Maxbialystock

Narvaez partially redeemed Toro by hitting a perfect GIDP ball with 2 outs. Had Toro stayed at 2b, the inning would have ended with a GIDP.

Could not agree more.

He was great in May but has slid backwards since--.961 to .780 in June to .701 in July. In this lineup he has no business batting 4th

Probably, but ahead of him were Duran, Rafaela, and Abreu. Great, gutsy grab by Duran!!!

Huge hit by Anthony. He keeps doing that.

Giolito: 3 up, 3 down in the 2d with 2 K's. He needed 30 pitches in the 1st, 10 in the 2d. Bregman opposite field single--good at bat. Duran to 3d of course. Walking him was stupid.

The first five OPS's in the Cubs lineup are .927, .884, .878, .852, and .894.

Crow-Armstrong has the better WAR and better DWAR.

Story robbed by great grab.

The Cubs win 2 out 3 games at Wrigley, and the Sox have a losing record on the road. The Cubs GG leftfielder had a problem with the sun. Agree completely Giolito's 2 BB's to start things off were inexcusable.

Bottom of the 1st. Giolito gives up 3 run dinger and needs 30 pitches. 3d out was a drive almost into the ivy but caught by Rafaela.

Top of the 1st, Sox look very rusty at the plate--but, I have to honest here, Rea looks very sharp on pitch location and pitch variety.

Interesting about Devers at 1b on opening day. Your previous argument that he would be a lot better at 1b than 3b makes sense to me. However, if Casas becomes DH, then what happens to Yoshida, also a lefty bat?

Duran LF (.844) Bregman 3b (.894) Anthony DH (!) (.861) Narvaez C (.738) Story SS (.704) Mayer 2b (.747) Rafaela CF (.786) Toro 1b (.781) In parentheses are OPS's vs righty pitchers. Note 4 righty bats (Bregman, Narvaez, Story, and Rafaela). Cubs are 30-16 at home and Sox are 21-25 on the road. MLB leaders in runs scored: Dodgers 1st; Cubs 2d; Yankees 3d; DBacks 4th; Sox 5th; Tigers 6th Same 5 teams rankings in team ERA: Dodgers 25th; Cubs 14th; Yankees 13th; Diamondbacks 26th; Red Sox 12th; Tigers 6th.

I sure wasn't OK with signing Giolito for $40M for 2 years and missing all of last year. Right now his cumulative WAR for that $40M is +0.8. Nevertheless, his turnaround could not have come at a better time. In fact, Crochet, Bello, and Giolito have emerged as the best three combined starters for the Sox since at least 2018.

Agree that the last two were both surprises and made a difference. The first one I'm a little less impressed with, but I like your numbers. To me the other big surprise, no doubt related to surprises #2 and #3, is how the Sox bounced back without Bregman and then without Bregman and Devers, which included the 10 game winning streak because Bregman was not a factor. One more surprise to me was/is how good Bregman, Crochet, Chapman, and Narvaez turned out to be.

We don't. But we can be pretty sure they've given it a lot of thought. Input might have been provided by the pitching coach, the pitchers, the manager, et al. Talksoxers love to complain about the Sox defense, and the first line of any team's defense is--guess what?--half the freaking team in the pitching staff. And job one for any catcher should be making those pitchers effective.

He has a plus DWAR this year because he worked very hard on his posture, framing, and defensive skills in the past offseason. I pretty sure the Sox could have traded for a backup catcher at almost any point this season and chose not to.

Why are you assuming the Sox have not analyzed the backup catcher situation? Of course they have. And so far their view seems to be that Wong's pluses outweigh his minuses.

Right now job 1 is getting to the playoffs, which are by no means guaranteed. But you have me confused. I was commenting on your phrase, "2nd starter," which to me means 2d only to Crochet. I don't think that's necessary. Desirable, sure, but at what cost? I like the arguments on both sides of whether or not to trade Duran.

I like that last line. I also think the Sox first three starters--Crochet, Bello, and Giolito--are the best first three the Sox have had since 2018. Nevertheless, the outfield is looking a little crowded right now with Duran, Abreu, Rafaela, and Anthony.

Just exactly what do you mean by "2nd starter?" I ask because to me the first three starter positions are filled: Crochet ERA 2.23, Bello 3.14, and Giolito 3.36. When was the last time the Sox had three starters with those ERA's? Crochet also has 12 quality starts out of 20 overall, Bello has 9 out of 15, and Giolito has 9 out of 13. You think those guys are chopped liver? I am by no means against getting another starter and would not hesitate to trade Duran for the right deal.

That's the way I see it.

Yep. The Sox could stumble over the next 9 games (@ Cubs, @ Phillies, Dodgers), but so could any team. So it would be great if they could go, say, 5-4.

You and I have read different versions about what was said to Devers. But no matter. I think we can agree that playing 3b was a big deal for Devers, who had played 3b for 8 straight years. Also that hiring Bregman, a good hitter and a gold glove third baseman, meant that Devers had to leave 3b. Because Casas was at 1b, Devers had to be DH. When Casas, who was having a bad season, injured himself running to 1b (last year his injury came from swinging a bat), Breslow saw the perfect opportunity to move Devers to 1b and use Yoshida or whoever at DH. At the time, I thought leaving Devers as DH got the best use out of him. As it turns out, Toro/Gonzalez have actually been better at 1b than Casas was. However, once the trade with the Giants was done, I was fine with it, partly because of your point that paying Devers $30M to be DH and paying Yoshida $18M not to DH didn't make sense. I also noted that the 6 game winning streak occurred because of the Sox pitching and not because of anything Devers did. I also said--after Devers was traded--that Devers became trade material the day Bregman was announced as the Sox third baseman. So, while I do like to defend Devers if only because he was an excellent DH, I have always been fine with his departure. Whether or not he was lied to loses its significance as each day goes by.