So really.........The Red Sox were just getting a leg up on everyone else with all the injuries the last few years.
So really.........The Red Sox were just getting a leg up on everyone else with all the injuries the last few years.
Originally Posted by A Red Sox fan named Hugh
Another good outing by Sale tonight.
6 IP
3H
1 R
9 K
fWAR went from 3.0 to 3.3.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.
JH has got to be seething. He’s still paying Sale 17M to pitch like this. He’s still paying Gio even more money to not pitch at all, and Grissom has been pretty much a NO show on, and off the field.
Yep. Of course it's my theory that JH's low throttle budget had a lot to do with Breslow trading Sale.
Nobody gets a pass for this.
Breslow may still end up looking good in spite of it.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.
Plus there's a new report about how wondrously deep in middle infield prospects the Sox are.
Seems like if the Sox had a need at second base this year, a stopgap would have made more sense than another prospect like Grissom.
But the stopgap might have cost a few bucks, so it's that damn budget again.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.
it's not like Iggy wasn't available. or they could have paid Aldaberto to rehab for the year again. LOL. i truly believe we have the dumbest FO in all of baseball sometimes.
They're paying Sale 17 mill to *not* pitch for them, and they also paid up for Giolito, so I don't think that's it. I think they genuinely saw Grissom as a difference maker.
WAR is good for something.
I agree. Considering swapping out Sale for Giolito cost them a fair amount of cash, it feels like a massive oversimplification to say this was about Henry’s budget.
Sure the budget influenced it, what with Sale’s previous four seasons involving paying him some $110mill to pitch all of 151 innings. Sale was expensive and unreliable. That was a bigger factor. If you think Henry is all about the budget, I don’t get how one can conclude Henry would rather pay $35mill to the combination of Giolito and Sale as opposed to just paying $27.5 mill to Sale…
I'm not sure what it is you don't get. The theory is pretty simple:
-Henry's role in this was limited to giving Breslow the budget. The budget was low throttle.
-Breslow wanted to sign Giolito and make some other acquisitions.
-He didn't have enough room in the budget to sign Giolito and make those other acquisitions without cutting payroll somewhere else.
-Trading Sale cut 10 million.
All very simple stuff.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.
The fact that it's simple doesn't make it right either way (I mean yours or notin's). But, Occam's razor.
WAR is good for something.
And Grissom absolutely stunk in all areas in his limited MLB time in 2023.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.
Grissom was about half a win below replacement level in 2023 by both fWAR and bWAR. Doesn't really sound like a guy you expect to plug and play.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.
Yeah but we're not privy to their evaluation on Grissom.
WAR is good for something.
I agree with all the bad stuff about Sale, Giolito, and Grissom. Just a complete disaster which only reinforces JH's belief that his brain trust lacks brains.
On the other hand, a team now without Story, Whitlock, Sale, Grissom, Giolito, Casas, and others I can't remember is right now, July 4, 2024, playing some of their best ball since the 2021 Sox made it all the way to the ALCS.
The pitching, now with a rotation of Houck, Crawford, Pivetta, Winckowski, and Bello, is the best Sox pitching in a decade or more because the Sox ERA is ranked 7th in MLB. And everyone on that pitching staff except Jansen is a bargain basement no-name.
Houck, who just a year ago was tabbed as the guy who couldn't get guys out the third time through the order, is the Sox ace and his WAR, 2.8, is a tad better than Sale's 2.7, plus he has more quality starts, 13 to 10. Duran, who seemed to be emerging last year, has gone completely ape this year with the 4th highest WAR, 4.6, in MLB (not including pitchers).
The Sox still lead MLB in errors--7 more than the next worst--but somehow manage to get guys out thanks to the pitching and what is actually a pretty decent defensive outfield. Speaking of whom, Rafaela and Abreu, both with much lower WAR's (1.2 and 1.8) than Duran, nevertheless contribute a bunch. Rafaela, still batting 9th, has 47 rbi's to team leader Devers' 49. Hamilton's WAR is a decent 1.3 (OPS .741 also decent) and he has only committed one more error than Devers' 6. Rafaela has a DWAR of +0.5 despite 10 errors.
Before I forget, Cora is the best manager in MLB and absolutely perfect for this team--as he was also perfect for the 2018 juggernaut. And the pitching coach is one of the best in MLB. If Cora has failed, it might be in his reluctance to conduct some form of laying on of hands to transfer his defensive infield chops to Devers, Hamilton, Valdez, Smith, Rafaela, et al.
Sox hitting so far is a bigger weakness than the defense because they are ranked 12th in runs scored, which historically has destined Sox teams to losing seasons. The Sox are, however, ranked 6th in team OPS, so the problem seems to be "RISP disease." And I think that is caused by two things: a fairly inexperienced lineup and one that lacks a bonafide big righty bat.
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