Maxbialystock

Anthony has "mid back tightness."

And over 1.000 OPS in August.

Cora pulled Chapman when that happened and he came right back.

Good grief. KC has the 2d best team ERA in MLB. Falter, however is living up to his name.

I lied. Everyone's heard of Bichette.

Is Anthony injured?

Never heard of him.

7 righty bats in Sox lineup against lefty starter. Two lefty bats are Duran and Anthony. KC going with 5 lefty bats against Bello.

Interesting, but medically sound. Mayer took himself out and talked to many doctors about a short term fix, including a shot he took over the weekend. Based on all his injuries and difficulty with MLB pitching, I'm not sure the Sox are worried about insuring another year of control.

The last couple of times the Sox faced a lefty starter Cora loaded up with 7 righty bats, including Toro. The two lefty bats are in LF and RF and are a mix of Duran, Abreu, and Anthony. Let's see how the crowd is on a Monday night against the Royals.

It depends on the source. mlb.com combines the stats (brings the old ones forward). espn does not.

It's expected to say that, plus I think he had every intention of getting a good arm or two. But he also knew that July is bad time to buy.

You keep a lot better track than I do, which is great.

I sure hope Cora and his staff are not suggesting tonight will be a piece of cake.

Target. The sportswriters need additional fodder to blather about. It's also fair to say that sometimes those July acquisitions pay off that season. However, they automatically condemn any CBO whose team is in the hunt and who doesn't aggressively pursue reinforcements. One sportswriter claims he has canvassed a bunch of CBO's who all agree it's impossible to make a deal with Breslow. The sportswriter does not of course comment on the Sox current success post-July. Or, for that matter, leading up to 31 July. Nor does he mention that December is when the best acquisitions are made.

Comprehensive and compelling. Maybe Breslow knows what he is doing, as does the pitching coach he hired.;

Just a reminder to everyone that John Henry is still a hands on owner, even with his 76th birthday in September. Six years ago he decided that he no longer wanted to spend freely even though DD had just produced the best Sox season ever with the highest payroll in MLB So he hired Chaim Bloom in the hope that he could produce something like the Rays system, which flat did not happen and resulted in CB making some pretty bad hires before being let go after the 2023 season. Right now the Sox payroll, $194M, is ranked 1`2th in MLB--actually, 9th if you count just the active payroll. Spotrac also provides the latest W-L records next to all those payrolls. And here are the 8 teams above the Sox active payroll of $159M: Mets, Dodgers, Phillies, Rangers, Jays, Padres, and Yankees. 12th highest active payroll belongs to the Astros, 15th to the Detroit Tigers, and 20th to the Brewers. And the kicker is that 11 of those 12 teams have won at least 60 games and no more than 67. That's a pretty tight shot group. Also, the woebegone Rockies with just 30 wins has the 27th highest active payroll, $44M, and Miami, 55-55, has the 29th, $35M. Back to John Henry. He probably knows those numbers and therefore believes that his payroll is about right. So is his CBO, who allowed to sign pricey Bregman, Crochet, and Chapman--also $20M for Buehler. Breslow also had JH's backing to "trade" Devers and his huge pay package to the Giants after Devers publicly said he would not play 1b. Sox attendance is still off, 33,481 per game so far, but in the 3 games vs Houston the average was 36,369. All 3 of those games were played AFTER BRESLOW refused to spend big to get a really good starter or whoever. Talksox is still livid that Breslow screwed up, but the people in spend the bucks are not. In 2018 the best Sox team ever's average attendance was 35,747, but in 2019 it was 36,106. no doubt because of the afterglow. So I think JH thinks the new approach is also good attendance. And let's not forget that this winter Breslow will again be allowed to spend significantly in part because Devers belongs to the Giants.

Another great laydown. However, allow me to remind you that this year's throw-together staff now has the 7th best ERA in MLB, 3.70.. I don't know the last Sox pitching staff that was that good. The 4th best team ERA right now is 3.68, the Brewers. Is it remotely possible that our CBO, who is thought to be the smartest man in MLB and was a major league pitcher for 10 years--some with the Sox--just might have had something to do with that? And he did it despite sending Sale to the Braves where he won the CY Young last year.

Do the Sox have another great shortstop I don't know about? I say another because I've very afraid Mayer will continue to be injury prone. Right now he's odds on to miss the rest of the season after playing in just 44 games. His track record in the minor is basically never playing a full season. Plus he does not seem to hit MLB pitching well.

Exactly the way I would put it if I only could.

Heck, I like Bello too. We have three excellent starters right now, of whom Crochet is a true ace. Plus, as moonslav has pointed out, the bullpen has actually been pretty good. I don't think Buehler has bad stuff, but do think his control stinks. Criswell looked really good.

You beat me to it.

Gio is a work in progress. HIs first start was April 30. His May ERA was 4.85, June 3.04, and July-August 2.92. Of those last 6 starts 4 were on the road @ Twins, Phillies, Cubs, and Nationals. Today's 8 IP and 1 ER were against a Division leader, as were the Cubs and Phillies. Same for Bello, whose first start was April 22 and whose May ERA was 4.03. But it was 2.87 in June and 2.79 in July against the Dodgers, Cubs, Rays, Rockies,, Reds, and Twins--and 39 innings pitched.

In July it's a seller's market, so the price in players and prospects would be big for a #2 starter.

Need, yes. Necessity, doubtful. Expensive because it's a seller's market, almost certainly.