moonslav59

I could see us signing a marginal closer type this winter and having Barnes fight it out. I also think Smith or Thornburg could surprise us next year.

Please. I hardly ever complain about Cora. I don't even go to the game threads much, because that's all it's about. Just because I express my opinion on what I'd do, doesn't mean I think what Cora does is wrong, and I continually qualify my statements to say I love Cora's choices and the ones I disagree with work out more than they don't. Many choices made in a game have no right or wrong answers. People love to judge by hindsight, and I do, at times, too. I'll say it again. Cora knows a hell of a lot more than I do, and I respect and love the choices he makes. I have absolutely no issues with any choices he's made this year. Some, I'd have chosen differently, but again, to me, that does not mean I think he made or makes the wrong choices. His choices work. I love this guy as our manager. I don't thik I've ever said that about any Sox manager...ever.

Normally, yes, you want your closer in the 9th. We had Chris sale in the game with 1 IP under his belt. Does anyone really think Kimbrel had a better chance at closing out the game than the best pitcher in MLB, Chris Freakin' Sale? I get the game 5 argument, but no way is Kimbrel better than Sale. This isn't hindsight, either. I said it on the game thread before the 9th started.

Homer and Troll are not the same.

I certainly didn't feel doomed from the start. That wasn't my point. You guys have always been super confident in your rotation this year. It's only in the post morem where I'm hearing the rotation was always the weakness. Just throwing it out there after the years upon years of hearing sox fans whine like little schoolgirls over payroll. I agree here, and personally, I've mentioned several times that Henry needs to be careful he doesn't become viewed as the next George Stienbrenner. I don't think he wants people to think he buys championships. That's why I have been saying I think we will face a cliff situation, because I do think Henry will force a tax reset at some point before 2021. If we win this year, he may reset next year. If we don't, I think he resets after 2020- win or lose. Now you guys know how it feels.......... It feels great!

We don't play golf in the winter. The ice and snow prevent it. We watch football and women. We don't hit tiny balls into tiny holes.

True. He did think they were better, and now he says they were always their weakness. I never felt the Yankee starters were better than the Sox. I caught flack for believing in Price, but I also chose Porcello as our series ace. I was confident with Eovaldi vs the Yanks- not so much vs the 'stros, but I think Price will make up that difference. I've always been the biggest Chris Freakin' Sale fan in the world. I was suggesting trades for him before he was even born. I also think ERod might end up better than Severino over the next 2-3 years.

Actually, I picked Porcello as the ace for the series, but your point is well-taken. ERod got hurt, and he never regained the magic he had to start the season. The team did go 19-4 in his starts this year. Wright was hurt most of the year. While Price and Porcello have been sketchy, too. I think both have shown they can be a true ace moire than Gray and Happ have over the past 3-5 years. Sale is way less "sketchy" than Sev. Our starters were damn good this year, despite the injuries both on paper and in reality. They are better than the Yankee starters. On offense, HRs get all the hype, but we led the majors in runs scored. Pens are important, but they have become over-rated due to WS winners having great ones recently. If there's anything to learn about formulas for success, it's that there are many different roads to winning. We are balanced. Top offense, top 5 pitching and top 5 defense. We can even steal bases and made less bone head plays this year. We have excellent coaching and defensive catchers. Our bottom of the order caught a lot of flack, but they are much better than many think they are, and other teams have the same of worse issues at the bottom.

Gray has dealt with injuries and ups and downs for several years. I actually liked the trade you guys made last year. I had hoped we got him. That being said, he's not an ace.

I was about 50-50. My heart literally stopped.

(I also admit Cora knows more than I do, and I love him as our manager and no problems with his choices.)

I feel pitching Sale in game 4 pretty much severely limited what he could give us in game 5. Bringing him in was a win-now strategy, and I felt that if that was the choice then do it all the way. No halvsies.

I didn't say I thought Sale would pitch the 9th. I only expressed what I wanted. We could have also had this: Porcello 6, Sale 2, Kimbrelk 1.

Yes, that's why I called it the play of his life.

The rotation did look pretty good, on paper, but a lot of the talent was sketchy, and you really only had one ace- a young one at that.

Agreed, teams like the Sox went out and stacked their rotations with lefties, so we could beat teams like the Yanks. You guys overcompensated with your adjustment. You need a lefty (or two) who gets on base 40% of the time. You don't need more power. You need an ace (or two). You need to replace (or re-sign) some of the vet role players you may lose to free agency. Your new budget should allow you to get that without trading anyone away.

CC's decline started in 2013 not mid season. This highlight's the blind spot Cashman, Boone and Yankee fans had for their former hero. His WHIP has been over 1.314 every year from 2013-2018, except one, when it was 1.27 last year. Severino fell apart. That was unforeseen, but nothing else was. Weak starting pitching, at least when compared to other playoff teams, is never a good strategy.

Adding Stanton was supposed to make up for losing some marginal vet starters. Come on, there's no way you'd have done any better with Headley, castro and Bird still starting over the kids you replaced them with.

True, Pablo and HRam were just about the whole difference.

Golf is for sissies and Yankee fans, oh I forgot, they're the same thing!

You guys went farther than us last year and added a lot of vet talent. You Yankee fans seemed awfully confident just 3 days ago. Now, you speak like you were doomed from the start.

I'd have left Porcello in one more inning and Sale for 2 innings. I'd have started Holt at 3B. I'd have PH for Vaz in the 8th and brought Leon in with Sale. That being said, I have absolutely no issues with Cora. He knows a hell of a lot more than I do and everyone else, too. Besides, the moves I question mostly worked out anyways. Nunez got 2 hits and made the play of his life. I was fine with Pearce playing against the lefty, because Moreland is hurt, but some wanted Swihart. Who knows what Holt would have done. Cora's faith in Barnes and Brazier paid off. He's a great manager who thinks outside the box. That was one of our biggest beefs with past managers. Cut the guy some slack. We're 111-55 with the guy in his first year as a manager!

My choice was Holt at 3B, then maybe move to 2B, if we needed to PH for Kinsler. I'm not sure Holt makes that play, either.

One would have thought adding Stanton equalled JD. We "scrambled" and picked up Eovaldi, but apparently Happ was supposed to be better. Lynn did pretty well for you guys compared to what he did earlier in the year. You got Gray at the end of last year, so to say you didn't really address the rotation rings hollow. Severino imploded. He was on pace for the Cy Young at one point, then poof. CC is aging and has been for a while. Maybe his glory days blinded Yankee fans to the obvious steeper-than-you-thought decline. Your pen was spectacular, and I think this is where you guys erred. You bought into the script that to win, you have to duplicate the most recent winning teams, and the new fad is building the strongest pen. Yes, adding Britton helped, but you guys had bigger holes, and the normal way to improve a team is not to upgrade where you are already the strongest, but to improve where you are weakest. Cashman dropped the ball. McCutchen was a nice get. You needed more like him not Britton. (I'm not saying this post mordem. I said it at the time. Getting Britton was a waste.) Also, Boone sucks- plain and simple.

You need more than one "ace", so if one takes a dump, like Price, you have a couple more (like Sale & Porcello) to pick up the slack. I admit, Eovaldi was not expected to do what he did, but it does highlight your weakness against just decent righties.