moonslav59

I'm thinking we might pull a big surprise. The Rays are playing better than even the Yanks. It seems like the perfect storm is brewing for the Sox to get throttled. It's times like this that what seems like the obvious never happens. Our team has grit. Renfroe is back. Our starters are doing well. Our offense seems to come and go, but Schwarber has provided a big boost. The defense is scary, but the pen is not this bad. Maybe they weren't as good as they looked earlier in the year, but they should bounce back. 7 of the next 10 vs the Rays should be telling. We could lose 5 and still have the inside track on the WC2 slot, but I'm hoping for 4-5 wins.

Not even the major part, yes.

They got nobody else. He gets criticized for using Ottavino as the closer, brining in Barnes, using Perez, Robles and Davis, but what else can he do? He can't pitch Whitlock and Richards, everyday for 2 innings each, and there was a time he was bashed for bringing in Richards in high leverage situations, too. Maybe, he's hoping the next guy is the next Richards. He has no other options. Now, even Taylor is a big gamble.

Good point. Probably Valdez and Rios are our best bets, but is Rios still out?

Kemp with a 2 run HR off Green to give the A's a 3-1 lead in the 8th.

I guess when you're lucky, you're lucky. The Yanks tied the As in the 7th like this: BB K K WP (Man to 2nd) E (dropped foul pop up by catcher) E (Error by 3Bman allows run to score)

Here's a look at the OPS Against from some of our pen arms by month: APR-MAY-JUN-JUL-AUG .319-.966-.616-.525-.582 Whitlock .351-.501-.606-.521-1.253 Barnes .606-.498-.616-.856-.637 Ottavino .993-.443-.358-.591-.892 Taylor .796-.509-.720-.732-n/a DHern .792-.820-.641-.886-.712 Sawamura

One area the Sox need to improve is their defense. The problem is, our best hitters seem to be our weakest links on defense. I think one simple step would be to make sure Kike starts in CF, next year and Arroyo at 2B. Verdugo & Renfroe are fine defenders at the corner OF positions, so that leaves SS, 3B, 1B and C. Bogey and Vaz may be gone after 2022, but what about 2021> Dalbec has not improved at all, this year and seems much worse than anyone expected at 1B. Devers has shown long stretches of fine, or at least plus, defense at 3B but seems to have too many stretches of poor D, almost all of which is throwing. I keep expecting him to put it all together, but how soon will that be? To me, Devers is our keeper. We can move him to 1B or keep him at 3B, and he will always be a huge net plus. I'd look to extend him- large and long. Suggesting trading Bogey is just about blasphemy in Sox nation. Dalbec's low contract cost makes trading him unlikely. Trading Vaz may not net as much as we think, and it's hard to find good catching, these days, so that seems like a hard thing to pull off. I'm not seeing any easy solutions, and many here want JD and Schwarber back, next year. That's a big drain on the D, as one has to not be the DH. What's the best move to make? None at all?

What's up with Valdez & Rios? They both are not all that great, but they were doing better than this pen is doing, now.

Brasier may be next.

Bloom should have know the entire pen was going to implode all at once. He sucks. Many posters, here were screaming for a 1Bman and SP'er not pen help.

So, at least three plays not called errors., and all led to runs, but no, this is 100% on the pen, Cora and Bloom. Yes, it's on Bloom for not doing better building the pen and defense, but can you guys look at what he was given to build this team from worse than scratch? I mean, look at the team we had, last year and the budget he was given. Yes, we could have been better had he spent some of the money more wisely, but overall, the guy did a fantastic job building a competitive team out of almost nothing. He could have traded some more youth to get better relievers or a better defender than Schwarber, but just yesterday almost everyone was praising the Schwarber get, a guy we got for way less than what the Yanks gave for Rizzo. Yes, this team has glaring weaknesses Bloom did not or could not address, without sacrificing the future or the budget. The Richards, Perez, Marwin and Andriese signings sucked, no doubt. I guess some of you think he deserves to be hung for that, despite our doing well beyond expectations. Bloom has been far from perfect, but the guy is a genius who has us on the right track beyond 2021 and favorites to make the playoffs, this year. I guess that's not enough.

Bogey's range sucks. You and I and everyone should know, he is a minus defender, overall. That doesn't mean he sucks. I've never criticized his offense and have been defending it, citing his wrist injury. Of course the pitchers are sucking, but that doesn't let the D totally off the hook. I'm not making excuses, but it's not just the pen that is letting us down. I haven't watched every play of evry MLB games, but I'd bet our defense has allowed more EARNED runs to score than any other team. We've made so many defensive mistakes not called errors, it's hard to fathom. I know there is more to BAbip than bad luck; much of it has to do with poor defense. 27 MLB teams are bunched between a .270 and .304 BAbip Against. The 3 that are not? .324 BOS .311 BAL .259 LAD A 13 point lead over the next team is huge when you figure the sample size is over 5,000 PAs. We are dead last in plays made with Balls hit into the zone, percentage-wise (.774). That's like making a little more than 3 out of 4 plays hit into the fielding zone. Most teams are over 81% and some over 82%. No way am I saying Bogey is a net minus on this team. It's not even close. He does normally make the sure plays, so that's a big help, but he is most certainly a drag on the D and the staff, and has been for 8 years.

You keep thinking and hoping our struggling players will eventually regress to their norm, but how long is this pen implosion going to continue?

Pivetta, Sale, ERod, Eovaldi for the 4 games in Tampa. Let's hope they can go deep. It might be our only hope.

I think we go with Munoz and Shaw at 2B and hold off adding Downs until Rule 5 day.

Our pen has sucked, but the D has to do something to pick them up in times of greatest need. Instead they shrink when it counts most. No doubt, our pen let up some hard hits, but we have to make the freakin' plays when it counts. I guess you should expect your 6th string 2Bman to make a blunder, and I've never been high on Bogey's D, buy MAN-O-Freakin'-Man!

Devers was good news, too, and it's nice to see JD coming out of that horrid slump. Dalbec & Duran getting on base 2 of 4 times, each was good to see.

It is the way of the league, now. It used to be teams tried their hardest to work up pitch counts, so they could get to teams' pens early. Now, many teams have stronger pens than starters. The thing is, our pen was our strength for about a 100 games. Now, we are at its mercy, every game.

While 2 solid starters and a top RP'er would be nice, don't be surprised if we add only 2 of those 3 slots and hope Whitlock, Houck and or Seabold can fill the other and add depth, as well.

We suck in 7 inning games (3-6) and excel in extra innings (9-4).

Part is on the defense, and it wasn't like Robles and Davis were supposed to pitch so many high leverage games. Yes, he can be partially blamed for those two choices, but blaming one guy for a loss is neglecting everyone else who had a hand in this loss, and there were many.

It's hard to complain about injuries, when this team has seen so few, but it would have been nice to have DHern, Bazardo, Seabold and Rios all healthy. It's like we have all our injuries at just 1 or 2 positions. (RP & 2B)

Then, so are the 75 wins- already more than you projected.

Just when things look as down as can be, surprises happen.