Maxbialystock

This has been a roller coaster season and, because the Sox have been in contention since April, a fascinating study in adjustments made by Cora and Bloom--as well as the players. Starters Richards and Perez are now in the bullpen and just might contribute there--and have been replaced by Sale and Houck, both improvements. Season to date, the starters have averaged 4 innings per start, so the bullpen has been crucial and reminds me of what a former manager once said: a manager is brilliant or awful depending on how good his bullpen is. This year Cora has been mostly brilliant because the bullpen was so great at holding the line long enough for the lineup to score runs, come from behind, etc. But now the bullpen is suspect, and so are the hitters. See especially the recent sweep (5-3, 2-0, and 5-2) by the Yankees, the very team the Sox almost swept (5-4, 6-2, 3-4, and 5-4) less than a month ago. Lately, Toronto and Tampa Bay have also hammered the Sox. Tonight starts 3 vs. the Twins followed by 3 at Cleveland and a chance to get some wins. This to me is an excellent time to try out Shwarber at 1b and Arroyo back again at 2b with the "good" outfield and JDM back at DH. The Sox with their new lineup should take 4 of 6, even with our scary bullpen. But then comes that 4 game series at Tampa where the Rays love to murder our bullpen.

Alex Speier (Globe?) writes that Schwarber is likely to play 1b vs. the Twins. If so, this might be the lineup-- Hernandez, CF (OPS .793) Schwarber, 1B (1.065) JDM, DH (.882) Bogie, SS (.893) Devers, 3B (.900) Renfroe, RF (.800) Arroyo, 2B (.787) Verdugo, LF (.777) Vazquez, C (.646) No question that putting Schwarber at 1b incurs some risk, but on the other hand that's a good hitting lineup, a pretty decent defensive outfield, especially with Kike back in CF, and a pretty good defender at 2b. Devers is actually improving at 3b, and Bogaerts is what he is, steady but with limited range and reflexes. Arroyo pretty good at 2b. And Schwarber hopefully adequate at 1b, which so far this season has been a magnet for poor defensive play and so-so hitting even though Dalbec's OPS is now up to .707 (but still a far cry from Schwarber's 1.065). I think it definitely helps that Schwarber came up as a catcher.

Sensible response. Good field, no hit is the usual description of a minor leaguer, and right now the only Sox player who is good at both is Rike. Renfroe does have 14 outfield assists, but also 8 errors. Sox second basemen, especially Arroyo and Rike, have been OK this year, but not SS or 1b--and, lately, not 3b either. Devers now has 18 errors. Indeed, once Schwarber became available for hitting, Cora moved JDM to the outfield to free up the DH slot. The simple fact is that Sox and a whole lot of other MLB teams want hitters. If you buy the thesis of Moneyball, in which Billy Beane says he doesn't care that Scott Hatteberg's arm is shot because he is great at getting on base, you don't even have to hit. Learning to play 1b, Beane assures Hatteberg, will be easy, With Arroyo back, the Sox problem of getting Schwarber into the lineup just got harder because JDM is the DH, and the outfield of Verdugo, Rike, and Renfroe is pretty decent. Remembering Joe Napoli and other catchers who switched to 1b, I honestly don't think Schwarber should find 1b that hard. He already has experience catching short hops. The problem might be stretching, but I would settle for a short stretch and just catching the dang ball.

Sox are feeling the pressure. They were 23 games over .500 on July 26 and are now 16 over while the Yankees are on a 10 game winning streak but still can't catch the Rays with the best record (29 games over .500) in the AL. Devers now can't stop chewing the largest wad of chewing tobacco seen in years in MLB. Amazingly, Bogie (4.1) and Rike (4.0) now have higher WAR's than Devers (3.6), whom I regard as easily the team MVP.

Good stuff.

Indeed. Our intrepid manager went all in to win yesterday's game when he committed his best reliever to bail out his closer, who had just wrecked a brilliant start by our putative ace Eovaldi. Barnes is getting a tad expensive, and I'm not talking about his salary. I am the opposite of a Richards fan, but he currently has a +.6 WAR, is rested, and against the Yankees went 4 scoreless innings in relief. Before that he did 3 scoreless against the hapless Orioles. He could see action tonight.

Broadly stated, the hitting just might be coming back and the rotation looks pretty good; but the fielding and bullpen are suspect. It boggles the mind that Eovaldi goes 7, gives up no ER's, and the Sox get tied 3-3 in the 9th, which could have been even worse--the Rangers could easily have gone ahead--if Whitlock hadn't come in to clean up Barnes's mess.

Huge win. Is big mo back with the Sox? Ask the bullpen. Tomorrow it's Houck vs. the Twins at Fenway.

Thanks to mvp 78 for starting this thread and to moonslav for keeping the faith no matter what. I'm good and mad at Barnes, but definitely appreciate how and why moonslav defends him. While the grand slam was completely unexpected, I did think the Sox had the upper hand after that excellent bunt by Vazquez and the bad throw by the pitcher.

Great line. Truly.

Dumbest idea and move by any MLB executive this season. Sox don't need Shaw and they sure didn't need that win today.

Game. Justice is absolutely served. Ottavino gets a hold, Barnes gets a blown save, and Whitlock gets a win. And Bloom/Cora are patting each other on the back for bringing back Shaw.

I'll be honest and say I get a little weary about the "pitcher protection society" who argue that every pitcher, no matter how good or bad, is not required to defend his position because his errors don't count against his ERA, and and that he is entitled to the very best defense available--one that not only makes excellent plays but also never makes an error. Plus, in the case of Barnes, he is entitled to his own catcher because, Plawecki, who had no problem catching Eovaldi and then Ottavino for 8 innings, just wasn't good enough for our ace closer with the recent pay raise.

Do I think a better infield than Devers, Bogaerts, Shaw, Arroyo, et al, would have kept the score down below 3 runs? Yep. But Shaw was brought in to play defense, Arroyo is our best choice to play 2b, and Devers and Bogaerts are our best hitters.

No errors charged to the infield, so a little hard to claim Barnes, who now gets his own personal catcher when he comes into the game, was great out there today. That 2 run double scorched to right center was no fluke, but the result of Barnes losing some heat on his fastball--which was hit for that double--and less break on the knuckle curve, which he can't rely on so much these days. Meanwhile, Whitlock very obviously is pitching the way Barnes did earlier in the season.

I think JDM does have plate discipline. But what we saw in his last at bat is that he can't see the pitches being thrown to him.

Pivetta hasn't been at his best tonight, but Vazquez hasn't been much help and the defense has stunk--both JDM dropping the pop fly and Dalbec not holding onto the grounder. Great play by Devers, however. I do think this season is over for the Sox.

I'll piggyback on your comment to address the general topic: whither the Sox in the remaining games? While I agree that ultimately it always boils down to winning and/or losing games, right now it seems to me the bullpen is the biggest culprit. Our closer doesn't. Instead, he opens the floodgates for opposing hitters. His backup closer, if anything, is worse. And now Whitlock, who still has the best WAR and the best ERA in the bullpen, has given up 4 runs in his last 3 relief appearances (and a total of 3.9 innings). Taylor isn't look all that reliable either, and Hernandez is on the IL until September. I like the insights into the effect of the defense, but honestly don't think the defense is as big a problem as the bullpen, not when they are walking guys (Whitlock and Taylor) and giving up dingers (Barnes). I can't figure the hitting out except to say they can hit bad pitching (Orioles), but have trouble with good pitching (Yankees). Plus, as others have said repeatedly, the whole come from behind thing seems to have been been, well, left behind. I continue to trust in Cora even though Houck maybe could have pitched the 5th yesterday instead of Whitlock, but, honestly, that's 20-20 hindsight (except that in fact I did say stay with Houck on the game thread before Whitlock came in because I figured Whitlock for the 6th and 7th innings). So, one more time: this team is going nowhere unless and until the bullpen reasserts itself, which just might not be possible.

To me it makes no sense at all to say that catchers don't make a difference in how well pitchers pitch. I do agree CERA is an imperfect stat and that in some games pitchers are irretrievably horrible and in other games so good anyone could catch them. But in between those extremes, in maybe 2/3 of games, the pitcher on the mound is doing OK but doesn't have his best stuff or best control--or he's the kind of pitcher who doesn't normally have great stuff or command. And that's where a good pitcher's catcher can really help in what pitches he calls for, how he frames pitches, etc. Yesterday--how's this for a ridiculously small data point?--we saw Houck do pretty well with Vazquez behind the plate, but Whitlock and Taylor just give the game away in relief, mostly because of walks. Could Vazquez have done something more than he did to straighten those guys out? Probably not, but the thought lingers. In the second game Plawecki caught Eovaldi, who went 5, giving up 2 runs (both solo dingers), and then Perez and Sawamura who, unlike Whitlock and Taylor, pitched a pretty clean 6th--1 hit, no walks, no runs--compared to Whitlock/Taylor's disastrous 5th when they got 1 out while giving up 3 runs, 3 walks, and 3 hits.

We lost the first game because the bullpen, mostly Whitlock but also Taylor--both stalwarts for most of this season--conducted a walkathon. We lost the 2d game because of the Yankees pitching and the Sox anemic hitting. Before the July 31 deadline most if not all of us felt that Bloom absolutely had to acquire a really good starter, without which the Sox were doomed. Not so. In the subsequent 2+ weeks it's looking more and more as though the bullpen needed the fresh arms and the lineup another bat or two. The rotation has been pretty good, especially since Richards and Perez were sent to the bullpen.

Sox shut out by excellent Yankees pitching.

OK. Bullpen keeps it a 2-0. One more shot with the top of the order coming up.

Great K on Voit!!! Solid first two outs by Perez.

moonslav may not want to rejoin us, but he is still watching a very good game. Let's see what Perez can do.

Tough break, and a great play by the NYY pitcher.