Maxbialystock

The offense is the only reason the Sox are above .500. The pitching is 20th best in MLB, and the offense is 1st in runs scored. The rotation, including Eovaldi who was signed to be a starter, is by far the highest paid segment on the roster, and they are killing us.

In the immortal words of the Slim Pickens, the pilot in Dr Strangelove, "Tell ya somethin’ else. If this thing turns out to be half as important as I figure it just might be, I’d say that you’re all in line for some important promotions an’ personal citations when this thing’s over with.' So go for it.

There's a reason why most teams carry 12 pitchers and this year the Sox have carried 13. Pitching is awfully important, and our pitching stinks. We have a Yankee fan, a very good guy, here in our office and he's always complaining about their rotation, which I agree ain't so hot. But ours is just as bad and we don't have a quality bullpen--far from it, in fact--like the Yankees have. Last weekend we took 3 of 4 against the Yankees only because our 12 angry men--also called our lineup players--scored 19, 10, and 9 runs for the 3 wins, but score an inadequate 6 runs in game 4 when the Yankees scored 9. So moonslav, one of the eternal optimists, is entitled to his now gloomy outlook.

Betts, Bogie, and Beni have 8 hits, both dingers and all 4 rbi’s. The other six have 1 hit and and 10 K’s.

Sox are pathetic.

A half-hearted attempt by Leon to block that curve in the dirt with a man on third.

Leon looked awfully slow getting to that slow roller.

JBJ is the embodiment of this opening passage to Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities-- “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” In short, JBJ drives any sensible Sox fan nuts because of his now legendary ups and downs. My suspicion is that he will never repeat 2016, by far his best (OPS .835) season, but will continue to come close to his career OPS of .723. Right now he's at .717, but that was built on horrendously bad April and May, a stunningly good June, and a subpar July. Nevertheless, I'm glad he wasn't traded and won't mind if he returns next year or if he is traded for someone of value. He helps the Sox claim to have one of the better defensive outfields in MLB and especially allows Mookie to excel in RF.

Ahem. Sale's ERA for the month of July was 5.86. Last year it was 0.36, and in 2017 his July ERA was 1.04. Sale is in real trouble this year, and I don't think a semi-miraculous start 2 weeks ago has fixed that.

Not for the team, but absolutely for Sale, Price, and Porcello, the big money boys who ain't delivering. And it's for us fans too. He's saying he has done his job in assembling a high-priced but certainly very capable team--see last year, the best in Sox history--and that now it is up to them (Sale, Price, and Porcello) to earn their pay. I will go one step further and state that the last thing he should have done was to try to build a great bullpen to compensate for the inability of those three to earn their pay.

Back to the thread topic. I love John Henry's earlier statement that he ain't spending much more this year because it's already the highest payroll in MLB. In other words, it's time for the players to step up and show they are worth all that money. And I think it's really all about those three starters--Sale, Price, and Porcello. They are the ones underperforming, especially with regard to their immense salaries, and now they are out in the open. That's is, DD and JH refuse to pay a king's ransom or trade away excellent players/prospects to build a world-class bullpen to cover for the inability of our starters to do their jobs. I love it.

Nicely done, fredlynn. And I think John Henry is dead right.

Apparently, he said very little new because he has made it clear all along that he and his boss have shelled out a lot of money for players good enough to win 108 games, 11 of 14 postseason games, and the WS just one year ago. They think, and I wholeheartedly agree with them, that it's up to the players to perform. The lineup players--the guys I call the 12 angry men--are doing just fine and leading MLB in runs scored. The bullpen ain't that great, but they ain't getting paid much. So, clearly and irrefutably, management, including the owner, is singling out the rotation, which is paid a king's ransom and is vastly under performing this year. And I think they are right to do so.

Sale, Price, Porcello, Eovaldi, and ERod are getting paid $88M this year. Our best starter, ERod, is also the lowest paid.

If you throw in Eovaldi and ERod, the total is $88M. The frustrating reality is that the Sox best starter this year, ERod, is also the lowest paid by far.

Everybody see how Beni struck out? The Rays pitcher threw a fastball and then a slider to the exact same spot spot on the outside corner. When he needed to for an out. The Sox do not have a single pitcher who do that.

In the case of this hit, it was the ball that was seeing better.

The inconsistent rotation is old news that began with the season-opening road trip. ERod alone has gotten better. Sale and Price and even Porcello have had good games, but none of them can be counted on. Jung nailed it when he said none of these guys has good command. That applies to the bullpen too.

If Sale were the only problem, I might see the value of adding further to the bullpen, but Price and Porcello also stink.

I'm frankly stunned at all the naysayers now lambasting DD for not making a move when he in fact has already done just that. He traded for Cashner, and moved Eovaldi to the bullpen, which should have enough to get the job done. Throwing a bunch more middling relievers at the problem ain't going to fix it. And the price for Diaz was too high. And just maybe Cashner can be as good as his last start and become a reliable 5th starter. As far as I am concerned, DD has done his job. I also think it's time for Sale, Price, and Porcello to get their heads on straight and start earning some of the insane amount of money they are being paid.

Meh. DD also didn't get rid of anyone. This current team has pretty much the same people as last year's winners of 108 and 11 of 14 in the postseason who are also being paid more than any other team in MLB.

Gotta agree with the "must win" comment. Time is running out, and Oakland is now 2 games up on the Sox for the final wild card--and the Guardians are 2 up on them. The Rays are 1.5 up on the Sox. Sox have 54 games left.

I used to live and die by batting averages but these days prefer OPS even though the silver sluggers still go to the best BA's. This year Devers and Bogaerts are leading the Sox in most batting stats: average, dingers, rbi's, total bases, doubles--but Betts ain't giving up in the runs scored department. He has 98, which leads MLB. #2 is Devers with 88, and Bogie is tied for 3d with Bellinger at 85.

Ain't it great we are remembering all those details from last year's postseason? I know the Sox won 3 of 4, 4 of 5, and 4 of 5, but all three series to me were closer than that. Beni's catch is a reminder that the Astros were a tougher out than 4 of 5 would indicate. Ditto the Yankees. I thought, going in, that the Dodgers were going to get trounced. But game 3 in LA that lasted 48 innings or whatever, with the Dodgers winning, scared the heck out of me. And the Yankees split at Fenway (which led to playing New York, New York in the locker room) before going down at Yankee Stadium. My point is that baseball can still be great precisely because almost nothing is a sure thing.

Sure it was important, which is why it was voted the best defensive play of the year. It wasn't that great a catch, but it saved the Sox ass. I doubt the Sox lose the ALCS is he doesn't make that catch. I happen to be very much in favor of good defense because it is the poetry of baseball, especially given the very prosaic nature of pitching and hitting. But to me one enduring reality of Red Sox baseball is that hitting is way more important than defense. Last night, to cite a recent example, Mookie made a couple of great grabs to prevent doubles/triples, but the pitching still did us in--and brother Price finally said screw it and gave up two solo, uncatchable gopher balls in the 5th. Back to Beni. I do not get this insistence he is out of shape, can't defend, etc because to me he looks about the same as ever and certainly as trim as ever. I do remember his saying a couple or so years ago that he needed to beef up in the offseason because the 6 games a week for 26 weeks was wearing--and it is. Back to defense. Neither Bogie nor Devers is a great defender, but you ain't going to hear me complain. JBJ is still pretty good defensively--despite my complaints--but his hitting slumps are getting to be a tad expensive.