jacksonianmarch

That’s a pretty good quote with a shot at the FO there. What’s Cora supposed to do?

Good game today. Bats went silent. Cannot win them all. Got a few bad calls on Judge, especially one with a runner on third and 1 out. So be it

Whitlock isn’t going back to the pen.

Cortes needs to come out. He’s got no command. Those games happen. Surprised he didn’t get completely annihilated

I live in the moment!

Big picture here is he’s the Sox version of Shawn Chacon from 2006. The guy was a magician. K rate sucked. Walk rate wasn’t good. He just happened to have that magical season with the Yanks where every bounce went right. Wheels fell off the following season. When you’ve got a guy who’s literally lucky to be performing at that level, you should find a way to cash in on it, especially if you fall out of contention

Michael Wacha has been dynamite in his first 5 starts in Boston. The question is, has he regained his status as a front line starter like he was in StL or is this some smoke and mirrors s***. Wacha's best season was in 2017 when his average FB was 95.1. He slipped into the 93 range and lost effectiveness. Last year, he bumped up to 93.8 but this year is down to 92.9. So he isn't experiencing a velocity spike When Wacha was at his best, he was a 8.5K/9IP player. Last year he was near 9. This year, just 6.58. So no change in K rate Wacha's best season saw a BB rate of 2.99/9IP. Last year was down to 2.24. This year, he is at 3.81, near his career high. So if his velo isnt spiking and he isn't King more or BBing less, why is he so damn dominant? Look at two stats here. Wacha's career HR rate is 1.12 per 9IP. From 19-21, it was at 2.0 average. This year, it is 0.69/9IP. Is he getting more ground balls? Yes, 5% more GB's, albeit right at his career AVG. FB% has stayed the same. LD% has dropped from 25-20%. He's avoiding hard contact Second one is BABIP. Career BABIP is right at .300. This year, he's at .146. So you know what this means? If he continues on this run he is on and the sox drop from contention, it would behoove Bloom to trade him ASAP before the cat jumps out of the bag.

His third time through numbers must be horrific

Yanks pitching staff is ridiculously loaded. Marinaccio would be a setup man on some clubs. Schmidt would be a closer or starter on most clubs. Those guys are in the minors because the pen is so ridiculously stacked. The rotation is stacked. The lineup is showing depth and different ways to score than just bombs away. This team is playing awesome right now and seems to have finally broken through the chains of underperformance into a real juggernaut. They small ball a lead last night. They drive in 6 runs without homers tonight and feast on bad Jays pen work. So many ways to beat you and they finally look to be ready to be as good as they should have been

Yanks issues were offense only. Yanks issues were about how the batters literally came to the dish taking homer swings with runners on base instead of manufacturing runs. Once they altered philosophy, they became unstoppable. Sox haven’t altered their offensive approach and they do not have the pitching to fall back on that the yanks do. Yanks also have an 8 game lead at this point, something that may not be recoverable. Also, your cavalry is at least 6 weeks or more away

As a former rooter for Paxton, you cannot rely on him. He's enormous and will probably have good stuff. But his body is just not built for the rigors of the big leagues. He will probably go down with shoulder soreness as he ramps back up and be a wreck for the rest of 22. Sale is similar to Paxton. Great pitcher when on the bump, cannot stay healthy. But let's look at timelines here. Sale threw a 7 pitch pen and isnt eligible to return until June 6. A 7 pitch bullpen? What is that crap? He is going to need 3-4 rehab starts which means he will need to be cleared to go balls to the wall 20 days before he is ready to return to Boston. He is first eligible to return June 6th, but it doesn't sound like that's a reasonable timeline here. You're likely looking at July 1 here. Paxton is "hoping to return before the ASB" and threw a 35 pitch pen this week. With the way the sox are constructed, the lack of offense and the uncle crying pen, the sox will be dead in the water by the time these two pitchers come back and send Whitlock and Houck back to the pen.

It is a long season. And things do change. Right now the Sox are getting great pitching, something we know won’t last, and are blowing it by going silent with the sticks. When the pen finally cries uncle from overuse, what will things look like then? Even if the bats rebound, you’ll be in slugfests every night. Hard to make up 8 games when your staff gives up 5 a game

Yes it is. But the sox needed to be front runners. They don't have the talent to make enormous runs. They couldn't afford an 8 game deficit by May 1.

I agree with that. I think the sox plan is long term and winning last year actually screwed up their timeline. I think Bloom's plan was to deal off Xander, JDM, and ERod last year but you cannot dismantle a team that is playoff bound. This year is a different story.

Actually, I will sleep better if the sox deal away prospects to sure up a team that stinks. I respect Bloom's abilities and I am pretty sure he realized he got lucky last year. If he really thought this sox team was capable of a title, he wouldnt have plugged holes with chewing gum and duct tape He will rebuild the sox into a very good team in 2 years, IMO. Now that the bloom is off the rose and this team seems to have shown its true colors, you will see a selloff like no other

A lot of money to build around a core. You need a core. It is hard to develop one and when one core rots out or starts to get expensive, you need a new one. Bogey is about to walk. Devers is going to as well. May as well get some real blue chip prospects to build around. Casas is a building block. Story will be one too. Yorke may prove useful. Mayer may rocket through the ranks. Binelas and Hamilton are looking good. The pitching side is looking better as well. Ultimately, it may be better for the sox in the long run to cash in on expiring deals, punt for a year or two and then reload

In a year where offense is down, a guy like JD Martinez should have a market. Bloom has shown a willingness to eat money (see Bradley for Renfroe) to get better prospects. With the DH being an entire league thing now, his market will be big. I actually think a deal to the SF Giants makes a ton of sense. They have their offensive issues and could use a middle of the order bat. They don't have a set DH and they definitely have their eyes on a title. This is the most obvious fit I can see. The markey for Bogaerts will be wide. Any team could use him, so predicting his location would be difficult to do. Same with Devers. Returns for Devers would be bigger, clearly, due to the extra year of control. On the pitching side, Eovaldi would fetch a pretty penny as a rental. And if Wacha continues pitching this way, he will have a market too.

Also, there is a major have and have nots issue in the AL. Outside of HOU, NYY, TOR, and maybe TB, the rest of the AL is trash.

They will have losses. Heck, they may stack them at some point. But something shifted, maybe with the return of DJ and the peskiness of IKF. When those guys make contact and push runners over and do all the little things, this team scores runs. This rotation and the death squad in the pen will prevent runs. The D will prevent runs. Our issues have been scoring. If this team has bought into enough small ball to eek out victories while allowing the big boys to still swing for the fences, then homerun. If, and this is still a considerable if, this team has turned a corner philosophically, there will be no stopping them in getting to 100 wins

Funny thing about Bloom. He is a value junky. Pivetta's value was at peak in the offseason and he knew his up and down nature. He cashed in on Renfroe, surprised he didnt with Pivetta

Nearly pissed myself, lol.

Judge puts the exclamation point on top. 9 game streak heading into Toronto. The Jays aren't a team you sweep, but if we keep playing to situations and hitting some long balls, we should take the series. This is the Yankee team we SHOULD have seen a couple years ago. So many ways to hurt you. Can steal bases and take the extra base. Can bunt, hit a runner over and sac fly someone. Can take some pitches and walk. Can find a gap. Can hit it out. All while having a rotation that's dominant and a pen that's essentially lights out. And it wasnt until they took Gallo out of the lineup (now he's out for awhile anyway) and made more contact that good things started to happen.

Kevin Plawecki has been your most effective pitcher today

Cora needs to take some blame here. The sox continue to just send everyone up with the hit sign on and they're all swinging for the fences. Now, 9 runs isnt ideal, but the sox cannot seem to generate runs. It wasn't until the Yanks started to play small ball a couple weeks ago that they started to win. Big ball is dead. The days of your 160lb string bean 2ber hitting 20 bombs is over. You have to be able to hit to situations now and attack the basepaths. The sox just look apathetic

Solo homer. Rally ball and small ball afterwards. Yanks come back and now up 5-4. This team has some guts this year. Last year they’d roll over