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Maxbialystock

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Everything posted by Maxbialystock

  1. Maxbialystock
    Sorry, but I disagree. In the entire JH era the two best Sox pitching staffs in terms of team ERA are 2007 and 2024. And 2024 is also the pitching staff most neglected by the Sox brain trust because they are paying Sale $17M to pitch for Atlanta and are paying Giolito, who at best will get a part season next year, $38M. They've had Jansen for two years, and last year the Sox pitching stunk with him, so he is not the difference maker you claim. This year Jansen's pitched 33.1 IP and is being paid $16M. Houck (117 IP), Crawford (112.2), Bello (89.2), Pivetta (75.1), Criswell (58), and Winck (41.1) have pitched 494 innings and are being paid a combined salary of I think $12M. If anything, Breslow did his level best to sabotage this year's pitching staff--except of course for insisting on a new pitching coach, who turned out to be Bailey, a gem who without question managed to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.
  2. Maxbialystock
    I'm fine however you want to define/describe Sale's time out between TJ surgery in 2020 and last season, 2023, when he had 20 starts. The point to me is that he didn't "use up" what the TJ surgery had given him. He simply took 4 years--2020-2023--to recover from it. And, when he did recover, he was good as new, or so the Braves thought last year and the Sox very clearly did not.
  3. Maxbialystock
    I think moonslav has made a decent case for playing Yoshida less. Mostly that's because other hitters are better and could fit easily into the DH slot. Nevertheless, there are several reasons to play him: 1) sunk costs; 2) he hit fine in Japan; 3) adjusting to both MLB and Boston, where everything written and spoken is opaque to him and where there are no other Japanese players on the team has to have been daunting; 4) elbow bothered him; 5) Cora has decided to play him; 6) His June 27-July 14 OPS is comfortably over .800, so maybe he is figuring things out.
  4. Maxbialystock
    Just to clarify something. While I'm more than happy to defend JH's reluctance to spend big, especially on pitchers, largely because of the incompetence of his brain trust, I agree with Cora and just about everyone on talksox that this Sox team has potential to make the postseason and they could use some reinforcements, especially pitchers--a starter and maybe 1 or 2 relievers. A good righty bat would also help.
  5. Maxbialystock
    I hear/read you, but my take is different. Mine is that TJ surgery has been wildly successful, so much so that kids get it. Sale showed signs of needing it as early as 2018 and certainly in 2019. He finally gets it and misses all of 2020 and almost all of 2021 and 2022. Finally, he gets 20 starts and 102.2 IP in 2023 and demonstrated that, if he can stay healthy, he can be effective. The point is, that all those missed seasons--2020, 2021, and 2022--were the result of TJ surgery recovery and the bicycle accident in ST. What the Sox lost sight of was that by itself TJ surgery had given Sale a whole new life as a starter, once he had recovered and then once he got past the bicycle injury. Both the Sox and the Braves had every opportunity to evaluate Sale in 2023, when he had the 20 starts, and they reached opposing conclusions. The Braves saw potential and the Sox saw a dead man walking. Braves smart, Sox dumb. I invariably read your stuff because it's good. That doesn't mean we can't disagree.
  6. Maxbialystock
    I like the 3 batter rule because I got sick and tired of all the game delays so managers could pretend that they and only they are the key to winning games. And let's not forget the endless visits to the mound by pitching coach, manager, catcher, ball boy down the 1b line, et al. Plus all the gyrations on the mound and by the batters to change the timing of pitches. Before the fixes this year, MLB had degenerated into kabuki theater (which is fine in a theater and horrible on a baseball field).
  7. Maxbialystock
    We are over halfway through this season and the Sox are 11 games above .500 with the 5th best team ERA in MLB. Given the loss of both Sale and Giolito and that Houck and Crawford were not expected to do anywhere near as well this season as they have, Breslow is a genius even if either or both struggles down the road. And oh, by the way, Whitlock, Bello, Winck, Pivetta, and Criswell have all already had their problems this season. Same goes for the bullpen.
  8. Maxbialystock
    He was a great owner because he hired a good brain trust and underwrote--with on averaged among the highest payrolls in MLB--their recommendations. And he did that from 2002 through 2019. Plus the 2021 and 2022 payrolls were 6th highest in MLB. Those teams ended the 86 year drought and brought 4 WS titles. As for trading Betts in 2019, the Sox already had the highest payroll in MLB and did not make the playoffs--with Mookie and a bunch of other presumably great and expensive players. At the same time--say August 2019--DD had to tell John Henry, "boss, I know we already have the biggest payroll in MLB, but I need a whole bunch more to keep Mookie (the Dodgers want him bad and will big very high). Plus, sad to say, our two very pricey starters, Price and Sale, are out of action. We have to keep paying them tons of money, but we also need to spend a bunch more to get two new reliable starters."
  9. Maxbialystock
    Agree and would add that I think Breslow insisted the old pitching coach had to be replaced.
  10. Maxbialystock
    Oh, stuff it. JH underwrote one the top payrolls in MLB every freaking season from 2003 to 2019, and in 2021 and 2022 it was 6th biggest. That's 2 freaking decades of "new toyism."
  11. Maxbialystock
    I think that's the entire freaking point. Blame whoever you want to, but the Sox so-called brain trust seems to have lost its ability to make good decisions on which pitchers, especially starters, are worth acquiring/retaining and which are not. As it has turned out this season, the key acquisition was Bailey, the pitching coach. Thanks to Bailey--or so we all believe--this is the best Sox pitching staff in a long time.
  12. Maxbialystock
    Every series tells us more about this team, even the 4 game series the Sox split with the pale Sox. But since you raised this topic, a couple of points. The Sox have already taken 2/3 from the Phillies, who have the best won-lost record in MLB, and they did it in Boston, where the Sox still have a losing record. The two winningest teams in the AL right now are the Orioles, who took 5 of 6 from the Sox, and the Guardians, who took 5 of 7. As for the Dodgers, while they are definitely a good team, they miss Betts. They are 11-12 since he went on the IL. They just lost 2 of 3 in Detroit and 3 of 3 in Philly and are now 56-41, which would put them 2 games ahead of the Sox. Right now the NL West, against whom the Dodgers play 52 games this season, are kind of lousy. The AL East still has the best W-L record in MLB. Thus, in part, do the Dodgers have a +88 run differential, twice the Sox +44. The Sox have better pitching and the Dodgers better hitting (but maybe not with Mookie out).
  13. Maxbialystock
    As we should be. To me that slow, show-off jaunt around the bases against the Sox was childish.
  14. Maxbialystock
    Indeed.
  15. Maxbialystock
    Do us all a favor and don't forget to start the game thread for the Sox next Friday, July 19, @ LA Dodgers. Sox are 7-3 in their last 10 and the Dodgers are 3-7.
  16. Maxbialystock
    Sox can go eons without producing a good starter from the farm. Other teams seem to develop one a month. But the real point is that the head shed should be feeling a lot of heat right now. I don't remember the last time a Sox manager--or a manager from any other team--went public with the need for the FO to get reinforcements. An old military axiom is reinforce success.
  17. Maxbialystock
    I think he could have, but the fact is that Rafaela in fact made a fantastic throw at a crucial moment in the game--just as Duran made that great throw from CF a week or two ago.
  18. Maxbialystock
    Sox no-names are playing their buns off. So is big name Devers. They are 3.5 behind the Yankees and 4.5 behind the Orioles. Breslow and JH need to get serious about picking up an arm or two.
  19. Maxbialystock
    agree!!
  20. Maxbialystock
    Ball game!!!!
  21. Maxbialystock
    Way to go Gonzalez, you dipstick.
  22. Maxbialystock
    Who is that masked man behind the plate for the Royals? He got Hamilton and Duran, both of them by a mile.
  23. Maxbialystock
    Jansen going for the 2 inning save. Earlier in the season I basically said he was pathetic, not because he couldn't get guys out--because he could. I just didn't like that he throws a whole lot of cutters. And he just struck out the side in the 8th. My goodness gracious.
  24. Maxbialystock
    Actually, it is. There was/is no treatment for his injury. Plus it was caused by swinging a bat.
  25. Maxbialystock
    Great at bat and huge rbi single by Smith, lefty bat vs lefty pitcher!
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