Maxbialystock

The only Sox error is by Sale, and he struck out the next guy up. So, yes, I'm saying that.

Baloney. Sale is getting hit really hard. And without Casas—this is unarguable—the Sox are scoreless.

Sale looks great tonight, but that crappy Sox defense is just giving away runs.

He does look a little casual, but you are dead right to give him a rave. He has been terrific in RF.

Amen!

Ahem. You have my permission to glance at the scoreboard and notice that the Sox are leading 2-0 because terrible, awful, worthless Casas nailed a 2 run double. The next guy at the plate, Story, is a good fielding SS who struck out with men on 2d and 3d. Wake up or grow up, take your pick. This game is primarily about hitting and pitching. The very last thing the Sox need is to replace Casas with a slick-fielding, never makes an error first baseman who can't hit like Casas can. Also, FYI, the Sox fielding percentage is I think last in MLB, but it's still 98 freaking per cent, so 2% of the time they make errors.

Agree. 2018 does not prove that the regulars playing less guarantees better play. But it does make it harder to argue that, when players are rested (or injured), they automatically play worse.

You miss my point by a mile. To me a missed game is a missed game, whether because of injury or a decision by Cora. And the 2018 Sox regulars missed a ton of games, but the Sox were hugely successful--in games won (most in MLB), in runs scored (most in MLB), and in fielding percentage (tied for 7th, which is pretty good for the Sox).

Meh. Baseball is almost unique among the five big USA team sports--football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer--in not having to rely heavily on great teamwork. Indeed, the center of every freaking game is the confrontation between pitcher and batter, which is all about individual skills. Half of every roster is freaking pitchers, most of whom can't even spell teamwork. And the most important skill among the position players is the ability to hit a round ball with a round bat squarely. If you can hit, you can play. "Good field, no hit" is for guys in the minors. And you better believe that Cora is not unique in shaping his lineup to get the right bats--with some defense--into the lineup. Casey Stengal was renowned for "platooning," and Cora right now has about an even mix of good righty and good lefty bats. I agree the defense stinks, but I also think hitting comes first, so I'm fine living with Devers and his errors--same with Casas. I completely agree that the Sox have used a lot of players this year, but blame that mostly on the injuries. On the other hand, it's also true that most of the 2021 roster is gone, so no question Bloom has been moving guys in and out at a rapid pace--and that does make it harder on Cora and his coaches, but not nearly as hard as it would be in other sports. However, it's also true that the entire talksox board was clamoring for Bloom to bring in new blood--better arms, mainly--to the Sox for the stretch run. This is made easier--even for the position players--by the reality that you can in fact plug players into different positions without risking much. My favorite example on this year's Sox was Turner playing 2b because it put a very good bat where there usually was an awful one--and also allowed Casas to play 1b and Yoshida to DH.

Of course they weren't all from "rest games." In fact, I insist on that point. You say that the Cora's rest games are excessive, and sometimes I agree with you. However, in 2018 injuries caused a ton of those missed games. See especially the AL MVP Mookie Betts who missed 26 freaking regular season games. My point, which is borne out by winning 108 games in the regular season and 11 of 14 in the postseason, is that at the very minimum those missed games by Mookie, Beni, JBJ, Bogey, et al were excessive and did not prevent the Sox from scoring a ton of runs (876, most in MLB) or from having an almost decent defense (tied for 7th in fielding percentage vs. 30th, dead last, right now). In 2018, beyond any question, fewer games by all 12 of their most used players resulted in better hitting/scoring, better defense, and more wins.

FWIW, espn stats say there have been 817 MLB pitchers so far this year and that -0.9 puts Kluber in at 792d best. Pitchers ranked 429th thru 522d all have WAR's of 0.0. So, out of 817 MLB pitchers, 428 have WAR's of 0.1 or better and the bottom 290 pitches have WAR's of -0.1 or worse.

OK. But the 5 run rule still applies.

You do understand I'm being a pissant.

Interesting. Kluber's WAR is -0.9, which means he cost the Sox 1 fewer wins than they would have had from the average MLB player/pitcher. That's actually a lot in terms of his only having played 55 innings, but does show he didn't do as much damage as most claim he did. I've harped on the fact that this year in all games, pretty much regardless of the starter, the Sox need to score 5 runs to have a good chance of winning. This was the case with Kluber. The Sox won every game he pitched in and in which they scored 5 or more runs--and lost every game in which he pitched and the Sox scored fewer than 5 runs.

You have no peer with the numbers. I think "lead the league in hits with RISP that do not produce actual runs" could be the result of lousy baserunning. Other teams routinely score from 1b on a double, but with the Sox it's a rarity. Same goes for scoring from 2d on a single--forget it if there aren't 2 outs. And, if it's Casas, forget it if there are 2 outs. This reminds me of Al Schact's autobiography, in which he relates a mostly true story: the 1926 Brooklyn Dodgers actually had three men end up on 3d base. Bases were loaded when Babe Herman hit one off the wall. Runner on 3d scores, but the guy on 2b was the pitcher who believed the ball would be caught and stayed on 2b until he saw it carom of the wall. By then it was too late for him to get home, so he parked at 3d base and was soon joined (or almost joined) by the guy on 1b and the batter Babe Herman. I think Herman didn't actually touch 3d base, but both he and the guy from 1b were tagged out between 2d and 3d base.

I have always defended Cora resting guys, but get nervous when you and moonslav (and others) emphatically disagree. Sunday before the ASG is a good point. Nevertheless, one more time with the 2018 season, easily the best season (108 wins) and postseason (11-3) in Sox history. Here are the games played (with their WAR's in parentheses) by the 2018 Sox twelve regulars/semi-regulars-- JDM 150 (6.4) Beni 148 (3.9) JBJ 144 (2.1) Mookie 136 (10.9) Bogey 136 (3.8) Nunez 127 (-1.1) Moreland 124 (0.9) Devers 121 (0.0) Holt 109 (1.3) Leon 89 (-0.5) Swihart 82 (-0.3) Vazquez (-0.8) The above games played are obviously not all the result of Cora's machinations. Injuries obviously played a role. Nevertheless, the actual games played by the top twelve do make the case that perhaps less is more.

I don't think it's luck, so I agree with you. But I am also very suspicious of the Sox system for analyzing and coaching pitchers. Exhibit A is Brasier, who was an unmitigated disaster with the Sox and consequently DFA'd. Yes, DFA'd. The Dodgers grabbed him and he has been fantastic for them.

Bello leads all Sox pitchers--by a wide margin--in innings pitched and WAR, so I think whatever he is doing is more real than luck. Fielding Independent Pitching is a neat stat, but, like WAR, not necessarily definitive. My thought is that Bello bears down more with RISP.

Interesting. First time I've read anything this comprehensive/detailed, and I think you just might have nailed it. The "CBO" for the Dodgers also came from the Rays system. The Dodgers currently have the best attendance in MLB, 48K/game, and it's 6K/game more than the 2d place Yankees. So their owners are capable of spending a whole lot of money for players--just like JH could and has for the Sox. But in fact the Dodgers payroll is currently 6th in MLB and $104M less than the Mets.

Murphy was terrific in July--18.1 IP, ERA 1.45--and just awful this month. Same for Llovera: 6.1 IP and a 1.42 ERA in July, and 11.2 IP and a 6.17 ERA in August.

First of all, jgar658 is shamelessly plagiarizing because I brought up the same two points a couple of days ago. moonslav pointed out that historically Kike's best hitting has been in August. The Brasier transformation, on the other hand, does seem to suggest the Sox pitching coaches are clueless because Brasier has been stunningly good for two months for the Dodgers after being terrible for two months with the Sox. I also claim--with zero proof--that the first base coach failed to remind Wong (when he came in as a pinchrunner in the 8th inning of the first game in this series) to be cautious about rounding 2d base because Casas was on 2d base ahead of him and very slow. Wong did the exact opposite and roared around 2d base like he was sure he could get to 3d base and even home.

Pretty good prediction about using the bullpen as little as possible today. Murphy has been awful, but Cora doesn't want to send more guys out there in a lost cause. I say "lost" because the hitting is moribund.

Yeah. He meant me. I had/have the temerity to defend lazy, immature, no-good, low-down Alex Verdugo. You know he's worthless when he wears that stupid gold chain when he's on the field. Oh, wait.

Yes, but you also don't like our best (by a wide margin) defensive outfielder who also has the highest WAR on the team. That said, I think we fundamentally disagree on the value of defense. MLB is dominated by pitching and hitting. Thus exhibit A for the nondefense is Kike Hernandez, your favorite example of how disastrous the Sox defense has been this season. As I've already pointed out with the simplest of stats, the Sox had a better winning percentage in games Kike played than they have since he left. Exhibit B is that right now middle infield defense is almost decent with Story/Reyes at SS and Reyes/Urias at 2B. But as always it's the hitting and pitching that win or lose games as is very clearly the case in the Dodger series. They have 4 errors to our 0 but they are outhitting the dickens out of the Sox and will likely take this series, 2 games 1 because Murphy--not, repeat, not the Sox defense--is terrible today. And so is the lineup (so far).

Like I've said repeatedly this season, the hitters need to bring home 5 or more runs in any game they want to win. This is especially true during this slog of 48 games with just 3 days off.