Collapsing Red Sox, the not especially talented Arch Manning, the exposed Bill O'Brien, Bill Belichick stomps some Spiders, you can't win an MVP hitting .237, Mookie Betts' rebound

Sunday 9/14/25

It's happening with the Red Sox. The fall. They're in trouble now. Only two games up for the final Wild Card spot. Alex Cora said something the other day that told me he thinks there's a very good chance they don't make the postseason. He knows they're losing it. Second loss in a row yesterday to the Yankees. Get swept today and they might just be one game up. As I wrote before, their final week of the season--with three against the Blue Jays and three against the Tigers is difficult.

You could go 1-5 there, or 2-4. 3-3 would seem like a "victory," but that 3-3 might well eliminate you, if you're still in it by then. This will be bad if they blow what had been a six game lead. The loss of Roman Anthony will be cited by everyone as the reason, but you can't do that because it wouldn't be reason enough. I know I'm getting ahead of things (slightly). I just don't like where this seems to be headed and has been going. They need to get this last game against the Yankees today--it's a Garrett Crochet start--and sweep the Athletics this week.

I think I spoke too soon about Aaron Judge not winning the MVP. I'm not saying this now because of anything that's happening this weekend. Cal Raleigh is in the .230s. Judge has faded and his season was front-loaded. But people won't take that into consideration. They'll just look at the numbers and advanced stats. To me, an MVP season is more than that. It's how you got to where you did, what you meant to your team. If Judge wins the MVP--and I think now that he will--then he would have hung on to win it, and it shouldn't be that way.

Then again, I don't know who else you could give it to. You can't win it hitting .237. Say what you will about batting average, but I don't believe the writers are prepared to go to that place yet, but maybe I'm wrong. If Raleigh was hitting .255, it'd likely be his award. Ohtani should cruise to another MVP win in the National League.

Don't want to say that I jinxed Aroldis Chapman by saying he should win the AL Cy Young award because he then went out and lost a game while failing to look like himself--velocity was down and seemed off--and gave it up again for a second straight appearance last night, but the Red Sox need him to bounce back and keep being what he had been. They can't afford to lose a game in the ninth from here on out.

Boston College was non-competitive versus a bad Stanford team. Thought it was embarrassing. BC has made no progress under the ballyhooed Bill O'Brien. They're a moribund program. What's a moribund program? It's a team, an organization, that is the same kind of bad year after year after year. In the NFL, the Bears are a moribund program. The Lions used to be.

The Jets are as well, though the Jets are a bit different in that they're adjective worthy--Jets-ian--with how bad they can be and the strange, specific-ways to them that they can be bad, but there's also this sense that they might be good at some point, or should, given that it's New York and high profile and with the interest the fans always have in the team.

As for BC, looks like they won't even reach their regular 6-6 record and get to go to a bowl to be outclassed by like the eighth best team in the Big Ten. What if this team is 4-8? I've never believed in Bill O'Brien and I think he's being shown for what he is now. Okay, so BC isn't a team to line up and beat Clemson and Notre Dame--not that beating either seems like much of a big deal in 2025--but MSU? The Cardinal? Those should be games you can regularly win. Stanford especially.

I don't have a good read on how the Patriots will fare today given how bad the Dolphins were last week, but I'd expect them to lose again for the same reasons I was talking about the other day. And it's Miami in September. I don't see Drake Maye excelling and winning games. Not right now, and I'm of the mind that I'll never much see it. I'll believe it when I do and go from there.

Mike Vrabel is also being exposed. He's so passive aggressive and petty and duplicitous in his press conferences. Like a certain coach before him, he doesn't take responsibility for anything. It's always someone else's fault, and he sells them right down the river but in this sort of coded--but really very obvious--way.

Speaking of Belichick: His Tar Heels routed the Richmond Spiders. The Richmond Spiders! How the mighty have fallen. A Belichick team against the Spiders from Richmond. Stomp 'em!

I remarked recently that Arch Manning isn't that good and will never be "the guy" for someone. People are so obtuse and unthinking in this world now that all they need is to be told something and if enough other people are automatically saying that thing without basis or because of what they see and on account that they're actually thinking then that person will say it too and someone else is hyped, touted, celebrated, awarded, paid, hooked up.

In Texas's game against UTEP--UTEP--yesterday, which they only won 27-10, Manning was 11 for 25 for 114 yards with a TD and an interception. He's not a passer. Again, if his last name was Smith, nothing would have been made of him.

Florida's quarterback DJ Lagway threw five interceptions in the Gators' loss to LSU. Asked if he'd sit him down, Florida coach Billy Napier said, "I don't prescribe to that." "Prescribe." It's funny how dumb so many of these guys are. You don't prescribe to it, chief? And you know when he said it he thought he was using one of his big boy smart person terms. "In a tough spot here...better use one of the good ones."

This has been quite the turnaround for Mookie Betts. He had something like 13 RBI in five games recently. He got to such a low point that it became impossible for him to have a good season--by his standards--but he's more than saved face with his year. He has 18 homers, 74 RBI, and 86 runs scored. That means he'll finish with 20 homers, 80 RBI, and 90 plus runs scored. His WAR is 4.5. To put that in some local perspective: No Red Sox position player has a WAR higher than 3.9.

But here's where it really gets interesting--to me, anyway--with Betts' 2025 campaign: He leads the NL in defensive WAR--as a shortstop now, of course. Does that mean he's a finalist for the Gold Glove at short? Could he win it? That'd be unprecedented. Guy who is an outfielder becomes a shortstop in his thirties and wins a Gold Glove there.