jacksonianmarch

Just saw that, yeah, hes likely done. What a fall from grace. From being a $100 million lock to probably not getting a QO

He’s finally healthy and on a rehab assignment. I wonder where he ends up. Strong likelihood he gets moved

Every closer has their rough spells. Every time Kimbrel looks to fall apart he rattles off a 15 game run where he allows 5 baserunners. He’ll be fine

I think the wakeup call will come vs Houston. They just got healthy. Altuve, Correa and Springer are back. By the time the sox play them, they should be able to shake off the rust. I have a feeling the Stros will test the heck out of Boston. I say the Stros because the Yankees don't count. Every time the sox and yanks play, no matter who is the best or what the playoff concerns are, the suspense heightens.

I would go with Porcello. The guy who has been cheered and maligned in near equal volumes has been Steady Eddy behind your two starters getting all the pub. 19 games of 6+IP. He has ridden your offense to 15 wins with a real shot at 20 (probably more like 18). He will also be critical in a series vs NYY or HOU with all the RH power on both those squads. Porcello has earned his contract in 2 seasons with 2 duds. This year, he's been really good

The sox have been mentally tougher than the bad teams. This is something I wish to see out of my squad. The sox face a team like the Marlins in Fenway and going down 2 in the 8th was essentially a "so what" kind of thing. Being mentally tough is a good thing, but how many times can your offense bail out your pen

Baseball is one of the rare games where momentum can be stopped with a single pitching change

Buttrey has had a nice start (6IP) to his big league career in Anaheim.

Kinsler was brought in as a RH bat with power who also plays stellar defense. It doesn't necessarily matter if Kinsler out hits what Nunez or Holt gave you there. It was incredibly important that he improves the shoddy D. If Kinsler finds his stroke in time for the playoffs and returns as a .850OPS kind of player with power, then bonus

Dombrowski's one bugaboo in all of his roster builds has been the bridge to the closer. In Detroit, he had Valverde and for a short while, KRod. But aside from a year of Zumaya, their bridge was the reason for their demise. I said from the beginning that the sox were a reliever away from solidifying themselves as favorites. I don't change that statement. Barnes had always been homer prone and that's not a good quality for a middle reliever. Hembree sucks. Kelly is a head case. The one guy who I cant get a read on is Brasier. He could end up being something special, but it is hard to pin your hopes on a guy who spent 2017 in the minors in Japan.

Yanks rally at home and take a game. Good to see. Lance Lynn might end up being challenged by Sonny for his rotation spot

I was at the game. Damn good seats too. When Hembree came in, there was a hush over the crowd like everyone knew he was gonna give it up.

We missed Judge and Sanchez for the sox series. And for one game, we got absolutely s*** on. Game 2 and 3 our offense died. Game 4 our bullpen died. To say adding in Judge and Sanchez wouldn't have helped is ridiculous. Maybe in Game 4, they put it further out of reach? Maybe they start a rally in games 2 and 3 enough to come back. Game 1 was where Sale was supposed to be. You could have started the ghost of Craig Breslow and won that game. Your offense was teeing off. Their presence certainly wouldn't have hurt.

It's been so much winning while playing those clubs. The fact that we can run through them with a AAA lineup and no closer shows how far they need to go to be competitive.

It's been good enough to beat bad teams to this point. Rodon is the best starter we have faced since we left Boston and he carved up our mostly AAA lineup. I am not saying adding in our 3 missing middle of the order hitters would have won us the game, but I guarantee it would have increased the pitch count on Rodon to maybe get him out earlier and force the white sox pen to beat us. At the very least, we are starting to turn the corner. Sanchez had two hits and a tater in AAA yesterday. Didi is close to returning and may come right off without a rehab assignment. Judge has noted improvement in the wrist, although he isn't swinging a wooden bat yet (he is swinging a wiffle ball bat). If the injury to Judge pushed him closer to October, I bet theyd have him back by now, but theyre doing all they can to ensure he is totally right for the playoffs. I can follow that plan. Chapman got his injection and the waiting begins. Patellar tendonitis is annoying. It will likely be something he deals with for the rest of his career. He will be back. Aside from JMont, our rag tag group of players appear set to be full force once October comes. Here is to hoping they can win a play in game

Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil

Sale missed three starts. ERod has missed a month. Tanaka did too. Pomeranz has sucked as has Gray. Pom isn’t hurt, he’s just terrible now. Losing your MVP candidate, the best offensive catcher in the AL and Didi at the same time should be team killing. Cmon man. It ain’t even close

You're kidding, right? Mookie missed 2 weeks, as did Xander. They were not at the same time. Sanchez has missed 2 months. Judge has missed a month. Didi will likely only miss 2 weeks. Chapman is currently down for 2 weeks. Our 2, 3, and 5 hitters in our lineup are gone at the same time. We also lost our #4 starter for the season in JMont. Our backup OFer, Frazier has missed months due to concussions. If you wanted to complain about missing Pedey, we lost our glass man as well in Ellsbury for the forseeable future. The injuries facing the Yankees this year have been excessive.

Oh exactly. I’m not saying I’d rather have Ella over Pedey. I’m just saying they’ve been similar in production and durability over the past two years

Their WAR's were nearly identical, taking into account the entire package.

Let’s do that. 2018 has been a wash. 2017, they both had near identical WAR’s. It seems pretty appropriate

I’d be shocked if a chip fracture cost him 10 weeks.

Yanks face garbage until the first week of Sept. you guys will after today as well. The Sox sept schedule is rough with ATL, HOU, CLE and the 6 vs NYY. If we get healthy and you keep stumbling, we can catch you

You guys are seeing what we saw for a couple years with Eovaldi. Amazing stuff, no walks, wild in the zone.

The slider away ended my baseball career! I know it seems slowed down on the TV, but the slider is a stupidly hard pitch to hit. Curves you can sometimes see out of the hand, but sliders are released exactly the same as the fastball with a quick flick at the end that is not visible to the eye. You have to pick up the spin in literally a millisecond. When the velocities rise, it can become a guessing game. The only way to hit it beyond guessing is to sit on a certain quadrant of the zone. No hitter, not even Mike Trout or Betts, can step in for a pitch and hit every pitch the pitcher has to every location. Betts is likely being adjusted to right now and his mechanics are probably a tweak away as it has been a long season and the dog days are wearing down. I have a feeling, he’ll be fine. You’ve got bigger fish to fry