Maxbialystock

Love what you said about the Sox, but not so sure the Yankees and Rays are over-rated.

Meh. It takes all kinds to make up a blog site. We need FredLynn and others like him. I'd call them pessimists and I think just about every Sox fan this season has been in the dumps. Add to that that this season is like no other with the great pitching, small ball, so-so hitting that finds ways to score, as needed, in late innings, pretty good D, and a lot of different lineups and players in and out of the lineup. Almost everyone but me agrees What is the job, pray tell? Please don't try "no mistakes" because that is simply not human and I vastly prefer human umpires over technology. Right now MLB seems to have found a very good balance between umpires making the calls and managers/hitters/catchers/pitchers having the right to challenge calls--without unduly delaying the games.

Good my aunt fanny. This was the second fantastic win in a row. Let's not forget Duran's error that put the leadoff man on 2b followed by Miami loading the freaking bases and not scoring. In this game the Sox were 1/14 with RISP and Miami was 2/18.

Who gives a hoot? Hitters, catchers, and even pitchers can challenge any ball/strike. I vastly prefer a live umpire calling balls and strikes because I want umpires on the field making all the calls--usually very visibly. They are not supposed to be invisible. They are part of the game. With all the possible challenges, few bad calls are not remedied.

Another great call by the Sox favorite fan.

Who made you the expert with your crummy analogies?

The world turned upside down. Back in the day--long, long ago in a galaxy far away--bunting was verboten.

Shane! Come back Shane!

FOS!! Nicely put.

That's exactly why game threads were created--to feed our irrationality.

Gamer. Exactly the right term for Gray.

One would think. Last night I gave high marks to Gray for coming back out to pitch the 6th inning which cut the bullpen's job down to 3 innings. FWIW, the Giants OPS vs lefties is .657 and against righties .731.

Thanks again for the chart which always impresses me. This time of course we see the immense value of Bello who is getting a lot of innings (and pitches) with terrific results. In 15 IP this month he has an ERA of 1.32. Last month it was 14 IP and a 0.66 ERA. That's 28 IP with an ERA of about 1. Tonight it's lefty Sandoval and his 6.60 ERA for August which is skewed by his last outing when he gave up 7 runs to the Pirates in 4 IP. If used tonight, Bello would be on 5 days rest.

Love the numbers, as always. I was thinking of Ellsbury, who left after the 2013 season and because the Yankees gave him a huge and somewhat disastrous contract.

Completely agree. So do the Sox who have preferred good hitting CF's and SS's over great fielding CF's and SS's. As long as he keeps his OPS around .750 Monasterio remains the SS. Rafaela has the the 6th best WAR, 5.4, in MLB because he can hit and field. Right after him at 5.3 is Abreu who does the same--hit and field. Durbin's 3.5 WAR ranks him 36th in MLB because he too can hit (OPS .727) and field. Bregman and his long-term $35M/season with the Cubs also plays 3b and has a WAR of 3.8. Heck, the Sox even like nonfielders. They won three WS with Ortiz as DH and one with JD Martinez as DH.

About 18 months ago Devers was told he couldn't play 3b because Bregman would. Cora slotted him as the DH and by the time he left for the Giants his OPS was .900 and he had not missed a single game. He was hugely valuable if you understand it's the bat that counts, not the glove. It's also good to remember that Devers loved using his glove/arm at 3b and had done so with the Sox since 2018. After the deed was done, I decided that moving Devers and his huge contract was probably a smart move. Without him last season, the Sox got better and finally made it back to the postseason after missing it for 3 straight seasons, mostly because of the pitching. Funny thing, but the guy who took over 3b which led to Devers departure left after last season and has been replaced by Durbin who has a better WAR this season than Bregman and Devers. For a whole lot less money.

Disagree. I do agree bats are important, but you only get one DH in your lineup. The other 8 have to hit and play defense. And don't forget the pitching, which is more "impactful" than all the hitting combined. Two different managers have seen fit to play Duran, who is the polar opposite of a great DH and yet has played in 116 of 127 games this season with his .622 OPS. And then there's this WAR thing. If you believe in it, you will discover that among the top 30 position (non-pitcher) WAR's only two--Alvarez's 5.5 and Ohtani's 3.8--are DH's. When you include his pitching WAR of 3.0, Ohtani has the 2d highest overall WAR of 6.8. In any case, I those two are unequivocally their team MVP's All that said, I think JD Martinez was Sox MVP on the best Sox team ever, 2018. Why JD? The year before the Sox ranked 10th in MLB in runs scored and lost their ALDS to the Astros, 3 games to 1. A year later with JDM the Sox ranked 1st in MLB runs scored and won everything in the postseason. I think the addition of JDM simply made everyone else better. Who was the AL MVP that year in a landslide? Mookie Betts of course.

He is right now with 10 IP and a 2.70 ERA. Weissert's August ERA is 5.40 but last month it was 3.27. In June 4.00, in May 3.27. in April 3.38. In March he gave up 6 runs in 2.1 IP for an ERA 16.20.

I'm certainly no expert. I was a huge Story booster last year, his first really good--meaning healthy--year of 4 with the Sox. But this year he's back on the IL, which is par for his 5 seasons with the Sox. Last year he hit well, OPS .741, but had the 3d most SS errors (19) in MLB. This year Monasterio's OPS is .755 and he has 5 errors in 74 games. You could well be right that Story returns to SS, but my preference would be Monasterio or the kid, who sure looks like a good hitter and fielder, at SS and Story at 2b.

Reminder!!!!! Game starts at 4:10 Pfaadt has started 3 games this month, averaged 7 IP per game, and given up 0 ER. In July he pitched 28.2 innings with an ERA of 1.88. Thanks to those two months this has been a breakout season for Pfaadt.

I'm with you. I prefer sportswriters to "media" but believe that the Boston ones believe they will not be read if they suggest anything even remotely positive. The kid's a good fit at SS. Story, Monasterio, et al can battle it out for 2b. Sox brought up Bogaerts in 2013 when he was still 20 (he turned 21 on Oct 1) and did not regret it. Betts is almost exactly the same age (6 days younger) but didn't make it until 2014. In 6 seasons with the Sox Mookie's aggregate WAR was 41.8. In 7 seasons with the Dodgers it's been 33.8. In his most recent 3 seasons, including this one, his OPS's have been .863, .732, and .688.

Perhaps the acid test will come with Anthony's return. He could DH, leaving Duran in LF, or he could play LF, which is a good fit for him. i'm pretty sure neither last season's injury nor this year's were caused by playing LF.

I'm sure that issue has been discussed ad nauseum by Tracy and Breslow. Story has had one good season out of 5 with the Sox.

Duran played in all 15 and 9 games in the two winning streaks. He's a rotten saboteur. He has played in 118 games and Contreras in 115, Durbin 119, Rafaela 121, and Abreu 123.

Great stuff--a lot of specifics leading to your conclusion which makes me ask yet again, if Duran is as awful as you and almost everyone else says he is, why didn't Tracy or Cora use that amazing bench to keep Duran from dragging this team down (as he clearly must have done according to all the boo birds). He played in all 15 games of one winning streak and all 9 of the other, which means he's a rotten saboteur. That said, I agree the bench is good and so is Breslow who brought in a lot of guys who have transformed this team despite all the talent still on the IL. These last two games have convinced me that the Sox really are contenders. They have the 3d most wins in the AL and they are in the same Division with #1 and #2. Right now I see no real weaknesses on the mound, at bat, or in the field. Further pitching injuries, as you say, are possible, but Houck and Crochet both seem headed back and MRI's say Whitlock and Slaten should also be coming back by September. I think both Anthony and Mead will be back by early September. And how about the kid, Franklin Arias? Story is due back, but his hitting is a big question.