Maxbialystock

Good fifth for Sale. Good focus. The home plate ump is still an *******.

The Sox need to focus on execution and not that ******* behind the plate. This especially applies to Sale.

I swear this ump is favoring Wheeler big time. He gave him a strike on a pitch way outside. Should have been ball four.

Maybe Youk needs to keep in mind that one of the best color guys ever was the one Vin Scully used with the Dodgers.

So far the home plate ump has definitely favored Wheeler, who got two strikes on balls just outside the zone, over Sale, who got a ball--which should have been strike three--on a pitch that definitely hit the strike zone.

Heckuva game so far--1 1/2 innings. Both pitchers look tough.

Tapia RF Yoshida LF Turner DH Devers 3B Duran CF Hernandez SS Casas 1B Valdez 2B Wong C Verdugo is reportedly sick--despite the absolutely gorgeous weather the Sox have had at Fenway.

Interesting about the Sox LH line-up. Cora has used a lot of lefty bats all season long. I like this pitching matchup because I think Sale is pretty close to the good Sale we remember. On the other hand, the Sox have a losing road record and the Phillies have a winning home record. So this is a good test.

Maybe I get your point better than you do. What we have seen--by our own Sox as well as most recently by the Blue Jays--is lousy execution in the field, especially on defense. In the Sox series at the Trop, to me the Rays looked completely professional at bat, pitching, on the basepaths, and on defense. The Sox did not. In fact, far from it. On the other hand, I think you are dead wrong if you believe the hitting and pitching stink because they don't. As moonslav suggests, that's probably where the emphasis is right now in developing young players. It isn't just that velocity is up, but that almost every pitcher seems to be working on and even using new breaking stuff. Even Sale is using a cut fastball he didn't use before--to go with his 4-seamer, changeup, and slider. Too bad he can' throw a splitter or a big curve. And the hitters by and large have found ways of hitting this improved pitching. Getting rid of the shifts helped. My suspicion is that home plate umps favor the batters over the pitchers. The 20 second clock on pitchers has probably helped the hitters. But back to your point, which I think is a good one. Lousy defense is not good baseball, but players get away with it if they can hit or if they are the last guy available for that position.

I like Cora even with the stealing signs scandal with the Astros. Let's not forget that the Sox indulged in that little game, with Pedroia in the lead and actually proud of it. There can be no doubt that successful sign-stealing--or it's perfectly legal counterpart, being able to real a pitcher's face/hands/arms/body/etc to determine what he is about to throw--gives the hitter a huge advantage. It (sign-stealing) should be combatted/outlawed--as in fact it is. I also like Bloom, mostly because he is the polar opposite of DD. DD defenders rightfully point out that he brought the Sox not only their 4th WS in the JH era, but probably the Sox best team ever. He did that mostly by buying pitchers--Sale, Price, Eovaldi, Kimbrel, and one or two others. And he could do it because the Sox had a lot of good positions players like Betts, Bogaerts, Devers (first year)Benintendi, Holt, JBJ, etc. JDM was a terrific addition by DD to replace the retired Ortiz at DH. On the other hand, that exact same Sox team, so great in 2018, collapsed in 2019. Not the hitting, most of which came up through the Sox system, but the pitching DD convinced JH to pay top dollar for. So out went DD--also Mookie Betts and David Price to the Dodgers because they were now vastly overpriced. Much was made of the Dodgers winning the 2020 World Series with Mookie, but I find that laughable, given the effect covid had on that season, including players and teams. One year later, 2021, the Sox, with Verdugo sort of replacing Mookie, the Sox made it to the ALCS despite having literally no closer and not much of a rotation. The Dodgers had a lot of high-priced talent that couldn't even win one game in the postseason. Last year, 2022, they lost 3 games to 1 to the Padres in the NLDS. On the other hand, there is what I call the show biz aspect of MLB. You need names to put butts in seats, and the Sox have been slow to recover their pre-covid attendance, which in 2018 was 35,747 and in 2019 was 36,105. This year so far (and the weather has been lousy) it's 30,763. The Dodgers, meanwhile, are filling seats and lead MLB in attendance @ 47,982. The Phillies, now with DD spending freely, are 4th in MLB in attendance with 38,544. Last year they were 16th with 28,459. The Sox are playing pretty good baseball right now, but lack star power, of which Verdugo, Wong, Duran, Yoshida, Turner, Story, Duvall, Chang, Kluber, Winckowski, Schreiber, Crawford, et al have little to none. Devers is our one star who actually delivers. Sale, once a star, is for now a project.

To me the argument about Kike vs. Arroyo is kind of silly because it's obvious right now that neither is a key to this team's successful season to date. They're mostly placeholders for Story, Chang, whoever. That doesn't mean I'm not rooting for them to play/hit well, but so far both have been disappointments.

They changed quickly because it's still early in the season. Nevertheless, your drum beating is completely justified. No one of us saw this coming. Maybe a little early for dancing in the streets, but I'm doing it in my study. Anyone who picked the Sox to have a winning season in the preseason poll--I think there are three of you--should boast and brag. Next up, three in Philly.

Boy, are you missing the point. First and foremost, never ever look a gift horse in the mouth. Given our expectations for this season, we should be dancing in the streets and the least of our worries should be why are we so lucky. Second, there have been very few Sox teams, especially in the JH era, that did not rely heavily on hitting to win games. That doesn't mean anyone expected the hitting to be this good--no one did--but hitting is what Sox teams do. Indeed, the lousy pitching is pretty close to what was expected. Third, the pitching is not hopeless, or at least not as hopeless as we expected. The bullpen actually looks pretty good. And the rotation just might be coming around. Chris Sale, for example, leads the Sox in earned runs given up, but right now he looks as though he has turned a corner because in 2 of his last 3 starts he pitched a total of 12.1 innings with just 2 ER's plus 16 K's and 2 walks. Kluber pitched a combined 11.1 innings in his two last starts with 4 ER's, 7 K's, and 2 BB's. Bello shows promise and went 5 innings tonight giving up 2 ER's. The start before against Cleveland, 5 innings, 1 ER, and another win. Pivetta and Houck ain't great, but they are gamers and lead the Sox in innings pitched. Both have positive WAR's of +0.2, which no other Sox starters have. Lurking in the background are Whitlock, Crawford, and Paxton, all of whom have started and can step up if Cora needs them.

Much better with the radio guys because they give you great insights and narrative of the 5th inning while the Sox are playing the 7th inning.

Wong is good, all right, but not as good as you. Casas's tentative comeback last night--you think Wong had anything at all to do with that? Yoshida's hot bat lately? Duran not only hitting but looking like a decent centerfielder? All on your watch. I'll be glad to sit in on your upcoming meeting with Bloom. Think major stuff, like season tickets where Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon sat. Food and drink on the Sox of course.

There have been plenty of moments/games when the Sox did not play good, fundamental baseball. This season. After the four game series at the Trop, I said the Rays were better in every phase of the game: hitting, pitching, defense, baserunning, you name it.

Interesting. Overall, I'm not all that interested in all these random thoughts about "clutch," but I do like yours. It takes a special athlete to focus in pressure situations and to make the most of them. That said, hitter vs. pitcher is complicated, especially if the pitcher is a bonafide ace--good stuff and good command--and the hitter is also extremely good. Statistically, the odds definitely favor the pitcher--unless he makes a mistake and throws a meatball. And even then we need to remember Ted Williams's comment about how difficult it is to hit a round ball with a round bat squarely.

They shouldn't be. The clear response to your OP has been to discuss it seriously. That is, now that the Sox seem to be hitting, let's nail down the optimum lineup with guys like Story, Duvall, et al even though we don't know when they will return or how good they will be.

Gausman is just 2-2, but he is unquestionably their ace this year and has the 12th best ERA--among starters--in MLB.

Agree, but to me the giant message for this season is that it has been way better than expected--especially if you read all the doom and gloom on talksox before the season started. And I believed it because I voted the Sox would have a losing season. They still could, but right now it's hard not to be hopeful. Thus your point is telling: the Sox aren't just 18-14, but 18-14 against some pretty good teams.

Silly thread. What has transformed this Sox team this season is the discovery of a whole lot more hitting than anyone on talksox previously believed was possible. So a little reminder. Three years ago that idiot Chaim Bloom--backed by an even dumber John Henry--let Mookie Betts, the greatest baseball player to ever don a Sox uniform, go to the Dodgers. Then last year we lost Bogaerts to the Padres, but kept Devers, about whom more later. Bloom also dumped JDM, now with the Dodgers, and failed to grab Kyle Schwarber (a temp who hit well late in 2021 and in the playoffs), now with the Phillies. To replace all that great hitting talent, Bloom has signed what has been characterized on talksox as the dregs of MLB. Like Trevor Story, who has underperformed, in part because he can't stay off the IL. Like Masataka Yoshida, a spindly (5'8", 176 lbs) leftfielder with no arm, not much speed, and a swing that everyone on talksox seemed to believe was, well, not quite MLB quality. Like Adam Duvall who was terrific for 8 freaking games and is now on the IL until June or later. Like Justin Turner, who brims with health and can DH or play 1b but whose OPS is .749 and rbi's total 10 in 32 games. So why oh why are the Sox currently ranked 3d in MLB in runs scored with 184 and 3d in MLB in team OPS with .800? A giant clue. Not because of any of the guys--Betts, Bogaerts, JDM, Shwarber, Story, Duvall--who are either gone or on the IL. Another clue: also not because of our one true hitting star, Rafael Devers, whom Bloom and Henry decided to keep. The Sox have just won 5 straight from a decent Cleveland team and presumably stud Toronto team while Devers has plunged deeper into a slump. His OPS of .804 is lower than 2017's .819 when Devers was 20 and just brought up to Boston. His OBP of .279 is his lowest ever. And he plays every game in the heart of the Sox lineup, a fact which opposing pitching staffs have lately come to love. Instead of the names the Sox no longer have, have but can't play because they're on the IL, or have but who are in a slump, this third best lineup in MLB is composed of no names. Take Verdugo, please (old henny youngman joke). We know him pretty well, but in the pantheon of MLB stars he is absolutely a no-name, especially when compared to the guy who used to play RF for the Sox--Mookie freaking Betts. FWIW, Dugo's OPS is 1.4. Mookie's (to date) is 1.0. How about Yoshida, the much-too-expensive guy Bloom brought from Japan? After a slow start, his OPS is now .906 with 21 rbi's. Compare that to the Jays superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr's .905 with 18 rbi's. And then there's Wong, Duran, Chang (now on the IL), Tapiz, Valdez, McGuire, Refsnyder, Kike Arroyo, and even Triston freaking Casas, who almost looked like a real hitter last night. Before this season, none of those guys was on anyone's "can't wait to seem him come to bat" list. Wong: good field, never hit. Duran: can't field, can't hit, but can run. Chang, Tapiz, Valdez: fuhgeddaboudit. Arroyo and Kike: maybe, but probably not. Casas: showed promise last year, showed his ass this year (until last night). Reese McGuire: backup catcher, not much of a hitter (career OPS .688). So, me, I'm not so sure I want to wait for Story and Duvall to come back because I like seeing a lineup that's kind of like Forest Gump's box of chocolates.

I was definitely on that bandwagon, but fell off after the 2019 season--and pretty much stayed off. But right now he sure looks like the great competitor he was the day he arrived in Boston. Was I the only one who noticed that in the sixth inning of his latest start Verdugo fielded a single to RF cleanly and decided to uncork the greatest throw home ever--except that it went way over Wong's glove and caught cleanly by Sale who was doing what professional pitchers do, backing up the catcher on hits to the outfield.

Without the lows, one cannot fully appreciate the highs.

There is no A lineup. This year the Sox have a lot of lefty bats and aren't half bad against righties. But tonight they faced a very good lefty and scored 6 runs off him. They coulda scored more if they had given Devers a rest day.

Everything is relative. Those 27 WS wins are the Yankees signature. It's plastered everywhere. It sets them apart from all other MLB teams and all other American professional sports franchises. So, when the Yankees go from from 2001 thru 2022 with just one WS, it's kind of a big deal for them.