Maxbialystock

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.

Let's see, now. Pivetta, 7 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs. Sox bullpen, 3 IP, 4 runs.

Sox bullpen has been rotten in this series, but until today it wasn't much needed. Both Marlins runs are charged to Slaten, but Bernardino was the guy giving up hits right and left. And that was after Pivetta pitched 7 innings of one hit, no runs baseball. Great play by Duran. Both rbi's by Devers on strategic ground outs, in case anyone wonders who good or bad the Sox hitting has been.

Happy Fourth, everyone. Just to set the record straight, the American Revolution actually began April 19, 1775 at Concord and Lexington. Two months later, June 14, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, created the Continental Army, put GW in charge, and sent him up to Boston, where the headquarters of the Massachusetts militia was. That militia was the Continental Army because other colonies sent just onesies and twosies of companies. Still to be fought was the battle of Bunker Hill and finally, March 1776, thanks to the guns brought from Ticonderoga by Henry Knox, driving the British Army and Navy out of Boston, never to return. Then and only then did the Second Continental Congress have the gumption to write and then sign the Declaration of Independence. But it still took them all of April, May, and June to screw their courage to the sticking point.

I agree with all the bad stuff about Sale, Giolito, and Grissom. Just a complete disaster which only reinforces JH's belief that his brain trust lacks brains. On the other hand, a team now without Story, Whitlock, Sale, Grissom, Giolito, Casas, and others I can't remember is right now, July 4, 2024, playing some of their best ball since the 2021 Sox made it all the way to the ALCS. The pitching, now with a rotation of Houck, Crawford, Pivetta, Winckowski, and Bello, is the best Sox pitching in a decade or more because the Sox ERA is ranked 7th in MLB. And everyone on that pitching staff except Jansen is a bargain basement no-name. Houck, who just a year ago was tabbed as the guy who couldn't get guys out the third time through the order, is the Sox ace and his WAR, 2.8, is a tad better than Sale's 2.7, plus he has more quality starts, 13 to 10. Duran, who seemed to be emerging last year, has gone completely ape this year with the 4th highest WAR, 4.6, in MLB (not including pitchers). The Sox still lead MLB in errors--7 more than the next worst--but somehow manage to get guys out thanks to the pitching and what is actually a pretty decent defensive outfield. Speaking of whom, Rafaela and Abreu, both with much lower WAR's (1.2 and 1.8) than Duran, nevertheless contribute a bunch. Rafaela, still batting 9th, has 47 rbi's to team leader Devers' 49. Hamilton's WAR is a decent 1.3 (OPS .741 also decent) and he has only committed one more error than Devers' 6. Rafaela has a DWAR of +0.5 despite 10 errors. Before I forget, Cora is the best manager in MLB and absolutely perfect for this team--as he was also perfect for the 2018 juggernaut. And the pitching coach is one of the best in MLB. If Cora has failed, it might be in his reluctance to conduct some form of laying on of hands to transfer his defensive infield chops to Devers, Hamilton, Valdez, Smith, Rafaela, et al. Sox hitting so far is a bigger weakness than the defense because they are ranked 12th in runs scored, which historically has destined Sox teams to losing seasons. The Sox are, however, ranked 6th in team OPS, so the problem seems to be "RISP disease." And I think that is caused by two things: a fairly inexperienced lineup and one that lacks a bonafide big righty bat.

Wander Franco. Oh, wait.

Interesting--very. So two strikes against that injury. The first is that it happened while swinging the bat, which Casas absolutely must continue to do to remain in baseball. The second now is that, not only must the Sox and Casas rely on "natural healing," but it could take forever.

"Middle third" is misleading. The Sox payroll is 11th, which is one slot from top third. That said, I agree it's unarguable the Sox have made a bunch of bad trades/acquisitions recently. That said, however, the entire Red Sox rotation this season is paid less than the closer Jansen, who gets $16M. The two best starters, Houck and Crawford, each get $750K or so. And the highest WAR, 4.7, on the team is Duran, who is also paid $750K. And you are dead wrong about not competing. The Sox winning percentage is .541, which translates to 88 wins, which should compete. In addition, the Sox are 1/2 game out of the 3d wild card slot and 1.5 games out of the 2d wild card slot.

Agree Smith sucks, which is all the more reason to play him. On Talksox, especially on game threads, it is essential we have someone to gripe about. Tonight a bunch of guys expected to dump on Bello, who graciously gave up 3 singles and a run in the first inning. So the bunch ran with it the whole game, adamantly refusing to say he had done anything remotely acceptable. First time I can remember 6.2 innings, 1 run, 7 K's, 7 singles, and 1 run was blind stupid luck. What they actually said is that the Marlins can't hit. Nosiree, not a lick. I looked that up and it turns out "not a lick" is 296 runs in 85 games, which 3.5 runs per game. The best offense in MLB is the Orioles: 440 runs in 85 games or 5.2 runs per game. Just last week/weekend the terrible hitting Marlins played 4 against the best pitching staff (ERA 3.09) in MLB--the Phillies. They split 4 games, winning 7-4 and 3-2 and losing 0-2 and 6-7. Simple math tells us the no good, worthless Marlins averaged 4 runs per game against the best pitching staff in MLB. So far they've averaged 2.5 runs per game against the rotten, stinking, worthless Sox staff.

Devers now at 49 rbi's. And Rafaela, the punk kid who always gets sand kicked at him at the beach, is just 2 behind him at 47.

And guess which Sox horrible, terrible, awful, no good, rotten Sox hitter is 13 for 25 in his last 7 games? The guy who speaks almost no English and even less Spanish.

Agree on most and certainly understand what I call the "big market big payroll" syndrome/expectation. As I've said too many times, it's enough for me at almost 84 to have seen four freaking WS wins. Thus in my view John Henry owes me absolutely nothing. Plus I think he should be pissed that time and again--recently, say, 2019 to the present-- his FO smart guys signed big arms to big contracts and then watched them collapse while still getting huge salaries for what seems like decades. I must have missed the "full throttle comment," which absolutely does not jibe with what Chaim Bloom was clearly directed to do since 2019: "do not spend long and big on arms." Absolutely agree Dalbec and Smith are duds. But I can remember Sox teams whose 7th, 8th, and 9th batters thought "batter" had something to with making cakes. Hit a round ball with a round bat squarely? No way. Anyway, Dalbec is gone, maybe for good. As for Smith, I guess he gets the nod over Gonzalez (who has played 1B) because he's a lefty bat in a righty starter universe.

No s***!!!!????? You do come up with some gems. Nice win too. I didn't realize it before tonight, but I've learned that the Marlins should have simply forfeited tonight's game because they are so awful. They can't hit--nosiree, not at all.

We disagree, but that's OK--which I apologize for forgetting. I like these 2024 Sox a lot because, with Giolito, Story, Whitlock, Casas, Sale, et al on the IL (or pitching for the Braves while paid by the Sox), they should be floundering at the bottom of the AL, not just the AL East. Instead, the suckers are winning ball games they didn't win last year. The rotation is insanely good for a bunch of no-names. I mean, as recently as last season we were all arguing about whether Houck could face a lineup 3 times. As for Bello, I'm fine with whatever Cora and Breslow agree on. But to me it makes sense to leave him with the best manager in MLB and possibly the best pitching coach.

I was overseas, but religiously checked the Sox box scores in 1949 and after, so that's 75 years of fandom even though I couldn't get Sox games on radio or TV for about 50 of those years. DirectTV changed that in 2002, so I've been a real fanatic since then. Lucky timing because JH bought the Sox and brought in a pretty good brain trust to finally end the 86 year drought. His first big move was to fire that idiot manager and bring in Francona. I've been a Sox fan because I was born outside Boston and both my parents grew up in Massachusetts. Plus Ted Williams, of course. I had an Uncle Ned who was a real Sox fan, living right there in Boston the whole time, for the entire 86 year drought, but I don't think he made it to October 2004. I remember watching him watch every single Sox game on TV. including some of the bad years. I thought he was nuts, so I must be one too. Having said that, one fellow nut to another, you are certainly entitled to your point of view. Real fans thrive on disagreeing.