Maxbialystock

All good of course. But right now I'm leaning toward the terribles, the naysayers, the talksoxers who want to fire John Henry and/or anyone else at fault for assembling a lineup that can't field or hit much. The Sox were 7-3 out West and are 0-2 at home. The Orioles are supposed to be good this year because they made it to the playoffs last year with a lot of good young players. But yesterday and tonight were simply embarrassing.

Tell us what you really think about our beloved owner.

I'm afraid so because I finally buy moonslav's dictum that a weak defense, including bad plays that aren't errors, undercuts the pitching.

Agreed. Their collective paycheck is $14M, less than Jansen's $16M. So maybe JH has a point. We'll just have to wait and see. However, the team as a whole, despite still being over .500, is worrisome. I think the bullpen will be OK, tonight notwithstanding, but the lineup is struggling at the plate and especially in the field.

Amazing, no? Crawford went 5 with 0 runs to keep things going. The rotation is the primary reason why the Sox have a winning record--7-5. And 3 of those losses were in games which the Sox lost 1-0, 2-1 (both LA runs were unearned), and 4-3 (when the Sox gave up 1 run in regulation). And 1 of the wins was when the staff (Pivetta went just 5 innings) pitched a 1-0 shutout. Tonight was appalling, given the 5-0 lead after 5. Campbell came in with a 2.08 ERA and in just 8 pitches the Orioles had 2 runs in, a man on first, and nobody out in just 8 pitches. Then Martin got sabotaged by Wong, but he also had 2 WP's, a BB, and that 3 run dinger on a fastball pretty doggone close to dead center of the strike zone. That was with 2 outs and on a 1 and 2 count.

Meh. I should have realized you meant that. However, now that I do understand-- Before tonight just 7 of 30 MLB teams had 5 or more quality starts. The Sox have 4, which ties them for 8th best.

Could be right. To me it's astounding the rotation has been so good--including Crawford's 5 shutout innings tonight--and the rest of the team so absolutely terrible. Wong is supposed to be our best defensive catcher but tonight he had a passed ball and batter interference.

Not really. He threw 1 strike to McGuire and still struck him out. Knuckle curve was working good.

Finally, something I can agree with. I'll bet you a million bucks no MLB team in the last 50 years has averaged 6 inning starts over 162 games. My goodness, these days a 9 inning start gets headlines. Have you never read the frequent comments/stats from moonslav and others about how difficult it is to fact a lineup for the 3d freaking time? And wasn't it the Dodgers manager who pulled his starter who had been brilliant--I think in the NLCS or the WS--for six innings simply because he was terrified of letting him face that lineup a 3d time? He said after the game he made that decision before the game started!!!!

They don't have the salaries--isn't that what you mean? They need Mookie for $350M, right? How about Bogey for $280M? All we need to lead the AL East again? The rotation of Bello, Pivetta, Crawford, Whitlock, and Houck has now made 12 starts and I think pitched at least 5 innings in every start with a collective ERA below 2.00. But they can't possibly be good because their collective salary is about $14M.

FWIW, 2 of the 7 Orioles runs are unearned. Correction: the box score now say 1 unearned run. To me griping that Crawford was lousy because he pitched 5 shutout innings is just stupid. When he left the game the Sox were leading 5-0. Yes, Campbell struggled--the Orioles had 2 runs in and a man on first in his first 8 pitches, partly helped by O'Neill's error. This was a collective collapse despite decent hitting and an excellent start by Crawford.

You sure about that? I just looked at the team stats for MLB pitching and honed in on the "quality starts," which are defined as 6 or more innings and 3 or fewer runs. These, in order from the best team ERA to the 7th best ERA, are those teams quality starts-- Sox 4 Yankees 4 Guardians 3 Royals 8 Orioles 6 Tiger 2 Mets 2 Care to revise your theory that only quality starts will do? Also, the Sox lost two of the quality starts, 1 by Pivetta (Sox lost 1-0), and 1 by Crawford (Sox lost 4-3 in extra innings).

I guess I need to remind you too. The Orioles had 2 runs in and a man on 1b in the first 8 pitches.

Coming into this game Campbell has pitched 4.1 innings in 5 games with 1 run and an ERA of 2.08. In just 8 pitches the Orioles have 2 runs in, a man on 1b, and no one out. All 3 hits were singles. Plus the error by O'Neill put first two batters on 2d and 3d. Nevertheless, both runs were earned because of what followed. You seem to think Cora could have done something inside those 8 pitches. If so, you are nuts.

Completely agree. But virtually the entirely of the RSN--and certainly Talksox--has already decided that none of the them will do well. That's what I don't understand.

Top 5 in pitching, Top 10 in baserunning, middle of 5-10 in batting, and near the bottom of defense!!!!!????? The Sox can't possibly win another game. I had no idea you were so pessimistic.

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.