Maxbialystock

Meh. I don't disagree with your basic point, but the Sox and the Yankees and the Dodgers are fully capable of spending a whole lot of money and still not getting the brass ring. From a broader perspective I am of course appalled at those salaries, which are the product of rapacious agents, the MLBPA's determination to ensure no MLB player is required to actually earn the salary in his contract, impatient owners, and a few players who truly are greedy.

Great point. I sure wish we had HanRam right now instead of that turkey JDM. What the heck was DD thinking?

Generally, I would agree. But ankles can be taped, we don't know how bad it is, etc. JDM is the Sox best bat, but there are 8 guys in that lineup plus the pitcher. If he doesn't play, Cora is stuck with maybe the best overall outfield in MLB and Porcello, whose regular season OPS was 1.143. Could be worse.

Meh. Cora rested everyone this year, but JDM played in the most games, 150. In the 12 games he missed, the Sox were 6-6. In the postseason his OPS is .967 and he has 13 rbi's (most of everyone in the postseason). The Sox lineup these days--the postseason--is being described as relentless. But JDM is the most relentless of all and leads the Sox in total bases, rbi's, and OPS among Sox hitters with 20 or more at bats. He is the reincarnation of Ortiz and makes the entire lineup better.

Is that real? If it is, it is one heckuva quote.

Yup. About 30 years after Pearl Harbor--maybe 40 years--I remember seeing a cartoon drawing of that attack only this time you can see the Japanese Zeroes are dropping little cars, and the caption reads, "Toyota, Toyota, Toyota."

I despised Pomeranz last year when he was good, so I flat did not want to see him in the postseason. But if he has the Cora good housekeeping seal of approval, so be it. He is a lefty and that knuckle curve ain't too shabby. I guess Cora has infused the team with the winning spirit and maybe that started way back in May when HanRam was let go. But it's so very hard to quantify other than to say winning feeds on itself. More concrete to me is his handling of the bullpen which has truly been masterful. He kept Kelly when many of us, especially yours truly, thought Kelly was dead meat. Wrong. He has been unreal because the slider and curve work really well and he doesn't rely so much on the fast ball. Eovaldi has also been a great in the bullpen, but Cora has also used Chris Sale, Rick Porcello, and ERod. And he stayed with Kimbrel one everyone else was ready to shoot him. Now we know it was all on Kimbrel's glove position which was tipping his pitches. The point is, almost everyone agreed going into the postseason that the Sox one real weakness was the bullpen. And guess what? We weren't all that wrong. That's right, folks, you read it here first, so get ready for some very selective stats. Kimbrel, ERod, and Workman. Remember them? They have combined this postseason for 13.1 innings and--land o'goshen--13 earned runs. A disaster. But Cora maneuvered around those giant obstacles to success and produced 9 wins with, I hasten to add, a rotation that has its issues as well.

Timely. I just read two articles in the LA Times and both put all the blame on Roberts and the so-called Dodgers front office brain trust who send him specific instructions before every game. No criticism of any of the players. While I agree Cora has made better decisions, especially with his bullpen, I hardly consider Roberts to be a dunce. I think the Dodgers will benefit more from the warm weather than from fixes to the lineup. That said, our Sox have played in overwhelmingly warm weather for almost all of this season, and my hat is off once more for the grit displayed by Price. One thing the Sox pitchers have sustained in the postseason is what Cora made a dictum for the Yankees--keep the ball in the park. All those righty bats in the Dodgers lineup were there because of the lefty starters and the green monster. So tempting, but it turned out to be fool's gold.

Next year is like a millennium away. First eovaldi needs to get signed and even then I see Sale and Price going 1 and 2. Both had pretty good seasons, and Sale had a spectacular first four minths. But in the postseason Eovaldi has been gold.

Eovaldi. He has the lowest ERA on the team and the most innings pitched in the postseason. No contest.

Eovaldi.

Well, your judgement is certainly better than his.

And that includes Price who just might get his second straight postseason win.

And of course you were wrong.

Back to back singles!!!! The corpse ain’t cold yet.

Gift call? We are not watching the same game. Our guys simply can’t hit Ryu. And it’s so obvious.

Fat pitch to JBJ and a pop up.

Rewatch the game? Are you serious?

Price does not have great control and does really like his fast ball. He gets in trouble when it’s fat. As for swinging in on first pitches, it can work, which is why even the Sox do it this year.

I disagree. It’s been fair.

The other thing is that Price is throwing mostly changeups and fastballs and an occasional cutter. Amazing that he has gotten away with it. Sort of.

What trap? For the most part he has pitched carefully which can only be good. He threw a fat first pitch fast ball to Machado which was not smart.

It is a tough choice, but right now I'm leaning toward sitting JBJ, moving Mookie to CF, putting JDM in RF, and leaving Beni in LF. Why? Beni has the better bat, period. Defensively, Beni should continue to be fine in LF, Mookie should be fine in CF, and JDM has to play somewhere and RF is where he has played the most. Mookie at 2b could also work, but is probably a little too bold at this juncture. But you know the one really good thing about this decision? We don't gotta do nuthin'. Cora does, and he's pretty good at it.

Probably right although I think Cora will keep hitting JBJ 9th.

Sorry, but I'm fine with the NL rule and in fact still think it's a little weird to have a DH. If you truly, truly believe in letting the good hitters hit, why not allow more than 1 DH? Don't you think we could use one for the catcher? In other words, if one DH is a great idea, two DH's is even better. And how about free substitutions so guys can come back into the game? Wouldn't that be neat?