7/08 A's @ SOX 4:10PM ET

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

In fact, the Braves may even have a better team than the 2018 SOX. If they don't win the WS, it's all for naught.

 

 

The 2018 SOX had the best record in MLB and won the WS. It doesn't get any better than that.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Actually, they do.

 

Choice 1: Give Duran a chance to show he can hit LHPs and play FT in CF.

 

Choice 2: Bat the .800+ career OPS vs LHPs Kike v LHPs and sit Duvall.

 

Choice 3: Trade Duvall.

 

 

Yup, Moon. I did correct my post after checking Duvall's salary, which would make him easier to trade.

Edited July 9, 2023 by SPLENDIDSPLINTER

[notin]

A team could go 162-0 and if they don't win the championship, it means nothing. Just need to ask the 2022-23 Boston Bruins.

 

Or the 2007 New England Patriots…

[Thunder]

Or the 2007 New England Patriots…

 

Or the Dallas Cowboys every year since 1995

[Duran Is The Man]

Or the 2007 New England Patriots…

 

that super bowl still pisses me off.

[moonslav59]

Yup, Moon. I did correct my post after checking Duvall's salary, which would make him easier to trade.

 

The salary should not matter, as we can pay down all or most of any salary to improve the return, if needed.

[FredLynn]

A team could go 162-0 and if they don't win the championship, it means nothing. Just need to ask the 2022-23 Boston Bruins.

 

I don’t see the Bruins season like that at all. They had an incredibly entertaining season. Watching them every night you just knew they were going to win.

[moonslav59]

Had someone said we'd be 4 games up on the Mets and 5 up on the Padres on July 8th, most of us would have thought we'd be having a very good year

 

 

We are on pace to go 85-77 (very close to 84-78, too.)

[Duran Is The Man]

Tampa continues to lose, which I love. The Braves are scary; reminds me of the 2018 SOX.

 

the Braves are currently 60-28. the 2018 Sox were 59-29 at the same point.

[Bellhorn04]

OK, Max. Time to fess up. Are you in reality actually Cora posting on these game threads? There's nothing wrong with that, but, at least, admit it.

 

I'm with Max. You can call us the Cora Defense Team.

[moonslav59]

I'm with Max. You can call us the Cora Defense Team.

 

I'm a huge Cora fan, too. It seems some people think just because a choice failed, it was a mistake. It's just not true.

 

That's not to say he's never made mistakes, but I see a guy who can lead a group of vets to the best season in Sox history (2018), as well as a highly flawed team to within 2 games of the WS (2021). He's done a lot with what he was given. Many blamed him for poor pen management, lst year, when we had very few good choices. Has he suddenly learned how to manage a pen, this year? LOL. Some blame him for using Whitlock and Houck as SP'ers. What other options were there? As it was, even the other starters were mostly worse (Richards, Kluber, Perez and a hodgepodge of wannabes.

 

I've had my differences of opinion on some things he does, but I'll never say he was wrong in those choices. He knows way more than I do.

[Old Red]

I'm a huge Cora fan, too. It seems some people think just because a choice failed, it was a mistake. It's just not true.

 

That's not to say he's never made mistakes, but I see a guy who can lead a group of vets to the best season in Sox history (2018), as well as a highly flawed team to within 2 games of the WS (2021). He's done a lot with what he was given. Many blamed him for poor pen management, lst year, when we had very few good choices. Has he suddenly learned how to manage a pen, this year? LOL. Some blame him for using Whitlock and Houck as SP'ers. What other options were there? As it was, even the other starters were mostly worse (Richards, Kluber, Perez and a hodgepodge of wannabes.

 

I've had my differences of opinion on some things he does, but I'll never say he was wrong in those choices. He knows way more than I do.

 

Aw! This is very touching considering you have criticized Cora many times, but when you do you use some Moon Speak, and say I don’t agree with what Cora did, but i don’t think he is wrong when that is exactly what you are saying that Cora is wrong.

[Thunder]

I'm a huge Cora fan, too. It seems some people think just because a choice failed, it was a mistake. It's just not true.

 

That's not to say he's never made mistakes, but I see a guy who can lead a group of vets to the best season in Sox history (2018), as well as a highly flawed team to within 2 games of the WS (2021). He's done a lot with what he was given. Many blamed him for poor pen management, lst year, when we had very few good choices. Has he suddenly learned how to manage a pen, this year? LOL. Some blame him for using Whitlock and Houck as SP'ers. What other options were there? As it was, even the other starters were mostly worse (Richards, Kluber, Perez and a hodgepodge of wannabes.

 

I've had my differences of opinion on some things he does, but I'll never say he was wrong in those choices. He knows way more than I do.

 

This is exactly what a real baseball fan should sound like. At the end of the day, he is your manager. He gets paid to make the decisions. We don't. We don't have to agree with the decision, but at the end of the day, you respect the position and defer to his judgment.

 

Well said, moon.

[notin]

I'm with Max. You can call us the Cora Defense Team.

 

Curses!! The CDT!!

[moonslav59]

This is exactly what a real baseball fan should sound like. At the end of the day, he is your manager. He gets paid to make the decisions. We don't. We don't have to agree with the decision, but at the end of the day, you respect the position and defer to his judgment.

 

Well said, moon.

 

Managers make thousands of decisions every season. If I disagree with a few, it doesn't mean I think Cora was wrong. The world is not black and white, to me. there is a lot of gray. In fact, it's mostly gray. If one disagrees with Cora on 5 or 10 things out of thousands, it's entirely possible to think he's still very good or even great.

 

Here is my biggest disagreement: too much resting of players and not synching the days off ve wrong-handed pitchers. It bugs me, but I never think "I am right, and Cora is wrong." I know Cora knows a ton more than me, and may have information that would lead me to agree with the choice he made. I'm not sure I have ever criticized a singular game move by Cora. (I even defended the choice of leaving Pedro in the game, so long ago as having some merit.)

 

If I were manager, we'd have a losing record, and I would not rest players as much. I'm not claiming I'm "right" or anyone is wrong. Having differing opinions need not be reduced to insisting the other guy is wrong for disagreeing with my opinion.

 

[moonslav59]

Curses!! The CDT!!

 

Too many Cora apologists who think he can do now wrong.

 

(Don't ask me to name names.)

[Maxbialystock]

I'm a huge Cora fan, too. It seems some people think just because a choice failed, it was a mistake. It's just not true.

 

That's not to say he's never made mistakes, but I see a guy who can lead a group of vets to the best season in Sox history (2018), as well as a highly flawed team to within 2 games of the WS (2021). He's done a lot with what he was given. Many blamed him for poor pen management, lst year, when we had very few good choices. Has he suddenly learned how to manage a pen, this year? LOL. Some blame him for using Whitlock and Houck as SP'ers. What other options were there? As it was, even the other starters were mostly worse (Richards, Kluber, Perez and a hodgepodge of wannabes.

 

I've had my differences of opinion on some things he does, but I'll never say he was wrong in those choices. He knows way more than I do.

 

I've said just about all of those things over the last month, especially the job he did two years ago. It still bugs me that few Talksoxers give him much credit, but it was in fact a brilliant balancing act, especially with the pitching staff.

 

You said at the beginning of this season that ideally Houck and Whitlock should be in the bullpen, and here you are defending Cora for using them as starters--for exactly the right reason. What other choices made sense?

 

Right now I think most of us agree the Sox are undergoing a sea change: same overall boss, John Henry, but with a different perspective which is reflected in the hiring of Chaim Bloom, who could not be more different from Dave Dombrowski. And guess who has managed under both systems/VP's/GM's?

[Bellhorn04]

Right now I think most of us agree the Sox are undergoing a sea change: same overall boss, John Henry, but with a different perspective which is reflected in the hiring of Chaim Bloom, who could not be more different from Dave Dombrowski. And guess who has managed under both systems/VP's/GM's?

 

And in my opinion, DD deserves much credit for hiring Cora, and Bloom deserves much credit for re-hiring him.

[moonslav59]

And in my opinion, DD deserves much credit for hiring Cora, and Bloom deserves much credit for re-hiring him.

 

Cora is a clear net plus, IMO. If anyone thinks he's a problem, I'll just say, we have much larger problems than him.

[Old Red]

And in my opinion, DD deserves much credit for hiring Cora, and Bloom deserves much credit for re-hiring him.

 

You really think Bloom re-hired Cora? Or was it JH who told him to do so?

[Bellhorn04]

You really think Bloom re-hired Cora? Or was it JH who told him to do so?

 

The reports were that Bloom had a lot of conversations with Cora and had some misgivings because of the cheating etc. I think it's pretty credible that it was Bloom's call to make.

[Old Red]

The reports were that Bloom had a lot of conversations with Cora and had some misgivings because of the cheating etc. I think it's pretty credible that it was Bloom's call to make.

 

Disagree 100%.

[moonslav59]

And in my opinion, DD deserves much credit for hiring Cora, and Bloom deserves much credit for re-hiring him.

 

Cora has led a team that has...

 

used 27 pitchers and saw at least 30 games started lost by injuries to our top 5 SP'ers

 

no fWAR leader in the top 45, and the one at 46 is named Jarren Duran.

 

no fWAR pitching leader in the top 56, and the one at 57 is named Brayan Bello.

 

the 68th best fWAR pitcher (Sale) on the 60 day IL

 

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

 

One more thing, many here, including myself, felt our roster needed more quality and not quantity, but this more balanced approach seems to be doing pretty well, especially in light of the fact that our recent rotation has...

Sale on the 60

Houck on the IL

Whitlock on the IL

Paxton was on PAT leave

Kluber on the IL (after pen demotion)

Pivetta demoted to the pen

Crawford seeing sometime on the IL

 

I can't help but chuckle at those hyper critical of Cora. Most who are seem to have also hated the job Bloom did building this roster, yet somehow think Cora should be getting more out of this "crappy team."

 

It literally cracks me up.

[Bellhorn04]

Disagree 100%.

 

Based on what?

[Old Red]

Based on what?

 

Nothing concrete, or factual, but just my opinion.

[Old Red]

Cora has led a team that has...

 

used 27 pitchers and saw at least 30 games started lost by injuries to our top 5 SP'ers

 

no fWAR leader in the top 45, and the one at 46 is named Jarren Duran.

 

no fWAR pitching leader in the top 56, and the one at 57 is named Brayan Bello.

 

the 68th best fWAR pitcher (Sale) on the 60 day IL

 

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

 

One more thing, many here, including myself, felt our roster needed more quality and not quantity, but this more balanced approach seems to be doing pretty well, especially in light of the fact that our recent rotation has...

Sale on the 60

Houck on the IL

Whitlock on the IL

Paxton was on PAT leave

Kluber on the IL (after pen demotion)

Pivetta demoted to the pen

Crawford seeing sometime on the IL

 

I can't help but chuckle at those hyper critical of Cora. Most who are seem to have also hated the job Bloom did building this roster, yet somehow think Cora should be getting more out of this "crappy team."

 

It literally cracks me up.

What isn’t a laughing matter is how Cora kept putting Kike out there at SS on a regular basis until he was told not to. That was more than just a bad managerial decision.

[Bellhorn04]

What isn’t a laughing matter is how Cora kept putting Kike out there at SS on a regular basis until he was told not to. That was more than just a bad managerial decision.

 

And I'm sure you have lots of concrete evidence that he was told not to.

[Old Red]

And I'm sure you have lots of concrete evidence that he was told not to.

 

Is me having any concrete evidence more important to you than Cora keeping Kike at SS? Do you think that was good managerial judgement? No concrete evidence. Just the word on the street.

[Bellhorn04]

Is me having any concrete evidence more important to you than Cora keeping Kike at SS? Do you think that was good managerial judgement? No concrete evidence. Just the word on the street.

 

Ah yes, the word on the street.

[Old Red]

Ah yes, the word on the street.

 

I know it may come as a shock to you, but sometimes it better than the word on talksox.