Maxbialystock

He severely injured himself by simply swinging at a pitch. That's all it took. So how can he or the Sox be sure it won't happen again?

True, but this Sox front office invariably goes after the wrong bat and the wrong arm.

The problem is that by and large the Sox are horrible at trading for pitchers--some of which, I hasten to add, is because pitchers are unreliable. To me dumping Sale and going after Giolito are perfect examples of how stupid the Sox front office is. Right now the Sox are committed to paying Sale $17M and Giolito $38M--a total of $55M--for which the return will be miniscule. I hasten to add that so far the return on Story and Yoshida is about as bad. Big bucks for tiny contributions to the team on the field of play.

Sox losing record at Fenway vs winning on road probably because of lack of good righty bats. Lefty bats normally hit to the largest part of the Fenway outfield—right and center.

I gave 5 reasons for keeping Yoshida and even playing him, and one of them was that we know he was a good hitter in Japan.

He only threw 58 pitches. His last time out, he threw 91 in relief--6 innings, 2 ER.

He seems to have a mix of knuckle balls. Some of them definitely don't move much and are hit hard. Others really move and are uncatchable.

Two hard hit balls by Duran and then Hamilton--and 2 outs.

So far the knuckle baller is getting the calls--at least two balls were called strikes. Winck, on the other hand, couldn't get a strike on a ball in the strike zone.

Just might be that Devers is the man on this team. I have done more than my fair share of complaining about him, but he has the career OPS, .859, and this year's OPS which is even higher--.942. I think he passed Rafaela for the team lead in rbi last week and quite obviously is determined not to give it back. Given the last two games, that dinger was gigantic.

He doesn't want to cut it to $50M or even to $150M. I think he simply wants the money spent smarter than has been the case going back to at least 2019 when the Sox had the highest payroll in MLB and didn't make it to the postseason. Meanwhile, however--the two most recent losses notwithstanding--the Sox just might have a hedge with the way the no-name pitchers and lineup have been playing. Today they looked awful, ditto last night. But before those 2 games the Sox split 2 with Toronto, took 2/3 @ Cincy, took 3/3 @ Toronto, took 2/3 vs the Yankees, and took 2/3 vs the Phillies.

Despite today's and yesterday's horrible games, I now share your enthusiasm for making a smart trade next month. If, however, these two games are the harbinger of finishing last in the AL East, then I don't.

This is actually John Henry's 2d venture into MLB. He was also a co-owner of the Florida Marlins when DD was the GM. As for "ego and greed," I would agree that it's just about impossible for the owner of a MLB team not to have a pretty big ego. The simple act of acquiring ownership is ego-driven. To a degree, those 4 WS wins were also driven by ego. Not only John Henry's, but those of his CBO's, brain trust, managers, et al. But I'm not buying the greed argument for the simple reason that for 17 (2003-2019) of his 22 years of ownership John Henry seemed to have little hesitation in supporting large Sox payrolls. If greed were his primary motive these days, selling the Sox for billions of dollars would make the most sense because I do not think the Sox are hugely profitable.

If any of us needed an antidote to our unbridled enthusiasm for these 2024 Sox and especially for the pitching, these last 2 games have provided one. Our ace Houck got hammered today, as did the bullpen--except for this guy Smith, who shows real promise. Plus two almost obligatory errors and of course just the one lonely dinger by Duran, which only served to emphasize how really poor the Sox hitting was.

But what a great surprise! Of 4 Sox pitchers, only Smith gave up 0 runs.

Meh. You're at Fenway, which is nothing less than heroic. I think you're in position for some pretty important decorations after this series is over.

No doubt. However, the same people keep claiming that the obvious fix for this Sox team is for John Henry to spend a whole lot more money because $182M (11th biggest payroll in MLB) isn't nearly enough.

Indeed.

There is a long list of expensive talent, especially pitchers, who simply didn't produce for the Sox. The 2019 Sox had the highest payroll in MLB and didn't make the postseason. Look at this year's Sox. They are paying Sale $17M and Giolito $18M and neither has thrown a pitch for the Sox. Story (annual salary $22.5M) was paid roughly $1M/game for good field no hit and his season ended in April on a routine play. Yoshida is getting $18.6M for a WAR of 0.0 and an OPS of .663. Whitlock $3.5M for 18 innings. Turner $6.7M for playing for the Jays. Jansen has been paid $8M for half a season and 27 IP.

Bogaerts "gave" his best years to the Sox. Now he's getting his reward: a terrific contract with the Padres with absolutely no requirement that he earn it. Were I in the stands, I too would applaud him.

The announcer is either stupid or trying to be nice since Machado is still playing. When he took out Pedey, it absolutely was intended to take Pedey out.

Houck threw that one right down the middle, and the Padre hitter, batting lefty, had the good sense--which the Sox lefty batters do not have--to hit it to left field. Our hitters much prefer to hit the ball to CF and RF where there is plenty of room for opposing outfielders to catch it.

Almost never fails. When a Sox hitter steps out of the box to think about his at bat, it's because he already knows he is out and is just going through the motions. If I were the hitting coach and/or Cora, I would tell the hitters to step out only when they are ahead in the count, not behind and not with 2 strikes. Sox still have a losing record at Fenway and a winning record in the road. Do not blame this on the fans in the stands. The real problem is with the lineup which relies way too much on those lefty bats in a ballpark which screams out for good righty bats.

3-0, Padres. Sox right now are in a groove--no hitting and not much pitching. How full are the stands and how do you gauge the mood of the fans?

In the movie Moneyball there is a scene near the end in which Billy Beane goes to Boston and Fenway Park to meet with John Henry, who raves about how little the A's paid (in team payroll) for each win in 2022 compared to how much the Yankees paid. He also praises sabermetrics, Bill Henry, whom he hired, and the great job Billy Beane did with the A's that season. Then JH hands Beane an offer to become the highest paid GM in MLB, which Beane later declines. What we now know is that, while JH liked the notion of low-cost wins, his brain trust, including Theo Epstein, always seemed to be able to make a good case for acquiring excellent players who didn't come cheap. As a result, the Sox under JH not only ended the 86 year drought/curse, but won 3 more WS. Those 4 WS wins are the most by any MLB team, 2003-2023, and pretty strong evidence that John Henry is not as you describe him. Interestingly, three of the WS wins--2004, 2013, and 2018--all happened in part because JH or his brain trust decided to fire the manager and hire a new one. Francona, Farrell, and Cora all won the WS in their first seasons as the Sox manager. I think what happened in 2019 was the John Henry, having won 4 WS, finally decided to try the route/methodology described in the movie Moneyball. And, while there is some evidence that DD had done something like that with the Florida Marlins, by 2015, when he was hired by JH, he had morphed into a CBO who who had a terrific eye for talent and and no fear in making deals to get it. Thus it was no accident that the 2018 and 2019 Boston Red Sox payrolls were both the highest in MLB. To give DD his due, he has been been an effective, successful GM/CBO for 36 years and with 5 different teams and is currently doing a heckuva job with the Phillies. He won one WS with the Marlins in 1997 and one with the Sox in 2018. He led Detroit to the 2006 WS, which they lost to the Cardinals and the Phillies to the 2022 WS, which they lost to the Astros. Nevertheless, it's clear JH wants to try a different direction, if only because pitchers especially are a huge gamble whose salaries are always guaranteed but never their performance. On the other hand, the Sox pitchers with the three best WAR's right now--Houck (3.4), Crawford (1.6), and Bernardino (1.6)--are all paid the minimum MLB salary.