Jump to content
Talk Sox
  • Create Account

Maxbialystock

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    21,038

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    6

 Content Type 

Profiles

Boston Red Sox Videos

2026 Boston Red Sox Top Prospects Ranking

Boston Red Sox Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2025 Boston Red Sox Draft Pick Tracker

News

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Maxbialystock

  1. Maxbialystock
    Maybe Dugo should have hit for Refsnyder.
  2. Maxbialystock
    No question he is seeing the ball well and swinging the bat well.
  3. Maxbialystock
    Arroyo comes thru big-big time. Righty vs righty, too.
  4. Maxbialystock
    Well, I'm convinced. Cora is clueless. First he started a righty bat CF vs. a lefty pitcher. Now he's sending in a lefty bat CF against a righty pitcher. Where does he get these stupid ideas from?
  5. Maxbialystock
    Well, it's pretty obvious Sears was throwing good stuff. I do think the righty hitters were able to see his pitches better than lefties would--thus the 3 BB's. Oh, my. That worthless piece of crap, the guy I love to beat up on, just hit a very much needed dinger. Well done, Duvall. And that answers the question of who should have played RF today. Now a brilliantly placed single by the masterful Yoshida! Just magic with that bat.
  6. Maxbialystock
    Too bad you can't watch the game. If you did, you would see that Sears is pitching a whale of a game, just like 5 days ago when he went 7.1 scoreless innings. I would rather have Turner at 1b than Casas against a lefty. Same goes for Duvall in RF vs. Dugo. As for Duran, I wouldn't object to him being in CF even though Kike is better defensively. As everyone keeps clamoring, Duran is pretty hot right now.
  7. Maxbialystock
    You don't think the A's pitcher has anything to do with it?
  8. Maxbialystock
    Not a lot of choices right now. Kike and Arroyo, maybe, but neither of them has hit this guy either. Chang at least has the good glove. The simple fact is that Sears as pitched a whale of a game. 5 days ago he pitched 7.1 shutout innings vs. the Tigers.
  9. Maxbialystock
    My guess is that was because he was on the roster. Once Chang and then Reyes took over, they became the SS's of choice. It is unarguable that of the four choices--Story, Chang, Reyes, and Kike--Kike is the only one who hasn't been on the IL. Right now Story and Reyes are still on the IL. Chang is back and the better SS, but Kike's abysmal OPS is still higher, .606 vs. .513. But not against lefties--Chang's is .830.
  10. Maxbialystock
    I doubt he was the mastermind, but he definitely participated. He also paid the price. Let's not forget that a little earlier the Sox were stealing signs and Pedey was part of it--enthusiastically so. Stealing signs, legally and illegally, has been going on for a hundred or more years--until MLB teams got smart and used technology to prevent it. But you can still do it legally if the pitcher (or catcher) has mannerisms that reveal roughly what kind of pitch is coming.
  11. Maxbialystock
    Very good point. Boy, have I misjudged you. Cora refused to play Story--oh, wait, he's been on the IL all freaking season Then he refused to play Chang. Oh, wait. Then he refused to play Reyes. Oh, wait. Kike was/is the 4th choice SS because the other three were on the IL.
  12. Maxbialystock
    Very good point. Boy, have I misjudged you. Cora refused to play Story--oh, wait, he's been on the IL all freaking season Then he refused to play Chang. Oh, wait. Then he refused to play Reyes. Oh, wait. Kike was/is the 4th choice SS because the other three were on the IL. After that, of course, comes not playing Duran enough.
  13. Maxbialystock
    vs. lefty pitchers these OPS's-- Turner .952 Refsnyder .932 Devers .888 Duvall .863 Yoshida .836 Chang .830 Kike .668 Arroyo .589 Alfaro .750 (career) Except for Alfaro, the above is also a pretty decent defensive alignment even though Dugo (OPS vs. lefties .654) is better than Duvall.
  14. Maxbialystock
    I've said just about all of those things over the last month, especially the job he did two years ago. It still bugs me that few Talksoxers give him much credit, but it was in fact a brilliant balancing act, especially with the pitching staff. You said at the beginning of this season that ideally Houck and Whitlock should be in the bullpen, and here you are defending Cora for using them as starters--for exactly the right reason. What other choices made sense? Right now I think most of us agree the Sox are undergoing a sea change: same overall boss, John Henry, but with a different perspective which is reflected in the hiring of Chaim Bloom, who could not be more different from Dave Dombrowski. And guess who has managed under both systems/VP's/GM's?
  15. Maxbialystock
    About Duran. I could not agree more he's been terrific this season. But, if you look at his stats, you see he was terrific in April (OPS 1.061), not so terrific in May (OPS .670), better in June (.765), and out of his mind in July (OPS 1.706). In other words, up and down. Nothing wrong with that, especially in a rookie, which he officially still is. But this board is rife with criticism of Cora for not starting Duran in every game and probably playing him every inning. That his OPS before today against lefties was .600 and against righties .906 is regarded as unimportant. The belief among talksoxers seems to be that Cora is impeding the emergence of greatness. And my rejoinder is simple: maybe the reason Duran has been so terrific--his OPS right now is .885--is partly due to the way Cora has used him. I say this in complete confidence that our collective knowledge of how to manage MLB players is at best modest and at worst obtuse.
  16. Maxbialystock
    You mean lefties on a pitching staff with a collective ERA of 6.01, of course.
  17. Maxbialystock
    Indeed.
  18. Maxbialystock
    And boy oh boy was he wrong. Without Chang at SS the Sox had no chance today.
  19. Maxbialystock
    I don't care if Kike's woebegone +0.1 is based on 9000 freaking innings because it's a plus not a minus, which makes him an average defender--15 errors notwithstanding. Also, if I'm not mistaken, this discussion is because of his errant throw on a difficult play in the very same half inning in which Walter hit the 2d batter--who later scored--to put him on base and then later didn't even cover first base on a routine grounder which should have been the 3d out. Plus the Sox won the game 10-3. I'm more than happy to agree Chang is the best defensive SS available, but I'm darned if I'm going to dump on Cora because of what happened in the 8th inning. Walter owns that "unearned" run lock, stock, and barrel. But he also pitched 3 pretty decent innings, so I'm fine if he pitches again for the Sox.
  20. Maxbialystock
    I'll take Bello, thank you, with his WAR of 2.9, 80 IP, etc.
  21. Maxbialystock
    Not that it means anything, but right now Arroyo and Kike have the same DWAR: +0.1.
  22. Maxbialystock
    I know, I know. If he had just started Chang at SS today, the Sox might have won.
  23. Maxbialystock
    This is no doubt coming as a shock to you, but nothing is more fundamental than hitting and pitching, which the Sox have done pretty nicely today and yesterday. Every now and then you can win or lose a game on defense, but at least 90% of the time it's usually one or both of pitching and hitting. There have been exactly zero MLB teams who won consistently primarily because of their defense. I am absolutely not in favor of lousy defense. I hate it when pitchers don't cover 1b. I love great defense and get pissed when the Sox trade away good fielding SS's as they have done so many times in the past because they definitely prefer good hitting SS's who aren't a disaster in the field.
  24. Maxbialystock
    As I recall, ERod hated to cover first and did so reluctantly, sometimes not in time. Sale is the direct opposite. When he releases the ball, he immediately goes into 5th infielder mode--and he is never late getting to 1b.
  25. Maxbialystock
    Wins Above Replacement-- Bello 2.9 Verdugo 2.8 Wong 1.8 Devers 1.7 Paxton 1.7 Duran 1.6 Turner 1.5 Martin 1.5 Yoshida 1.3 Crawford .9 Sale .9 Winckowski .8 Houck .8 Refsnyder .8 Jansen .7 Schreiber .6 Murphy .5 Duvall .5 Reyes .5 Pivetta .3 Whitlock .3 Sherriff .2 Walter .2 Chang .2 Hamilton (SS) -.1 Arroyo -.2 Garza -.2 McGuire -.3 Jacques -.3 Casas -.4 Kike -.5 Kluber -.8
×
×
  • Create New...