Yaz Fan Since 67

I'm certainly not crying a river that Mookie underperformed in these playoffs. He had that one big hit but had so many other opportunities and he failed. His career post season OPS is .740 and that number does not lie. Now he is older and he will continue to decline, all this deferred money and big contracts the Dodgers have spent will come due soon. Can't say I'm upset about any of this.

Yeah that's not gonna get it done IMO. Abreu in the cleanup spot is drop off when compared to our competitors, after that they have 3 question marks at 5, 6 and 7.

Terrible defensive player, really streaky hitter who kills them when he is cold and now he has a serious injury history. I'm fine allowing him to compete for the 1st base spot but they need more and he just can't be trusted.

I was rooting for the Jays for just this reason. Besides Toronto has great fans.

Oh for sure. Puck Luck is very real, so many goals happen on deflections. I was never a big hockey guy, I'm in Maryland not New England so it's just never been big here. I'd watch the Capitals until their annual choke job in the playoffs., those were the only games I watched. But then they drafted a player who would end up scoring more goals than anyone in the history of the game so it was easy to get onboard. It's a beautiful game when played well.

I suddenly developed a distain for Jazz Chisolm. The look of confusion on his face after the held the ball at 2nd, then was seen laughing a few moments later, really got to me. Sports are more fun with heroes and villains so I'll just root against Jazz from now on,

Agreed. It's why I love sports, all sports, because you just never know what is going to happen. But baseball, like hocky, can be so dependent on luck. A guy could hit a rocket right at the 3rd baseman with the bases loaded, then a blooper wins the game.

This was always my line of thinking. I don't care what the record before and after the trade was, too many other factors lead to those records. The truth is this was a better team with Rafael Devers in the lineup and the lack of a big bat killed them in October.

I was accused of this when I posted that I recalled some thought we did OK in the Sale trade. Then I provided proof and suddenly nobody wanted to talk about that anymore. I'm not bothering this time, I don't remember where I heard or read it. But I assure you I would never just make s*** up.

It was my understanding that a player went to management and said he gots to go. I always suspected Bregman, it had to be a player with status. As for Cora I honestly don't know what more fans expected from this roster. The lineup was weak and full of below average hitters, after the trade they really didn't have one stick that other teams feared. Then of course the defense which has been atrocious for several seasons. He got what he could out of a marginal and injured pitching staff.

From Over The Monster after the trade. I clearly remember the media saying they didn't think they would get a player like Grissom in the deal. For now, though, I’ll say this: this looks like an absolute steal by Craig Breslow. Grissom is not an uber prospect, but he was ranked as high as #77 on the Baseball America list at one point, he fills a glaring positional hole on the Red Sox, and he could be a future .300 hitter with with good plate discipline if things break right. https://www.overthemonster.com/2023/12/30/24020064/red-sox-trade-chris-sale-to-atlanta-braves-for-vaughn-grissom-breslow-analysis Most posters here were against the trade. However on Page 4 several defended it, One posted "Anyone who doesn’t like this trade is simply cynical" Another (Yankees fan) said we got "good value".

Remember that time when we traded Chris Sale and got a young 2nd baseman and people were surprised we got that much in return?

I'm not sure anyone considers Abreu a potential all star caliber starter.

Actually I would like Bregman to return despite his age and injury history. He is at least a proven bat and John Henry has shown that he won't necessarily spend the savings on comparable or better talent.

Fair enough, it could go either way. Which is why I question people plugging him in and thinking we are set at the position. He also has an injury history which also makes me question this.

I think Duran's trade value now is as low as it can be, not the time to trade him but I don't know what the answer is. He was so disappointing all season but he is also a guy I can see we regret trading down the road. I also don't see how MM has proven that he can be a good hitter in the majors. I've been in the trade Abreu camp but again we are selling low.

Being eliminated by the Yankees stings but I'm happy with the season. They have a good young core to build on with more on the way. I saw enough of Early to be a bit excited. I think Tolle carves out a role in the pen. I'm still not sold on MM, he gets hurt a lot and didn't hit well enough once he was called up. But his defense is solid and they simply have to improve the defense.

I was trying to explain this to my wife. . Lefty/lefty is just harder on the hitter than righty/righty. However I could not give the reason other than right handed hitters hit more right handed pitchers because there are more of them. But not at this level, I'm not sure of the breakdown but there has to be more lefties vs righties in the bigs than in high school

The third base coach has been good, and aggressive, all season. He picked a bad time to be conservative. I thought we were scoring for sure on that play.

This. It's not Cora's fault Whit blew the game. Crochet also threw the most pitches in a game this season and nobody complained. This is the playoff and 2 innings for a guy who has gone 2 innings often was the right call. As I've been saying all season their run totals were bloated by a number of high scoring games. This lineup is obviously full of holes and below average hitters. I really liked our chances when they got into the bullpen, we just didn't have the bats to take advantage. WTF happened to Jared Duran? Such a disappointing season.

Damned right I noticed. I played it back over and over again, of course ESPN didn't even mention it. Sogart taking that extra base is how the New Red Sox play the game today and it's so much fun to watch. What a great baseball game that was. October baseball at it's best, so much drama and tension as we hung on every pitch. Alex Cora is an excellent manager, always has been, and he was not afraid to ride his horse in October, unlike Boone. Or to use the best pitcher in baseball for a 4 out save. Virtually every move he made worked out. I've been down on Yoshida because he is way too streaky. And I still feel this way, his cold spells are killers. But a streaky hitter can also get hot and he's hot at the right time. The home plate umpire was fantastic. I don't remember him missing a pitch and every borderline pitch was the correct call. Part of the fun of being a real baseball fan is we look at pitch count on the opponent's pitcher starting with the 1st inning. That went double last night as their ace was lights out and the key is to get into the Yankees bullpen; Same thing tonight, we need to get to that bullpen as early as possible. I'm just not sure Bello will keep us in the game.

This is exactly why I felt it was important for this team to make the playoffs. I'm also in the camp that believes we are playing with house money, I sure didn't see a playoff team in April.

Thanks, I was just going to look up Campbell's AAA numbers.

Good point, this sucks all the way around. Having a playoff team play every playoff game on the road is total ********, and I'd be saying this if the Sox had home field. I get rewarding 162 games and all but this is insane.

I guess you would have preferred they trade 2-3 top prospects for a marginal rental.