Yaz Fan Since 67

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.

He tried to be active but could not work out a deal. To me that means he was not willing to overpay for a few players who were most likely never have going to have the impact to make this the team that wins the World Series. I'm cool with that.

Well said. Ignoring the Cora connection to my team I always felt that Astros scandal was way overblown. As you said teams have been stealing signs for generations, including our very own team.

For the same reason most every Sox fan wanted to dump him and his contract in a heartbeat if the team could find a way. This signing has not worked out, period. He has no position, has little power which is brutal for a DH and puts the Sox at a big disadvantage at the position and goes stone cold as he rolls over grounders to 2nd and that can last months.

Whitlock has been great this season but it's a reach to say he is the most unhittable reliever in baseball right now. Cecdanne is so infuriating so I get the frustration. Why can't he learn the strike zone? But I'm happy for him, he certainly has delivered big at the end of a lot of games. Happy for Yoshida as well. With the language barrier and difference in culture, while playing like crap for 2 years he couldn't have been having a lot of fun in the clubhouse.

I too was shut out from watching. Knowing only the final score and how they scored in the end I read through the thread to get a feel for how the game went. It was entertaining to say the least. It was hardly just Fred Lynn who was making such comments. Has Cora been fired yet? LOL. I swear some of you don't deserve that win and this season.

So after watching 159 games I can't watch them play a game that could clinch a playoff spot? I hate how sports is moving to these apps.

He makes so many really good plays but man he has a lot of errors. This could describe the entire team for that matter.

Random thoughts: I was fine with little movement at the deadline and remain so. I will never believe this team is a #2 starter away from a ring and I sure did not want to deal prospects. I may never trust Bello, just as I never really trusted Oil Can Boyd even when he had good numbers. The Red Sox record at the end of September is 1.5 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. Let that sink in. From what I have seen it looks like Detroit had a team of over achievers, so many players were playing far better then their careers would suggest, and it caught up with them. Really happy that they jumped on Max early and took the wind out of their sails. Crochet has not been dominant lately and I was concerned about 4 days of rest. His performance was huge.

As someone who believes an everyday player is more valuable than any one starting pitcher I have to say this is an interesting thought and one I had not considered. But IMO you really have to look at the number of games a player affects to judge their value. When you only play in 32 of 164 it's a hard argument to make IMO. The argument that a DH should not win it or get in the HOF because he plays no defense can be utilized on pitchers as well. Only instead of only playing offense they only play defense.

Story and the rest of the team has had such a strange defensive season. They make a ton of errors which are killers but they also make a lot of tough plays. Now compare that to the Yankees, from what I have seen they just don't make plays that can be made and look really sloppy a lot of the time. What fun these games are now. I was in favor of the expanded playoffs because more teams are in the playoff race and so many games are huge right now. I had always thought the Tigers series would be different, figured they'd be playing out the string with backups. Now those will be playoff games and great fun to watch. We need the Crochet we have seen all season, not the Crochet we've seen recently.