Maxbialystock

Whoa, Nellie. Cora managed easily the best team in Sox history when they won 108 games in in 2018 and then went 11-3 in the postseason. The next season, 2019, the Sox pitching collapsed (ERA ranked 19th in MLB)000 Sale and Price with ERA's if 4,40 and 4.28. That season they had the highest payroll in MLB, so JH fired Dombrowski, and brought in Chaim Bloom from the Rays system which I think JH wanted to emulate to some degree. Skip covid 2020 and go to 2021 in which the Sox still had enough hitting to rank 5th in runs scored although their team ERA was ranked 15th. Thanks in part to Cora's managing, the Sox won 92 games and then made it to the ALCS despite not having a closer. In 2022 the Sox team ERA was ranked 25th, a disaster, and their run diff -52. In 2023 the team ERA was 19th and the run diff -5. Goodbye Chaim Bloom, hello Craig Breslow, also a Yalie but with 10 years MLB pitcvhing experience. 2024 the Sox finished 81-81; Last year, 2025, JH loosened the purse strings enough to allow Breslow to sign ace Crochet, AS thirdbaseman Bregman, and closer Chapman. However, Breslow went out of his way to dump Devers and his .900 OPS. About the same time Bregman went on the IL and was never the same for the rest of the season. Anthony was brought up and by July Devers wasn't missed much even though it was the pitching that made the biggest difference last year. Their team ERA was 9th best MLB and they made the postseason with 89 wins and then losing 2/3 game to the Yankees in the playoff. Their best hitter, Anthony, was injued Sep 3 and was out for the season. Dombrowski built that 2018 juggernaut in part because JH underwrote the biggest payroll in MLB. It was also the biggest in 2019 when the Sox didn't make the postseason. Thus, exit DD, enter Chaim Bloom with definite restrictions on what he could do/spend. Right now the Sox stink because their pitching and hitting stink--despite the Sox having the 6th largest payroll in MLB.

ESPN team stats say the Sox have 2d most errors, 11, the 25th best ERA, 4.84, and the 23d most runs scored, 36. Bregman, FWIW, currently has a WAR of -0.2. Devers WAR is -0.3. By comparison horrible, terrible Durbin's WAR is -0.1 and Anthony's is +0.3. So, yes, we needed bats, but the heart of the issue is the pitching because that is Breslow's presumed strong suit and where he spent the most money.

Been thinking the same thing. Story is inexcusably lousy in the field and at bat.

Not that it means much, but I took a peak at this year's Sox payroll. The 1st, 2d, 4th, 8th, and 9th highest salaries belong to pitchers Crochet, Suarez, Gray, Chapman and Bello and total $98 M.. The two highest paid "hitters" are Story and Yoshida, total $41M. Next are Contreras at $17M, Anthony (!!!!) at $16M, and Duran at @ $8M. Obviously, Breslow prefers to invest in pitchers because his top two hitters contracts were by his predecessor. Indeed, the only new bats Breslow can claim are Contreras and Durbin. And this season the Sox have the 6th highest payroll. Oh, and let's not forget that last year Breslow started the season with Devers and Bregman. Devers left in June because of a disagreement over playing 1b and Bregman had a subpar season because of the injury. Consequently, Breslow was reluctant to guarantee $35M/year for 5 years to 32 year old Bregman. Those two were each paid $35M last season and still are this season. On the other hand I think it is fair to say that last season the Sox pitching got them into the postseason, especially after their best hitter Anthony went on the IL on Sep 3. Right now Boston is ranked 22d in team ERA and 28th in runs scored.

Two very differenet pitchers. Barnes had that great curve to go with a 95 mph fast ball. Then the umps started checking for foreign substances, and the great curve was less great. Whitlock has a starter's repertoire.

As everyone knows, I always defend Cora, but I have to say right now that's the easiest thing in the world when-- The Sox are -13 after 5 games, "Superstar" Anthony has 4 hits and 11 freaking K's with an OPS of .482, The team OPS is .630, The team ERA is 4.78, And they have 4 errors in 5 games. I do recognize that ultimately the only guy you can fire is the manager--and managers are hired to be fired. On the other hand, I thought Cora was brilliant last year after losing Devers and Bregman going on the IL after which he wasn't the same hitter. And don't forget a red hot Anthony going on the IL on Sep 3.

Sox are now -7. But the Jays, 3-1, are -4. Cleveland, 3-2, is -7. Miami is 3-1 at -2. Rockies are 1-3 and +6. Early season anomalies.

i'm unhappy too, but firing Cora fixes nothing.

Only two things the Sox don't do so well--pitch and hit. Forget Anthony. It's early, but his sophomore slump has epic potential.

Well then you gotta love Anthony who looked at 3 straight fastballs right down the middle. If this is the proverbial sophomore slump, it's a beaut.

Sox are now -7. But the Jays, 3-1, are -4. Cleveland, 3-2, is -7. Miami is 3-1 at -2. Rockies are 1-3 and +6. Early season anomalies.

This year Sox payroll is ranked 6th. 3 of the top 4 salaries are pitchers Crochet, Suarez, and Gray. Story is the highest paid hitter, which says a bunch. Next highest hitter in salary is Yoshida, ranked 5th. Then Contreras 6th and Anthony 7th @ $16M. After just 4 games, granted, Story's OPS is .500, Yoshida .500, Contreras .410, and Anthony .585. Yankees payroll, $337M is 3d and Jays, $306 is 5th. Sox payroll is $264M. Yankees and Jays are 3-1. Cheapskate Rays are 2-2. So are the Orioles. Last season the Sox started out 1-4.

Meh. Sox had pitching last season but not much offense. This year so far they have Crochet and Abreu and that's about it.

Miserable game with just one bright spot. Cora sent Oviedo out to eat up 3.1 innings so the rest of the bullpen could, well, rest. Good decision. Hitting stinks except for Abreu, and Anthony is one of the stinkers. Durbin now hitless in 4 games. Dombrowski unloaded Suarez on the Sox--sort of.

So far a miserable freaking game. We can't hit, but the Astros sure can.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm looking forward to tonight's game.

Sorry, gents, but April 19 was truly the shot heard round the world. There are a flock of Leinxton's that were so named within a couple years after April 19, 1775. Like Lexington Kentucky and Lexington Virginia. It was because of Lexington that the 2d Continental Congress created the Continental Army in June 1775 and made GW its commander, after which he proceeded directly to Boston where his Army was. Sinking a British ship was small potatoes. Driving the British Army and Navy out of Boston was monumental and encouraged the 2d Continental Congress to take the next, gigantic step of the Declarartion. The immediate consequence of that was England sending an armada and fresh troops to beat the crap out of GW and the Continental Army defending NYC. That was so successful that by December 1776 the Continental Army was pushed all the way back to the other side of the Delaware River. That's when GW, after several councils of war aided and abetted by Thomas Paine's The Crisis, decided to cross the icy Delaware River and take Trenton, not once, but twice. Then he chased the British Amy back to Princeton and beyond. It still took 5 more years, Rochambeau and 15,000 French troops, and Admiral DeGrasse's fleet to prevent Clinton from reinforcing Corrnwallis at Yorktown in October 1781, the victory that convinced the British government that further efforts would be futile. Plus there were a bunch of British citizens, even members of Parliament, who were sympathetic to the American cause. My dad grew up on a farm in western MA and later was awarded 2 DSC's in WW II.

It occurs to me that this stance was taken strictly to stir the pot. Better to argue that Early should not have been sent out to pitch in the 6th inning. Crochet was pitching up a storm in his first start and Cora took him out after 80 pitches. I am by no means saying the Sox win if the bullpen starts the 6th inning. The 2 run lead still incurs risks. Weissler could still screw things up.

I like that. A better lineup with a good rationale.

You're cynical and I'm worried for the same reason.

I'm 85. I also taught field artillery gunnery at Fort Sill, so I value the ability to use data to predict outcomes. American field artillery started using weather and other data to achieve predicted fire in World War I over 100 years ago. Predicting game outcomes and batter vs Hitter outcomes are a lot dicier than gunnery, but they are no less important. On the other hand, no data anywhere would have suggested Anthony would be hitless today with 2K's and have 1 hit yesterday also with 2 K's. Meanwhile, the worst hitter in all of MLB got a single and a double today.

What nonsense. First and foremost, stats have been around as long as baseball has, only now they are even more sophisticated and predictive because of all kinds of data fed into comuters. There were 3 factors that caused Cora to make the sensible decision to pull Early: 1) 96 pitches, which was way more than Crochet threw in his first start--80 pitches; 2) this was the third time through the Redleg batting order which is when opposiing lineups are the mostly likely to hit a starter; 3) the next two battters were righties which gave righty Wichert the advantage. He threw a bunch of low pitches to walk batter #1. Then he decided to go bold against a guy who hit 49 dingers last season and threw 3 straight pitches in the middle of the zone, the third of which he clobbered. Then he got the next two guys easily with low strikes. I think Weissert choked against his first two batters. Last season Weissert had an ERA of 2.82 with 17 holds, 3d best on the Sox.

I did not see his stats from last year. WAR 2.8 ain't too shabby. 3d in ROY voting. He still stinks after 3 games, but OK. I gather the problem is that Cora and/or Breslow want to get Yoshida to get some at bats. OK, but he should never ever play LF.

Finally, something substantive to discuss. And the answer to me is simple. Dump Durbin from the lineup and add Yoshida as the DH. Anthony goes to LF, Duran to CF, Rafaela to 2b, and Abreu stays in RF. Mayer is way better at 3b than Durbin. Rafaela is probably better at 2b than Durbin at 3b. But you still lose that gold glove in CF. However, today's game convined me that Cora does not care about gold gloves. He took Rafaela out of the freaking lineup so Yoshida could play left field. Why not Anthony in LF and Yoshida as DH?