Hitch

I thought we may have been nearing peak insanity yesterday, but I must say I am enjoying this idea that our now cataclysm (8-10) of a start is down to a soft generation and collective-is-better mindset. No word on how this new observation exists in a universe in which the same aged players from the same generation are winning, but with some luck there'll be another blowout tonight and we'll get to see just how far we can ride this pony!

He's 5'7 I believe. Not ideal, but I also believe Casas' height is helping him none right now and we might need to start thinking creatively soon.

By all reports they tried often to trade him but couldn't get the price they wanted. I've never understood the love for Casas, but he's ours now either way. His trade value is nothing. Can't break out of a slump unless you're played I guess.

But surely, the data tells you on 2 strikes to shorten the swing and get the ball in play? That's about as much a percentage shoe-in as you can get you'd think? Yet for whatever reason, we just are not doing it. The strike outs are ugly beyond the numbers. They're flat out ugly looking, too. It's fair to raise questions about how the team is being coached. It's difficult to imagine that the players are being told over and over to shorten swings and do different things, just to not when they play. But who knows.

Grissom has been playing 2B down there hasn't he? I'd like to see him get reps at 1st. I could definitely get behind Yoshi at 1st base if he can handle it.

If the posters approach your door with news about a long lost uncle tonight... I'd sit this one out.

Fantastic post. Might read again.

You've talked yourself into us needing to trade Duran to bring up two kids (how you get to the point of trading him out of that list you've mentioned above is beyond me but there we go). And you seem to be basing a lot of this on the fact 'we looked better with the kids in the team in Spring Training'. Spring Training! Sorry that is just panicked, bordering on insane, thinking, We're in mid April. 17 games in. 1.5 behind in the standings despite the world ending apparently. Just take a breath and let a bit of time play out. Anthony will likely come up when they'll no longer have a problem service time wise . Mayer might, too, though he doesn't have an open spot to play right now and is hitting 567 OPS in his first dozen games in AAA. This idea that they will inject everything this team needs and suddenly everyone will hit with RISP, lower strikeouts, and give better-at-bats is so counter-productive. The minute they struggle (and God forbid if they struggle out the gate as a great deal of prospects do), they'll get hammered and the complaints will start about us needing to have traded them, and prospects hardly ever work out, and Will Middlebrooks/Yoán Moncada/yada yada yada. Let's not build the pressure up too much on these kids in which a fanbase exists that is already utterly lacking in patience (and I don't blame them to a degree after the last few years - but Jesus!)

The thing is, I get the frustration. I definitely think there's legit reasons to question a few things - our hitting with RISP has been utterly abysmal for what feels like two years, we're striking out a lot, and we seem to have gone quite a way away from the team that grinds out bats and wears out the SP - now whether these are simply player or coach issues is hard to say (and too reductive), but it's fair to question this stuff. But the absolute assurance some people post things with as if known fact is hard to stomach, especially when they're just pulling it from their ass. It's mid April. People are expecting perfection already. The game threads are a tough read. To say the least. I think taking a few days off watching the team would do a lot of people some good.

I second this proposal. Until I find out I'm one of the people getting the call and being sent down, and thus forced to slap Tim Anderson across the face.

How do you know they are way too comfortable with weak performances? Don't make the mistake of watching a highly edited and stylistic documentary series and thinking you know them intimately. You can trust me on this, I've just made one of these series (my 3rd), and things get left on the cutting floor that would utterly change your mind on what so you're so sure of now. People have really got their heads up their arses over this (admittedly) not amazing start. People need to chill out. Half the players should be demoted or traded and all the staff should be sacked off if we took a consensus of Sox fans this past week. Lunacy.

There are clearly a few issues that are concerning the longer they carry on (if they do) but I swear more and more fans somehow completely forget what baseball can be like at the start of every ST and the panic is setting in earlier and earlier. Trading Duran (for who? for what?) to fit in two untested kids is right up there.

Yes, I broke my own golden rule of small samples mean nothing after that feelgood day. That said, I'm not worried about this team at all. They're going to be fine.

Yes, the money will continue to go up for sure. Which makes the contracts we've dished out all the better recently.

Indeed. Feels very positive at the major and minor levels right now.

Makes me think more and more that it was likely the adjustment to being DH and all the fuss around him in the summer, rather than it being a shoulder issue.

Those two wins felt huge yesterday for different reasons. The late come-from-behind win. The big bats booming. Willy continuing to be the greatest player the sport has ever seen, the fans were into it, the team was loving it. Felt like the real launch of our season.

I'm more than fine being nowhere near that contract for Vlady. Crazy money. There's no guarantee the LT will still be a thing after the next negotiations, but if it is we've made plenty of smart moves recently.

Love the additional pick and money this deal has brought. Would have been happy if it had just been that. I do like cut of Breslow's jib.

I get exhausted just thinking about your continued need to type bres-slow.

Sure but he's hardly played. If this continues, then yes, he's a big as bust. If he plays it'll be merely disappointing.

He would have to be near useless for the remainder to be that bad I think.

Breslow looks great to me. Good mix of smart analytic's guy with being a player and already lived the life of a player. Also, decisive. I don't give a damn on the people we missed out on, I'm just glad we got him.

I could live with that when Mayer comes up even if he would be a pricey UTIL. Alongside Hamilton and (possibly eventually Rafaela when Anthony comes up) that's a lot of high quality, athletic coverage.

Campbell gave comments to the Athletic yesterday that Story was who he turned to when he was struggling in ST and he helped calm him down and get him on the right track again. When are rightly obsessed with stats and analytics, but sometimes there's things that don't show up that we forget about. Story is a good clubhouse guy and great for the kids alongside Bregman.