Maxbialystock

Before today's games (Sat, Sep 25), the Sox lead the Yankees by 1 game for the top wild card slot and 2 more games back are the Mariners and Jays tied at 85-69. Sox are 88-66. As Flanders and Swann used to say, things are getting as Titus Andronicus.

Nationals starters are primarily righties--lefty Corbin's ERA is 5.92 although it's been 4.01 in September. So that says lefty bats--Schwarber, Verdugo, Devers, and probably Shaw--are likely to start in at least 2 games. The other four would be Kike, Bogey, Renfroe, and Vazquez. If Corbin starts, then JDM goes to LF and Dalbec to 1b--and the other six remain the same.

Agree Kike is our best in CF, but the simple fact is that Arroyo right now is not a good bet at 2b because he's missed too many games. Cora has said Kike is the best defensive second baseman after Iglesias. Renfroe goes to RF, not Schwarber. Even if Iglesias were available to play 2b, thus putting Kike back in CF, Cora would still want to get both JDM and Schwarber into the lineup and only one of them at a time can DH.

I of course think the Yankees will win this game, but that was a pretty nice statement by Devers.

Shwarber missing that popup fits perfectly into this hugely onesided game.

The reason is that Sale gets one more start pitching last Wednesday. If he skipped and pitched tonight, he would get one less start. The way Cole is pitching--plus the Yankees bullpen--I'm thinking Cy Young couldn't win this game for the Sox.

Vedugo is an idiot, but at least Kike had the good sense to let Dugo run right in front of him to get a fly him right to Kike.

Maybe just maybe Cora will go back to letting Plawecki catch Eovaldi, who pitched great this month with an ERA of 2.70 in four starts with Plawecki catching him in all four games.

Looks like the Sox simply can't handle Cole's fastball.

I was too generous saying I was fine with Vazquez catching Eovaldi. As I've said on other threads, before tonight Eovaldi was having a great month--with an ERA of 2.70 in four starts--with Plawecki catching. Now, suddenly, Cora decides those stats are meaningless because Vazquez is the man. And I'm saying the man just contributed to a 3 run Yankees first inning.

I hated them last year, but kind of like them this year. Plus they keep wearing them this because of the 7 game winning streak. Not OK with you?

So maybe Vazquez ain't the best guy to catch Eovaldi after all.

What the heck is the prime app?

I sure like his bat, though. In fact, I like all these bats and I like the rest of the infield's fielding as well as the outfield's. I made a big deal about Plawecki catching Eovalid this month, but I am also fine with Vazquez catching this big game.

Pretty good.

Good eye. I practically invented subject-verb agreement, but that also makes me a pedant.

Assuming the Sox do get to the postseason, maybe a discussion of lineups is in order. The big issue is that Iglesias, who has been fantastic at 2b in the field and at bat, is unavailable. Arroyo is, but in my opinion he is suspect, if not in the field, almost certainly at the plate, which Cora has alluded to. He's missed too many games. On the other hand, while Kike would be just fine at 2b, he would leave a big gap in the defensive outfield. On still one other hand--this is a three-handed discussion--moving Verdugo to CF allows JDM and Schwarber to be DH and leftfielder, Dalbec to play 1b, Renfroe in RF, Kike at 2b and Devers and Bogey at 3b and SS. Or Shaw could start at 1b against lefties. In other words, sacrifice some defense for getting good bats into the lineup. Current Sox OPS's-- Iglesias 1.074 Schwarber .971 Shaw .908 Bogey .889 Devers .879 JDM .868 Renfroe .823 Dalbec .806 Kike Hernandez .788 Verdugo .787 Arroyo .767 Plawecki .704 Vazquez .670

I've looked over the last few pages and have found no successful refutation of my point that Plawecki does a better job than Vazquez with our best starter, Eovaldi. To remind: Plawecki has caught him all four games in September when his ERA has been 2.70, his best month this year. What's neat about that is--assuming the Sox get to the postseason--Cora simply starts Plawecki when Eovaldi pitches and Vazquez for everyone else. This has been a surprisingly good year for the Sox, and to me it is makes no sense not to give Vazquez some credit for that, especially given the issues with the defense and the importance of the bullpen.

This is also one of the biggest and oldest rivalries in sports. For huge parts of the 86 year drought, it was pretty one-sided, but, with the arrival of John Henry, its definitely two-sided. Indeed, with JH at the helm for 19 years, the Sox have 4 titles to the Yankees 1. This year was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Sox, with Chaim Bloom tasked with building a competitive team without necessarily simply buying one as DD did. I'm anti-Dombrowski, but that doesn't keep me from enjoying the arguments in his defense. The 2018 Sox, for which DD gets a lot of credit, were the best Sox team in their 121 year history. This season has been ridiculously improbable. The Sox lost their first three to the moribund Orioles, foretelling an epically terrible season. But the 9 game winning streak allowed the Sox to charge to the front and hold on to the AL East lead into July. Then came the July and August losing streaks and the Rays re-establishing themselves as the best team in the AL East, as well as the AL, just as they were last year. The Yankees, expected to be solid this year, were anything but and sank in the standings to 3d and even 4th in the AL East. Then came the August 1 Yankees, followed by a 13 game winning streak to overtake the Sox, followed by a sagging September, and--surprise, surprise--a 7 game winning streak by the Sox. Neither team is likely to catch the Rays and both are reduced to scrambling for one of two wild card slots while fighting off the Jays, Mariners, and even the A's. Plus, getting to and even winning the wild card game means facing the Rays, the best team in the AL. Still, just as splendidsplitter says, this is a huge series--in autumn, yet. Ain't it grand?

Good OP. Well said.

Both right. If you watch the game and are on talksox, you can easily get attached to the players, who however come and go because MLB is a business, which, to be honest, is better for the players than the feudalism practiced before the reserve clause went away.

Actually, he has done that a lot. Yesterday he hit a slider away solidly, but it was not low and away. This year his overall WAR is 2.7--vs. 6.7 in 2018 and 3.5 in 2019. I don't count last year, but the trend is still downward. On the other hand, I think he was a huge reason why the 2018 team was so successful--he made everyone else in that lineup better. Despite his lousy DWAR, I think he is an adequate outfielder because he likes going out there and because he has a pretty good arm, but just not much range.

I think Bogaerts is the ideal Sox shortstop because of his solid hitting and low error rate and despite his lack of range. Sox management has been more than happy to get rid of good fielding shortstops, who almost never last more than a season or so. See, for example, Orlando Cabrera, Jose Iglesias, and Alex Gonzalez. Or even Stephen Drew.

Meh. My fear is that JDM's best years are behind him. As for this year, Devers has the most total bases on the Sox, 292 (Bogey has 258), the most rbi's (105 to 79), and the most dingers (34 to 23). Bogey has the higher OPS, .889 to .879, which to my eye is a pretty small difference. Granted, Devers has played more games than Bogey, 147 vs. 135, but I think more games is a legitimate factor in comparing hitters. Interestingly, Bogey's overall WAR is 4.9 to Devers' 3.3. That's mostly because Bogey's DWAR is +.1 and Raffy's is -.7. Devers has more range, but also 21 errors to Bogaerts' 8 and despite Bogaerts having 496 total chances to Devers 416.

True. But the fact that he had already had one big WAR year gave his agent additional leverage for 2019. In his seven full seasons to date, Mookie's WAR's have been 6 in 2015, 9.6 in 2016, 6.4 in 2017, 10.9 in 2018, 6.8 in 2019, an astounding 3.4 (in just 55 games) in 2020, and 4.6 this year. Good as those are, those numbers are nowhere near as good as Mike Trout's.