06/17 Sox @ Houston

[illinoisredsox]

Porcello sucked so much, he screwed up Fox's feed.

 

The way this one is going, that might not be a bad thing.

 

Fox has had trouble today. I turned on the U.S. Open around lunch time and they were off the air for a while, and then had no announcers for a spell (that was interesting as all you could hear was the talk between the golfers and their caddies).

[mvp 78]

Porcello is having technical difficulties too.

[Station 13]

WTF is "professional courtesy"?

[Station 13]

Porcello is having technical difficulties too.

 

So you saying it could be fixed?

[StephenCurry30]

 

this game sucks, this video does not^.

[Spudboy]

Oye.

 

This blows.

 

This guy Paulino or whatever has Sox bats confused.

 

Meanwhile Porcello forgot to warm up or something.

[iortiz]

I wouldn't use pitches, I would use innings. Tell him he's going 7, no matter how many he throws.

 

You are right, I don't care if they blow out his arm LOL!

[Station 13]

f*** you Altuve

[illinoisredsox]

You are right, I don't care if they blow out his arm LOL!

 

Nah, you don't want that. At least they are using Maddox, whoever the hell that is. That's an okay use of the pen.

[illinoisredsox]

As bad as Porcello was, offensively 3 runs in 3 games ain't going to get you very many wins. They are fortunate to have gotten 1.

[Station 13]

Pedroia with a Sandoval moment.

[d-money]

Win the series tomorrow. They not even facing a 100 percent astros team.

[Station 13]

They somehow have to fix Porecello. He is still giving them plenty of innings, just not quality results out of those innings. A fewer HR here and there would certainly helped.

[moonslav59]

What a s***** game!

 

My mojo turned to m-fo.

 

Gotta get 'em tomorrow night.

[a700hitter]

Porcello was a train-wreck in 2015-- a Cy Young in 2016--- and a high speed train wreck in 2017. He flat out sucks and he is getting worse.

[Maxbialystock]

In one sense, this was an almost ideal kind of "waste not, want not" kind of game. Porcello did not waste a great return to cy young form start on a night when the Sox weren't hitting, and the Sox didn't score 4 or 5 runs on a night when Porcello was once again a disaster.

 

On the other hand, Porcello clearly showed he has lost command of his repertoire. As everyone now knows, he keeps everything up in the strike zone while other pitchers with lesser stuff but better control thrive on simply keeping the ball low, lower, and lowest.

 

And the hitting remains troublesome, obviously.

 

No wonder the Sox are mired 1 game back of the Yankees for 1st place in the AL East.

Edited June 18, 2017 by Maxbialystock

[S5Dewey]

 

No wonder the Sox are mired 1 game back of the Yankees for 1st place in the AL East.

 

This could be a part of the problem. The Sox, like Sandoval, are playing sporadically well enough that the FO is hesitant to make any changes.

[Bellhorn04]

This could be a part of the problem. The Sox, like Sandoval, are playing sporadically well enough that the FO is hesitant to make any changes.

 

There are no easy fixes for the third base situation, and as bad as it is, it's not really going to make us or break us.

[Kimmi]

In one sense, this was an almost ideal kind of "waste not, want not" kind of game. Porcello did not waste a great return to cy young form start on a night when the Sox weren't hitting, and the Sox didn't score 4 or 5 runs on a night when Porcello was once again a disaster.

 

On the other hand, Porcello clearly showed he has lost command of his repertoire. As everyone now knows, he keeps everything up in the strike zone while other pitchers with lesser stuff but better control thrive on simply keeping the ball low, lower, and lowest.

 

And the hitting remains troublesome, obviously.

 

No wonder the Sox are mired 1 game back of the Yankees for 1st place in the AL East.

 

Up until their west coast trip, the Yankees had been firing on all cylinders. To date, IMO, the Sox have yet to get to that point. We've been sputtering in one aspect or another all season long. And still, we are winning games at a decent clip and are only one game behind a team that had been red hot.

 

I think that bodes pretty well for us.

[Emp9]

Up until their west coast trip, the Yankees had been firing on all cylinders. To date, IMO, the Sox have yet to get to that point. We've been sputtering in one aspect or another all season long. And still, we are winning games at a decent clip and are only one game behind a team that had been red hot.

 

I think that bodes pretty well for us.

 

The Yankees are pretty young and I must admit look very promising. But the thing I keep going back to is that, even if they're not necessarily over-performing, they're so young it might be very hard for them to sustain that level of play all season... to the very end. Boston's younger players have been through more and are little more battle-tested. And that's before you get to the parity of the AL East as a whole. For example, a good 2 week stretch from last place Toronto and they might climb their way to 3rd. Baltimore faded, as I expected they would, but they were pretty hot for the first 2 months. The Sox have been holding their own thus far and we've come to expect them to be a very good 2nd Half team in recent years. And I'd rather be a very good 2nd half team than a very good 1st half team.

[Maxbialystock]

Hah! emp9 and kimmi fire back with upbeat assessments. I love it.

 

I completely agree Sandoval is almost irrelevant to the success or failure of the Sox this year. For evidence, I cite the simple but crucial fact that so far he has played in 30 games--less than half of the 68 the Sox have played. So already the Sox are looking at options--Marrero, Rutledge, et al, to say nothing of Devers at AA Portland. So it's clear to me anyway the Sox really don't need Pablo or a rental to succeed this year.

 

Meanwhile, he is still an investment of significant dollars, one who played well at San Francisco, has lost some weight, and is still just 30. He basically didn't play last year and missed a lot of games this year, so maybe he just needs more time. Right now he has zero trade value, which means the Sox will be paying 100% of the freight for whatever train picks him up. That's why he still plays even though time is clearly running out.

 

I say all that because I don't think Pablo is the problem. Hanley is. This year all the Sox need is his bat--as DH, no less--and to date he has the 9th best--tied with Young, who has played in 14 fewer games--OWAR (offensive wins above replacement) on the Sox. Last year he was 5th best on the team at 3.3, and right now he is at 0.2.

[Maxbialystock]

This could be a part of the problem. The Sox, like Sandoval, are playing sporadically well enough that the FO is hesitant to make any changes.

 

There is absolutely zero correlation between the way Pablo is playing and the Sox are playing. Pablo is either the worst or second worst position player in MLB based on his WAR rating. A Sox team made up of similar quality players would be playing at a .300 clip, Farrell and DD would be gone, and John Henry would never go to a game at Fenway. There would be riots in Boston, cats living with dogs, and other disasters. No one would care about global warming.

[moonslav59]

Hah! emp9 and kimmi fire back with upbeat assessments. I love it.

 

... I don't think Pablo is the problem. Hanley is. This year all the Sox need is his bat--as DH, no less--and to date he has the 9th best--tied with Young, who has played in 14 fewer games--OWAR (offensive wins above replacement) on the Sox. Last year he was 5th best on the team at 3.3, and right now he is at 0.2.

 

Before last year even started, I said I would trade HRam, even if he hit .330 with 30 HRs in 2016. He's just too inconsistent and injury prone to be able to count on him year-to-year. His trade value would have returned by having a great 2016, and we might have been able to get out from under at least one of the two big mistake contracts we gave out to Pablo and Hanley.

 

Once Papi retired, it was hard for me to still hold that position of trading HRam last winter, but it looks like we should have done it.

[moonslav59]

there is absolutely zero correlation between the way pablo is playing and the sox are playing. Pablo is either the worst or second worst position player in mlb based on his war rating. A sox team made up of similar quality players would be playing at a .300 clip, farrell and dd would be gone, and john henry would never go to a game at fenway. There would be riots in boston, cats living with dogs, and other disasters. No one would care about global warming.

 

lol!

[TylerD]

Win today and take this series. All is well.

 

The end.