Maxbialystock

"At least" ????!!!!! You've been listening to those nattering nabobs of negativism too much.

Dinger by Devers!!!!

These WEEI guys are new from a couple of years ago. Very aggressive commentary, which means sometimes they are just wrong. But, heck, I don't care. I'm listening via my hearing aids, and the sound is so clear. Richards has gone 5 giving up 2 runs, but they tell us he was absolutely beyond any doubt horrible. What's wrong with just a smidgen of team loyalty?

Announces say that slider was in the middle of the plate, hence the liner single. But it was on the outer edge of the plate.

What records? I don't count his. And it's a shame because Barry was a great hitter and player without steroids. His dad was pretty good too.

Announcers say Sox are praying Zimmerman stays in the game because "everything is loud right now," meaning the ball is being hit hard on the outs. Same is probably true of Richards and the Orioles.

Announcers are saying it's a heavier ball this year. Hernandez liner would have been a dinger last year. It's not the weather.

Dalbec is a liablity at the plate.

Announcer says Orioles' Zimmerman has thrown a bunch of fastballs down the middle and not paid the price.

Announcers say Richards can't throw curve or slider for a strike, hence all the fast balls.

8 straight outs ain't too shabby.

Not just two outs. Dalbec was on deck.

No what?

Radio announcers say JDM has symptoms, not a positive.

One virtuous dude, right here on talksox.

The best explanation I can think of for these humoungous salaries is some combination of butts in seats and TV ratings. That said, however, the LA Angels, who have been consistently lousy on the field, have regularly drawn 3M+ in attendance, even before Mike Trout arrived in 2011. Less surprising is that the Dodgers have always drawn well and usually lead MLB with 4M annual attendance. They did not need Mookie for attendance purposes. So too the Sox with the 2d smallest ballpark in MLB. In the early years of John Henry's reign, they were always "sold out" and drew 3M a year. Since 2009 or so when the Sox finally admittedly they were padding the attendance numbers. the worst they have done is 2.8M+ and that includes when they were dead last in the AL East. Thus John Henry probably didn't need Mookie to maintain attendance. The Phillies, on the other hand, might have been smart to pick up Bryce Harper because attendance jumped a lot from 2018 to 2019. Without Harper in 2018 it was 2.158M. With Harper it was 2.727M in 2019. And the reverse happened to the Washington Nationals, whose attendance before Bryce Harper's rookie season was 1.9M and thereafter was around 2.4 to 2.5M. After they lost him, their attendance dropped from 2.53 M in 2018 to 2.26M in 2019 even though 2019 was the year they won the World Series. I think the idea of Bryce Harper, especially given his first full season in MLB (2012) was at age 19, is far greater than the actual performance on the field. He's had two good years out of eight (excluding 2020 and 2021): his rookie year, 2012, when his WAR was 5.2, and three years later when he was the NL MVP with a 9.7 WAR. In the other six years his WAR's were 3.7, 1.0, 1.5, 4.8, 1.8, and 4.5. For that 1.8 WAR in 2018 (in which he played 159 games) he was paid $21.6M. As soon as he left (2019), the Nationals won it all, so his "production" wasn't missed, but the idea of him was.

JH approves this thread!

About your "personally, I wanted Betts here." That is the rub, isn't it? He's a bonafide five tool player who handled the nastiest right field in MLB like it was the new Yankee Stadium right field, and we could watch him almost every day (or night) 150 or more times a year. He won the AL MVP the year the Sox had probably their best season ever. He's like Yaz only probably better, but the big money sucked him up like a tornado and deposited him where the movie Wizard of Oz was made.

I can't comment on team chemistry this year, but can say I emphatically believe JDM's bat was the key to the 2018 season, maybe the best Sox season ever, because his hitting improved the rest of the lineup. He can do the same for this year's lineup even though it can't be as good as the 2018 one. JDM is also more than happy to play in the outfield. Not much range, but a pretty good arm. So there he was in left field two games ago when Vazquez DH'd in a day game after a night game which he caught, all 12 innings of it. I might add David Ortiz was also pretty decent at 1B when needed.

Pretty much the way I see it--except that I simply resent the amount of money it would have taken to keep Mookie Betts. No one is worth that much, and no one needs that much money. Same goes for Price. Also Trout. And others.

I agree with Notin and am fine with Devers, errors and all, and Bogaerts, with his limited range, on the left side of the infield. As we have just learned, the backup DH should be Vazquez with JD Martinez moving to LF. I am more and more convinced no one on talksox has ever heard or read the expression, "good field, no hit," which is shorthand for guys who usually don't get to the majors and never to the HOF, which is reserved for hitters and pitchers. Are there some great fielders in the HOF? Absolutely. But their bats got them in. Is Willie Mays my favorite HOF'er? He sure is--precisely because he was a bona fide five tool player whose most famous play was grabbing Wertz's 1954 World Series long drive deep into the vast expanse of the Polo Grounds centerfield. Seeing a great defensive play is like reading a sonnet by Keats or Shakespeare, but only occasionally is it a game-winner.

Me, I'm just happy with 4-3 after the 0-3 start. Someone else said the Sox started 1-6 last year, so maybe this year there is hope if not yet conviction. It's April, for crying out loud. I finally bought the mlb.tv package with the understanding I will only miss (live online) games against the Orioles, Nationals, and Braves. As Thunder keeps reminding us, it's a real season with real games if not yet real crowds. And so far I am astounded by the pitching.

JDM transformed the Sox lineup in 2018, which turned out to be a pretty decent season.

Moonslav’s still right, however.

Saturday is next game.