Sox just had 14 games in 13 days. They have a game off every week here on out and are seemingly locked into the 2nd WC spot. Should be able to rest players and line up their rotation for the playoffs.
I'm not going to be too worried about them dropping the series to the Angels. Go .500 the rest of the way and they are in.
Hull & Gonzales (316 OPS in Sept) are likely not here until '28 at some point.
Breslow does need to start clearing up some roster spots though. I think it's easier to switch out DHs than position players. Going into a season with 4 starting OFers isn't ideal. Eat Masa's last year of salary and trade him. Let Story play one more season and phase in Arias as 2b/SS. Hope Duran recoups some value and deal at end of '27.
You've been one of his bigger fans on here lately!
https://talksox.com/forums/topic/91339-jarren-duran-might-be-turning-the-corner-at-the-plate-in-august/
🤔
'22 Under .500
'23 One of the worst teams in the league
'24 One of the worst teams in the league
'25 Cupcake schedule and easiest path to the SB in my lifetime
'26 Under .500, 3 times as many INT as TD
2004: Team Total 27.8% called 3rd strikes 👀
Manny Ramirez 37.9
Bill Mueller 33.9
They both also contributed to the 10.1% BB rate which was 3rd highest in MLB (league av was 8.5).
He holds the MLB record in walks. he could have retired 3 seasons earlier and still be holding the record today. He was 4th in walks in the league from 86-92 when he was with the Pirates and a skinny string bean. He led MLB in walks in 12 seasons.
822 OPS since coming back. Swing seems fine to me. I don't want to blame the Sox losing a few games on Roman. Duran and Durbin have been scuffling even worse for much longer.
He regressed to the point where his total ERA for the season wound up at 3.32, which trends towards his prior two FIP years.
With BOS: 4.24 ERA, 4.41 FIP
He fell off after getting here. Only stop worse for him was COL.
2014: 3.77 FIP
2015: 3.62 FIP
2016: hot start pitching in pitcher's park in SD with newly developed cutter, 2.47 ERA
There was a very reasonable expectation that there would be regression for Pom.