Maxbialystock

Of course he's more comfortable in CF. It's easier. And maybe he will hit better while playing CF. But that doesn't mean he isn't still the best Sox SS this season and where he should play this season. I think playing Duran in LF is a waste even though I think he makes the catch Ref didn't tonight which cost the 2d run.

Too valuable to be sent down. He is the best Sox SS right now and the best centerfielder. Plus he's a righty batter facing mostly righty pitchers. I'm not sure the minors can teach him how to see and hit MLB pitching.

I think Pivetta showed a ton of heart getting through 6 innings and giving up 2 runs. Skulak, however, is just as tough as advertised. But at 2-1 it's still a great game and one the Sox could win.

That was a wicked changeup Skubal used to K Gonzalez.

Home plate ump is doing pretty well so far. He might be favoring the pitchers, but that's fine with me. Devers remains hitless in Detroit.

We are just 3 innings, and the score is 2-1, Tigers, but it's been an excellent game to watch. If Ref catches that catchable fly to LF, the game is score is 1-1. So your prediction looks pretty good so far.

Enough. Let's just agree I'm the pissant and you're the expert. I don't know the numbers, but my guess is that most double plays for a major league team involve the 2d baseman. And double plays are a pitcher's best friend. Good double play tandems need to be artists as well as fielders/throwers because tenths of a second count.

You are dead right, of course. That also shoots big holes in all my ranting and raving about Breslow dumping Sale and signing Giolito. Sale was injured, first with the elbow in 2019 and subsequent tommy john, then by a vicious bicycle. Plus one other injury. But then, guess what? He freaking recovered. And, because of the tommy john, his arm was younger than the 35 years of the rest of him. His last 3 starts in 2023 were pretty good. I think Mookie is prototypical of the kind of player who can avoid injuries, but that pitch nailed him and that was it. Story, on the other hand, was just diving for a grounder. And Casas was just swinging at a pitch. But now Casas is swinging again and swinging pretty well. Story is a story worth following--this season.

Sox OPS's vs lefties-- O'Neill 1.082 Gasper 1.000 Ref .912 Gonzalez .911 Wong .875 Jansen .829 Casas .754 Devers .718 Duran .695 Rafaela .694 Yoshida .610

Not much of a surprise to see Wong and Jansen in the lineup together with Wong at 2b. Cora's got 6 righty bats: everyone but Duran, Devers, and Casas, the three lefty bats I would have gone with. Thanks to moonslav who, as always, could not resist sticking in a hopeful comment.

With this new format the game threads grow shorter and shorter, which I don't think is a good thing. The dismaying thing about last night's win is that the Tigers, ranked 19th in runs scored, aren't that good offensively, but still scored 5 freaking runs off the bullpen after Houck pitched 6 scoreless innings. So, even if the Sox hitters perk up and get some hits and runs off lefty Skubal, Pivetta and the bullpen's largesse could give the Tigers the win. I can't say the Sox are in the hunt for the postseason, not with the way they've been playing lately, but I can't say they are out of it either. The Twins and especially the Royals are going to be hard to catch. It does not help that Hamilton is probably out for the season and that Devers' shoulders may have reduced his effectiveness. It is not a good sign that Yoshida had to be benched so that Devers could DH, especially when Devers went 0 for 5. Sogard at 3b was essentially fielding for Devers--probably an improvement--but hitting for Yoshida, a big step down.

This thread continues to be a good discussion of the Sox future (and past). I think just about everyone agrees pitching is the problem and that a good starter--or two--is/are needed ASAP. Plus 2 or more good bullpen arms. moonslav has pointed out the Sox could do some of that this offseason and still stay below the $241M threshold. I think he said around $60M or $80M would be available. The problem, as is universally agreed upon here on talksox, is with the owner John Henry. Somewhere around 2019 he seems to have put his foot down and insisted, "no more with the big bucks for great arms that go sour." In his defense--and I'm the only one defending him these days--the 2019 Sox not only had the highest payroll in MLB, they had a CBO, David Dombrowski, who was and is excellent, but who back then needed a lot more money to keep Mookie Betts from the Dodgers and to replace Price and Sale while still paying them $40M/year or whatever it was. That was then. Price is long gone, and this is the last year of paying Sale ($17M) for not pitching for the Sox. Unfortunately, however, the brand new CBO, a Yale man with 12 years MLB pitching experience, dumped Sale to the Braves for whom he is a Cy Young candidate, and signed Giolito for $19M/year, the first year of which was/is money down the drain. Moreover, Breslow did little too improve the 2024 Sox over last season. The rotation--especially Houck, Crawford, Bello, and Pivetta--are all guys from last year, and most of the bullpen is too. Same goes for the lineup. And don't forget Cora, who was just re-signed for 3 years and $21M. So, while I agree with all of you who insist the Sox need to invest much more in arms and maybe even a bat or two, I'm still mindful that neither Breslow (so far) nor Bloom inspired much confidence--and that John Henry came into Sox ownership more than willing to underwrite a payroll that for almost 20 seasons was in the top 3 in MLB.

Pessimism is one thing, but you have gone beyond that. So I can only imagine your grave disappointment when the Sox won tonight. I was thrilled. I was greatly disappointed when Bernardino gave up the 3 run dinger, but not overly surprised when Kelsey gave up the tying run. Then the Sox made a great comeback in the 9th and Martin got a nice save/win.

Meh. You are about as pure a pessimist as we have on talksox. The Apollo 13 guys don't make it back if you are on it or back in Mission Control in Houston. If you were MacArthur when we made it all the way to the Yalu River in October 1950, we get pushed all the way back to the 38th parallel. Oh, wait.

There have been some pretty bad ones in the past--and I only go back 8 years--but in the past year or two I've seen very few. There are several I consider to be negative or unduly pessimistic, but that's not the same. If that's because of mvp 78, good for him.

A semi-perfect game for the Sox. Good pitching and good defense and a couple of nice singles Plus they kept things close even though they never had a prayer of winning. And they end up losing the 5 game series to Toronto. The Royals lost and the Twins didn't play.

Tonight's game is an example of what the Sox might look like if Breslow will aggressively pursue that really good defensive team so many on talksox are clamoring for,. We would relish seeing no errors by the good guys, but also no runs. The pitching stuff would love it too. And JH might be happy because good glove/sarms with weak bats come cheap.

Ah, yes. The genius of the English language. We are so lucky.

Not the young guys, especially the ones having good seasons.

Ouch. Got me. But RBI just doesn't work for me as a plural noun. I was an English P for 3 years.

Sogard has the Sox only hit.

I think the Sox plate discipline might be OK, but Rafaela has never had any. Casas has excellent plate discipline.

We can, however, be pretty sure this weak Sox hitting is not because Devers is out. Nope. I read it right here on talksox that his having the 8th best OPS in MLB is just a bunch of hooey because he isn't driving in enough runs (even though heads the Sox in rbi's).

Sogard singles off a pitch in the dead center of the strike zone.

He hasn't just pitched to Vlad, he's given him fat pitches. Most of Crawford's pitches have been near the middle of the strike zone. Francis has hit more corners, but has still given the Sox pitches to hit. Abreu's last at bat was class. He took two strikes, then swung at a pitch well below the zone--and he had the righty vs lefty advantage.