Maxbialystock

See above my lengthy piece on the Nationals and Phillies and the significance of Bryce Harper. We on Talksox may love a team of no-names, but they don't put butts in seats. Attendance is down from last year.

I am basically clueless in Seattle. Obviously, the farm system delivered, but I'm not sure who gets the credit for that. If Breslow was the guy who insisted on changing pitching coaches and brought in the new guy, he gets a ton of credit. The rotation has been astounding this year, especially given the absence of both Sale and Giolito. Plus, obviously, Cora. He has been masterful with the pitching staff, but also with the lineup and what I call his "dud liberation movement." If you are on the active roster, which includes just 13 lineup players, you are going out onto that playing field to show what you can do--or not freaking do. Take Grissom--please. Take Yoshida too.

Yes, but I think attendance would continue to languish. To get butts in seats, you need names on the field. In 2018 Washington attendance was 11th, 31,620 and Philadelphia's was 27,318, 17th. In 2019 Washington attendance dropped to 27,898, 16th, and Philadelphia's jumped up to 33,671, 10th. And the amazing thing about those two years and two teams is that Washington was just 82-80 in 2018 and improved to 93-69 in 2019! Meanwhile, Philly stagnated: 80-82 in 2018 and 81-81 in 2019. However, in 2018 Bryce Harper played for Washington, and in 2019 he played for Philly.

I just hate $16M for so few innings, but you are right. Forget the saves. I think his call to Cora to put him in in the 8th inning against the Yankees with the score 6-4, Sox, Yankees on 1st and 3d, and 2 outs sent a huge message to the team.

1. My comments were/are primarily about this year, not the future. Right now John Henry is laughing because of the numbers I presented and because it's obvious to me his front office, including DD, ain't so great. DD had the highest payroll in MLB in 2019 when the Sox couldn't make the postseason and DD needed a whole bunch more money to re-sign Mookie and replace Price and Sale. Yes, the guys coming up through the Sox system were selected by DD and CB, but I'm sure they had a lot of help. 2. I'm not sure I agree about how hard it is to replace Pivetta, Martin, O'Neill, and even Jansen. Pivetta first. Are you unaware we lost both pricey Sale and pricey Giolito before the season started and this is the best Sox rotation in at least 10 freaking years? And right now Pivetta's ERA is 4.06 (team ERA is 3.45, 5th best in MLB) and his WAR 1.0. Jansen, agreed, is impossible to replace, but the 2021 Sox made it to the postseason and the ALCS without a closer. Martin's WAR is 0.1--give me a break. O'Neill has good numbers, but, as you have pointed out, the Sox are knee deep in good outfielders and DH's. 3. You are no doubt right about spending big bucks to be legitimately among the top 3-4 players. But where oh where do you find the CBO smart enough to do that? In my no doubt ill-informed opinion, Breslow has already bombed badly on Sale, Giolito, and Grissom. However, if he's the guy who found the new pitching coach, that's a big plus, but not the same as spending "large and long on one or two players." 4. Lurking in the back of my tiny little brain is the notion that spending big on names does help with attendance, if not always with wins. Right now the Sox have pretty good performance from Duran, et al, but no real names, and attendance is down from last year despite a better won-lost record.

Forget Kennedy and the front office. This thread is all about John Henry, and right now he has to be laughing his ass off because it's the low-cost no-names who have the Sox in the postseason hunt. Specifically, they "own" (temporarily) the 3d wild card lost with a measly .5 game lead over the Royals and are 1 game behind the Twins for the 2d place wild card slot. Jansen @ $16M is over paid, but right now worth it, both because of his saves and because of the phone call to Cora to put him in. Devers @ $30M is also sort of worth it. But the other 12 pitchers and other 12 positions players are the ones making by far the biggest contributions--and that's without Story ($22.5M), Giolito ($18M), Whitlock ($3.2M), Sale ($17M), Turner ($7M), and, really, Yoshida ($18M). That's $86M out of a total salary base of $182M basically down the drain this season. This is actually a $96M team and $45M of that goes to one closer and one third baseman. One might even argue that the other 24 players are a $51M team currently with a .538 winning percentage and a shot at the postseason. That's not fair because Jansen and Devers have both contributed, but it's not far off the mark.

I completely agree they play and we watch one game at a time, and every game has a story of its own. But it's mindless not to see each game in the context of the season. Specifically, there are pretty big differences between being 10 games below .500, exactly at .500 and 10 games above .500 midway thru the season. In the last 12 games the Sox took 2/3 from Yankees, who have the best won-lost record in the AL, 2/3 from the Phillies, who have the best won-lost record in MLB, 3/3 from the Jays, who used to be ahead of the Sox in the AL wild card race, and 2/3 from the Reds, who are still just 2.5 games out of a wild card slot in the NL. It is not projecting to be hopeful instead of pessimistic. I think your obvious pessimism is because these Sox are, except for Devers and Jansen, pretty much a bunch of no-names. For at least 17 seasons and 4 WS wins John Henry espoused big payrolls and big names, but no longer. Instead this year the combined salaries of all 6 starters--Houck, Crawford, Pivetta, Bello, Whitlock, and Criswell so far--are less than the $16M Jansen is getting and less than the $17M the Sox are paying Sale to pitch for Atlanta. But those no-names are why the Sox ERA is ranked 5th, which is the best it's been in a very long time. And no-name Houck has the lowest ERA, 2.14, among AL starters and 12 quality starts out of 15 total. And the rest of the no-name Sox lineup--Duran, Rafaela, Wong, O'Neill, Abreu, Hamilton, Refsnyder, Gonzalez, and Smith--are getting paid less than 1/2 of what Devers is paid. And now just maybe that cheap charlie lineup, appalling as it is to real Sox fans, is starting to hit with some consistency.

Three days ago, before the series in Cincy, I was the only one saying the Sox were/are in the hunt for the postseason. And right now--and I agree there are bound to be more ups and downs--the Sox are ahead of the Royals for the 3d wild card and 1/2 game behind the Twins for the 2d wild card. It's primarily the no-name pitching, which, as you say, lately is getting some support from the no-name lineup. And the bad-name defense is slightly mitigated by the no-name base-running. What might have turned the tide was 8 days ago when Jansen called Cora from the bullpen and said "put me in" against the Yankees in the 8th inning when the score was 6-4 Sox and the Yankees had 2 on and 2 out. Cora did put him in, and he got 4 outs. That was real leadership by Jansen and the message was simple: we're here to win games--and we can!

This is beginning to look like a prophecy that just might turn out to be true. And I believe I'm the first one to have written it out loud right here on talksox.

Terrific, come from behind win, which I missed (the 8th inning, not the game). About tomorrow. Sox had Thursday off and will have this Thursday off, so I guess Cora can go with a quasi-bullpen start tomorrow because Houck is listed as starting Monday @ Fenway against the Jays.

Both his athleticism and his alertness. Man on 3b had a choice and decided, after a pause, to go home.

Not so. Sox lost 5 of 6 to a very good Orioles team and took all 3 from a lousy Oakland team. No excuse, I agree, for splitting 4 with a lousy White Sox team, but stuff happens--just like sweeping the Jays, who are 37-40 (.467). To date the Sox pitching has been way more consistent than anyone had any right to expect. That's half the team, 13 pitchers. The other half of the team, the lineup, including both the defense and the hitting, has been nothing if not inconsistent. The Sox team OPS is 5th best in MLB, but their runs scored are 11th. And the defense is too often a train wreck waiting to happen.

I've ranted repeatedly on the same topic. To me it is one of two reasons to be skeptical of the new CBO, Craig Breslow. The other is signing Giolito for $38M for two seasons, one of which is already lost--and we have no idea what he will achieve next year. Oh, and don't forget Grissom the infielder the Sox have in return for Sale. Grissom might have potential, but so far he's a bust and, appropriately, currently on the IL. On the other hand, the Sox pitching, 76 games into this season--with 81, the halfway mark, just 5 games away--is still ranked 5th in MLB in ERA. And that's without Sale, Giolito, and Whitlock. The Braves, FWIW, are ranked 7th in ERA. With Sale on the Sox staff, maybe Houck goes to the bullpen. Without Sale, he is our ace and actually having a better season: more IP and lower ERA. I still think the Sale for Grissom trade was idiotic--as was the acquisition of Giolito--but so far I like the Sox pitching, which would be even better it the Sox defense weren't the very worst in MLB.

All due respect to moonslav--and he has earned a lot--Yoshida was not the biggest problem in last night's loss. For one thing, he made no errors whereas Valdez put that lead guy on with an error, then Booser made the error on a sac bunt that brought two Cincinnati runners home for two unearned runs. Then Devers made an error, which did not result in another unearned run. I would definitely have started Ref, a righty bat, at DH--over Yoshida--but the righty bats weren't all that great against lefty Abbott. O'Neill, Dalbec, and Rafaela were all hitless. So was Devers, a lefty bat, but one with an OPS of .897. So was Yoshida, of course. One Sox dinger was by righty Wong and the other by lefty Duran. With Abreu back--I think today, but maybe tomorrow--the Sox three best outfielders are Duran in LB, Rafaela in CF, and Abreu in RF. They are all good at the plate and in the outfield. So that leaves three DH's, all with negative DWAR's and very different OPS's: O'Neill (.886) Refsnyder (.883) Yoshida (.639). So why play/keep Yoshida? Five reasons. 1. He's the only lefty bat among the three. 2. His contract is a significant sunk cost: $90M for 5 years plus $3M bonus. 3. We know he could hit in Japan, and it's possible he needs more time to adjust to America and MLB pitching. 4. Maybe that wrist is still affecting his swing. If it is, the Sox could put him back on the IL. 5. With Abreu back on the active roster, Dalbec returns to Worcester, and the Sox still have redundancy in all positions.

I thought so too, but he only threw 83 pitches. Crawford threw 77 pitches in the first 6 innings. If 77 is implemented as the new pitch limit for starters, the bullpen is going to have problems.

2 errors and what should be 2 unearned runs in the 7th.

"Currently slumping?" How so? In his last 5 games he has 5 hits and 6 rbi's. Not many hits, but 6 rbi's in 5 games are a lot.

Crawford gets a quality start and, as of now, a loss. Way too many lefties in the starting lineup, especially when Cora has recently been loading up lefties against righty starters and righty batters against lefty starters. Why go away from a winning tactic?

Boy do you have that wrong. The rectangle is perfect in every way because everyone says so. And the homeplate umpires are all blind and stupid.

Right now Craig Breslow has to be quietly ecstatic. Taking the Sox job was/is high risk given JH's reluctance to spend big, especially for starters. So of course Craig started out by signing Giolito for $36M for 2 years, which quickly became $36M for one year, if that. Then he dumped Sale to the Braves, where he is now their ace and, to sweeten the deal, the Sox are paying $17M of Sale's salary this year. Horrible!! Surprise, surprise, the Sox pitching is right now, 75 games into the season, 5th in MLB in ERA and the best it's been in a long time. Better, in fact, than the high-priced Sox pitchers in 2018. The only expensive Sox pitcher is closer Jansen, $16M, who just might be worth that insane price. Gotta love that phone call to Cora: send me in. Credit the new pitching coach and maybe Breslow for insisting on replacing last year's model. The Sox hitting is basically a bunch of no names except for Rafael Devers, who's having a pretty good season (not counting rbi's of course). Lately the no names have been, well, hitting the dang ball and--hold onto your hats, folks--actually scoring runs. Thus 7 wins in 9 games vs. the Yankees, Phillies, and Jays. The defense still stinks, but maybe a little less. And the baserunning slightly compensates with all those SB's. A month from now when it's trade time, Craig Breslow just might be in the catbird seat, dealing from strength, not weakness.

That makes sense.

Fascinating. Credible.

Ease up on JH and/or his managers. In his reign the Sox have won 4 WS. In Willie's 22 seasons with the Giants, they won 1 WS. Kike had a terrific year in 2021 and was one of the big reasons the Sox made it to the postseason and then to the ALCS.

Oh stop it. Bloom was nobody's "guy." I have defended him because I think John Henry has set some rules down that would make it difficult for any CBO, but I don't disagree that many of the acquisitions by Bloom have bombed. I have also, however, also pointed that Breslow's acquisition of Grissom--for Sale, who is now Atlanta's ace and $17M of whose salary the Sox are paying--and of Giolito have been awful so far. Giolito is being paid $36M for at most one season. I do see the case for keeping Yoshida on the active roster, but that doesn't mean I think he was a smart acquisition by Bloom. Nor was Story and a few others.

In my business, shaving was obligatory, and gold chains, had they ever been worn, would have been scorned. I think the beards and gold chains are entirely about getting people's attention, which is what most if not all adolescents do. And let's not forget all the hand waving, etc whenever anyone gets a hit. Look at me, look at me, look at me. I accept all that because it's now part of the game, but I don't think any of it makes the game better. I do, however, have the sneaking suspicion that MLB likes the gyrations, the beards, the jewelry, etc because they hope it will increase attendance and/or viewership.