Maxbialystock

Sad to say, but I'm with moonslav on the pitching. Yes, absolutely, it's just 11 games. But a year ago we didn't have a rotation. Bello led everyone with a paltry 157 IP. Our pros from Dover--Sale, Paxton, and Kluber--pitched 103, 96, and 55 innings. So Pivetta, Crawford and House--all of whom relieved last year as well as started--filled in with 143, 129, and 106 IP. This year the rotation has been unbelievably good. The laggard is Bello, but yesterday he went 5.1 innings with just 1 ER. Yes, Pivetta dropped out, but it looks like for just 15 days and 3 starts. The other four still look good, as does the bullpen because the team ERA is still the lowest in MLB and the WHIP second lowest. We should be shouting that from the rooftops, but instead we are predicting catastrophic failure. Why do we know this rotation is going to fail miserably? Because JH refused to spend $100M on it. In fact, the combined salaries of Bello, Pivetta, Crawford, Whitlock, and Houck add up to $14M, which is less than Jansen's $16M, Yoshida's $19M, etc.

His lifetime OPS is .852, which is why he's the highest paid player on the team. Right now the Sox team OPS is .695 and ranked 16th in MLB. We need Raffy's bat a lot more than his glove, and right now he has just 3 rbi's (7th on the Sox), 15 total bases (3d), and an OPS of .726 (4th). To date Raffy has 1 error, as do 7 other Sox lineup players. Rafaela has 2 errors. So that's 9 with 1 or more errors. That leaves just 3 regular lineup players with no errors: O'Neill, Wong, and McGuire. I'm ignoring Dalbec because he's back in Worcester and Gonzalez because he's played just 1 game.

Yep.

Freaking brilliant. You and Bette Davis, "fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."

Sounds like last year when-- Offense was 11th (and is currently 16th) Pitching was 21st (so you see a slight improvement) (and is currently 1st) Defense was 28th (also a slight improvement) (and is currently 28th) Baserunning--stolen bases--was 17th (big improvement) (and is currently 8th) But the only stat that counts is wins. Last year there were 78. Didn't you say 82 this year?

Well said.

Stunning. I've been a Sox fan since 1949, but I have attended games at Fenway just twice, and both times I hated it. I've also been to MLB games in the new stadium in DC, Camden Yards in Baltimore, the Royals park in KC, and the old Phillies park in Philadelphia. And I'm here to say that, while Fenway Park is wonderfully photogenic, it has the worst sightlines in MLB.

That's criminal! The Sox need to start vetting ticket-purchasers. I can't think of many things worse than fans rooting for the visiting team. The exact same thing led to the decline and fall of the Roman empire.

You're right, of course. However, John Henry is still the best owner in Sox history. I don't know what key decisions he did or didn't make, but as a minimum he hired a front office who knew when to fire people and how to build a team that ended the 86 year "curse" and brought home 4 WS. It now seems apparent that the hiring of Chaim Bloom 5 years ago signaled a sea change--as you say, a smaller team payroll. For most of JH's 20+ seasons as owner, the Sox were at or near the top. Now they're in the middle. Meanwhile, the value of the Sox franchise keeps getting bigger and is currently $4.5B. It's true that attendance at Fenway has dropped from about 3 million 15 years ago to 2.7 million last year, but guess what? The Yankees attendance, despite their continuing to spend big on players, has dropped from 3.7 million to 3.3 million over the same period. The Dodgers attendance has gone up from 3.7 million to 3.8 million. And there's also the tiny, insignificant fact that last year the Orioles and Rays, with their infinitesimal team salaries, came in 1st and 2d in the toughest Division in MLB. And the Yankees finished 4th, just 4 games ahead of the Sox, and didn't make the playoffs. Biggest payroll last year? Mets, who finished 75-87. Yankees were 2d biggest. 3d biggest were the Padres, who finished 82-80, also 4 games ahead of the Sox. 4th biggest, Rangers, won the WS. 5th biggest, Philly, made it to the NLCS, where they lost in 7 games to the Diamondbacks, whose payroll was 21st in MLB. I'm not saying JH is right or wrong. I admit I wish we still had Mookie, but there are also plenty of examples of bringing in and keeping players who didn't earn their salaries. Time will tell.

Completely agree the pitching is very much worth defending--an excellent laydown. Winck struggled yesterday, but in his 3 previous appearances who went 5 innings while giving up 0 earned runs. After 11 games the Sox team ERA, 1.72, isn't just the best ERA in MLB. The second best, the Yankees, is 2.48. Yesterday against the Orioles Bello had his best start of the season, 5.1 innings, 1 ER. The problems are with the lineup--weak hitting and lackluster fielding. The total salaries of the rotation amount to $14M, which is less than Yoshida's $19M, Story's $22M, Devers' $29M, or Jansen's $18M. Nevertheless, the Sox are 7-4, primarily because of the pitching--although the hitting has kicked in now and then and Rafaela, Duran, and O'Neill have all made good plays in the outfield.

I do agree non-error plays can hurt. In his first three appearances--this was his fourth--Winckowski pitched 5 innings while giving up 0 earned runs. Those 4 unearned runs on April 5 were because against the Angels Rafaela and Valdez decided to take the day off on defense. Rafaela dropped an easy pop fly and Valdez a throw to 2b.

Bello's best start this season--5.1 innings, 1 earned run. The hitting and defense are the problems.

I don't know about best, but awfully good, agreed.

Ahem. Bello, who struggled in both starts against ragamuffin teams on the West Coast, went 5.1 innings yesterday while giving up just 1 freaking unearned run, easily his best start of the year. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our pitching, but in our hitting and rotten defense, that they are underlings.

Didn't I say Story was great on defense?

Compared to last year's rotation, this year's rotation, with or without Pivetta, is vastly better. Heck, today Bello went 5.1 innings while giving up just 1 ER. One more time. The Sox pitching is this team's strength--and why the Sox are 7-4. And the lineup, both hitting and fielding, is killing us--just 2 stinking hits, but 3 more unearned runs. This is the 5th game out of 11 played in which the Sox lineup has scored 1 or 0 runs in the regulation 9 innings. In 11 games the defense has allowed 11 unearned runs.

Losing Story probably does hurt the pitching, but the rest of the defense is already doing plenty of damage. I didn't say that about the Sox playing the AL East 52 games, so allow me to say, "good point." I said it a lot last year and promptly forgot about it. Right now the winningest division in MLB is the NL Central: Pitt 9-3, Milwaukee 6-3, Cincy 6-4, Cubs 6-4, and Cards 5-6--overall +12. AL East is + 10.

I can think of 2 reasons for leaving him in: 1) eat up the innings so that the rest of the bullpen is well rested for the next several games; 2) stretch him out--he threw 65 pitches--because we just a lost a starter.

Angels are 6-4, Mariners 4-6, and A's 3-7. If you take out the 10 games against the Sox, the Angels would be 4-3, the Mariners 2-4, and the A's 3-4. And let's not forget that historically the Sox have not done well starting the season on the West Coast. And I don't care who you are going against, an ERA of 1.49 is pretty terrific even for just 10 games.

I said for the first 10 games. Go ahead, find another Sox rotation that did better in the first 10 games. And if we are talking about just the rotation, you can throw in today's game because Bello, who has been struggling, went 5.1 innings while giving up 1 ER.

Completely agree the Orioles series is a real test of this year's Sox. The lineup, as usual, has stunk. They scored 1 lousy run and managed to give up 3 unearned runs with their lousy defense. As I pointed out on this or another thread, in the first 10 games the lineup scored 1 or fewer runs in 4 of the first 10 games (not including extra innings). If they don't score in the 9th today, that's 5 out of 11 games. The rotation, on the other hand, is holding their own. Today Bello, who has struggled this season, went 5.1 innings while giving up 1 earned run. Pure and simple, the lineup stinks, but the Sox are 7-4, mostly because of the pitching.

Guilty. I generally agree the outfield with Duran, Rafaela, and O'Neill is pretty good. Both Duran and Rafaela have made some good grabs. Nevertheless, those dropped flies by Duran and Rafaela have been costly.

Good beliefs, but unsupported by what we're seeing. Duran just brought in two unearned runs, and earlier Rafael also dropped an easy catch that led to 4 unearned runs. 3d base, 2d base, and 1st base have all made costly errors as well. Only SS, O'Neill, and the two catchers are clean. 11 games and 11 unearned runs so far.

So far, just 11 games, this is the best rotation in Sox history. The problems are entirely with the lineup, which can't field and can't hit.

Rafaela dropped an easy pop fly that led to 4 unearned runs. Duran did the same today. With this Sox defense, absolutely nothing is guaranteed. And let's not forget that the same guys making all the errors and giving up the unearned runs are the guys who can't hit a lick. Only the pitching has been good this season so far.