly on base ability, you wouldn't be wrong to say the best is yet to come from the 21 yr old.       According to baseball savant, Roman Anthony has a pull air %, or how many fly balls Anthony pulls, of just 13.6%. Well below the average 16.7%. Moreover, Anthonys 52% GB rate and 39.7% Topped rate indicate the slugger has yet to establish himself as a consistent linedrive and homerun threat. This may be in part to his surprising struggles with pitches over the heart of the plate, notching a -5 run value on such pitches. This should improve as Anthony faces more pitching, but could be accelerated if he were to swing the bat more. His zone swing% of 5...

Fan-Favorite Liam Hendriks has struggled in his return to the mound         After a rough outing against the Mets in which Hendriks left the 7th with the bases loaded and no outs, many were quick to point to Hendriks pregame comments regarding his usages. The 15-year vet had previously voiced his frustrations about how Cora and the pitching staff had used him out of the bullpen. Once a top-end closer, it seems as if Hendriks has been relegated to a back of the bullpen role. He expressed his desire to pitch in more high-leverage situations, claiming he should be "pitching like [he] will rust before he wears out"      But, at the end of the day, Hendriks has failed to instill confidence in Cora and Red Sox fans alike, and his outing Wednesday did nothing but prove that point. Hendriks has pitched in 11 games this season after spending all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John. In those 11 games, he has a 5.56 ERA and an unconvincing 4.14 FIP. Hendriks ...

       After a solid rookie season in which he finished top 10 among rookies in hits, doubles, RBI and HR, Ceddanne Rafaela has been off to a horrid start at the plate in 2025. Following a strong spring in which he showed much improved plate discipline, Ceddanne is off to a .211/.274/.246 start and has yet to hit a home run. Despite being in the 96th percentile for baserunning runs and the 98th in fielding runs, fans are calling for a change with top prospect Roman Anthony off to a great start in AAA. So what's gone wrong with the player Breslow and Co. trusted enough to hand out an 8 year contract too?      The biggest issue with Ceddanne so far is his batted ball data, where his GB% is 10% above league average, resulting in over half his batted balls being groundballs. This coincides with Ceddanne's inability to lower his chase rate. Despite a respectable walk rate, Ceddanne still sits in the 1st percentile in terms of chase rate and his outside...