Maxbialystock
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Everything posted by Maxbialystock
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Rogers' shutdown of the Sox was on March 24 and does not count in the regular season.
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Eaton leading off as DH is to me ridiculous. Ref a far better choice. Rest of the lineup looks OK to me.
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Two more first basemen, exactly what the Sox need. and really good ones too.
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My mistake. Thanks for the correction. I sure hope you're right about the bullpen. Right now the Sox have exactly one consistent hitter, Bregman. Everyone else, Anthony included, is up and down like a yo-yo. Yesterday Anthony twice left 2 men on base with groundouts. That said, I think the Sox hitting and scoring have persevered because in every game a few of them are hitting. Story with his so-so .725 OPS has 79 rbi's and a good shot at 100. He is also 2d in runs scored and 2d in total bases. Plus you gotta like these other OPS's 3/4 into the season: Gonzalez .856, Anthony .832, Ref .827, Abreu .811, and Duran .791. Including Bregman and Story, that's 7 pretty good bats. Rafaela has nosedived in August, OPS .559, but he was terrific in June and July--.870 and .852. And how do we know what Rafaela's norm is when last year was his first freaking season.
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Get off Rafaela. I mean it. His WAR is 3.8 and Mookie Betts is 2.7 and we are 3/4 into this season. Career norms do not mean that a given player will have exactly that OPS, WAR, DWAR, or whatever every season. What's normal is going above or below those norms. Jacoby Ellsbury hit 32 dingers in 2011 and less than 10 in every other season (he played 11) except one, 2014, when he hit 16. Bregman's OPS of .933 is well above his "norm" of .854. What's abnormal also is that missed a bunch of games which he only did--same injury--in one other season of the 9 he's played.
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Are you serious? The Sox are 11 games above .500. They were 7 above .500 right after the ASG, and on June 3d they were 5 games under. 500. The best they've been is 13 games over .500. I completely agree the San Diego and Houston series were disappointing (2-4), but both are competitive teams and were at their home parks. The loss yesterday to Baltimore was just horrible no question. That was on the bullpen which also stunk Saturday. The bullpen might in fact be the Sox achilles heel, but that remains to be seen.
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Cora started the season with Campbell at 2b and Casas at 1b. Both had WAR's of -0.9. Campbell lasted 67 games and Casas 29. Since Casas, Sogard, Gonzalez, and Toro have played 1b with better WAR's than Casas. Since Campbell, Gonzalez, Hamilton, Mayer, Rafaela, and maybe Toro have played 2b with better WAR's than Campbell. With Mayer at 2b and Gonzalez at 1b, I think the Sox would be fine even though Mayer had not yet figured out how to hit lefties. On the other hand, Bregman and Story have both been terrific at 3b and SS. Season to date, these are key Sox OPS's: Bregman 3.9, Duran 3.9, Rafaela 3.8, Abreu 3.2, Story 3.1, Narvaez 2.7, Anthony 2.1, Gonzalez 1.3, Refsnyder 1.2.
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Rogers shut the Sox down for 6.1 IP way back in March. This month he's had 3 starts and was tough against the Mariners, Phillies, and Cubs--giving up 3 ER in 21 IP for an August ERA of 1.29. May could pitch another gem--or bomb. Based on the last two games, the Sox bullpen could still be in disarray. One upside is that the Sox hit lefties better than righties with these OPS's against lefties: Gonzalez 1.070, Bregman .985, Ref .905, Anthony .791, Narvaez .784, Story .751, Rafaela .738, Abreu .721, Toro .684, Duran .595. If Wong starts, his is .353. Narvaez has started 7 of 15 August games so far. Were I Cora, I would rest him today and let Wong catch May in a game the Sox are not likely to win. Narvaez OPS in August is .428 and Wong's is .466. I would also not start Duran and go with an outfield of Anthony, Rafaela, and Abreu. Ref at DH, Gonzalez at 2b, and Toro at 1b. If Duran and Narvaez sit, Cora might bat Gonzalez 3d, Story 4th, Ref 5th, Abreu 6th, Toro 7th, Rafaela 8th, and Wong 9th.
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The bullpen blew it. When the Sox win, nobody ever says, "wow, that was great managing by Cora." Crochet went 7 IP and gave up 1 run. Three different freaking relievers gave up 5 runs in 2 innings. Between them Whitlock and Weissert have 33 holds and 4 saves and you claim Cora sent in a bunch of bums? Give me a break.
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Some truth in that.
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After today, it would be hard to trust him. But let's not forget that Whitlock also stunk today.
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I never played or heard about T-ball until 10 or 20 years ago--and I think it's sheer genius. In the movie Mr Baseball, Tom Selleck's manager-coach has him hit balls off a tee to help adjust his swing.
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This is not a super good team, but it's definitely competitive and better than the last 3 seasons. Before the Miami series, I said the Marlins would be tough because they were 30-32 on the road. However, today I expected the sweep and, thanks to Crochet, it was definitely in our grasp--until the bullpen collapsed for the 2d game in a row. So I'm very disappointed. Next up, the Orioles with May, Buehler, and Giolito on the mound. I hate to say it, but I think 2/3 is the best we can do. Today they whipped the Astros @ Houston, 12-0.
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Oh, heck. I agree with him every time I think he's made a good point, which he has in fact done. Plus I myself am finding it a littler harder to be optimistic when the bullpen has been absolutely rotten in the last 2 games. And let's not forget that today Anthony, Story, Yoshida, and Rafaela were all hitless. Anthony was especially egregious because he left a lot of guys on base. Twice he made the last out with 2 men on base. What's most painful to me is that Crochet pitched another gem, 7 IP and 1 ER, and the bullpen butchered it.
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Going into this game Weissert had given up 1 run in his last 7 games and 7.1 IP. Plus he had not pitched since Wednesday. Going into this game Whitlock had given up 1 ER in 18 games/innings and had not pitched since Friday. Chapman pitched both Friday and Saturday. I'm not saying Chapman wouldn't have gotten the save, but am saying the other guys in the bullpen need to do their jobs.
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Bullpen gave up 8 runs in just 5 IP in the last 2 games. Obviously, Cora was using the wrong pitchers.
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Indeed.
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Anthony, 0-3, needs to get a hit here. 0/4.
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Abreu singles off a below the strike zone slider on an 0-2 count. Gonzalez singles off a first pitch sweeper well inside the zone! Toro drives in Abreu with a first pitch sac fly to CF! Rafaela screwed on called strike well below the zone.
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Watch the game. Luck is lights out. That 2 run dinger by Abreu was off an inside fastball that was not in the strike zone. Crochet has shown a ton of heart.
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Grounder to Toro--scary. But an out.
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Leadoff BB for Miami--3 bad pitches and 1 good one called a ball.
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After 4 straight breaking balls, Junk throws a low fastball for a called 3d strike. I have seen no Sox pitcher show the kind of control he has shown in this game.
