Maxbialystock

Nice turn of phrase. I gave Robert Redford (both a former baseball player and former horse whisperer) a call, and he says Plawecki is the real deal.

I only remember the excellent plays Iggy made for the Tigers (and the Sox). He was a joy to watch, but over time I recognize that, while Iggy would have been great fun to watch, the smart baseball move was to go with Bogey. A peek at their WAR's over the years confirms that.

Message from moonslav with which I completely agree: one game at a time. Old Red kind of pissed me off with his "well, finally, the Sox are going to play a winning team," but right now I kind of agree. Let the games begin.

Five lefty bats, which is what I predicted last night (on the game thread) might be the case because the Cardinals are going with three righty starters.

Guilty as charged, and I couldn't be happier that you might be right. My source on Duran was SoxProspects.

Succinct and scary. Well done.

Interesting. I am not impressed with Duran's defense or hitting, but, frankly, I don't know enough to disagree with you. Lots of people have said that this year especially Bloom and Cora need to see what players not named Devers, Bogaerts, and JDM can do.

While I agree with you about the Sox in last year's postseason--which was to me spectacularly good and fairly earned (not lucky as jacksonianmarch seems to think)--I do like jacksonianmarch's overview of the Sox future. I mean, it's broad brush, but it does seem that the one guy the Sox need to hang onto is Devers. That said, I still have not figured out Chaim Bloom's overall approach because to me he's caught between the devil (the system he created in Tampa to win with a low payroll caused by a weak fan base and budget) and the deep blue sea (the Sox under John Henry have been willing to spend big to get those 4 WS titles in 20 years).

Since we are still on a game thread, dare I say that the Cardinals are in Boston for three and are going with three good pitchers--Wainwright, Hudson, and Pallante--who will definitely challenge our Sox hitters. Eovaldi and Whitlock will both miss this series, but the Sox can still send out Pivetta tonight, then Crawford, who shut down the Mariners (5 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 4 BB's, 7 K's) five days ago, and then Wacha. Overall, the Cardinals have the better record (37-28 vs. 34-30), but they are better at home than on the road. Unfortunately, the Sox have been better on the road than at Fenway. Also overall, the Cardinals have better hitting and the Sox better pitching. Their team run differentials are +53 (Sox) and +55 (Cardinals). All three Cardinal starters are righties, so Cora might again go heavy with the lefty bats (Devers, Verdugo, Cordero, JBJ, and Duran). I read that righty bat Refsnyder is day to day and think that, if he is OK tonight, he could easily replace JBJ or Duran.

Agree fans approach things differently--vive la difference. However, I was not being facetious about Old Red, so I admit I must have been wrong.

The Cardinals are one of the truly great franchises in MLB who still draw big crowds despite being in a smallish city (301K). Right now their average home crowd of 38,577 is the second best in MLB after the Dodgers and ahead of the Braves, Yankees, Padres, Angels, Astros, and Cubs--all embedded in much bigger cities/fanbases. I think Branch Rickey made them great by being the first GM to develop a farm system, but he left there 80 freaking years ago, so they have had plenty of excellent GM's and managers since then. They are one of the oldest MLB franchises and have won 11 World Series. And what I remember best is that almost any time I drove through the central time zone I could pick up a Cardinals game if they were playing. Worth remembering too is that when the Sox broke the 86 year curse, they did it by sweeping the Cardinals. Thereafter, I had to tread carefully whenever I ran into a diehard Cardinals fan.

What excuse???? Oh, wait, I get it. You're the one who says the A's are actually a minor league team or at best a completely incompetent bunch of losers at the MLB level. Thus you also think that no decent MLB team would ever lose to the A's even though they have actually won 1/3 of their games this season. It therefore follows--in your train of "logic"--that the Sox should have won all 6 games vs. the A's and not just the measly 5 they did win.

Beyond question, Bogey would be a huge loss, but that also seems inevitable at this point. Thus the acquisition of Story, who can stay at 2b or go back to SS when/if Bogey goes elsewhere. I still remember coughing up a great defensive SS, Jose Iglesias, in 2013 to help get Jake Peavy. Iggy went to the Tigers, started, and played a brilliant SS in the ALCS against us. Nevertheless, the Sox won the ALCS and the WS and kept two SS's--Stephen Drew and Bogey (who played 3b that year). I hated losing Iglesias, but have been fine with Bogey at SS since 2014.

Interesting comments. Your Story Land commentary has little to do with the player and everything to do with Chaim Bloom. You much prefer Story to be closed. Also interesting is "they are going to need him to produce." Use of the third person--when many of us would have said "we need him to produce"--connotes you have no investment in the Sox winning, at least not this year. You've been sharply critical of Chaim Bloom and rarely comment that Cora did anything right since early in the season. So my guess, only that, is that you want this to be a bad season so you can say, "see, I was right."

You are a great contributor, but this time I'm not so sure I agree with you.

Completely, absolutely agree he is a fierce competitor.

Good stuff.

His first two seasons (2017 and 2018) with the Sox, I thought Chris Sale was the most professional pitcher I'd seen. He was completely focused, rarely shook off the catcher, and fielded his position skillfully and enthusiastically--and he threw good stuff. His WAR's those first two seasons were 5.9 and 6.5--pretty darn good. Since then--2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022--however, his WAR's have been 2.1, 0, 1.0, and 0. So right now I'm hoping you are right and that very soon the real Chris Sale will materialize. But there is a lurking doubt.

OK, let's tentatively agree you root for the Sox even though I rarely read you saying anything positive about them. Same goes for John Henry, Chaim Bloom, and Alex Cora. I rarely read anything about them--and by you--that is complimentary, but will now assume you think they are competent. As for their playing "a good team for once," you might be surprised that so far the Sox have played AL teams with winning records (as of now) 20 times and losing teams 30 times. However, not including the Sox, there are only 6 AL teams with winning records and 8 with losing records. That is, 40% of the Sox AL games have been against winning AL teams, who compose 6/14 or 43% of AL teams not from Boston. They have played losing teams, who compose 8/14 (57%) of AL teams not from Boston, 60% of the time. So in fact the Sox so far have played a reasonably balanced--in terms of good teams vs. bad teams--schedule to date. Against the NL, they have played 2 games vs the Braves, a winning team, and 2 against the Reds, a losing team.

Blackburn ain't no ace??????? He has the 6th best WAR (2.6) among AL pitchers and the 10th best ERA. The word is gall, and doesn't fit this situation. It was Blackburn's day in the rotation--and also Hill's.

True dat. You want the Cardinals to come in and sweep the Sox so you can say, "I told you so." You also seem to think John Henry, Chaim Bloom, and Alex Cora--all of whom established their competence in seasons past--are just too dumb to be put in charge of this team. Believe it or not--and you don't--these are the good times of the John Henry era. 22 years of the Sox being better than the Yankees, the very same team that has won 27 World Series, most of them during the 86 years of the so-called Curse of the Bambino. I like that rivalry, FWIW, and this year am fine with the Yankees having a season that looks to be as good as the Sox in 2018. As I think you also emphatically believe, it's a lot more fun beating the Yankees when they are good (and usually are) than any other team that is lousy. Speaking of which, did you catch the wild card game last year? No? Too bad--really good game. So was the ALDS vs. the Rays, who had the best record in the AL and still lost to the Sox, 3 games to 1.

Bad loss. But, I have to be honest, the A's had their ace on the mound and the Sox had our #5 starter (once Eovaldi and Whitlock return). It is written nowhere that the Sox are entitled to take six straight from the A's. As it was, the Sox definitely had a shot at winning despite the passed ball and error--thus 2 unearned runs--and despite going 1 for 14 with RISP. Stuff happens. It's called baseball.

Sox 0 for 7 with RISP. A's are 2/2. Duran, JDM, Story, and Verdugo all culprits.

Five lefty bats for the Sox again today, and they have 4 of the Sox 6 hits. Bogey, Story, and Vazquez are hitless--as is Devers. Nevertheless, Devers walked intentionally to get to JDM with his 2 hits. And it worked--easy groundout for 3d out.

I like Bogey too, but my guess is he wants more than he's really worth. Story has been moved to a different league (and a whole bunch of new pitchers) and a new position. Nevertheless, his WAR to date is 1.5 to Bogey's 2.7. So, yes, give me Bogey over Story, but right now I'm rooting for Story simply to play well and help the Sox.