moonslav59

He's there to push the HR cart, so nobody gets hurt.

Yes, these guys are locked in a zone. Great coaching and clubhouse influences. This team showed grit all year. I know I've beaten that word to death, but it's true. It started after the sweep by the O's. We won so many come from behind games in the first few months, you could just feel the magic in the air and the sense of never die. Then, we hit some rough patches and just like the comeback wins, we always seemed to win just at the moment when it seemed like we couldn't recover with one more loss, we'd rip off 3 or 4 straight. The deadline trades and return of Sale and Houck made a difference. Some surprising contributions by Richards from the pen and guys like Robles and Brasier exemplified how deep the teamwork spread around. Look how some players saw some major role changes over the season- some not so good. We started with Barnes looking like Koji and Ottavino looking solid, and ended up with them being mop up men. (Now, Ottavino is out of the dog house.) I could probably list 35-40 names of players that helped us win a game or two (or more), this year. What an amazing team!

Everything is looking easy for us. That catch by Renfroe seemed like slow motion, and he knew he had it. Devers making slick plays. Everybody contributing. Keep it going, boys! One game at a time!

Not many choices.

Loved how Cora hugged and talked to ERod after he mocked Correa's "my time" stunt. Cora is awesome!

ERod sure shut up the doubters... for 5 days, anyway.

Word here is it will be a pen game, but I guess if Greinke does well, they'll leave him in.

Perez is the argument for 13 pitchers.

What a team! NEVER DOUBT!

OPS Player PAs .890 Devers 664 (.847 career, .884 last 2 yrs, .916 in 2019) .867 JD Martinez 634 (.881 career, .870 last 2 yrs, 2 seasons over 1.000 in ’17 & ’18) .863 Bogaerts 603 (.812 career, .921 last 2, 3 seasons higher last 3 seasons) .777 Verdugo 604 (.791 career, .827 last 2, 2 seasons higher) .786 Kike 585 (.748 career, .707 last 2, 2 seasons higher ’18 & ’15) .816 Renfroe 572 (.786 career, .749 last 2, was at .805 in ’18) .659 Vazquez 498 (.692 career, .798 last 2, 3 seasons higher) .792 Dalbec 453 (.819 career, .959 in 2020) .567 Marwin 271 (.717 career, .698 last 2, every season better ‘14>’20) .769 Arroyo 181 (.690 career, .710 last 2, no years better) .737 Plawecki 173 (.667 career, .707 last 2, 2 seasons better ‘20 & ’17) .957 Schwarber 168 (.836 career, .825 last 2, no seasons better) .497 Cordero 136 (.663 career, ,773 last 2, all 4 seasons better) .597 Santana 127 (.709 career, .821 last 2, 5 seasons better) .578 Chavis 112 (.714 career, .728 last 2, ,857 in PIT after trade) .643 Arauz 75 (.644 career, .644 last year, 1 better) .915 Iggy 64 (.696 career, .775 last 2, .956 in 2020 was better) .843 Shaw 48 (.762 career, .619 last 2, 1 season better & .808 ‘15>’18)

You left off all the guys who did worse and overstated the ones who did well. You change the criteria from career best to whatever suits your point. Dalbec sucked for 4 months, but you only rate 2 months. Whynnot mention Barnes'last 2 months? Ottavino's? You keep saying JD had a bad year. 2020 was not a year. It was two months. Bogey and Devers are nearing or in peak prime and could easily have been expected to do better and much better than they did. Renfroe, Kike, Eovaldi and Pivetta had career year. Vaz was 150 points lower than 2019-2020 and 50 below career- admit that is not "slightyly down." Marwin was 9th in team PAs- you don't even talk about him being hundred of points below his career best. Verdugo was way down from expectations. ERod was supposed to be our #1 or 2 and sucked. We counted on Richards like you counted on Kluber. Cordero, Santana, Duran & Chavis had double the PAs as Schwarber, Iggy & Shaw. Not a mention by you. They all sucked. Way below expectations, career norms or whatever you want to pick and choose. More players did the same or worse than expectations than the same or better. Going by most PAs Our top 3 combined (Devers, JD and Verdugo) did less than expected, and stop with this JD was expected to repeat 2020 crap. Kike and Renfroe were 5 & 6 and had career years, but both had similar years in the past- just not for 550+ PAs. Our 7-8-9-10-11 PA leaders combined did worse (Vaz, Dalbec, Marwin, Arroyo, Marwin, Plawecki). #12 Schwarber did great, but not much better than what he was doing when we got him. #13-17 all way worse (Cordero, Santana, Duran, Chavis & Arauz) Iggy & Shaw had just 112 PAs combined. Pitching: Just Eovaldi and Pivetta had career years. Whitlock and Houck had unknown expectations but did well. Houck only had 69 IP, when we expected 130-150. Nobody else did anything that says "wow." The Sox were on the rise before this year, and even if you discount this year as an overplay, we are still on the rise. I'm not sure you can say that about the Yanks, anymore. You guys traded a lot of your farm depth, and maybe Judge and Stanton will not be so healthy, next year. You rant about Schwarber

I didn't say I was against the signing, but his contract hurt us a lot and still is. Porcello did well for us, mostly in one year, but he hurt near the end. I do admit, the big spending part is overblown, in terms of what he left Bloom. The emptying the farm was overblown, too, but not entirely untrue. Many of the farmhands he traded have not done well, and the ones he kept have done better. He also drafted well for such bad picks. I'm glad Henry hired DD, but I still had wished Ben was given one more year.

Who was the clown who kept insisting we bring Schwarber back? Fess up!

Can you stop with the whole Sox played over their heads? They didn't. More players did the same or worse than better than their career or previous 2 year numbers, despite most being pre-prime or prime. The Jays have a couple key FAs they might lose. The Rays should never be taken lightly. This is not something new for them. The Yanks are the team on the decline, and if you keep Cashman and Boone, you'd better go on a signing binge, this winter, of you'll be on the outside looking in.

Me, too.

Dave also drafted very well for having such bad tricks, and his IFA signings were restricted by penalties incurred during Ben's tenure. I will say, much of the big budget issues we faced the past 2 years and are facing us, today are DD'd choices.

We ended up paying Price $151M/4.

I'm extremely happy with Bloom, despite a bunch of misses. He's find a lot of gems through trial and error. Now that the roster is deeper and stronger, he doesn't have the liberty to sign 6-10 players, in hopes 3-4 do well. We only will have about 4-5 roster slots, this winter. I hope he does better with his $10M+ deals (Richards) and the Perez deal ($6M). Kike was a great deal at $7M x 2, but he's basically 1 for 3 on deals over $6M.

I thought Ben had put together a longer term plan and the rug was pulled out before he had a chance to put it all together. I understand why they did it. 2 last place finishes in 4 years with a big budget just doesn't cut it. They tied his hands with Valentine and maybe some other stuff, but I don't blame Henry at all for hiring DD.

I doubt he gets that much for playing well for a few weeks. He got $6M/2 his last deal, and he's older now.

Like a blind squirrel inside a broken clock.

I'd love to see us face the Dodgers, but I always pull for the underdog, unless the Sox are favored.

Sox HR Leaders Regular Season + Playoffs 41 Devers 31 Renfroe 30 JD 25 Kike 25 Bobby Dee 25 Bogey 14 Verdugo 9 Schwarber 7 Vaz 6 Arroyo 5 Santana XBHs 79 Devers 76 JD 67 Kike 66 Renfroe 61 Bogey 52 Dalbec 51 Verdugo

No problem. I shouldn't have even brought up that option.

Joe who?