Maxbialystock

Agree. To his enduring credit, he kept at it despite ongoing pain, especially, when fouling off pitches.

Terrific stats. Peerless.

I'm fine with Duran in CF and Rafaela in RF because both have speed/range. Sox Prospects says Rafaela has a plus arm and Duran an average arm. Plus Abreu/Ref in LF makes sense. This year I prefer Rafaela at SS because of his better range and better arm. No one else could have made that play he did deep in the hole today. Plus Duran is comfortable in CF and has pretty close to the same range. To me it is just stupid to put Duran in LF and Hamilton @ SS--except that Cora will do that to get as many lefty bats in the lineup as possible.

Well put. We all hope exactly that and moonslav has proposed it relentlessly.

I mostly did as well. Criswell does not have good stuff, but it worked today. Verlander gave up 2 early runs, but then got nasty. Thus the Sox led 2-1 when the bullpens took over and the Sox bullpen was miraculously unscored upon for the 2d straight game. Also impressive are the Sox ongoing ability to score runs. I absolutely did not expect Casas to be an asset early, but he is--hitting and catching throws to 1b.

Back to 2024, the topic of this thread. I think the last two series, 4 @ Baltimore and 3 and Houston, are very encouraging. The split with the Orioles, tied for best team in the AL, was terrific, and taking 2/3 @ Houston was even better because the Sox bullpen, our biggest weakness, was fantastic last night and again today. The #2 and #3 wild cards, KC and MN, are both playing at a 90 wins pace (.556 x 162 = 90). That's a pretty good standard for getting the wild card, but I think the Sox are capable of that. How so? Consider-- The Sox have 5 viable starters in Houck, Bello, Crawford, Pivetta, and Criswell (even though I thought Criswell was lucky as heck today). Just maybe the bullpen is viable. I loved that K by Bernardino to get THE GREAT ALVAREZ with the bases loaded and 2 outs today. The hitting is amazingly good, especially with Casas hitting like he did in April and despite Devers struggling this month. Sox are 4th in MLB in runs score and 3d in team OPS. With a whole bunch of no-names. The fielding is better than earlier this season. In the Houston series, our defense was demonstrably better than theirs. Best manager in MLB and one of the best pitching coaches. Between them they have compensated for an inexperienced CBO (who has done little to help the team) and an owner who no longer wants to underwrite a top 3 payroll.

Duran's WAR is now 7.3, 5th best in MLB. He is the driving force on this Sox team. He is the most valuable offensive and most valuable defensive player on the team. Now that he seems to be taking better routes, I think he's absolutely the best choice to play CF because that frees Rafaela to play SS, where I think he is clearly our best choice on defense. Any game in which Duran plays left field, especially left field at Fenway, is an unpardonable waste of talent.

Again, I disagree. The Sox have DFA'd, released, dumped, whatever Smith and McGuire and both contributed to this year's Sox team. I love having great players on the Sox, but sometimes OK is good enough. Apparently, the wretched trainwreck named Nunez was OK in 2018. Now and then he got a key hit. And you Grissom advocates keep sidestepping the fact that he's who we got for Chris freaking Sale while also paying Sale's $17M salary this year. And that happened in a season/offseason when it was obvious the Sox biggest weakness was pitching, not 2b.

Then we disagree. The 2018 team was the best Sox team ever with an absolutely dreadful second baseman. I thought of Nunez as a saboteur. The 2021 Sox made it to the ALCS--which makes them better than the 2016 and 2017 Sox teams everyone incorrectly raves about--and that year a cast of thousands tried out for the 2b job. Iglesias turned out to be the best, but only played 23 games.

One heckuva win!!! Plus the series. Plus beating Verlander. Plus an outstanding pitching job by Criswell and the bullpen--supported by excellent Sox defense. Now back to the Fens and a day of rest.

Devers OPS was .919 in May, 1.015 in June, 1.132 in July, and so far .808 in August. So whoever said maybe the shoulder is having an effect on him could be right. And of course I was wrong.

I wouldn't label Rafaela "clutch," but am fine with "good and should get better." That play he made deep in the hole was fantastic. I would keep him at SS the rest of the season and Hamilton at 2b. If Story returns, I'd definitely play Story at 2b or SS, whatever Cora decides. Casas has surprised the heck out of me with his hitting and fielding. I regret calling him out for missing that popup near the stands. I say again for the umpteenth time, it's the no-names on this team who are making a difference. I get to call Duran "no-name" because that's what he was when the season started. So are Wong, Abreu, Rafaela, Hamilton O'Neill, Ref, Yoshida, Gonzalez, Jansen (catcher). Also Smith, whom you praised. Even McGuire, who was devastated when he was DFA'd. I cannot remember a Sox team or season with so many "no-names" contributing so much. Houck, Crawford, Pivetta, Bello, and Criswell are also well within the "no-names" circle.

You could be right, but my view is that they built a pretty good team. The sign-stealing was terrible, but we also know the Sox did some of that too--led by Pedroia.

Nice story. Good guy. His age and salary this season are astounding.

Also well said.

Sensible.

I'm a doubter too. Too many folks over-rate the 2b position, which this year has been adequate, especially after Valdez went back to Worcester. The best Sox team ever, 2018, had freaking Nunez (WAR -1.4) at second base. In other words, Breslow gave up a great starter, Sale, in return for a worthless second baseman he didn't need in the first place--on a team whose fundamental shortfall/need is pitching, pitching, and more pitching. And, yes, I agree we could not be sure in 2023 that Sale would be good in 2024. Nevertheless, keeping him--especially since we're paying his salary anyway--was better than giving him away.

Honestly, I recall zero f-bombs from you. All I can remember are your insights. Of course, I've been saying f-bombs out loud for over 60 years, as has my wife.

I think the specifics can always be debated, but your OP lays down what I think is a reasonable approach. Be willing to give up good prospects to get good pitching. And right now the Sox have pretty solid hitting overall and next year could have that plus decent infield defense and still trade away good prospects. Right now a blind man can see the Sox lineup is way more talented than the pitching staff. But both groups own 13 slots on the roster and therefore are equally important. The 2024 Sox are unbalanced and should be rebalanced, if doable, this offseason.

I use freaking a lot. But I don't mind foul language now and then. My suggestion is to wait another week or two to make your own assessment because you are far more expert in other MLB blog sites than any of us. I think we would follow your lead.

Our perspectives differ for obvious reasons. Tomorrow is Criswell vs. some 41 years old guy named Verlander. Plus he's a righty. Sox by a touchdown.

Your medical knowledge is far better than mine. But I'm pretty sure the Sox have access to enough medical expertise to make good decisions about whether to keep a player on the active roster. Right now I think they all want to play. McGuire is especially bitter because he got booted off. Smith probably feels that way too. But so do Devers, Duran, Abreu, Wong, Rafaela, Hamilton, Casas, O'Neill, Refsnyder, et al. Maybe not all the guys in the bullpen, however. For them, Madame Defarge is sittin' and knittin' right behind the Sox dugout. Because--my opinion--we Sox fans have been spoiled rotten by John Henry, we now have a powerful sense of entitlement. That means outbidding the far wealthier Dodgers for Mookie Betts. It means one of the top three payrolls in MLB. And it means regular excursions the Postseason and winning the WS about every 5th season.

Nope. A great win. A much needed win in a very exciting game. Pivetta was pretty lousy, but he went 5 IP and left the game when it was a 5-5 ties. The bullpen, which I have excoriated repeatedly, was fantastic tonight. 4 IP, 0 runs. And right now you have the winning mojo, so feel free to start the next game thread anytime between now and 11 am tomorrow (your rule).

He absolutely did. He struck out the first guy with that same junky stuff he threw tonight. Opposing managers should be reporting Jansen to the police for grand theft of ball games. And he's getting away with it with the umps checking his glove, his hands, and goodness knows what else. Kojii Uehara was much, much better in 2013, but the one thing both these guys had/have is absolutely no fear. The dinger last night was off the first pitch to the second Astros batter in the 9th. The mystery is why that doesn't happen half the freaking time. Credit to Cora and especially Breslow for keeping Jansen in Boston.

I think bringing Casas back was dicey because his injury was from swinging a bat and he reported he is still feeling pain when he fouls pitches off. But can there be any freaking doubt doing so was the right move? I hasten to add that's the same reason for keeping Devers around. It is still too soon to start checking these Sox players pockets for loose change. I did, however, just get a text message from Devers, Rafaela, Hamilton, and Casas who jointly apologize for not making errors tonight so that all the talksox boobirds could whistle their favorite tune.