Maxbialystock

Sox going for the series. Two righties, Rodriguez (5.94) vs. Crawford (3.59) Cora loading up with lefty bats-- Duran CF Hamilton SS Abreu RF Devers 3B Refsnyder LF (only righty bat) Yoshida DH Valdez 2b Smith 1B McGuire C Despite last night's debacle and thanks to Winckowski's 6 IP and 2 ER, the bullpen should be good for tonight. Plus tomorrow is a day off. Friday Wong should be back for the Padres.

I think "won't" as well. Stay with the no names. Last night our opening day starter Bello got hammered by the Jays--7 ER's in 2.1 innings. But Winck came in and pitched 6 innings with 2 ER's, essentially a quality start. And lurking in Worcester is Criswell with 11 Red Sox starts, 52 IP, and a 4.15 ERA. I think these guys can make the postseason, but I also think they should pretty much stay with the no-names plus Devers and Jansen. Keep Anthony, Mayer, and Teel. Keep Jansen. If a good arm or a good righty bat is available just for cash, fine.

Oh, I'm not sure it will either. But what troubles me is the real possibility that it could. I believe this is a rare kind of injury, which means the Sox medical team (writ large, including outside consultants) doesn't really know. Hence the silence since Monday.

Interesting and probably valid. My only new thought is that historically the Sox minor league system has not been good at developing good young starters, especially during the JH era. Thus the hefty contracts to bring in starters from elsewhere. So maybe Bello is about par for the course. Given the new Boston pitching coach, it's worth noting that in his first 5 starts this season Bello went 26.2 innings while giving up 9 ER's for an ERA of 3.04. Then he went on the IL for 3 weeks. When he returned on May 12, his ERA for May was 5.66 and for June 8.25. He has pitched the 3d most innings on the Sox, 71.1, and has the 3d most starts, 14. His last 2 starts were both against the Jays. On the earlier start, he went 6 innings, giving up 2 runs--a quality start. Maybe the Jays learned something in the game 1.

Back to "A Realistic View of 2024." Those 9 runs, all earned, last night dropped the Sox team ERA to 3.54 and 6th place in MLB. Still better than the 2018 Sox. I think Old Red made a huge deal about the presumed idiocy of Cora for using his bullpen--8 relievers, to be precise--to take game 1 from the Jays. But last night, despite Bello only going 2.1 innings, Weissert pitched .2 innings and Winckowski 6, which gave the rest of the bullpen a day off. And guess what? Tomorrow, Thursday, June 27, is an off day, which of course Cora knew about and clearly Old Red did not. Also, as many commented on the game thread, the fact that Winck pitched 6 innings while giving up just 2 runs--which is like a quality start--and threw 91 pitches suggests that Winck might be the new 5th men in the rotation instead of Criswell. Bello, meanwhile, will continue to start.

Possibly. My last time in Europe was 30+ years ago. Since then, I think the USA has made a concerted effort to make smoking expensive via taxes. I'm not sure the Europeans have.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, Casas is now over 2 months since the injury caused by--wait for it--swinging a bat at a pitched ball. Monday he had an MRI to see how his injury has progressed. Today is Wednesday with still no reported outcome from the MRI. My interpretation of this silence is that no news is not good news. Relatedly, the injury was caused by the one thing Casas must continue to do if he is to stay in MLB.

Thanks yet again to SPLENDIDSPLINTER for 3 very nice wins.

Winck looked a whole lot better than Bello, who blew an entire game all by himself with 7 earned runs given up in 2.1 innings. We should not forget he was chosen to start the first game of the season and has utterly failed to live up to that distinction. All 9 runs by the Jays were earned despite the 3 Sox errors. Agree with illinoisredsox Bello has little mental toughness.

More than a year. When he played last year, it was apparent from the outset his defense was improved. I had no great insights about Duran back then, but can say he has improved dramatically well past the usual age for doing so.

Cancun? Barcelona? Global warming?

Campbell needs to be liberated.

We definitely agree it was in fact a real game, meaning a competitive one with all players trying to win. I think they are still trying to win--or at least to get guys out and to get hits.

Could we please move the trade discussions back over to the thread about trades? My current "realistic view of 2024" is that maybe realism is for the birds because--and this is my new hobby horse--the Sox are exceeding expectations thanks to a whole bunch of no-names. At the same time, one of the names, Kenley Jansen, seems to have inspired the whole team when in the 8th against the Yankees, the score 6-4, Sox ahead, with 2 Yankees on base and 2 outs, he called Cora from the bullpen and said, "put me in." Cora did, Jansen got the 4 outs and the save, and the whole team knew that Jansen put his ass on the line to help the Sox win a game. Just last night the Sox were dead, dead, dead after that 5 run rally by the Jays in the 7th which took them from down, 1-2, to up, 6-2. But the Sox scored 4 freaking runs in the 8th, the last 2 with 2 outs and no one on base. But Devers singled, O'Neill doubled, Ref got walked intentionally, and Gonzalez singled to tie the game. In the 9th, Jansen got 3 outs with no Jays runs scored--of course--and the Sox scored 1 in the bottom of the 9th without making an out. Back in April I predicted the Sox would win and lose 81 games, so I'm delighted to say that, while I'm never wrong, this time I was a little short on being right. A couple of key injuries, especially to one of the 4 starters, could reverse this trend, but for now it's as real as it can be.

I like the notion of keeping vs. trading. On the other hand, any team can develop a "surplus" of talent at a given position. When/if that occurs, it makes sense to trade someone. However, in the case of the Boston Red Sox, they almost never have a surplus of good pitchers. I think the last good pitcher they unloaded was Babe Ruth, and he turned out to be a good bat. Not as great as Verdugo, of course, but good.

Yoshida 2 clean singles.

Fine with me, but I'll bet that catcher interference, which is what started the Jays 5 run rally, really torqued Cora. He pulled McGuire the next inning.

That is just horsehockey. I know some players might think that way, but in fact pitchers rarely go more than 1 IP in the ASG and the players not more than 3 innings. Plus the ASG, unlike the one for the NBA, which is a joke, and the NFL, where no good players go, the MLB ASG is real baseball. The hitters are trying to hit and the pitchers are trying to get them out and the fielders are fielding up a storm.

You do have a way with words.

Attendance tonight 35,856. On a Monday night against a team that is sliding backwards. Sure looks to me like I was dead wrong about Sox fans. They don't need names, they just want a team that's found out how to win--good hitting, good pitching (with occasional slip-ups), not so good defense, and some pretty good baserunning. Now it's time for Sox fans to do some ASG voting. Duran for sure. Wong. Maybe Devers. Houck to start the ASG. Duran's big roadblock are the Yankee's Judge and Soto with OPS's of 1.108 and .994.

Bingo!

In my not so humble opinion, the injuries have helped more than hurt. Also, nice to know you noticed the Sox have been playing well. Well done.

Do not--repeat--do not in any way try to suggest you know better than Cora because you absolutely do not. As I've already pointed out, the thing to do with Campbell is to get him into a game to see what he can do. It's called the dud liberation movement. While we're at it, did you notice that, after the balk by McGuire, Cora pinch hit for him and then sent Heineman in to catch? And that Heinemen threw Berroa out trying to steal 2b in the 9th after a leadoff single? And, by the way, the 7th ain't a problem if McGuire doesn't put the leadoff man on with catcher interference.

You do know that in one of the Yankees games Jansen called Cora from the bullpen in the 8th inning and asked/told Cora to put him in the game. He got a 4 out save. It is possible that game inspired the whole team and that Jansen himself is inspired.

Now that was some ball game.