Maxbialystock

Completely agree. I remember early in Devers career when he thrived near the bottom but not when he was moved up in the lineup.

They sure are, so I hope I don't have to remind you that the A's, who took 2 of 3 from the Sox, are 24-17 and have a run differential of -9. Indeed, in the 3 game Sox series, the A's scored 8 runs and gave up 11.

Andriese had a good April, I grant you. But he has hurt the Sox in May. Besides, I think he is throwing crap right now and Sawamura has better command and better stuff. Andriese almost reminds me of Kimbrel in 2018 when he was the Sox highly paid closer and pretty good during the regular season. In the postseason he had 6 saves, but in 4 of them he gave up runs and scared the dickens out of us fans. His postseason ERA was 5.91. Kelly's postseason ERA was .78 and Barnes and Brasier had ERA's of 1.04.

Fan is short for fanatic, and talksox is a great outlet for periodic outbursts of Sox fan frustration. That said, I believe I am right that using Andriese, whose May ERA in 5 appearances is 12.71, ahead of Sawamura, whose May ERA in 4 appearances is 3.60, was a mistake.

It's May 16, 41 games and over 1/4th into the season, and my realistic view of 2021 says the Sox have the most wins, 25, and the best winning percentage, .610, in MLB. Lurking nearby, however are the Yankees, Jays, and Rays--all within 3 games of the Sox. This season so far is a gift to Sox fans.

Gotta go with egalitarian. The whiskey stopped some time ago.

Our pitching always deserves credit. This year is borderline miraculous despite the occasional bullpen letdowns. As for the Angels bats, if you ain't great this year, you ain't great. Besides, as I keep saying, their bats, good or bad, are irrelevant when their pitching is the worst in MLB: ERA 5.33.

I don't like Brice any more than you like Cordero. I'm just saying that when the bullpen has already shown signs of fatigue, it makes sense to have the extra arm. Cordero is on the active roster because Hernandez and Arroyo are on the IL.

Names mean nothing without demonstrated production, and it's been a very long time since the Angels offense was productive. Or are you counting all the years Albert Pujols was great before he went to the Angels? Hold it. The Angels led MLB in runs in 2014, 7 years ago, which is not "a very long time." But it's long enough. Besides, their hitting is almost irrelevant this year when they are ranked dead last in MLB in ERA.

Very good win. As Thunder says, great hitting and pitching. Tomorrow Quintana vs. Eovaldi, edge to the good guys. A win and 4 straight would be very nice. Then rest on Monday and off to Toronto for 3 and Philly for 3, followed by another Monday off.

Angels rank 17th in MLB in runs scored. Elite they are not.

Good job by Perez--K on Ohtani and should have had one vs. Trout.

I swear there have been games this year when the visiting outfield looks more comfortable dealing with the idiosyncracies of Fenway then our guys do. Not today, but other games.

I think I know what Cordero's problem is. He's telegraphing his swing, so opposing pitchers and catchers know exactly where to throw the ball. Easy fix. Just look at the videos.

That was a great throw, and he had another the other night from RF to home with men on 1st and 3d. He hit the cutoff man perfectly, so neither budged. I think that was the same game in which he also hit the cut off man perfectly, after which a great relay throw by Arauz caught the runner going home.

OK, now I see what the problem is. Perez has been using a changeup and pretty effectively too. This must stop. This year's Sox staff does not use the changeup--except for ERod when he wants to give up some hits. A quiet word in the dugout should suffice.

I am not in favor of giving sucky pitchers roster spaces, but think the same thing about sucky position players. To be precise, yes, I'd rather have Brice than Cordero on the roster. Brice's WAR is -0.3, but Cordero's is -1.1 so he can do more damage.

OK, now that's showing off. Renfroe makes a nice grab and on the dead run, just to show he can, rifles a near perfect throw to 3b in case the Angels baserunner had any thought--which he did not--of going from 2b to 3b. A walk, a single, and 3 quick outs. The Angels have to be discouraged. Forgot the 2d walk to Trout, which was I thought a good idea.

Here's something interesting. I track the Sox pitching staff ERA and it's position with respect to the 29 other MLB teams. The team ERA has been dropping recently and is now 3.85. But not that long ago 3.85 had the Sox ranked 9th, and now 3.85 has them ranked 15th. Relatedly, of the top 17 MLB teams in ERA, only the Marlins (8th, ERA 3.49) and Nationals (14th, ERA 3.84) have losing records. Meanwhile, in the hitting and especially run scoring department, The Reds, ranked 5th in run scoring, have a losing record; the Rockies, 6th, ditto; the Diamondbacks 7th, ditto; the Braves, 10th, ditto; the Rangers, 11th, ditto; the Angels, 12th, ditto; the Cubs, 14th, ditto; the Twins, tied for 14th, ditto (in fact, at 12 and 24 they are the worst team in MLB). So it sure seems to me that, as much as I like the fact that the Sox are 2d in MLB in scoring runs and 1st in team OPS, that good pitching is more vital than ever. Which gets us back to the argument about the active roster. I say again, more pitching choices are more useful than more position players. Cora actually believes in resting position players by giving them a day off, but this year he seems to want to keep those good bats in the lineup, so in the last two games first Bogie and then Devers were DH while JDM patrolled LF.

Here's something interesting. I track the Sox pitching staff ERA and it's position with respect to the 29 other MLB teams. The team ERA has been dropping recently and is now 3.85. But not that long ago 3.85 had the Sox ranked 9th, and now 3.85 has them ranked 15th. Relatedly, of the top 17 MLB teams in ERA, only the Marlins (8th, ERA 3.49) and Nationals (14th, ERA 3.84) have losing records. Meanwhile, in the hitting and especially run scoring department, The Reds, ranked 5th in run scoring, have a losing record; the Rockies, 6th, ditto; the Diamondbacks 7th, ditto; the Braves, 10th, ditto; the Rangers, 11th, ditto; the Angels, 12th, ditto; the Cubs, 14th, ditto; the Twins, tied for 14th, ditto (in fact, at 12 and 24 they are the worst team in MLB). So it sure seems to me that, as much as I like the fact that the Sox are 2d in MLB in scoring runs and 1st in team OPS, that good pitching is more vital than ever. Which gets us back to the argument about the active roster. I say again, more pitching choices are more useful than more position players. Cora actually believes in resting position players by giving them a day off, but this year he seems to want to keep those good bats in the lineup, so in the last two games first Bogie and then Devers were DH while JDM patrolled LF.

So maybe Bloom gets an A for the rotation and something lower for the bullpen. The WAR's and ERA's for the staff are: Pivetta 1.1, 3.16 Barnes 1.0, 1.89 Whitlock .7, 1.77 Eovaldi .6, 4.20 ERod .5, 4.15 Richards .3, 3.89 Perez .2, 4.01 Sawamu .2, 3.31 Valdez .1, 3.38 Houck 0, 4.35 Ottavi -.2, 4.02 Taylor -.2, 6.39 Brice -.3, 7.39 Hernan -.3, 4.63 Andries -.3, 4.91

Great win. Yanks win too.

Aren't you the one advocating as few pitchers and as many position players as possible?

Fair. I couldn't hit a pitch at half that speed, even 60 years ago.

Awful at bat by Devers. Very hittable pitches.