Maxbialystock

Name the 15-20 games "that a bad defensive play or two led to the deciding amount of runs to score against us." I've looked and can't find them. And please do not claim that 90% fielding percentage and 30% hitting percentage are not drastically different. 90% fielding percentage is actually low because good fielding percentages are closer to 97%, 98%, or even 99%. Rafaela leads the Sox in errors and his is 97%. Devers has a negative DWAR and his is 96%. Duran's is 98%. Meanwhile, it turns out that 30% is actually high because no one on the Sox is hitting 30% (.300). Duran, Devers, Yoshida, and Ref are all at 29% (.290). Here are the batting averages of the ten Sox with 82 or more games this season: Duran .293, Rafaela .260, Devers .292, Abreu .267, Wong .283, Hamilton .254, O'Neill .262, Smith .237, Refsnyder .289.

About the defense. Yes, it's horrible this year--the very worst in MLB in terms of errors and unearned runs--and what moonslav calls runs caused by non-errors which were, however, bad plays. That said, however, almost every MLB roster breaks down into 13 pitchers and 13 lineup players. The pitchers contribute exactly nothing to the offense. Moreover, only one of them is on the mound at a time. So, if you want a good defense, it makes sense to develop good pitching. And, funny thing about defense which is consistently ignored on talksox and by moonslav himself, is that the worst fielders have fielding percentages above 90 %. On the other hand, those same fielders rarely can get a hit 30% of the time they come to bat--and, at the same time those fielders are the only players on the team who can get hits, sac flies, etc and score runs. Hitting is so important these days there are a zillion stats related to how well and how often that round bat hits a round ball squarely. FWIW I love great defense. It's the real poetry of baseball. I hated it when the Sox dumped Jose Iglesias in the 2013 season to pick up another starter, Peavy. But that actually paved the way for Xander Bogaerts--solid hitter, so-so defensive SS--to become the Sox starting SS for 9 freaking seasons.

A fair point. However, what makes the budget really dire this year is the Sox paying Sale $17M as the ace for the Braves and signing Giolito for $19M/year while he recovers from elbow surgery. Breslow made those deals, presumably with the support of the head shed. And let's not forget that the Sox budget/payroll (now $189M for 2024), is larger than Arizona's $175M--that's the team the NESN announcers raved about last weekend--the Twins $130M, KC's $119M, Cleveland's $107M, and Baltimore's $108M. John Henry, the presumptive cheapskate villain in this sad little tale is also the Sox owner who kept the payroll in the top three in MLB for close to 20 years, during which the Sox won 4 freaking WS titles when, with three rounds of playoffs (ALDS, ALCS, and WS), it was especially hard to win the World Series. He even went out and hired the biggest freespender CBO in MLB, David Dombrowski, who put together the best Sox team ever for the 2018 season--108 wins in the regular season, then beating the Yankees 3-1 in the ALDS, the Astros 4-1 in the ALCS, and the Dodgers 4-1 in the WS. However, that 2018 greatest ever Sox team became the also-ran 2019 Sox despite still having the biggest payroll in MLB. On top of that, DD needed a whole bunch more cash, over and above the biggest payroll in MLB, to outbid the Dodgers for Mookie Betts and find a couple more starters to replace Price and Sale--while still paying their big salaries. Don't get me wrong, I agree completely that the Sox need to spend more, especially on pitchers. But wouldn't it be nice if those additional funds were spent intelligently?

moonslav does do that. In fact, I did not know about the girl. I didn't like Clemens for breaking the rules, but this is much worse. He is slime.

There's a lovely symmetry to it all, especially tonight's game with lousy hitting, lousy defense, and lousy pitching to make it 5 straight losses. If that isn't enough, the talksox name is gone, along with the talksox format. But, heck, like a bunch of others I had to leave boston.com--and talksox has proven to be a better site.

You're right, of course. But I'm in a crappy mood, and I don't much like Jansen.

I'm sorry, but saying "enshrined in baseball history' is just stupid. It's an accident and completely meaningless. Nothing is achieved.

When the game started, it looked like a sparse "crowd."

Indeed. The Diamondbacks do not have a good pitching staff, and they owned the Sox lineup. And now the Jays own them. Duran just hit a solo dinger for the Sox only run, and the NESN team acted like it was a game winner.

We are in trouble without you.

There are games this season when our lefty batters act as though they've read the "book" that says they can't hit lefty pitchers and act as though they believe it.

Duran and especially Hammond could hardly have looked worse in their first at bats.

Thanks for the reminder about the Sox announcers. I don't listen to them, but did read about what they said. And I thank you and others for telling me what jerks they were/are. My guess is it was there asinine way of defending the Sox. I root for the Sox relentlessly, but I try not to excuse them when they don't measure up.

Good points. I have jibed constantly at Story because of his absences/injuries, but I do think letting Bogaerts go was the right move and that theoretically a good defensive SS who can also hit (but not as well) made sense. Overall, the lineup half of the roster is in pretty good shape right now. But the pitching is a mess, largely because the Sox brain trust don't know the first thing about developing or evaluating pitching talent.

Hard enough to find talksox.com. Having found it, navigating the site is also a chore. On top of that, the Sox are in a tailspin after abasing themselves before the visiting Diamondbacks. They were/are, in a word, snakebitten. How bad was it? The Sox pitching gave up 23 runs in 3 games, which actually wasn't that surprising given how bad they are and how good the Diamondbacks hitting is (best in MLB by a big margin). The surprise was the Sox hitting, just 8 runs in 3 games against a pitching staff ranked 25th in MLB.

Today is a good day to talk about the booth and not the game.

You were saying?

I don't listen any more, so I really shouldn't be commenting.

Both are idiots with nary an insight between them.

Nobody has a bullpen remotely as bad ours. The signature game of this season is having to score 12 runs to squeak in a 12-10 win over the Orioles. There is almost no lead the bullpen can't/won't give away.

Prophetic. Simple fact is, Houck stinks today. I stand by my statement that a loss today pretty much ends this season for the Sox. And there's nothing particularly insightful about that. The bullpen stinks, period.

I unfailingly mention Barry's PED's and Pete's gambling, which he did while managing a MLB team. However, I believe I'm correct in saying that on MLB.com you can see advertisements for betting on MLB games. It's still forbidden for players, managers, coaches, etc, so to me it's just wrong for MLB to be pushing gambling on games.

Excellent OP by moonslav, whose analysis of the Sox current situation is spot on. The Diamondbacks, as reported in the Friday night game thread, came in hot as hot can be. They have terrific hitting and lead MLB by a bunch in runs scored--35 more than the #2 Yankees. And to my eyes their pitching in both games looked pretty good even though their team ERA is ranked a really lousy 25th. Good pitching usually trumps good hitting and the Diamondbacks just stomped the Sox into the ground in both games. I honestly don't think being at Fenway had anything to do with those two decisive wins. moonslav is dead right that the Sox need to make a stand--now. And, as optimistic as I've tried to be this season, largely because I think these players deserve our support, it's overwhelmingly apparent the bullpen is the Sox achilles heel. To me the signature game was actually a win, 12-10 in Baltimore. What could have been more revealing of how weak the bullpen is? Today is going to one more good test because Houck is our best starter and the Diamondbacks' Kelly doesn't look like much. If the Diamondbacks win, I think the Sox season ends today.

The Sox could no more afford Bogaerts--and you are dead wrong he would take less money in Boston than in San Diego--than they could Mookie. Also, who the heck cares? Bogey couldn't save this team, even in his best years, because eh can't pitch. Without Bogey and without Mookie and without JDM (in his good years), this Sox team is ranked 5th in MLB in runs scored. \This 2024 Sox team can hit and score runs. They just can't pitch.

Before yesterday's game, several people commented that the Diamondbacks are hot--and tough. I wasn't so sure. I was wrong.