Maxbialystock

Agree on all.

I thought I'd start this one because I've been reading Rick Atkinson's latest, The British Are Coming, which is, as always, exhaustively researched and beautifully written. This is the first volume of a trilogyand covers just 1775 through early 1777, but focuses a whole lot on our Boston/Massachusetts/New England predecessors. They not only led the American colonies into war--a full year before the Declaration of Independence was signed--but beat the snot out of the British and forced them out of Boston, never to return--3+ months before the Declaration was signed. Not so the denizens of Manhattan, Long Island, etc. They were clobbered, and the British stayed there until the end of the war. That's a kind of unbalanced and even unfair picture--the British sent three times as many troops and warships to NYC as they had had in Boston--but I like it because Atkinson does make it clear how tough, resourceful, and patriotic (when it wasn't that easy to be so) our forbearers were. MLB is wrong to make the Sox the home team. NYC had way more loyalists than New England, and many of them returned to England after the Americans won. Some of their progeny might even go to the game. Tanaka vs. Porcello, both righties, edge to the Yankees.

Tough loss, but I'm madder at Sale than Barnes, and I'm madder at the rotation than at the bullpen. The Sox are paying Barnes, Brewer, Brasier, Workman, and Walden a total of $5.1M, less than half of what Kimbrel will get this year and about 1/4 of what Sale is being paid. Nevertheless, I agree with the consensus that DD should be looking for bullpen help even at this late date. I say this because I wouldn't invest a penny or a prospect in a starter. They just aren't worth the money they expect to get. I missed the entire game, a rarity for me, but am delighted at how the hitters got the Sox back it. One more thing. I do defend Cora relentlessly, but this time agree with whoever says Barnes should have been pulled after those two singles, one of which was cancelled by the CS by Vazquez. That was a pretty fat fastball--middle inside--Abreu hammered for the game winner.

the chicago is pitching better than Price tonight. Keeping it low with a good mix.

Scored tied with 1 unearned run apiece.

This is also the 2d straight game in which a chicago batter gripes about a perfectly good strike.

Especially irksome when Vazquez once again swings at a pitch out of the strike zone on a 2-0 count. He did that last night I think with the bases loaded.

Ahem. Wright is not just a great pitcher, but a skilled all around baseball player as well. I don’t know about pinch-hitting, but the guy is a wonder on the basepaths. Hopefully, Devers will watch him a learn a thing or two.

Whoa, there, pard. The quality start, 6 innings, 3 or fewer earned runs, was created by a sportswriter in 1985. It's not an official stat and can be used or not. Like WAR and other stats. What has helped the quality start stat to stay alive is that you can also show a stat on the percentage of starts that are quality starts. Kershaw, for example, gets 71%, Tom Seaver 70.2% Price 68%, Bob Gibson 68%, Randy Johnson 67%. This season so far: Verlander has 14/17 quality starts, Greinke 13/17, Scherzer 13/16, Ryu 13/15, and Berrios 13/16. Chris Sale is 9/16, Porcello 8/16, Price 6/13, and ERod 6/16. The stats guys are telling front offices and managers that pitchers get hit harder and harder as the number of times they go thru the lineup increases. By the third and fourth time, most of them are at risk of a big rally, especially if their command starts to crumble. So 6 innings kind of makes sense. Thus too the value of a great bullpen--like the Yankees currently have. Their ace, Tanaka, is 9/16.

Sale isn't as good as last year, but his June numbers are close. But the real point is that our biggest weakness is the rotation, not the bullpen, because the Sox needs a rotation to eat a whole lot of innings, not 1 or 2 every freaking 3 days. A good starter should throw 6 x 33 = 198 innings in a season, not the measly 62 Kimbrel pitched last year. FWIW, the Yankees bullpen ain't great because of one guy, but because of several guys. OP is a bad idea.

My, my, my. Mookie decided to stop taking those first pitch fastballs and actually took a swing.

I don't like losses any more than you do, but before the game it was a given that the White Sox had the edge tonight in starters. ERod has been up and down like a yo-yo this year, and Giolito has an ERA of 2.87--better than any Boston starter. ERod was actually pretty lucky tonight because he had no curve and no slider and relied way too much on his fast ball and cut fastball. Plus his control was off, which is normal for him.

Sometimes hitters--our guys too--can look so dumb complaining about a called strike clearly inside the zone.

Chicago loves those inside fastballs, and Vazquez keeps calling for them. Why?

Walden throws the same exact pitch--an inside cut fastball. Is Vazquez really as dumb as he looks tonight?

It was a cut fastball inside which Chicago has had no problem hitting.

When is that idiot Vazquez going to finally notice that the White Sox are murdering inside fastballs by ERod? That's now two dingers and a scoring double--all pulled.

Hello, hello RISP disease. Welcome back. Vazquez and Nunez--the z brothers--sure missed you.

The guy was actually pitching well--good control and good stuff. Then Bogie hit that very hard double and he lost his command.

Too bad Devers is playing. He's be perfect to pinch hit right now. I think the only two left are Hernandez and Leon--unless Holt is on the IL and the Sox brought someone up.

That at bat by Vazquez was way, way, way dumber than the baserunning error by Devers. He just refused to take a pitch, then refused to swing on a strike.

Both dingers have been off fastballs or cut fastballs on the inside corner.

Shoulda said that earlier. For whatever reason, the White Sox have not hit ERod like they should have. He's only got the changeup and the fast ball and the occasional cutter, and it's working!!!???

A lot we don't agree on, but not on the stupidity of the London series.

I just gotta say the Chicago pitcher is pitching, well, unfairly too Mookie. Too many fast balls and breaking balls. No wonder he can't get a hit. Here we have an over 1000 OPS no-baloney MVP, and he is helpless at the plate. Later in the game Cora might have to send Leon in to pinch hit for him.