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Some Things I Think I Think: Exactly one month in, Red Sox are a disappointment

*The 2025 MLB season is exactly a month old Sunday, and while that’s too soon to make any overarching conclusions about how this season is going to turn out, it’s not too soon to say that the Red Sox are, to date, a disappointment.

After Saturday’s doubleheader, they sit a game above .500. No one expected them to run away from the rest of the division in the first four weeks. But neither did anybody think they would be this stuck in the mud, either.

Some issues are familiar, like the leaky infield defense. Some are somewhat surprising, like the inconsistent starting pitching. And then there are failings that make little sense, like the team’s perpetual struggles with runners in scoring position, with the team buried in the bottom third in that category.

They can’t very well use injuries as an excuse, given that they’ve been remarkably healthy when it comes to position players (only Connor Wong has missed significant time and he’s due back any day). Meanwhile, the Orioles pitching staff resembles a MASH unit and the Yankees have lost their best starter for the year and their DH for half the season. And while it’s true that the Sox began the year with half of their rotation on the IL, Richard Fitts and Hunter Dobbins have performed well as occasional spot starters.

The two biggest offseason acquisitions — Garrett Crochet and Alex Bregman — have been every bit as good as advertized. The other newcomers — Walker Buehler and Aroldis Chapman — have been generally quality additions. Rookie Kristian Campbell has exceeded all expectations.

Still, something is off.

Five full months remain on the schedule, and there’s more than enough time to turn things around. It’s not as if the Red Sox have buried themselves in the AL East.

But the Red Sox shouldn’t wait too much longer. And you have to wonder if soon, there might be the temptation to promote Roman Anthony and/or Marcelo Mayer to jumpstart a team that can’t seem to get going.

*In retrospect, the Patriots saw free agency — with one notable exception — as a way to address their defensive shortcomings and the draft as a means to improve their offensive holes.

*We shouldn’t take pleasure in someone else’s discomfort, but let’s face it: Shedeur Sanders brought a lot of this upon himself, with some help from his overbearing father, of course.

It will be a while until we know whether team after team erred in passing up on him. But this much we already know: his bravado was, at the very least off-putting, right down to constructing his own set — decorated in dollar signs — in his home to conduct TV interviews. And warning teams that he would change their culture, before taking a snap as a pro, was likely pretty off-putting to teams.

Whatever the reasoning, we can toss out racism as a factor. Discrimination, sadly, exists in every walk of life, but this isn’t an example. Sanders fell victim to a lack of hubris, as much as anything else.

Also: calm down, Mel Kiper Jr.

*The Bruins owe Joe Sacco an apology. Their insistence, in their season-ending press conference, that he’s still in the mix to be hired as the team’s coach was disingenuous at best. If the Bruins wanted to remove the interim tag, they could have already done so. Pretending that he’s still in consideration to be their next coach is beneath them, and Sacco deserves better.

*I suppose it doesn’t matter in the long run, but the Celtics’ inability to sweep teams they obviously outclass continues. A team that played nearly .750 ball during the regular season has no business losing games to one that struggled to finish at .500.

Given the health issues that surround their roster, every extra game the Celts have to play could come back to bite them as the playoffs wind along.

*Earl Weaver, who constantly preached the importance of “pitching and three-run homers,” would love the 2025 Red Sox. Or half-love them, anyway. The Red Sox already have 10 three-run homers after hitting 19 all of last season.

Meanwhile, if it’s grand slams you’re looking for, find another team. The Sox haven’t had a bases-loaded homer since Aug. 19, 2023 when the Sultan of Swat, Luis Urias, hit one in Yankee Stadium.

*I’m not sure that Cam Neely’s insistence on relitigating the disastrous Bruins’ 2015 first-round draft decisions was his best decision.

*It’s kind of funny, when you think about it, that The Who (temporarily) fired drummer Zak Starkey for being too loud and out of control. Isn’t this the same band who once employed Keith Moon in that same seat?

*The decision to play Kristian Campbell in the outfield mystifies me, especially since it seems driven by making sure David Hamilton gets more reps at second. Hamilton is a fine baserunner and an elite defender, but he also has a career OPS+ of 77. A start every once in a while to give Campbell a breather makes sense, but moving him to another position to accommodate Hamilton seems more than a little strange.

*There are few things more awkward (or unnecessary) than having Jonathan Kraft annually poses for pictures with the Patriots’ first-round pick.

*Call it MLB’s bad luck: Paul Skenes looks to be a generational talent, but he happens to pitch for a non-competitive, small-market team, reducing his visibility. It’s not like the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to show up on the Game of the Week much, or ESPN’s Sunday Night Basebal.

*Once again, for the people in the back: Despite what’s being said by Bruins executives, it’s hardly a given that once a team falls out of the playoff structure, it can easily get back in the following season.

Try telling that to fans of the Detroit Red Wings (nine straight seasons out of the postseason) and Chicago Blackhawks (eight years and counting).

*RIP to former ESPN play-by-play man Mike Patrick, whose no-nonsense, down-the-middle calls of NFL and college football games now, sadly, seem like from another era. Patrick, at a time when ESPN was establishing itself, was a rarity in that he didn’t make the broadcast about himself.

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