Skip to main content

Over the Monster

But Can He Pitch?

Latest Entries

Red Sox Minor Lines: Yoeilin Cespedes is ablaze

Somerset Patriots 13, Portland Sea Dogs 1 (Game 1) – BOX Portland and Somerset (NYY) played a pair of seven-inning affairs on Wednesday, with the second game being a makeup of a rainout on April 5th. Let’s talk about the first game in as few words as possible. Somerset had 15 hits in six innings, […]

Red Sox News & Links: Hit Piece Week rolls on in the wake of Alex Cora’s firing

Red Sox Hit Piece Week rolls on, everyone! Today it’s Alex Speier, arguably the current dean of the Red Sox beat, who has a big piece diving into the ways that the relationship between Craig Breslow and Alex Cora slowly fractured over the past few years. The juiciest nugget in this one? “Breslow contemplated significant […]

How do the Red Sox boot Brayan Bello from the rotation before he does any more damage?

I’ve always been fascinated by disasters: Hurricanes, tornadoes, the Hindenburg, Titanic, 9/11, wars, engineering failures, the list goes on. The bigger this disaster, the more I’m drawn to it. They’re compelling not only because of the long list of factors that usually have to line up to cause the catastrophe, but also because they provide […]

Is this the worst Red Sox April of all time?

The Red Sox have been no stranger to slow starts in recent years, but 2026 takes the cake. As April comes to an end, the team has an abysmal 12-19 record, the manager’s been fired, hit pieces are starting to trickle out about the infighting, Garrett Crochet just landed on the IL, and the offense […]

Blue Jays 8, Red Sox 1; No run prevention or production

The Red Sox have lost the quick-flash momentum of the managerial change already.  Chad Tracy fell to 2-2 as the interim after another poor starting pitching outing and insufficient run production. Boston failed to lock up a pair of series wins against division opponents, as the Blue Jays earned the advantage of this three-game set.  […]

Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet to 15-day IL with shoulder inflammation

The fact that baseball managers and coaches wear uniforms is so weirdly delightful. It’s one of those things that, like gravity, we all just accept because it’s always been there, despite the fact that it is obviously absurd. None of them play the game on the field. Many of them probably use the back pockets […]

Red Sox Minor Lines: Kristian Campbell provides rare bright spot

Worcester: L, 1-10 (BOX SCORE) It’s notable that Seth Martinez, who struggled out of the gate, was not meant to be the starter in this game. That slot belonged to Jake Bennett, who was scratched earlier in the day. It’s also notable that Toronto is just a three hour ride through the New York State […]

Pete Fatse had to go — now the Red Sox offense needs to get going

I tried to be patient. I really did. It’s late April, and I know better than to overreact to a month of baseball from a team that was 43-45 last June before going on a tear. But there is a point where patience crosses the line into insanity, and Red Sox fans crossed it. The […]

Will Alex Cora manage again this season?

Good morning! The Phillies — wanting to get in on some of that sweet, sweet dysfunction — copied the Red Sox by firing their own manager yesterday. Rumors immediately swirled that Alex Cora would reunite with his old boss, Dave Dombrowski. But those rumors were quickly quashed when it was revealed that interim manager Don […]

The lefties are coming to the Red Sox rotation

Across the human population, right-handedness is the norm. Somewhere around 90% of the general population is right-handed. In Major League Baseball, the numbers are different. In 2026 around 20% of players throw with their left hand and just over 31% hit from the left side. That’s not a small variation from the population – it’s […]

Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 0: The offense no shows again

Every once in a while, you get a picture (like that one up there of Jarren Duran) that so perfectly encapsulates how the night went for the offense, you just have to use it. But tonight, we got two: After a three game winning streak that included several signs of life from the lineup, they […]

Game 30: Red Sox at Blue Jays, Payton Tolle vs. Trey Yesavage

In a battle of potential young studs on the mound, Payton Tolle is set to take on Trey Yesavage. Tolle is coming off an electric outing against the Yankees, which Over The Monster’s own Jake Roy went into detail about earlier this morning. If you haven’t read that piece, go do it right now because […]

Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 0: Suck it, Ernie Clement

It was Ernie Clement hockey sweater night in Toronto, and the Sox won 5-0. Sorry to Ernie Clement, but you stink now. Them’s the rules. Ranger Suarez doesn’t. He is good. He is very good! And there was much rejoicing. Three Studs Ranger Suarez This was an incredible performance. Eight innings, no runs, one walk, […]

Red Sox at Blue Jays lineups: Fleeing the country

Hey look, Roman Anthony’s back! That’s nice. The Sox are in Canada for the first time this year to take on the Blue Jays tonight at 7 p.m. Here’s who’s playin’ behind Ranger Suarez: As for the World Series American League Champions, Dylan Cease leads the Blue Jays on what I understand to be Ernie […]

Series Preview: Red Sox at Blue Jays

Well that sure was a weekend. Back-to-back wins. Scoring 17 in 1 game. A Caleb Durbin home run. The coaching shuffle. Alex Cora out, Chad Tracy in. And now the Red Sox are off to Toronto to play the Blue Jays in a Battle of AL East Disappointments. The Jays realized their rotation wasn’t quite […]

Red Sox Minor Lines: Sea Dogs throw no-hitter, narrowly avoid losing anyway

For the most part this season, I’ve left the monologues out of the beginning of my Minor Lines because the performance of the farm seemed pretty separate from the uninspired performance of the Boston Red Sox. But, this recent plethora of changes directly influences the farm even though the result of the games themselves are […]

Yes, the Red Sox are dysfunctional – but Alex Cora did this to himself

By all accounts, Alex Cora is a good manager as far as these things go. Dan is correct in that you really can’t predict or even properly judge a manager’s contributions except in obvious outlier situations, but the buzz around Cora has always been positive. His strongest claim to fame is winning a World Series […]

The Red Sox are Craig Breslow’s team now, so what happens next?

Long time readers of the MMBB know that I like to divy these articles up into three points discussing three things that caught my attention across the previous week. They could be positive trends, concerning developments, or stuff about the Red Sox that I just find amusing and fun. Either way, I like to give […]

Are you confident in Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy?

Hello and happy Monday, folks. Anything big happen over the weekend? What a whirlwind we’ve gone through in the last few days. Managers being fired, CBOs being pinned for drastic organization changes, questions about which players would be saying what in the clubhouse after Alex Cora’s departure, the works. But as a way to start […]

Red Sox 5, Orioles 3: A New Normal

Damn, why didn’t they think of firing Alex Cora earlier? The Red Sox won Chad Tracy’s debut, 5-3. Did anything happen differently than it would have with Cora in charge? It’s impossible to say, but from a strategy perspective, things were more or less the same. Connelly Early was maybe given a longer leash than […]