Maxbialystock

I will say one thing more that I said in the game thread. I loved the way Pom pitched today because it reconfirmed how lousy he is and makes it easier for management to move him to where he can't wreck a game every time he goes onto the mound.

I honestly don't see where the hope comes from. He has a sorry ass fast ball and that knuckle curve, and that is it. If he had great control, he might manage on two pitches, but he doesn't. The telltale is the unbelievable amount of time he takes between pitches because he is afraid to throw anything. Tell me, please, what you see in the way he pitches that makes you think he can stay in the rotation.

Great win, one of the best this year because Pom stunk yet again and the Sox overcame that lead. Here’s hoping Pom’s next start is a long time coming. Meanwhile Wright and Velazquez are much better and available. 8 runs even though Mookie and JD could only muster a single between them. It sure helps that Hanley is gone. Now somehow Pom needs to be shelved too.

I have to be honest and say I do not understand why anybody could think he is a viable MLB starter--or reliever. He has two pitches, a slow fast ball and a knuckle curve, and not enough control to make them even remotely effective.

If by some miracle Pom gets thru the 4th without giving up another run, Cora needs to replace him for the 5th.

Pretty terrible 2d inning. Pom does his thing by giving up 2 runs, but our guys absolutely could not capitalize on 2 men on and nobody out.

Man on third, one man out, and Mookie fails to bring him home. Not good.

That's our Pom. A walk and a dinger. 2-0 Atlanta.

I think location is way more important than his speed.

Sox have three long relievers on the roster: Velazquez, Wright, and Johnson. I personally don't have much faith in Pom these days, and Cora has shown he is more than willing to pull a starter early.

Betts RF Beni CF JD LF Moreland 1B Bogie SS Pedey 2b Nunez 3B Swihart DH Vazquez C Just 2 lefty bats vs lefty Swanson

Good riddance. He's the seasoned pro who was thrown out going home after that big pause--with two outs, mind you--between 1b and 2b on the double to right center field. He was looking for a dinger so he wouldn't actually have to run all the way around the bases. So I ain't buying the idea that he's actually trying out there. This is kind of an extreme move by DD because Hanley could go to another club with the Sox paying his salary, which to me confirms the notion that he was viewed as not a positive influence on the team. I am not ignoring that this move also prevents Hanley from being vested. His cumulative WAR for four (-) seasons in Boston is +1.4. He was a really, really dumb acquisition.

I would believe you when you say you give him plenty of slack if you could cite just one example when you stated on talksox that he managed a single game well or even that he made one good decision in one specific game. I think you are on record as saying MLB home plate umps should do better than 87% correct calls on balls and strikes. The Sox have played 50 games so far. Assuming at least 10 decisions for each game--including lineups, pitching decisions, placement of fielders, baserunning signals, etc, etc--that's 500 decisions so far. But you focus on the 5 ones you don't like and all of which can be defended and ignore the other 99% that apparently were OK. I admit I'm completely on the other side of this. I give any manager a lot of slack because of their greater experience and access to trends, stats, players stengths/weaknesses, the context of the season, etc. On top of that, I believe a MLB manager has less ability to affect what happens on the field than any NFL coach or NBA coach or even NHL coach in their domains. On the other hand, I do agree there is a psychological dimension to MLB managing and that managers can indirectly have a positive or negative effect on his players. Ultimately, however, it boils down to wins and losses. And in the first 50 games this season Cora has been the best manager in MLB.

YOTN's point is especially poignant given that the Sox currently have the best record and the most wins in MLB. On the game threads too often it appears we have dumbest players, the dumbest manager, and the dumbest GM in MLB. At least half the lineup can't hit, over half can't run the bases without "running into outs," and Mookie and JBJ alone are adequate fielders.

Boy would you make one great GM. Like the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland: "off with their heads! off with their heads!"

I hate losing as much as the next guy, but I find a certain satisfaction in games like tonight where everything goes wrong--lousy starter, errors weak hitting, you name it. No way, no how were we going to win this one.

Lovely first inning. Our lineup sucks and so does our starter.

Heck, it isn't even about this year, let alone a realistic view of 2018. It's now about fantasy and what if and maybe and what about.

Betts RF Hanley DH JDM LF Moreland 1B Bogie SS Nunez 2B Devers 3B Leon C JBJ CF Five righties and a switch hitter vs. left Snell. Last night the Sox won mostly with good pitching and defense.

What the heck is wrong with 87%? You take away the balls and strikes from umpires, it would be best to call everything with robot umps. Baseball is a human endeavor, and humans make mistakes. I happen to think the umpires on average are more professional than the players, and I can live with their mistakes. In fact, I prefer mistakes now and then. The only problem I see today with respect to mistakes is how we obsess over them. And it ain't just baseball. Football loves replays and now has lovely little ceremony--throwing a flag--to celebrate each opportunity to review a play and occasionally redress a wrong so egregious that humanity weeps at the injustice. And don't you just love those endless official timeouts in NCAA basketball to verify a shot was in time or how vicious a foul was or, better still, how outrageously a player faked being fouled? Computer chips, that's another matter. Also the infinitely accurate parts to a jet plane which, if off by a thousandth of an inch, could cause an engine to explode in flight.

Fine. You actually like HanRam. If so, why no slack for Cora? And why no answer to the question, is this team not playing way better than you expected?

Very good point. This lousy, no good stinking team with the most wins and the best record in MLB is in great need of fixing. This is one more example of fantasy baseball fixation run amuck. The real team, the one I'm rooting for, has flaws, and I like them almost as much as I like Mookie and JD and Sale, etc. I don't want to win this year with Machado. I'm fine with Devers at 3B, Bogie at SS, Pedey/Nunez at 2b, HanRam/Moreland at 1B, etc. I've beat up on JBJ as much as anyone, but rejoice at the thought that just maybe he is getting his swing back. I can't stand Pom, but hope he has a great start Saturday. I don't like HanRam's hair, let along his weak hitting and his inattention on the basepaths, but right now I just want him to start hitting again.

We get it. You hate HanRam and want him benched or batted 11th or whatever. You are certainly entitled to your opinion as we all are. But when you then use that to paint Cora as an inexperienced, actually, a lousy manager you need to have more than that because managers are evaluated on wins and losses and absolutely not on their lineups. Right now the Sox have the best winning percentage and the most wins in MLB. Their hitting this year is much better than last year and 2d best in MLB. And all that has happened while HanRam has been in a slump, ditto JBJ, Ditto Vazquez/Leon, and Nunez almost in a slump and certainly not as good as last year. I happen to like Moreland in the lineup instead of HanRam or JBJ, take your pick, but more than that I want to win games not only now but for the rest of the season and, if possible, the postseason. So, me, I give this manager a lot of slack because overall the team so far is way better than I expected. If you had a single honest bone in your body, you would agree this team is better than expected even though it has flaws.

Back to A Realistic View of 2018, Part II. In the Sox most recent 10 wins, the other team has not scored more than four runs. During that "run," the Sox W-L has been 10-6, which is .625 and below the Sox winning percentage for the year. However, .625 would lead to 101 wins, which I think most of us would consider a very good season. In the three seasons--2004, 2007,2013--the Sox won it all they won 98, 96, and 97 games in the regular season. It could be that these 16 most recent games are the template that best suits this year's Sox, specifically, that pitching is pretty important. Right now the Sox have the 2d best team ERA in the AL, but 9th best in MLB. At the same time, the Sox also have the second best hitting--runs scored and/or OPS--in the AL and in MLB. In the three WS seasons of 2004, 2007, and 2013, the Sox led MLB in scoring in 2004 and 2013 and were 4th in 2007. Their team ERA in those three seasons were 3d in the AL in 2004, 1st in the AL in 2007, and 6th in the AL in 2013. However, the Sox postseason ERA in 2013 was the lowest, 2.59, in MLB. Hitting and pitching aside, I am always more interested in how well the Sox play specific teams, especially the good ones. We are 3-3 vs. the Yankees. Very shortly we go to Houston and play 4. Houston has the best run differential, +110, in MLB and the best pitching in MLB. Even sooner, the NL East leaders, Atlanta, come to town and play 3. OK, now back to the far more important topic of whether the Sox re-sign Mookie Betts.

And they would wonder why Cora still had his job because on talksox he does nothing right. Well, nothing that actually gets mentioned. His gaffes begin with the lineups and go downhill from there.