8/15 No Game Today

[vegasbob]

Just open space for more Yankee trolls to explain why they will not have the best record in MLB, while walking towards a playoff disaster via their bullpen

[Maxbialystock]

Yankees are hurting, no question, but the AL East still leads MLB in winning percentage--slightly ahead of the NL West. The Yankees 10 game lead over the Rays and Jays is not insurmountable, but they are still odds on to win the AL East.

 

August 1-15, without Vazquez, the Sox have gone 6-7, which ain't that bad considering that 9 of those games were against the Astros (Sox won 2 of 3), Yankees (Sox won 2 of 3), and Braves (Sox lost 2), and Orioles (Sox won 1). The disaster was losing 3 of 4 to the Kansas City Royals, currently @ 48-69 and 14.5 games back of Cleveland.

 

The Sox are 2 games below .500 (57- 59) and only 5 games out of a wild card slot.

 

However, no less than six freaking teams--Seattle, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Baltimore, Minnesota, and Chicago--are all 3 or more games ahead of the Sox. So Sisyphus has nothing on our Sox in terms of slogging up that hill.

 

The Sox team ERA of 4.35 is 14th in the AL--awful. However, with Wacha back in fine form, plus Whitlock, Schreiber, Brasier, Barnes, Sawamura, Winckowski or Hill, and one or two others in the bullpen, I think the pitching might be OK. I think Plawecki and McGuire will be fine behind the plate.

 

The lineup, on the other hand, is downright discouraging--

 

JDM, Aug OPS .500, July OPS .599, is in freefall (season OPS .780)

Bogey's August OPS .553

Raffy's August OPS is .627.

Story on the IL since 12 July and like to stay there until September

Verdugo's August OPS is a terrific .978, but overall his hitting is the very soul of inconsistency

Arroyo's August OPS is an unexpected .802, but he too can be inconsistent (but at least he's playing in the infield)

Hosmer's August OPS is a dismal .584, but hey, he's got the good glove at 1b

Pham's .819 in August is not far from his career .797.

Duran's August OPS is .657 (he is .661 for the season)

And Refsnyder, who has been hitting, and Kike Herndandez, who has not, are both due back today or this week.

[moonslav59]

August 1-15, without Vazquez, the Sox have gone 6-7, which ain't that bad considering that 9 of those games were against the Astros (Sox won 2 of 3), Yankees (Sox won 2 of 3), and Braves (Sox lost 2), and Orioles (Sox won 1). The disaster was losing 3 of 4 to the Kansas City Royals, currently @ 48-69 and 14.5 games back of Cleveland.

 

 

I'm not sure why you keep bringing up our record since the Vaz trade. We added Pham, McGuire and Hosmer, so the team's change goes way beyond changing our regular catcher.

 

BTW, Vaz has started 5 of the Astros 13 games since the trade and is hitting .571 OPS. McGuire has started 5 games for the Sox and has a 1.056 OPS, so far. The sample sizes are so small, I consider them near meaningless.

 

The team got better by the trades- both now and likely going forward, too.

 

We got Wacha back, and maybe Kike and others will join the team, soon. I think things look brighter after the deadline.

[Maxbialystock]

I'm not sure why you keep bringing up our record since the Vaz trade. We added Pham, McGuire and Hosmer, so the team's change goes way beyond changing our regular catcher.

 

BTW, Vaz has started 5 of the Astros 13 games since the trade and is hitting .571 OPS. McGuire has started 5 games for the Sox and has a 1.056 OPS, so far. The sample sizes are so small, I consider them near meaningless.

 

The team got better by the trades- both now and likely going forward, too.

 

We got Wacha back, and maybe Kike and others will join the team, soon. I think things look brighter after the deadline.

 

I just like to ride my hobby horse, the one that says Vazquez was vastly over-rated by Talksoxers who claim that Vazquez's "leadership"--what a joke--was what held the Sox together.