Maxbialystock

After 7 innings, this game is tied, 1-1, but for Valdez's really awful error. Of course, the Sox pitching should get no credit because the Yankees are just another AAAA team that can't hit a lick. That's the new rule, isn't it? Never, ever give a Sox pitcher any credit.

It might be a "groove," but tonight I think Houck, Valdez, and the Sox no-name lineup just might be intimidated by Yankees Stadium and the crowd. Also got to give credit to Cortes with 8 K's, 1 BB, 3 hits, and 1 run in 6 innings. Both rightfielders, ours and theirs, had to run extra long and almost misjudged distances to catch high flies that drifted from right to left (as we look at the field). Maybe a wind is blowing that way which maybe helps left pitchers. Horn just pitches 2.2 scoreless with 3 K's and 0 BB's and 0 runs. That was one terrific changeup by the Yankees reliever Weaver, who also made a terrific play on an excellent bunt by Gonzalez.

Not true. One reason for Valdez might be that Hamilton played 12 innings yesterday. So did Rafaela, but he's the best available defensive SS.

Rafaela needs to stop arguing with the ump and pay attention to the game--at bat and in the field. That late throw for the DP was all on him for insisting and doing a 360.

Two unearned runs off Valdez's error.

A fair point, but Houck finished with 1 K and 4 BB's. In the same 4 innings, Cortes has 5 K's and 1 BB. Houck was seriously outpitched. Valdez, agreed, was just awful. He was not hurried and was fully set before throwing.

Yeah, I finally saw that.

Correction. Valdez made the bad throw.

All we need, an absolutely, inexcusably bad throw by Hamilton. I don't care if he can hit. Get someone else who isn't such a bonehead.

Rafaela has perfected the late throw. That one was not his fault, but the earlier one, to get the GIDP, was.

Houck has 1 K and 3 BB's in 3.1 innings. Frightening.

Then we disagree. In my case, vehemently. This year the poster child for weak teams are the White Sox, who took 2 of 4 from our guys. To date, they have won just 28% of their games and have had some bad losing streaks. Their hitting is dead last in MLB and their ERA 3d from the bottom. However, back in May they swept the Guardians, who have the best W-L record in the AL, 3 out of 3. The White Sox are as good an example as any of the topsy-turvy payroll vs. W-L record in MLB these days. Their payroll, $142M, is 18th, just below the median ($155M), so 28% wins is pretty awful. But how much worse are they than the Mets, with the highest payroll, $310M--over twice as much as the White Sox--and a 42-43 W-L record. Or the Astros, 3d highest payroll ($251M) and a 45-42 W-L record. Meanwhile the Cleveland Guardians with the best AL W-L record have the 27th biggest payroll, $100M, and the Orioles with a $101M payroll are 55-32, almost as good as the 54-31 Guardians. Then there are the no-name Red Sox, 11th biggest Payroll, $181M, who are 47-39 and doing better than the 10th payroll Giants (43-45), the 9th payroll Rangers (39-48), the 8th payroll Jays (39-48), the 7th payroll Cubs (40-48), and of course the 3d payroll Astros and the 1st payroll Mets. As for this Yankees series, July 5-7, to me it's just one more going back 120+ seasons. It's a strange rivalry in that the Yankees have a whopping 27 WS wins, to say nothing of a bigger fan base, etc. Plus the Ruth thing. But I remember plenty of Sox vs. Yankees series during the 86 year drought when the Sox prevailed against all odds. And no series was sweeter than the 2004 ALCS, which the wild card Sox took after being down 3 games to 0. This season the Yankees payroll is 2d largest, $307M, to the Sox 11th, $181M. That's a pretty big swing, especially given the absence of Story and Giolito and especially Sale, to whom the Sox are paying $17M while he stars for the Braves. The no-name Sox should be dead, dead, dead, but in terms coined by a dedicated Yankees fan, one Miracle Max, it's still too early to count the change in the Sox pockets. And the mighty Yankees? Let's just say that maybe they have a touch of the flu.

Forget Casas. His injury is rare, even unprecedented, and the result of simply swinging a bat at a pitched ball. It's not just a question of when he can return, but whether he can return and swing a bat effectively. As for better defense up the middle, think Marcelo Mayer, who is already better than Hamilton and maybe Story too.

It's more complicated than you guys are saying. Sale made it clear that, whoever he played for this year, must agree to 3 years, 2024-2026. And he could do that as a 10year/5 year veteran of MLB and of the Sox. I think it's the 3 year contract that made it very easy for the Sox not only to let Sale go, but to send $17M with him. So why oh why did the Braves agree to 3 years? I think they looked at the bigger picture, which is that, after TJ surgery and presumably a rebuilt and stronger Sale, he never got a real chance to show what he could do until 2023. Last year was 4 years after his last real season, so chances were he was rediscovering what he could still do: 20 starts, 6 complete games, 125 IP, 125 K's, 29 BB's, ERA 4.30. The Braves decided, correctly, that something like the old Sale was doable/possible. But, as we have seen, this season they have been careful to give him a minimum of 6 days rest between starts and sometimes 7. In return, Sale has averaged 6.25 innings per start to go along with the 2.71 ERA and 127 K's to 19 BB's. He has pitched 100 innings and could come close to 200 for the season. However, we also know that Sale faltered in the final months (and the postseason) in 2017 and 2018 before ending the 2019 season early with just 25 starts. So I think the Braves will err on the side of caution this season because they want him for 2025 and 2026.

Story was never, ever a good righty bat for the Sox. In 3 seasons he has 19 dingers and an cumulative OPS under .700. Good field, no hit since he showed up in Boston, which means his $140M for 6 years was wasted. What we miss are Duvall and Turner. But I agree a righty bat would definitely help. I think overall weakness from the right side is why the Sox have a losing record at Fenway. So why not at 1B? Relatedly, here are the current Sox OPS's at Fenway: Devers .983; Casas .980; Duran .891; Valdez .878; Wong .804; Abreu .783; O'Neill .776; Yoshida .682; Smith .677; Refsnyder .669; Rafaela .654; Hamilton .609; Gonzalez .607; McGuire .307.

Nailed it. Again. The genius--if you want to give the Farrelly brothers that much credit--of Fever Pitch is that it captures the length and grandeur of an entire MLB season as well as the agony and ecstasy of the postseason, but especially the incredible ALCS vs the Yankees. Worth noting, I think, is that just 3 years ago--not 300 years ago as the nattering nabobs of negativism would have us believe--the Sox did something similar when they got the wild card, beat Cone and the Yankees, and then beat the 100 win Rays, 3 games to 1, in the ALDS before going down to the Astros (4 games to 2) in the ALCS. The Sox's Bogey, Kike, Devers, JDM, Renfro, Dugo, Arroyo, Vazquez, Schwarber (late acquisition), and Iggy (also late acquisition) all had pretty good seasons. Despite the absence of Mookie, the Sox offense was ranked 5th in runs scored. But even with Eovaldi, Whitlock, Pivetta, ERod, Houck, et al, the 2021 Sox pitching was ranked 15th in MLB in team ERA. Plus Barnes as closer faded badly, and the Sox had no closer in the postseason. Most of us voted the 2024 Sox would finish 81-81. I certainly thought so. But this bunch of no names (excluding Devers and Jansen) is playing pretty good ball, no thanks to Breslow, but many thanks to the Sox minor league system and especially to manager Alex Cora and his pitching coach. In fact, give some credit to the recently fired Chaim Bloom who acquired some of those no-names. Right now both the Yankees and Sox are fighting for wild card slots. So maybe it helps that, when it comes to baserunning, the Sox are a whole lot wilder than the Yankees--86 SB's to 37.

Wise words--could not agree more. The Yankees still have the third best offense, runs scored, in MLB and the 7th best team ERA (which is 3.69, right behind our Sox 3.57). The Sox team OPS, .741, is 7th best, but our runs scored are 12th. Sox have scored 402 runs to the Yankees 447. That's roughly 1/2 run per game less. Caution notwithstanding, since June 4, the Sox are 17-8 and the Yankees 11-16.

Bad theory. Awful. Keep Hamilton. Keep Gonzalez as backup. Expect Story and Mayer to show up before this decade is out.

Need to keep Hamilton and absolutely not make a deal for another SS when we have Story--for whatever he might still be worth--due back next season and Mayer possibly headed to Boston this season. Someone else said the above before I did. I'm just agreeing.

Excuse me? Haven't you been discounting and raging against this Sox team the entire season?

Oh stop it. Just stop it. I freely grant this 2024 Sox team is riddled with imperfections, but you have jumped into the deep end without your water wings. This team, which you have grossly misjudged, is playing good ball despite a frightening bad infield defense, a no-name rotation, an almost no-name lineup (Devers is well known), and a bullpen that in the recent Miami series looked awful. Fortunately Crawford, Bello, and Pivetta all had terrific starts. You appear to be completely unaware that these no-name Sox are succeeding in part because they have the best manager in MLB and one of the best pitching coaches.

I don't think Hamilton is that good, but agree now is the wrong time to trade him. Also agree pitching is the key need. However, Breslow, a former MLB pitcher, appears to know little about acquiring or keeping good pitchers. Exit Sale, enter Giolito????!!!!!

Breslow in my opinion has been awful. I can't even blame JH because, although he has certainly placed limits on contracts, especially long and big contracts for starters, the Sox payroll this year is still $182M, 11th biggest in MLB. Breslow made things worse by dumping Sale, continuing to pay him $17M to star for the Braves, and acquiring Giolito for 2 years, one of which is shot, and $38M. Grissom has shown nothing, plus he seems to have bad hamstrings. However, as I've said too many times, this year's Sox no-names have been terrific. Houck is a true ace and better than Sale, and Duran has the 4th highest WAR in MLB among lineup players. So the screw-ups have not hurt much. Right now I think Cora is driving the train--he and his excellent pitching coach--which is why Cora has been saying the FO and the owner need to reinforce success by bringing in some help this month. Even an idiot like Breslow should be able to find a deal or two that will help the Sox.

I sure have. Sox lost tonight because Duran couldn't throw to home plate to save his life. Oh, wait. He ran hard to grab that single on the run and then made an absolutely perfect throw on one hop to beat the runner--from centerfield, yet.

This use of "a AAAA team" is such horsehockey. As I've reminded everyone, last weekend the Marlins played 4 games vs Philly, the team with the best W-L record in MLB, and won 2 of them. The Phillies have the best ERA in MLB, and the lowly Marlins averaged 4 runs per game against them. Tonight the bullpen absolutely destroyed a brilliant start by Pivetta--1 hit, 0 runs, 7 innings--by giving up the 2 tying runs in the 8th and then 3 more runs in extra innings. And let's not forget Jansen, our $16M closer who gave up a double and a single which went to CF and absolutely should have driven home the winning run except that Duran made a great play and throw to beat the Marlins runner. The upside is that the Sox did win--now 4 straight--and that all 3 Sox starters--Crawford, Bello, and Pivetta--pitched well. The bigger story is that one month ago, June 4, the Sox were 30-31 and headed nowhere. June 6-9 they split 4 games with the awful White Sox. But then they took 2/3 from the high-flying Phillies and another 2/3 from the AL East leading Yankees. If you weren't at least thinking of climbing on the bandwagon back then, you weren't paying attention. Then came a 3 game sweep @ Toronto, 2/3 @ Cincy, a 1/3 hiccough vs the Padres, and 3 straight in Miami. Up ahead: 3 @ Yankees, 3 vs the A's, 3 vs the Royals, and the All-Star break.