Maxbialystock

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.

I'll take Sawamura over Andriese every time. Taylor too.

You're talking about Andriese of course, who is on other teams' hit lists. As for Dalbec, Cora kept him because he hit well in the minors and in last year's truncated MLB season.

He owes a lot of us. moonslav was just about his only defender, so Dalbec owes him nothing.

Dalbec nails a changeup!!!! Don't move him up in the order, not when he is hitting well at or near the bottom of the order. Chavis, on the other hand, appears to be perfecting his ability to K.

LA pitchers have good changeups. Sox pitchers don't. ERod had one early in the season, but lately it's been getting hit hard.

Cora appears to think you should keep sending out rotten relievers to get them some tough game experience. It's all about encouraging players and trying to build them up. Winning the game is secondary.

Meanwhile, the guy who should have gone in to replace Pivetta is warming up in the bullpen. By all means, Cora, bring Sawamura in after the horses have left the barn.

This one is on Cora. Andriese was rotten last time out.

Angels look very comfortable at the plate and swinging against Andriese's pitches. Terrible call by Cora.

But he is also pitching very well.

Pivetta lucky on those two fastballs down the middle to Trout.

Had Bogey completely befuddled with changeups and the coup de grace, a slider way out of the zone.

Pretty good 3 innings by Pivetta. I especially like following the double by Ohtani with a K of Ohtani.

Because Bogey DH'd last night and hit well, and Devers went to Cora and demanded he get a shot at DH, especially at Fenway where JDM can play the green monster like a ukelele.

Chavis and and Vazquez almost rhyme and can almost hit the ball--but not quite.

Renfroe, Renfroe, he's our man!