moonslav59

The kid has all the tools. All.

Lets hope this is a sign the offense has awoke for good.

Remember when several posters were climbing over each other to drive the Kike is a bum bandwagon?

Kike da man!

It's like the umps are lobbying for robo umps to take their jobs away.

He has good numbers third time through, so I'm not sure the second time through criticism holds much water. All-in-all, Houck's MLB sample size is rather small, but looking over some of our SP'ers, I like our chances with him more than them. He'd have probably been on an innings limit, this year, but now that he has missed some time, he's probably good to go the rest of the way. I'm not sure I'd let him go 90-100 pitches right off the bat, in is next 2-3 starts, but later on, why not?

Can't bunch our hits.

Crooked number time.

Gallo with an error that led to an unearned run. Yanks down 2-0. What can't Ben, err, I mean DD, errr...I mean Bloom get guys like him?

Cora just needs to tell JD and Bogey not to swing at bad pitches.

I love when people say, “The manager just need to tell ______ not to swing at bad pitches.” Like it’s that easy.

It will be a walk in the park.

Need to get the mojo risin’ once again. I like our chance, tonight!

And, maybe next summer will be all in time- maybe Bloom will never go all in.

I thought the whole Hamels thing was a joke.

He’s done wonders with what he was given. The big test comes this winter when the wallet opens wider, presumably.

1. The staff we will have very soon is far from the same one that is currently not ranked as highly in some areas as other contenders. 2. What every team has done up to now is not what they will do going forward. Some will likely do better, some worse and some about the same.

You’ll be thrilled if we miss the playoffs. That’s not mind reading.

I’m not saying there will be a silver lining when all is said and done, and I share the same concerns, worries and frustrations as everyone else. Nobody knows if our returning players will boost us enough, but nobody’s knows how other teams will do either. I’m still more optimistic than pessimistic, and it seems like I’m in the minority, right now. A couple wins in a row is all that is needed to change that. Such is the way of the fickle fan.

It seems like some think we are not even a .500 team anymore, but if we go 27-27 the rest of the way, we'll end up with 90 wins. Sure, I'd be disappointed in going 28-33 to end the season, but 90 wins for a rebuilding team is incredible. Blowing up the rebuild to shoot for the moon at the deadline would have been a huge mistake. We added a big hitter to play 1B, our biggest weakness on paper and some pen depth. When Sale, Houck, DHern & Barnes return, we'll be demoting someone we'd never dreamed of demoting weeks ago. When Arroyo returns and Kike moves back to CF, we'll be better defensively and offensively, and our bench will be the best we've had all year (Duran, Marwin, Plawecki and Dalbec). I know things look bad, now, but we have 6 guys coming back or joining the team: Sale Barnes Houck Schwarber Arroyo DHern That's better than anyone's trade deadline haul, except maybe the Dodgers, and we gave up only Aldo. Look for silver linings.

The recent numbers "speak for themselves." We lost Sale & ERod for part 2018. Porcello had a 13 game stretch where he had a 5.38 ERA. Many of us wanted Joe Kelly left off the playoff roster. Pitchers can look real bad then good again. Perez and Pivetta were pitching like our best starters for pretty long stretches, this year. Sure, they don't have the histories of Price, Porcello, Sale and ERod (actually, ERod's history wasn't all that great pre-2018), but there is hope just one from Richards, Perez or Pivetta do well again, or two "regress to their norm." With Sale & Houck joining the rotation, we may just need 1 to do well enough. Our pen is still looking great. Does anyone really think our offense sucks? That it's all been a fluke, and it is finally being exposed? Getting Schwarber by trade and Arroyo back from the IL, should make this offense better than we saw earlier in the year. Recent trends are significant, but they do not predict the future. Over and over, we see the same things happen, and we never learn from it. Also, I chose 2018 not to compare this team to that one. Of course that team was much better, especially on paper and going into the season. I chose that season to show that even the very best teams have stretches like the one we are in now. I don't see this team as the best in the league, and I didn't even when we had the best record. My point is about not thinking a bad stretch defines the time as a whole.

Schwarber will play 1B nearly FT. Only when JD needs a rest will he start anywhere else. Duran will be the 4th OF'er as Kike plays CF FT, once Arroyo returns and gets back into the groove. If Arroyo takes a long time to return to FT status, then Schwarber will play some LF as Kike is needed at 2B. I just hope we don't start seeing Marwin start half the time, again. (Just my opinions.) Casas won't even be called up this September. Teams no longer have unlimited call-ups.

Exactly. 100%. Maybe we end up dropping off all the way to the end, and all this gets thrown in our faces, but this team has a lot to be optimistic about and to cheer for, if one can just look beyond the nose on our faces. Look at that amazing 2018 season, when we had the best record any Sox team ever had. Sure, we started out so strongly, the board posters never got this bad, but here are some poor stretches we had that wonderful season. It's why they play 162 games. We've lost 6 of 7 and 7 of 10. That's pretty close to these from 2018: 5 of 7 end of April 4 of 5 mid June 6 of 8 mid August 4 of 6 and 7 out of 11 mid September (same stretch) It's totally natural for good teams to do poorly for stretches, and guess what? When you go through losing stretches, you look real bad. You look like you can never win. Your offense is "tanking." Your pitching "sucks." Then, things turn back around. We may or may not turn things back around. That remains to be seen, but we will be adding some meat to this team, very soon- starting with Houck. Sale Schwaber Arroyo DHern (not to mention Barnes) I don't expect people to be all cherry and happy during a stretch like this, but it seems like all hope is lost for too many, here.

You'll be so content, if the season turns out like you expected.

Games remaining: 6 (2 @ DET + 4 @ TOR) Houck returns 9 (3 TBR + 3 BAL + 3 @NYY in 2 days) Sale + Schwarber return 6 (3 TEX + 3 MN) Arroyo returns - need to mop up, here 7 (3 @ CLE + 4 @ TBR) Tough road trip into September 6 (3 CLE + 3 TBR) 13 games in a row vs these two teams 6 (3 @CWS + 3 @ SEA) Tough road trip after the previous 13 gms. Crunch Time... 4 (3 BAL + 2 NYM) Might need to win 4 of 5 3 vs NYY at Fenway (Day off) 6 (3 @BAL + 3 @ WSN) to end the season