Maxbialystock

Schwarber is a good lefty bat, which the Sox don't have many of, and he can play LF and/or 1b. So I would be tempted to keep even though I like the outfield of Verdugo, Kike, and Renfroe, Dalbec at 1b--who is better than you give him credit for--and JDM as the DH.

Plawecki and Eovaldi agreeing on too many fastballs, which produced 3 orioles runs. Dumb

At 10-8 and a winning percentage of .555, Eovaldi is close to the team winning % of .567.

Good for the ump--he saved JDM the embarrassment of striking out on a 3-2 count.

The Sox are an equal opportunity team, so Bogey and JD opted to give Dalbec and Plaweki rbi opportunities. This is selflessness personified.

His WAR, 4.7, is currently 4th among AL starters. Among the top AL starters, Eovaldi is 2d in innings pitched.

I do not think he would be starting for the Sox all season long if there were/are any heart issues of any kind. The issues are his effectiveness/professionalism. When he has command, when his changeup is sharp, and when he doesn't need to rely on his fastball, he can be pretty effective. I have doubts about his professionalism in terms of defending his position, covering first on grounders to his right, not taking a long time between pitches, etc.

WEEI guys agree.

My peripheral non-stats say that ERod fully deserves lousy defense because he takes too long and basically refuses to defend his own position, especially when it requires him to cover 1b on a grounder to the right. ERod is worth defending, but he also needs to watch that other Sox lefty starter to learn about how to be a professional MLB pitcher.

ERod is not bad when he has command of four pitches and when his changeup is sharp. In three starts this month, he went 6 @ Seattle giving up 1 earned run, went 6 at Tampa giving up 0 runs, and went 3.2 vs. the Rays giving up 6. I'm not ready to advocate keeping him, but also am not ready to write him off.

Well said--which gets back to my point that what we see on the TV screen is completely arbitrary and why I am fine with what the ump, imperfect though he may be, calls. And, oh, by the way, if I were behind home plate for 3-4 hours, I would slant may calls for those pitchers who don't take forever to throw the dadgum ball. I would also give more calls to a pitcher who is both quick--doesn't waste time between pitches--and consistently near or in the strike zone. The same would apply to hitters who try to slow things down. Indeed, I think home plate umpires should be empowered to call strikes on hitters who are slow to the plate, keep stepping out of the box to collect their thoughts, etc.

Funny thing, but last year I hated those yellow and blue uniforms, and this year I like them. Chris Sale is such a professional. Last night he did not have his best stuff, but the did have good command and was able to mix both locations and pitches to hold the Orioles to 1 run in 5 innings. Against a lineup that was almost all righties, he used his changeup most, then his fastball, then his slider. This was also probably the best defense the Sox have had this year. Dalbec is now very comfortable at 1b, Iglesias is easily the best we've seen at 2b, Devers and Bogey were at their best--which isn't great, but is good enough--at 3b and SS, and the outfield was solid. I am not a Vazquez fan, but am happy to give him credit for his pitch calling throughout the 9 innings--a solid job. An addendum to the above is that Schwarber, a pretty good hitter in a mild slump, did not play at all. I think that is because the 9 guys in the lineup were/are the best combination the Sox currently have of good hitting and decent fielding. Someone else commented on this thread that the defense benefitted from how quickly Sale pitched, and I emphatically agree with this. If a pitcher is not getting good defensive support, part of his problem might be the interminable hours his defense spends standing around waiting for something to happen--6 days a week for 26 weeks. Sale almost nerve shakes off his catcher and simply focuses on execution, not only on his pitches, but also on playing defense after he releases the ball.

Three days and games with WEEI for me. The cost of my mlb.tv subscription is reasonable even though all games against the Braves, Orioles, and Nationals are blacked out. That said, I became a real Sox fan in the summers of 1953 and 1954 when living in West Springfield, MA and able to get the Sox and Curt Gowdy on radio. By the second summer, I was also into baseball cards (none of which I kept).

When he is on, he can be awfully good now that he's throwing more breaking stuff-especially that improved curve and the splitter--and fewer fastballs. Sale has better command, but Eovaldi has better stuff. That said, to me Chris Sale is the most professional pitcher I can remember pitching for the Sox because his focus is so good and because makes sure he is ready to play defense--the polar opposite of ERod.

I love it when the ump gives some of those outside or inside pitches to the pitchers. Back in the good old days when the best pitchers had great command, they would work those corners to expand the strike zone, which meant that the hitters had to adapt to the strike zone as called. I consider umpires to be a fundamental part of baseball and very much prefer that that their calls, right or wrong, be the final word. I am especially opposed to that rectangle superimposed on our screens which is as arbitrary as whatever strike zone the umpire is using. I have in fact seen rectangles that were incorrect, but with no comment by the people calling the game. That doesn't, however, prevent me from commenting on pitch calls by the umpires. In general, pitchers who show good command during a game are more likely to get close calls that pitchers who are all over the place because of lousy command.

Yep.

I'm talking about 1940-70.

Plus Schwarber has cooled off a tad.

A shout-out to splendidsplinter--named for one of the truly great defensive outfielders in Sox history--for two huge back-to-back wins!!!

You know, I'd really appreciate it if you would stop confusing me with facts. You are probably right about the pitching. As for the fielding, my memory is that the pre-Henry Sox did have some pretty darn good outfielders and infielders, but I can't be sure they had them every season or even most seasons. As for this season, I would argue that it demonstrates that good hitting and decent pitching are way more important than average or even good defense. That said, however, I think the Rays have shown you can have all three--hitting, pitching, and defense--on the same team in the same year. What they have never been able to do down Tampa way is figure out how to get some actual fans. If this is their year to finally win the WS, it could be embarrassing.

Great gets--no question about it--on Aug 1, 2004 when the Sox dumped Nomar whose defense and ability to just stay in the lineup were severely hampered by his achilles injury. The Sox had plenty of good bats that year and could not afford a weak-fielding, nonavailable SS. Nomar went downhill after he left Boston. Before 2004 he had seasonal WAR's of 6.6, 7.1, 6.6, 7.4, 6.8, and 6.1. Afterward, his highest was 2.5. Another complication in 2004 was that Nomar was in the last year of his contract and was pissed that in the previous offseason the Sox made a big plays for ARod, who ended up going to the Yankees. Funny thing about the redoubtable Cabrera is that he was gone after the 2004 season ended. Ditto Mientkiewicz.

Lest people think I dislike good defense, I complained loud and long when the Sox traded away Iglesias--the very same guy who yesterday made that brilliant backhand flip to start a DP, which no one else on this team is/was capable of doing--was traded away in 2013 in order to get Jake Peavy. And, like everyone else on talksox, I went nuts last week (Sep 8) when Renfroe beat the Rays with that incredible throw to prevent a guaranteed triple in the top of the 9th vs. the Rays. This was after he hit the gamewinning 2 run dinger in the bottom of the 8th and earlier nailed a Rays runner trying to stretch a single into a double.

Problem, shmoblem. No one, including me, is arguing the defense is good or even adequate this year. It might even be the worst Sox defense in 120 years. What your whining continues to ignore is that defense is not, repeat not, the sum of this team--not this year and not historically. Please take a quick look at the Sox won-lost record and you will be astounded to discover they have a winning record and in fact are very much in the hunt for the wild card game and exceeding our expectations from way back in April. Why is this so? Well, one reason is that those low-down, rotten, terrible fielders also come to bat now and then, and this team actually hits the ball pretty well and even scores some runs. Moreover, despite the porous defense that doesn't catch much or throw very well, the Sox rotation and bullpen now and then keep opposing teams from scoring as many runs in a given game as the Sox score. During the John Henry era, the most successful in Sox history, the FO has gone out of its way to acquire hitters over fielders.

Statistically, 4-2 is the right expectation. The Sox have won 56% of their games this year and the Orioles 32%. Head to head, the Sox have won 9 and lost 4 vs. the Orioles.

Right now I honestly think Eovaldi is our ace. In his last 7 starts--against Seattle, Tampa twice, Cleveland twice, Texas, and the Yankees--he has gone 42.2 innings while giving up 9 earned runs for an ERA of 1.92. The one fly in the ointment is that in his most recent outing vs. the Jays and at Toronto, Aug 6, Eovaldi pitched 4.2 innings while giving up 7 runs. 2 months earlier vs. the Jays at Fenway, he pitched shut out ball for 6.2 innings.