Maxbialystock

Fool's gold, pure and simple. Vlad so far is a one season wonder--2021, age 21, when he hit 48 dingers and had an OPS of 1.002. In his other 5 seasons, his OPS's have been .772, .791, .818, .788, and now .815, and his dingers have totaled 15, 9, 32, 26, and now 14. In 2013 the Yankees signed Jacoby Ellsbury for 7 years and $153M, largely on the basis of one freaking season, 2011, when he had 32 dingers and an OPS of .928. He never had another season remotely as good before or after 2011. I think Vlad's a lot better than Jacoby turned out to be, but I think he and his agent are expecting a long term contract based entirely on his 2021 season (48 dingers, 1.002 OPS). In addition, because I think Vlad could be a fan favorite in Toronto, I'm assuming he and his agent will use that fact to demand a big contract, which officially doesn't have to be offered until after the 2025 season, but will definitely come into play if Vlad is headed for the Sox. Then there's the little matter of Vlad's weight, which is currently 245 lbs. Anyone here remember Sandoval? Anyone? The Sox swept in and took him away from the Giants and paid him $17M/year for doing basically nothing.

The Oakland Athletics hearken back to the Philadelphia Athletics, owned and managed by Connie Mack. The Oakland Athletics won three straight WS, 1972-74, which only one other MLB team, the Yankees, have done. The Oakland (now Las Vegas) Raiders began in the old AFL and were at their best under Coach John Madden, who led them to a bunch of conference championships in the 1970s and winning the Super Bowl in 1976.

Grissom is under attack primarily because of how he came to the Sox--basically, in a trade for Sale, who is now the ace for the Braves. Moreover, $17M of Sale's salary is being paid by the Sox. There is no way, no how Grissom can counterbalance what the Sox gave away. Grissom had 41 decent games in 2022 and has been awful in 46 games since: his average OPS for 2023 and 2024 is around .510 and his cumulative WAR, both seasons, is -1.2. If anything, his persistent hammie problems are a blessing for the Sox. At age 23, what he does have is the promise of youth. But he faces a lot of competition.

I know it was. They played the games, so of course they have to count them and the season. But to me it was a sham season.

Right now he is almost certainly at peak value. His WAR is 5.0, 5th highest among MLB hitters/fielders. He is about to turn 28 (Sep 5) and has several years of team control ahead of him. He just might be the biggest bargain in the known universe. Chris Sale paid him a great compliment at the All-Star Game, that Duran basically leaves nothing on the field of play and spends himself fully on every play--in the field, at bat, and on the basepaths. For us fans that means he's great fun to watcher whatever he's doing. Which raises this question. Why are Sox fans so reluctant to come to games at Fenway to see Duran in action? Also Devers, Rafaela, Abreu, Jansen, Houck, Crawford, O'Neill, Wong, and even Hamilton and Pivetta? The Sox are 95 games into this season, and 53-42. They own (for now) the 3d wild card slot, are just 1/2 game back of the Twins for the 2d place wild card and 3.5 games back of the Yankees. Oh, and this season once again the AL East has the best W-L record of 6 MLB Divisions, and the Sox are just 4.5 games behind the division-leader Orioles. Anyone remember the 2012 Sox? Anyone? The were a bunch of losers and finished 69-93--and they hadn't won a WS since 2007. Anyone remember the 2012 Sox average attendance? Anyone? 37, 567. This year the Sox attendance is 32,503, which is less than last year's 32,989 when the Sox finished 78-84, dead last in the AL East.

And that's the truth! Even MLB has had exceptions to that developmental truth--like Bryce Harper--but the NBA finally had to install a "no draft until 19 rule" to keep coaches from drafting high school grads. And the NFL has been aided by the obvious requirement to see a budding star play NCAA Div I for at least a year or two. Hockey and soccer also allow great talents to be revealed at early ages. But baseball is centered around hitting a round ball with a round bat squarely--and pitching to prevent that from happening. Exactly one half of each MLB roster is expected to master one skill or the other. Teddy Ballgame argued hitting was harder, but 1/2 of every MLB roster is pitchers, and you only play one pitcher at a time in a game.

Wow. I never thought you would be the leading excuse-maker for the Sox front office. Granted, JH put restrictions on starters by saying no to 5 or more years @ $20M/year or more or something like that. The genius of Scott Boras is that he has managed to do better than that for a whole flock of MLB starters. Also position players although they are lower risk (but not risk-free). The end result is that, since 2019, Sox CBO's have been squeezed by Scott Boras on one side and John Henry on the other. Bloom brought in some pretty expensive pitching duds--all below the John Henry $100M line, and Breslow, barely out of the gate, grabbed Giolito for $38M, half of which is already down the drain and the other half in doubt, and sent Sale and $17M to the Braves where Sale is now a contender for the NL Cy Young award. Breslow gets great credit for insisting on a new pitching coach and bringing in Bailey, who has been pure gold. But I would argue that the Sox CBO's, including DD, have not been very smart in acquiring starters.

60 games are not a season. Also no fans. Also players in and out of covid.

You're counting the 2020 season? Shame on you. It was a nonseason. Bloom's first real season was 2021, and the Sox made it to the ALCS, which is more than DD's 2016 and 2017 Sox teams did. Plus in 2021 the Sox/Chaim Bloom didn't have Mookie, Price, or Sale. After Barnes collapsed (went sour) in midseason, the Sox finished the 2021 season and postseason without a closer. CB probably deserved to get fired, but in his defense John Henry changed what he was willing to pay for--which continues into this 2024 season.

Interesting. As always, you know that territory far better than I. So, if no additions can be made at a reasonable cost, maybe the middle ground is that the Sox don't trade away Jansen, O'Neill, or Pivetta, all of whom are free agents at the end of this season. All three are "paid for" and all three would be missed. As Cora keeps reminding the FO, the 2024 Sox have a real shot at the postseason, and the FO should reinforce success, not undercut it.

Agree. The rule was intended to reduce delays, but final outs mean no delays if a new pitcher starts the next inning.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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."

Agree and would add that I think Breslow insisted the old pitching coach had to be replaced.

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."

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.

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).

As we should be. To me that slow, show-off jaunt around the bases against the Sox was childish.

Indeed.