moonslav59

It's new in that usually every year stinks.

Duda sucks vs LHPs, so maybe he'd be perfect for the plan to limit HRam's PAs. We could play HRam vs LHPs only.

The first game is October 5th. That's 3 days off after the last game of the season. Had we started Sale the first game in Cincy, we could have given him 1-2 days off before pitching a (short) game vs HOU and then 1-2 days off before game 1 on OCT 5th. Now, he's going to get a super long rest of lopsided rest.

We know that, but that doesn't mean that's the reason nobody claimed him.

There certainly are more options out there than one with a ten year contract.

The Sox have the same record as last year, but are on pace to have a 45 run lower run differential. The will score 90 less runs and allow 45 less runs. It seems, "In this case", that allowing less runs makes up for losing 45 runs on the run differential tally. It's not surprising. Usually when a team wins more than their run differential dictates, they score little and allow little and not score a lot and allow a lot. Keeping the score low keeps you in more games and allows for more chances to win with timely hitting.

Is it the same injury from 2015? If so, he didn't get surgery then, so I wonder...

Yes. The number one thing odds makers look at when setting the line is who is starting for each team.

Our Sox pitchers did a pretty good job vs the Reds. It's easy to say, "It's only the Reds," but the Reds have some very good hitters this year: 1.023 Votto .940 Cozart .893 Gennett .849 Suarez .803 Schebler .773 Duvall They may be in a distant last place, but they have 5 guys with better OPS than our top PAs players, and we beat them 3 straight in their own park! (15-8 in total runs)

Updated Sox OPS .797 Betts .787 Beni .766 Pedey .755 Vazquez .754 Moreland .747 HRam .743 JBJ .731 Bogey (Only .066 separates all or batters with 325+ PAs) Under 300 PAs (with Sox only) .885 Nunez .871 Devers .699 Young .639 Leon .617 Marrero .521 Holt

It would be nice to not have his first game back be in the playoffs, but if that's what it takes, so be it.

14 Ks for the staff today. Seems like we K 10+ every game. Nice job all around.

Runs are often scored in bunches. I'm not sure it's so unpredictable. We've hit well towards the ends of games, especially extra inning games.

Betts and Devers may need to carry this whole offense through the playoffs.

They planned on trading him when the contract got too high, and they will. What's to "understand?"

Yes, the luxury tax implications are much lower than the actual yearly cost going forward. That does make a big difference to any team straddling the luxury tax limit from year to year. It's not known if the Marlins will offer to pay a portion of his deal, and by doing so, they could get better returns. I've suggested trying to get the Marlins to take HRam or Castillo to offset part of his massive remaining money owed, but it's doubtful they'd go for it. Of course, other young players or prospects would also be included. Here's a couple ideas: Trade HRam, Bogey, Shawaryn and Beeks (then sign Cozart to play SS). The Marlins could trade Bogey later, if his arbs get too high. Trade Castillo, Groome, Chavis, Beeks and Shawaryn (then maybe sign Morrison, Duda or Alonso to play 1B)

I was being facetious. I am certain several teams would have taken GS for nothing but his contract, but they didn't make a claim because they knew the marlins will and should want something in return.

Last year vs this year, we were... Runs scored ....2016 vs 2017 1-2: 5-27 v 4-24 3-4: 10-21 v 11-27 5: 20-4 v 14-5 6: 13-3 v 16-2 Runs allowed ....2016 v 2017 1-2: 40-8 v 34-5 3-4: 29-22 v 28-21 5: 8-9 v 8-9 6: 2-4 v 4-5 7+ 9-26 v 5-24

Yes, pitching and defense. If only our left side infield defense could improve, our D would be great. 2016 vs 2017 Defensive Numbers: UZR/150 6.7 LAA '16 5.5 CLE '16 5.2 SEA '17 4.5 KCT '16 4.3 BOS '16 3.8 HOU '16 3.5 CLE '17 3.4 BOS '17 DRS (projected 2017) 61 TBR '17 51 HOU '16 48 BOS '16 42 BOS '17 It doesn't look like our overall defense has improved between 2016 and 2017.

1) You can't assume Shaw would have done this well with the Sox, although it's pretty certain he'd have done better than Pablito. 2) Shaw probably would have played 1B with us not 3B, or he'd have prevented the rise of Devers to the ML level. 3) Thornburg's injury was unfortunate. Yes, the trade looks horrible, and you should be commended for being so dead against the deal when it happened, but Shaw's massive improvement in 2017, particularly when compared to his second half of 2016 and his minor league career numbers was very hard to project or expect. It would have been great to have had Shaw on the Sox, but as everyone knows, without Papi here to protect him, he'd have sucked just like everyone else.

I thought my statement was being optimistic.

We're on pace to score about 90 runs less than 2016 and let up 45 less runs. Unless we lose 5 out of our next 8, we'll have a better record than last year. This one case shows that allowing less runs is more important than a better run differential.

So, we're on pace to score about 90 less runs than last year while allowing 45 less runs than last year. We have the exact same record as last year, and last year's team lost 5 of their last 8. If this doesn't show how much more good pitching matters, I don't know what does. We're on pace to have a differential of 45 runs worse than 2016, but because we have better pitching, it doesn't' matter.

Runs allowed 2016 and 2017 (projected): 573 CLE '17 651 BOS '17 665 NYY '17 666 TOR '16 676 CLE '16 694 BOS '16 701 HOU '16 702 NYY '16 707 SEA '16 707 HOU '17 707 LAA '17 708 TBR '17 712 KCR '16 713 TBR '16 715 CWS '16 715 BAL '16 721 DET '16 727 LAA '16 757 TEX '16 761 OAK '16 777 SEA '17 What's interesting here is that not only the Sox are allowing less runs than anyone less last year, despite the run scoring increase league-wide.

You're right. I swear, when I checked yesterday we were at 754 on fangraphs, and I added 5 after yesterday's win. Even at 129. my point is still valid, if we still led the league in runs scored as our number is on pace to have done against 2016's totals, we'd have to have a run differential of over 200. That very well might have had us up by 15 right by season's end. The issue is two fold: 1) We scored about a hundred less runs this year (but also will let up much less). 2) The rest of the league has scored way more runs than last year (mostly as a result of much more HRs). Here's a look at the top scoring teams (700 or more runs scored or projected to score) from 2016 and (projected) 2017 teams: (I added 5% to all 2017 teams.) 878 BOS '16 871 HOU '17 857 NYY '17 824 CLE '17 819 MIN '17 814 TEX '17 787 BOS '17 777 CLE '16 768 SEA '16 765 TEX '16 763 BAL '17 759 TOR '16 753 SEA '17 751 DET '17 750 DET '16 744 BAL '16 740 OAK '17 724 HOU '16 722 MIN '16 717 LAA '16 714 KCR '17 710 CWS '17 701 LAA '17