Maxbialystock

Hamilton replaced the injured player O'Neill. So Duran moved to LF and Rafaela to CF and Hamilton to SS. Hamilton was pretty good the last two games @ SS.

Now those plays were clownish, which are to be expected of both Casas and Abreu.

I don't consider that play to be silly. It was an in-between pop with both players trying hard to get it. Why wouldn't we want them to do that? Bumping heads was simply unfortunate.

You routinely make some of the most unintelligent observations about Sox games. Both teams have excellent pitching: Sox ERA is 1st in MLB and the Guardians is 4th. So the starters, as expected, pitched shutout ball. Now Cleveland is up by 2 because they pinch hit after Cora brought in a righty and Brennan, a lefty bat, hit the 2 run dinger off a slider on the 8th pitch which I think he was looking for. Weissert either doesn't have a change-up or didn't feel up to throwing one.

Both starters have been effective so far this year--Curry and Crawford. Bernardino staying in to pitch the 7th and against righty bat Ramirez who I think swung at a pitch that may have hit him. And he gets his required 3 outs and exits stage right.

So here we are sitting on April 15, tax day. The Sox have done nothing because, as several of you pointed out, there is/was very little that can in fact be done in the near term. And, guess what? The Sox took the last 2 from the Angels and are now 9-7, tied with the Rays, 1/2 game behind the Orioles, and 3 games back of the charging Yankees. The Sox still have the lowest ERA in MLB, 2.54, to the Yankees 2d place 2.78, and they also still have a +12 run differential, for whatever that is worth. It's OK to be nervous about that MLB-leading ERA--how long will it continue?--but it's also OK to note that in those two weekend wins the Sox committed 0 errors--you know, with the worst infield in the history of MLB. To repeat: with Devers, Story, and several others on the IL or simply not playing, plus the $17M the Sox are paying Sale and $7M to Turner, of the Sox $180M payroll, only $75M is actually available to play. Devers could start today, but is his shoulder healthy? And here come the Cleveland Guardians, 10-5, with a +29 run differential and the 4th best ERA, 3.20, in MLB. How tough are they? About like the Sox, I think. Those 10 wins were achieved against the likes of the A's (7-9), Mariners (6-10), Twins (6-8), White Sox (2-13), and Yankees (12-4). This season is hardly a saga. More like a episode from the Twilight Zone.

Agree he gets the job done: 4/4 so far this season. But you cannot have watched today's 9th inning without more than a modicum of alarm. He had the bases loaded with no on out on a HBP, a BB, and a single before he got the first out, a sac fly that scored a run and moved the other two to 2d and 3d with just one out. That's pretty freaking precarious. Then he struck out Rengifo and Trout, which was pretty doggone good. But still . . .

WS wins in 2004, 2007, 2013, and 2018 say the Sox are not fundamentally flawed. By the way, I love the Rays systematic approach to baseball. My guess is they are about as good as it gets in drilling on the fundamentals. But they've yet to win a WS.

I'm not in favor of drama by the closer, but let's face it--this year Jansen has been successful but less than impressive. Today he was especially terrible, but then he recovered beautifully. Absolutely no luck in 2 K's.

You mean Devers has a bad shoulder--we think--and Yoshida doesn't and is starting to hit. Fair enough.

Back to back no error games. Two pretty good wins when the Sox absolutely, positively needed them. Go, Bosox!

Actually, I found the 9th most impressive. Jansen did everything to give the game away, and then he got two K's for the save, one of them against one of the best hitters in MLB. Dazzlingly good, Mr. Jansen.

Teaching disability?????? Are you seriously saying that all minor leaguers--and major leaguers--should be equal in ability simply because they are taught correctly? It's true that Ted Williams was a great student of hitting, but he also was a terrific hitter before he was 20.

Today's game is a real test, much like Friday. Anderson, another lefty, is tough. And we have opening day starter, Bello, going for us. The other score worth keeping is attendance. In 5 home games: 36K, 27K, 26K, 26K, and 31K = 29K average.

What else is there? When you're a Sox fan, you plan your Saturdays--and other days--around when they play. I mean, they only played 162 games in a season.

Excuse me. Aren't you one of several on talksox who says the Sox should have kept Turner, a good righty bat, after last year? Why do you want to dump O'Neill, who is a righty bat, the best bat on the team so far, a pretty decent rightfielder, and 28 years old?

You think so? Casas is 24 years old. If he played Little League--and he almost certainly has--he has been playing baseball pretty seriously for at least 12 years and professionally for about 6 years (since 2018). Why are you laying his weak fielding on the Sox staff?

I agree managers are normally paid a pittance, but believe Cora is one of the best. They brought him back after he was banned because of stealing signals at Houston, and in 2021 he worked a minor miracle getting the Sox to the ALCS--beating both the Yankees and the 100 win Rays--without a freaking closer. You know, like Jansen, whose salary right now, $16M, is bigger than the combined salaries of five starters--Bello, Pivetta, Crawford, Whitlock, and Houck. Like everyone else, I'm distraught with the Sox defense right now, but I'm not sure that's on Cora. I say that because he was an infielder and a pretty good one--with the Sox. Today, for example, Hammond the bonehead from last night, looked smooth as silk at SS.

Good win, but absolutely terrible for actual talking on talksox. We only want to talk after losses, especially ugly losses.

Huge surprise. Not the pitching of course, even with Criswell starting. The hitting and errorless ball, those were the surprises. Also kind of neat was Duran fielding a ball off the green monster and the runner on 1b only getting to 2b. Sox now over .500 again. Tied with the Rays at 8-7, 1 game ahead of the Jays, 1 game behind the Orioles, and a mile behind the Yankees at 11-3. Sox run differential +11. Sox looked speedy on the basepaths.

Of course it's hard if not impossible to win without pitching. On the other hand, can you name a Sox team that won anything, even just the Division or even just the wild card, with good pitching and lousy hitting?

Well said. Hats' off to you.

I think everyone on talksox, including me, shares your suspicion. To borrow moonslav's slant on things, the defense right now is frighteningly bad and that alone could--and already has--undercut the pitching.

Ahem. The Sox are paying $180M this year, 11th biggest payroll in MLB. But they absolutely, positively are not getting what they pay for. Specifically, the following Sox salaries are not currently playing for the Boston Red Sox: Devers $29M (and we have no idea when his shoulder will be well enough to enable him to hit); Story $23M; Giolito $18M; Pivetta $7M; Sale $17M; Turner $7M. That's over $100M of the $180M. Now tack on Yoshida's $18M because his OPS is .573, which makes him virtually worthless as a DH, which is the only position he can "play." Now we're at $60M of usable players--basically, the Oakland A's payroll--vs. an actual payroll of $180M.

Interesting, but I believe the 5 man rotation has worked pretty well so far, the bullpen has been almost decent, and the Sox team ERA, 2.47, is still ranked #1. To me the real problem, which the new CBO can't do much to fix in the short term is that, out of the $180M current payroll--11th biggest in MLB--$100M isn't playing for the Sox: Devers $29M; Story $23M; Giolito $18M; Pivetta $8M; Sale $17M; and Turner $7M. You can almost tack on Yoshida's $18M because he ain't delivering on that salary. So, let's see, now we're at roughly $60M worth of players who can actually play. Thank goodness the 5 original starters--Bello, Pivetta, Crawford, Whitlock, and Houck--are paid just $14M total. Nevertheless, $60M, which does represent the value of the players actually able to play right now, is lower than the A's bottom of the barrel $63M. So I go with moonslav's cautious approach. Watch and see. Maybe trade/dump the 1 year life cycle models like Jansen.