Maxbialystock

Lugo getting slightly screwed by the ump who is inconsistent in his calls although the 3d strike on Yoshida was a good call.

Good 1st for Crawford.

I'm more than happy that to agree that both Price and Sale helped in 2018, the best season in Sox history. They weren't half bad in 2017 either although they stunk in the postseason. I also agree the Sox were helped by acquisitions before and during the 2013 season, ditto 2004 and 2007. In addition, we can both agree that from 2002 through 2019 JH was happy to pay for one of the top payrolls in MLB. In 2021 the Sox payroll was 5th largest and in 2022 6th largest. In 2024 it's 11th largest. However, you have ignored what I also said. In 2019 the situation confronting JH was that his team had the biggest payroll in MLB and his CBO, Dombrowski, needed a whole lot more money to keep Mookie and to replace both Price and Sale while still paying their huge salaries. Also this in 2024-- The Mets are 48-45 with the biggest payroll in MLB. The Astros are 50-44 with the 3d biggest payroll. The Brewers are 54-41 with the 21st biggest payroll. The Orioles are 57-37 with the 25th biggest payroll. The Guardians are 57-36 with the 27th biggest payroll. The 2019 Sox were knee deep in expensive talent (that won the 2018 WS), but didn't make the postseason. The 2024 rely heavily on what I call "no-names" and have a good shot at making the postseason. Their payroll is 11th, but pricey Story, Sale, and Giolito--$57M worth--are unavailable.

All but Rafaela and Ref are lefty bats. Lugo isn't just the Royals ace, he leads MLB starters in ERA, 2.21, quality starts, 15, and IP, 122. He's going today on 7 days rest. Crawford is also having a good season for the Sox. However, as we saw last night, good pitching wasn't nearly enough because the Sox lineup scored just 1 run and gave up 3 unearned runs on the error by Gonzalez. We're still in July, but I think this game is huge to stay in the hunt for the wild card and to encourage JH to allow his brain trust to be buyers 2 weeks from now (or sooner). FWIW, KC looks pretty good this year and their payroll is just $116M. The Sox are about as good and ours is $182M.

This is pretty close to what I've been saying (too often). JH has reacted strongly to all the stupid acquisitions, including some (Price and Sale) made by DD. The 2019 Sox roster had most of the terrific players from the 2018 best Sox team ever and the highest payroll in MLB. But, because of the collapse of the pitching--the 2019 Sox were ranked 19th in MLB in team ERA--they didn't make the playoffs. Even worse, if the Sox wanted to stay competitive, they would have to spend a lot more than the highest payroll in MLB. Mookie was a free agent and eager to get major dollars, which the Dodgers were happy to give him. Sale and Price, getting big bucks for being worthless on the mound, needed to be replaced with two more high-price arms. And so on. Enter Chaim Bloom, apparently with restrictions on what he could spend on pitchers. Specifically, no long term big buck contracts which have become almost the norm for the best starters. Inevitably, I think, CB was fired. Enter Breslow with, I believe, similar guidance to that given to CB: no big contracts for starters. Plus I am almost certain the Sox brain trust, probably with input from JH himself, was more than happy to make the Sale deal with the Braves, including paying them $17M this season when Sale has re-emerged as the old Sale. Thus too the $38M for 2 years of Giolito, 1 year of which is already shot. Thus the humungous irony of this 2024 season in which the Sox rotation is the best in a long time. The Sox team ERA if 5th best in MLB over halfway into the season. And their aggregate salaries (for Houck, Crawford, Pivetta, Bello, Criswell, and Winck) are less than the $16M closer Jansen is being paid!!! One more time. Without Sale and without Giolito, the Sox pitching is vastly improved from last year and even better than the 2018 team ERA, 3.75, ranked 8th. That year Price was paid $30M, Porcello $21M, Sale $12M, and Pomeranz $9M. And let's not forget that before the semi-disaster of the 2019 season, JH was more than willing to pay big bucks for all kinds of players, not just pitchers. Remember the disaster of the 2012 season? Sox payroll was 3d highest in MLB. JH is easily the best owner the Sox have ever had, but there can be no question he has relied on his brain trusts over the years. They not only brought 4 WS (after 86 barren seasons), but the best Sox team ever, 2018. I think in 2019 he just got tired of shelling out big bucks for players who failed badly. Don't forget that early on he hired Bill James, the author of sabermetrics and a believer that you don't need a massive payroll to produce a winning team.

I have my doubts about Casas's return, but no hard evidence he won't.

Fine. The soxprospects write-up says he's great at SS defensively. Someone else can play 3b if Cora decides to move Devers to, day, 1b.

Good of you to defend Sale, but in game 5 of the 2018 WS Price was the starter. Sale started game 1 of the ALDS and beat the Yankees, pitching 5.1 innings and giving up 2 runs.

Also, please, please start the next game thread.

Seriously? Why? That's an honest question because I just assumed that the green monster favors righty bats.

Perfect timing. In this series the Sox are facing the Royals 3 best starters.

Some nights, the bear gets you. The Royals simply outplayed our guys--better pitching, better hitting, better fielding.

Agree. Early in the game he did throw some fat pitches, which the Sox did nothing with. Then he got sharper--and he has a good repertoire.

He's arguably the best manager in MLB and he would like to see a full house rooting for the Sox. I don't think the crowd has much effect, and this year it seems pretty obvious that the Sox have weak righty bats in a home ballpark that favors righty bats.

This is Wong's 4th game catching in 4 days.

Followed immediately by Abreu, Duran, and O'Neill all striking out. Some lineup we have. This could be a Royals sweep.

2 on, no outs, bottom of the 8th.

I agree he did not "pitch well," but he showed a ton of heart. Like a bunch of other guys on this team, Criswell is minimum wage. And you know as well as everybody else, even me, that Criswell is not middle of the order. The first four right now are Houck, Caldwell, Pivetta, and Bello. This was Criswell's 12th start. 5 games ago it was Winck, who gave up 3 in 3.2 IP to the Yankees--after which, the deluge. The Yankees scored 14.

Right, got it. The Sox are losing tonight because we have a dumb manager.

"This bum" threw a quality start tonight: 6 IP, 2 ER. The other 3 Royals runs were from Gonzalez's error and all unearned.

After 6 innings we have reconfirmed that the Sox can't hit lefty starters. Duran and Devers, both all-stars this year, looked worse against Ragans in their third at bats than in their first two. And we have been reminded that a fatal error is almost normal with this team.

Now Devers does what Duran did, only this pitch was in the middle of the righty batter's box.

In his third at bat vs. Ragans in this game, Duran struck out on a pitch way, way outside and in the dirt. In hit/bounced on the line of the righty batter's box. This is an all-star player?

What makes this game too typical is that the lineup--and not the freaking pitching!!!!--has been flat on their butts. Thanks to Gonzalez, the Sox lineup has given up 2 more runs than they have scored.

Criswell, having thrown 102 pitches already, is out there trying to eat one more inning for his team. Whoa, nellie. Criswell has now officially thrown/pitched/survived a quality freaking start--2 ER in 6 IP!!!! The fault, dear talksox fans, is not in the pitching staff, but in the lineup, that they are underlings.