Maxbialystock

Thanks, Dugo, for the 0/5 night.

You're wrong again about Rafaela. I just read, right here on talksox, that Rafaela needs to fix his swing and never, ever hit another dinger. He's costing the Sox hitting and games with his wild, undisciplined approach at the plate. Hmmm. Jansen for the save.

Could be coincidence, but those dingers were hit by guys who didn't play 12 innings yesterday. Yoshida was the DH, and Gonzalez was a substitute hitter/1B in the 10th inning.

Who needs Yoshida? Maybe we do. Absolutely unreal--except that he has had a hot bat recently.

Nope. If the DP is good, Houck returns for the 5th and give up 4 or 5 runs.

Gonzalez has 2 of the Sox 4 hits tonight, plus he made a spectacular grab off a very high Devers throw--and still landed on 1b. His OPS is .788. Why would Smith ever be allowed back at 1b?

Nope. The Sox weak hitting took care of that little dilemma. K's by Duran and Abreu, both lefty bats vs. righty pitcher. Then a week grounder by O'Neill. Sox now 0/4 with RISP.

I think both teams are trying to forfeit this game.

Absolutely the right word--a pitcher--and an excellent description of why he was so good tonight.

Hold that thought on the AAAA Yankees. It might have potential. Nope. Valdez was a lot worse.

I'm fine with missed calls now and then, but I think tonight all of those have favored the Yankees pitchers.

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.