Maxbialystock

I could be wrong, but I think most of the Orioles hits have come off Bello's fast ball. That double, however, was off the changeup.

Meh. The real story is that McGuire and Urias got the first real hits for the Sox in this game and that Rafaela struck freaking out with a man on 3b.

But the season is not in fact over. I'm pessimistic too, but the Sox are not yet mathematically eliminated from the wild card/postseason. That does not mean there are no reasons to play Rafaela or Abreu.

Mookie Betts is primarily an outfielder, none of whom have been affected by ending the infield shifts.

Not wrong. As has been discussed many times, the return of Sale, Houck, and Whitlock combined with Bello, Paxton, Pivetta, Crawford, Jansen, Martin, Schreiber, Bernardino, Winckowski, and Murphy should have been enough pitching. Same goes for the bats of Devers, Dugo, Turner, Yoshida, Casas, Duran, Wong, Duvall, Ref, Story, Reyes, and even McGuire. I think the 48 games--starting 4 August) with just 3 days off affected the pitching more than I/we expected. It could also have affected the hitting, but I doubt it. Surprisingly, the arrival of Story improved the defense at a key spot, SS, but didn't seem to help much because the pitching was awful. When Houck got beat up in the 6th inning in his last game, everyone seemed to say, "see, he's awful the third time through the lineup." My rebuttal is, "at least he got to the 6th inning because right now Sale, Paxton Pivetta, and Crawford can't."

I think you can argue it either way. The Sox still have a shot, and Cora wants his best lineup in there. Rafaela definitely has potential, but the other guys have experience. Or put it this way, Rafaela is a know quantity in terms of potential. I believe moonslav when he says Rafaela will start in CF next year. So right now it might make sense to see what Duvall, Dugo, Ref, etc can do in terms of keeping them or trading them.

Game over. See ya.

On this team with this rotation, Houck fits right in. They all have trouble going 6 innings and sometimes 5 or even 4 innings.

At least Jacques is consistent. Last time out, he HBP'd the first two batters he faced.

Houck simply blew up the third time through the Orioles order. I doubt that happens the third time Bradish goes through the Sox order.

Bradish vs Houck, both righties Big edge to the Orioles, of course Five lefty bats in the lineup Verdugo RF Devers 3B Turner DH Casas 1B Duvall CF Yoshida LF Story SS Valdez 2B Wong C

Actually, as you well know, while I like defense, especially great defense, I value hitting a whole lot more. Same goes for pitching--way more valuable. Defense is a distant 3d.

Makes sense. I like Duvall and he has the arm for right field.

Not good enough. As the Talksox leading proponent for good Sox defense, you should have said Dugo is the only outfielder on this team with a plus DWAR. In fact, his +0.8 is the second best DWAR on the team after Wong's +1.7. You should be raving about his defense--which we have all seen has included a number of grabs and throws that prevented runs from scoring. With his OPS of .790, Dugo is also the only Sox regular who can in fact play defense and hit the dadgum ball. Everyone with with better offensive stats than Dugo has a negative freaking DWAR. If you really believe defense is important to winning games, you would be insisting Dugo is the only player on this team who is untradeable. Instead, you mention his attitude problem.

I disagree with moonslav frequently (even though I know he's far more knowledgeable), but I am thankful for his tendency to be optimistic. You, on the other hand, are spoiled rotten. Where were you during the 86 year curse? John Henry not only ended it, but brought 3 more WS titles to Boston. As you point out, JH has never hesitated to fire a manager (Cora is his 5th) or CBO (Bloom is his 5th). Either or both could get fired this year. However, in their defense, this year's Sox payroll is ranked 15th in MLB, the lowest ranking in the JH era and probably the lowest in 40 years. You get what you pay for--unless, like the Rays, Orioles, and maybe a couple of other franchises, you build a team with your farm system. I think that's what JH and CB are trying to do, but it takes time. I also think JH hates paying huge amounts for pitchers who don't deliver--like Sale and Price. Those are the same two guys who were key members of the Sox best team ever, 2018, but have been worthless since 2019 even though the Sox kept paying both through last year and Sale through next year.

Hard to be an optimist about the Sox right now. The biggest problem is the pitching, but there have also been plenty of games, like last night's, when the pitching was decent but the hitting sucked (or, if you will, the other team's pitching was a lot better). So one more time on my pet theory (or hobby horse, take your pick), that griping about the defense is futile for the simple reason that good bats are more important than good gloves. You can even see that when Cora puts a lineup together: he is always looking for the best combination of bats with hopefully some defensive ability. Here, for example, are DWAR's and OPS's of the worst gloves on the team: Yoshida DWAR -1.2, OPS .806 Casas -1.0, .868 Turner -0.9, .828 Duran -0.4, .828 Duvall -0.3, .891 Devers -0.3, .847 McGuire -0.2, .689 Don't forget that moonslav has evidence that those DWAR's overlook a ton of errors that aren't scored that way, so those seven are literally giving games away with their lousy defense. Now here are the good DWAR's with their OPS's-- Wong DWAR +1.7, OPS .709 Verdugo +0.9, .790 Story +0.6, .504 Story's playing excellent defense and absolutely stinks at the plate. Wong is actually doing OK at the plate, but of course can't catch every game. Dugo is the one player on this team with a good bat and glove, but everybody wants to dump him because he's lazy or whatever.

Meh. Jansen also pitched Monday and was terrific.

You're absolutely right. How could I forget the magnificent baserunning by Refsnyder going from 2d to 3d on that wild pitch? Or his beautifully timed dash home when the Rays 2d baseman dropped the pop fly? I hereby apologize to the entire Sox lineup for not appreciating their great clutch hitting at the Trop. P.S. Ghost runner fits.

BINGO my aunt fanny. Before we go after the manager for something he did on Sunday, let's look at what his players did 2 days later in last night's game-- 1. Starter Crawford stunk, giving up 5 ER in 3.2 innings. 2. Reliever Jacques did Crawford no favors by coming in with the bases loaded and 2 outs and HBP'ing the first two batters he faced. 3. After that, the bullpen, including Jacques, held the Rays scoreless for 6.1 innings. Fantastic! 4. However, the lineup scored a grand total of 3 earned runs in the game because the other 2 runs occurred because of 2 errors by the Rays. 5. Even with a man on 2d base and no one out in the 10th inning, the Sox failed to score. 6. I did not see Duvall fail to catch something, but did see him make an extremely clutch throw from RF to get the final out in the 10th inning and prevent the Rays from scoring the winning run. 7. Before Jansen gave up that dinger in the 11th, the Sox lineup again failed to bring a man home from 2d base with no one out. As far as I'm concerned, this loss is on Crawford, Jacques, and, once again, the Sox weak hitting lineup that only scored 3 earned runs and then twice failed to bring a guy home from 2d base in the 10th and 11th innings.

No, you don't agree because you insist that ERA's are bunk because fielders make tons of mistakes that aren't counted as errors. You only beat the drum on defense, not on pitching or on hitting.

This is not credible because you have zero hard evidence. Go to all the box scores--or better still the pitch by pitch replay you can get on mlb.com--and cite specific examples of 8-12 games lost specifically because of the defense and nothing else. I hasten to add that the Sox lose in 9 innings last night without the two Rays errors which led to 2 unearned runs. The two Sox errors led to 0 unearned runs. The Sox are ranked 21st in team ERA. I know you and many others despise ERA, but over time it's been a consistent marker on whether or not the Sox will get to the postseason. Below are the Sox rankings in team ERA and whether or not they made it to the postseason. 2022, 25th, no 2021, 15th, yes 2019, 19th, no 2018, 8th, yes 2017, 4th, yes 2016, 9th, yes 2015, 25th, no 2014, 23d, no 2013, 14th, yes 2012, 27th, no 2011, 22d, no 2010, 22d, no 2009, 16th, yes 2008, 9th, yes 2007, 2d, yes 2006, 26th, no 2005, 24th, yes 2004, 11th, yes 2003, 17th, yes 2002, 7th, no 2005 (ERA 24th, yes postseason), and 2002 (ERA 7th, no postseason) are the two exceptions in 20 seasons. I skipped 2020 because I don't think it was a real season. But, FYI, the Sox ERA was 28th and they didn't make it to the postseason.

Agree with the velocity, but, when they are hit really hard, the infielders get a break in terms of hit or error--scorers usually say hit. Unpredictable bounces don't automatically become hits, but some of them do. Agree on the time between catching and throwing, but I think we can agree that's a big deal maybe 10-20% of the time. Also--and this is a a point that supports your view--a late throw is rarely called an error. What I freely admit I've ignored is the issue of range. Some of the best infielders--I mean gold glove infielders-- can accrue more errors simply because of their greater range. I think that's less likely for an outfielder, but completely agree that the best outfielders have greater range because of their speed, but even more for their routes/anticipation.

On the worst team, 98% of them are fielded correctly/adequately. The challenge for hitters, which you blithely gloss over, is hitting a round ball with a round bat squarely--and even some/lots of those are fielded for outs. Hitting is way, way tougher than fielding and a batting average of .300 is way above average. The challenge for pitchers is consistently (2/3 of the time) hitting that infinitesimal strike zone--preferably 66% of the time, preferably not in the middle of the strike zone (so inches count), and definitely with a tremendous effort including imparting spin on the ball. Starters do that maybe 90-100 times a game. Pitching is much, much harder than fielding. And the challenge for fielders is simply to catch/field a ball with a massive glove, and to throw it to someone, but with nowhere near the accuracy of a pitcher. Thus are 98% of hit and thrown balls fielded correctly and thrown accurately enough.

You may trust/believe those fWAR numbers, but I sure don't. The overall fWAR's number in the left column are OK, but the offense and defense numbers are way out of whack. That is, if WAR still means "wins above replacement."

I'm not yet ready to include the cosmos into my thinking.