6/12 Phils @ SOX 7:10PM ET

[Old Red]

You consider Grissom to be a vital part of the regular lineup now?

 

Opening Day:

Duran

Devers

Story

Casas

O'Neilll

Masa

Rafaela

Valdez

Wong

 

Where did you get that idea, or come to that conclusion. Wouldn’t Grissom have started the year at 2B? Good, or BAD he would have been the opening day 2B, and wasn’t saying anything different than that. I wasn’t one of the ones on here all giddy at the aquistion either.

[Old Red]

Put it this way, the only logical way the quality of baseball would be worse in 2024 than in 2023 is if a pile of stars retired after 2023.

 

Even if NO ONE retired does every player play the same way every year, so to say the only logical way the quality of play would drop off would be if a pile of stars retired doesn’t seem logical to me. Not everyone stays healthy either.

[dgalehouse]

No matter how good or bad the overall quality of the league is, you can be one of the best or one of the worst. Or you can kind of be in the middle, which is where the Sox seem to have settled.

[moonslav59]

No matter how good or bad the overall quality of the league is, you can be one of the best or one of the worst. Or you can kind of be in the middle, which is where the Sox seem to have settled.

 

It’s kinda hard to prove the league is getting better, worse or is the same.

 

Yes, it’s all relative, in the end, and we have been about in the middle from 2019 to today, with a low blip on 20 and a higher blip in 21.

[Maxbialystock]

This team has been more Worcester North than the Red Sox this year with all the injuries, and sit at 500. Glass half full, or half empty, but as I’ve said all along the quality of baseball teams is down for the most part all across the league, which has a long way to go in helping with that 500 record.

 

Ahem. Last year the best winning percentage in MLB was 64% by the Braves, who won 104 games, which is pretty good.

 

However, the two teams in the World Series last year had winning percentages of 56% (90 wins, Rangers) and 52% (84 wins, Diamondbacks).

 

And the reason last year's postseason worked out that way wasn't because something what wrong, but because 64%, 56%, and 52% ain't all that far apart. that's a spread of just 12 freaking percent, which is miniscule in terms of separating good teams from not so good teams.

 

Relatedly the Sox 50%, where they've been for big chunks of this season, also ain't that bad even though you want to categorize them as mediocre.

 

Then there's the little matter of the Sox most recent 7 games, in which they could only manage a 2-2 split vs. the White Sox, the worst team in MLB with a 26% winning percentage, followed by taking 2 of 3 vs the Phillies, whose winning percentage of 68% is the highest in the NL and virtually tied with the Yankees 69% for the best in MLB.

 

Those two series are to me the quintessence of MLB, which is that rare sport in which a competitor can hit the piss out of the ball and make an out or even a double play. Or he can swing and miss for strike 3, but get to 1b because it was wild pitch. Or hit a dribbler for a hit. Plus don't forget the errors.

 

Given the above, to me it's impossible to be sure which way MLB is trending. We know the money is terrific, especially with the bonuses going to players high in the draft who are years away from MLB. We also know, as moonslav says, that new talent is coming from more and more countries around the world. OK, not Europe, granted. They prefer fussball, as in fact the entire world does, except, of course, us star-bangled banner types.