Maxbialystock

My guess--and that's all it is--is that Whitlock needs to focus on being good at just 2 or 3 pitches. Most relievers get by with 2, but both have to be effective pitches.

Sure looks that way.

Someone else wrote a neat article about why neither Cora nor Breslow is expendable. I agree managers are hired to be fired and that a lousy team is a good excuse for doing so. On the other hand, I also think Cora is a terrific manager and perfect for this season. Does anyone on here know where the Sox team ERA is ranked? Anyone? It's 23d out of 30 teams. And the blame for that rests entirely with Breslow and somewhat with CB before him and of course with JH the owner. Plus 15 games ago Cora lost his best player and hitter for maybe 2 months. The Sox were 26-26 after Bregman's last game on May 23d. Since then they are 6-9 without him. But they are now 3-3 in their last 6 and took 2/3 against the AL East leading Yankees. Right now the Sox are winning primarily with their hitting, and it's not just 1 or 2. Practically the entire lineup has contributed. What strikes me about the lineups these days is Cora's willingness to change lineups and to use the bench, which we saw yet again tonight. Subs Gonzalez and Toro are now regulars because they are hitting. Same goes for Narvaez, who has displaced Wong. Cora likes Abreu in RF, but lately Ref is starting against lefty starters (and pinch-hitting against lefty relievers). With the lead tonight, Abreu pinch hit for Ref and stayed in RF. I also think the defense is under-rated, especially on Talksox. The outfield is definitely above average, and so are 3b and catcher. Story is actually pretty reliable at SS even if he has less range. Tonight he took that pop fly away from Toro because he saw Toro was having trouble seeing the ball. He's very good on double plays--and the Sox are ranked 4th in MLB in double plays per game. So the only two real trouble spots are 2b and 1b. My guess is that 1b would be a lot worse if Raffy had taken it over. Toro and Gonzalez have both made good plays there.

You got that wrong, dead wrong. Cora told Raffy to embrace DH, which he did. When Casas went down, Cora wisely never asked Devers to play 1b, which has proven to be exactly the right decision. Breslow had his head up his whatever when he bypassed Cora to tell Raffy to play 1b.

In the bad days, the 86 years before the John Henry era, the Sox were known for their June swoon. Is it possible these Sox will do the opposite?

Just an amazing game and series vs the AL East-leading Yankees, whose pitching staff had the 4th best ERA in MLB before tonight and the 3d best before this series started. A dinger by Raffy, the most pilloried Sox player in decades. He is currently 2d in MLB in rbi's, 10th in OPS, and tied for the MLB lead in games played. In short, he has done nothing right because he preferred to be the DH vice 1b. And he did so because his manager told him to embrace the DH position. Raffy at 1b is demonstrably the wrong position for him this season. It was our sadly ignorant CBO who decided he knew better, which he absolutely did not.

Amen.

No more spoiled than Ted Williams, Manny Ramirez, and a bunch of other Sox stars we can both name. Williams was in fact very smart, an excellent combat pilot (Korean War), and a good manager. He loved baseball. But he also expected to be treated with deference. When the fans booed him, he remained anti-fan for the rest of his career. He did not tip his cap when he hit the dinger to end his career.

He was told where to play by his manager, who told him to embrace DH when it was clear Bregman would replace Devers at 3b (which Devers had played for 8 years). Breslow was dead wrong to bypass Cora-and this has been proven by what has happened--and try to force Devers to play 1b when he was already on his way to a career year as the DH.

The lineup went in the pit the day after Bregman got hurt. Now everyone is freaking hitting. I can't claim the turnaround is because of how Cora manages, but he sure as heck hasn't hurt them. Maybe Yankee Stadium is even more of a hitters ballpark than the Fens.

Who woulda thunk? Plus I happen to like his steady play at SS. And I especially like how he took command of that popup Toro was struggling with.

Why should he be? Seriously. He's hitting up a storm and two other players have been big improvements over Casas. There never was a problem when Casas got injured. In fact, I think Casas should get a bonus for making that ridiculous attempt to get to 1b. He made Gonzalez and Toro possible. And Cora stood his ground by not asking to Devers to play 1B. Why didn't he? Because he's a lot smarter and knows the players better than Breslow. I'm not sure "bitched" is the right word. Did Raffy tell Breslow he didn't want to play 1b and was fine as the DH? He sure did. But that ain't bitching. It's honesty. The only one I know of who indulged in grandstanding was Breslow when he went public with Raffy's refusal and even convinced JH to back him up with that silly trip to KC.

Once again we are seeing what a mess Breslow has created for Cora to manage. Dobbins was good, but he was picked by Bloom in the draft. Bregman was great, but he's back on the IL with the same injury he had 2-3 years ago. Turns out, it's risky for him to round first base. Crochet has been terrific, but last night it was the hitting that got that win after Crochet gave up 5 runs. Great play by Story!! He saw Toro had lost sight of the popup and called him off and made the catch himself.

I don't know if he still owns the record, but Billy Martin once had the most hits in a single World Series. He was a brilliant manager, but couldn't resist the demon rum.

Devers playing 1b after Casas went down would have been just stupid. Anyone could--and two (Toro and Gonzalez) have--do better than Casas was doing. His injury was a lucky break for the Sox. As a DH Devers is so far having a career year at the plate and has not missed a game. And Breslow tried his best to stop that nonsense. "Put him at first base so he can get injured, but not before he makes a bunch of errors." Breslow also dumped Sale in favor of Giolito.

He should have been pissed, but it's awfully hard to see eyes rolling.

Agree with whoever said Devers screwed up royally when he took himself out of possible infield hit. When you are the DH there is no excuse for not running hard on every hit ball.

I thought so too, but overall the homeplate ump has been kind to our Sox.

I can only imagine your disappointment that the Sox are still up by 2 after 6 innings. Lots more ball to watch and unalloyed griping to be done. Enjoy.

You're still here? When you promised not to watch the game any more after Judge's 2 run dinger? I get it, now. You're just on here to gripe. I was a Sox fan for 54 of the 86 year drought, so I earned the right to gripe--but in fact I'm grateful for the Sox in the John Henry era. This does not mean that I'm not astounded--because I am--at the Sox hitting in Yankee Stadium this weekend.

Last night Crochet gave up a 3 run dinger in the 2d inning and 5 runs in 6 IP. How did that turn out? To me the 2025 are not disgusting, awful, or unwatchable. What was that line from the Money Pit? The Tom Hanks character tells his fiancee "we have weak trees." Well, this year the Sox have weak arms.

Good rejoinder. Those 4 seasons (I don't count 2020) will cost Sale the HOF. That's too bad because to me he was the most professional starter I'd seen for the Sox. He didn't just have great stuff and command. He stayed focused and was great on defense. Yes, I'm guilty of hindsight. But reverse the roles and assume Breslow picked up a veteran starter who did what Sale did last year (and would still be our 2d best starter this year). Would we be saying Breslow was just blindly, stupidly lucky? Heck no. He would be the genius who singlehandedly made the Sox competitive again. We already rave about getting Narvaez from the Yankees and picking up two superb players in Breslow and Crochet. Instead, we lost Sale, picked up Giolito (for more money), and had lousy pitching last year and worse pitching this year. If you want to say the real culprit is JH, I won't disagree. But JH is also the guy who brought four WS titles to Boston.

I definitely want to keep Cora because he has been far more competent than the dipsticks above him. Someone said Breslow will be hard to replace, given JH's reputation at this point. So I guess I'm OK with that. I hear you on how everyone on talksox thought dumping Sale was smart, but guess what? The Braves were a whole lot smarter--and that is unarguable. Moreover, I now think that Giolito for Sale is what has prevented the Sox from getting to the postseason last year and probably this year. To me that's a pretty big deal.

Great point!! Nothing like the sounds of a baseball game and the crowd watching it. But in all honesty I think you only get those when you are part of the crowd.

You have no peer in laying down big assessments. Could you do the same for the Sox defense?