Maxbialystock

To Breslow's great credit, he did bring in Crochet, Bregman, and the absolute bargain of the year, Narvaez.

You know, I hope, that I have said the same thing about 2021 and Cora many times and specifically pointed to the "roster he was handed." Cora kept the Sox almost (but not quite) respectable while JH and CB were sabotaging them. And Breslow just might be as bad as CB when you consider that dumping Sale and acquiring Giolito are the primary reasons why the Sox didn't make the postseason last year and probably won't again this season. Sale won the Cy Young for the Braves last year and this year would still be our second best pitcher/starter after Crochet. Giolito was actually better last year when he never pitched than this year with his 6.42 ERA and -0.5 WAR.

Meh. Last night was supposed to be a good pitching matchup and was anything but. Final score, 10-7. I'm glad Crochet went 6 innings, but he did give up 5 runs, including a 3 run dinger in the 1st.

Then turn the sound off or listen to the calls from the NESN radio crew.

Yes he should, and I said that weeks ago. The "Devers situation" was not messy until Breslow put his foot in his mouth. Cora had Devers committed to the DH position, where he has hit the best in his 9 year career. Moreover, replacing Casas at 1b was a piece of cake, as both Toro and Gonzalez have demonstrated.

Right off the top of my old bald head, I'd say dumping Sale and picking up Giolito are the primary reasons why the Sox didn't make the postseason last year and probably won't this year. I've heard all the explanations and excuses, but the fact is that the Braves made Breslow look like an idiot, especially paying Sale's salary when he played for the Braves last season. Sale is doing pretty well this season--better than anyone on the Sox not named Crochet--but is probably not in the Cy Young hunt.

Nonsense. The numbers don't lie, but can be misunderstood. First and foremost, the two most important skills a MLB team has are hitting and pitching. Defense is well back from those because--wait for it--the best team fielding percentage in MLB is 99% and the worst one is 98%. That difference is miniscule, even though I agree every error can be painful and some even cost games. When looking at a team's defense, it's better to look at the individual DWAR's of the players. When you do, you find out that our catcher Narvaez, rightfielder Abreu, centerfielder Rafaela, and thirdbaseman Bregman are all well above average. Plus Duran in LF and Story at SS are slightly above average. The two problems are 1b and 2b. Also, did you know that the Sox lead MLB in total chances, putouts, and are 5th in assists? They are also ranked 4th in turning double plays. I agree the sign stealing was bad, but it's not as though other teams haven't done it, and that certainly includes Pedroia and our Sox. More to the point, MLB looked at the case and determined being banned from MLB for a year was the right punishment. I doubt that Cora has ever bragged about what the Astros did. Right now the Sox are not 4 games under .500 because of the defense. Hitting and pitching are far and away the most important skills in MLB, and the Sox team ERA is ranked 22d in MLB and the hitting (runs scored) 6th.

Cora was dead right and Brez dead wrong. AS I have said too often, replacing Casas, who was having a terrible year, was the easiest thing in the world. Thus not one, but two Sox--Toro and Gonzalez--have been better than Casas, who absolutely, positively is not missed. So why did Bres think it necessary to bypass his manager and go to Devers directly for what we now realize--and I realized when it happened--was a stupid move? One more time. Replacing Casas was a no brainer. So was leaving Devers as the DH. Thus my theory that Breslow was throwing up a smokescreen, which actually worked for awhile. In fact, there are still plenty of talksoxers who think Devers is a malcontent for embracing the DH position that his manager told him to do. Meanwhile, the Sox biggest weakness, pitching, goes to the back burner because it's more fun to blame Devers than to try to fix the pitching.

True. To me that makes Breslow's bypassing Cora to get Devers to play 1b idiotic. The same mind that did that also paid Sale's salary with the Braves, where he won the Cy Young award, and replaced him with $20 x 2= $40M Giolito, who has been a disaster. I have a sneaking suspicion Breslow made a big deal about moving Devers to 1b to deflect our attention from the fact that this season's pitching is awful--in part because of the Giolito for Sale deals 18 months ago. And it kind of succeeded because for weeks the headlines were that Devers was a no good, low down malcontent--while the Sox pitching got worse and worse and is now ranked 22d in MLB in ERA.

Heckuva win. This time our ace gave up 5 runs, including a 3 run dinger in the 1st, but it was the Sox who came back with 10 big runs, including 5 in the 3d and 2 in the 10th. Gonzalez played 1b and went 3/4 with a dinger and 2 rbi's, but Cora had Mayer pinch-hit in the 9th. He singled and scored 1 of 2 runs to make the margin 3 runs instead of 1. Plus Mayer replaced Toro at 3b and Toro moved to 1b to replace Gonzalez. But we all know Cora is clueless as a manager, which he proves time and time again whenever a Sox pitcher gives up more runs than our boobirds thinks he should have. Yankees starter Yarborough was having a great season until tonight. He gave up 8 runs, 1 more than he had in the prior 7 games and 30.2 IP. Are the bats coming to life despite the absence of Bregman? In their last 5 games (3 vs Angels and 2 @ Yankees) the Sox have scored 6, 3, 11, 6, and 10 = 36 runs.

Devers is having his best season in large part because Cora sold him on being the full-time DH and is batting him 2d--and you're not happy with that?

Could not agree more. Why he started Crochet, who gave up 5 bigs runs, is beyond me. Oh, wait. Crochet is the Sox ace and the Yankees clobbered him. The Yankees scored 16 runs in 2 games and you want to blame the manager?

The Sox have become more cautious recently. Also fewer SB attempts. Kind of hard to fault them tonight when the beat the Yankees by scoring 10 runs, don't you think?

Nope. Devers was bumped out of a position he had played for 8 straight seasons, so Cora convinced him to embrace DH, where he was flourished with the 2d most rbi's in MLB and an OPS, .922, that's his best in 9 seasons. Oh, and he has committed zero errors on defense. Breslow is the idiot in this little drama for thinking replacing Casas was a big deal. In fact, Toro's OPS right now is 280 points higher than Casas' was.

I like coaching and expertise, but not when they are in error, which seems to be the case.

Devers didn't like being replaced at 3b, where he has played for 8 years. But Cora got him to embrace DH, where he has flourished. The whiner is Breslow, who stupidly said he wanted Devers to move to 1b.

Management, specifically Breslow, made it an issue. There was no valid reason to move Devers to 1b. None. Casas stunk at 1b with an OPS of .580. Toro's is .847. Devers is not only having his best season ever at bat, he has made zero errors in the field. Breslow was an idiot.

Meh. First they took 3b away from him--only the position he had played for 8 straight seasons--and then Cora persuaded him to embrace the DH position, which he did. Then Breslow gets a wild hair up his whatever and bypasses his manager to ask Devers directly to take over at 1b. And he did that after Devers had adapted and in fact was flourishing at DH. Plus, and I've only said this a zillion times, replacing Casas was an absolute no-brainer because he stunk with a WAR of -0.7. Anyone would be better, which is in fact what has happened. Toro's OPS is .847, which is what we were hoping Casas would do, but couldn't. When he was hurt, his OPS was .580. Meanwhile Devers hasn't missed a game thanks to being the DH and has one less rbi than the MLB leader with 57. And his OPS is .922, his best ever, and his defense is error-free. Breslow was/is an idiot to think moving Devers to 1b was a good idea.

What does "POSTS" mean?

Tell me again why fWAR is better than WAR.

Completely agree--a thoughtful discussion of DD.

Fascinating. I had no idea Cora is vocal about Rafaela's mistakes. I'm sure he's right, but right now Rafaela has the second best WAR on the team, 2.4. Only Bregman's is higher, 3.0, and he's out, so Rafaela's is in fact the highest. Duran's WAR is 1.2 and he is 4 years older that Rafaela. On the other hand, even Jack Nicholson knows you have to hit the cutoff man.

Hope. I feel the same way.

Utter nonsense. 2020 was a nonseason plus Cora had good reason to stay away from the Sox and not jeopardize his chances to return to MLB.

Fantastic job by the bullpen today--2 runs in 7.1 IP. 2 rbi's each by Abreu, Toro, Rafaela, and Hamilton. Rafaela's OPS just sneaked into the 700's.