moonslav59

Was that surgery predictable at the time of the trade?

That would be a first.

Certainly continued greatness from Pom will make this deal look much better. Not many go back and lament the Beckett-Lowell trade, although HRam and Anibal Sanchez's numbers (and more years of control) looked better. Still, if Espi goes on to give the Padres 5 years of ace or number 2 slot value, one can argue the deal was "an overpay"- necessary or not.

I hear you, Nick, and I feel the same way. Grouchiness increases with age. I'm really happy with this team's position. I wish our extended future looked a little brighter, but we have smart people in our organization. As long as we remain big spenders, we should be decent even after this "window". The resurgence of Chavis and fast growth by Mata and others, plus the very nice international signings under the new restricted system are encouraging. I know that even with the wide variety of opinions here, we are all huge Sox fans... maybe not as much as I am (I wouldn't wish having an OCD on anyone), but still....

What about fatigued players with a long history of tiring as the seasons heads towards the end? I get your point and others', but this is not a slam dunk issue.

Nice win. I wouldn't have given Sale 8 innings, but I guess that's just me. Nice to see the offense show signs of life as we near crunch time.

That's easy: everywhere!

How much does Sale pitching 1 more games instead of two hurt our odds? 90% to 88%? He's been inconsistent of late, most likely due to fatigue, so we're not even sure we're going to get what we saw last night in both of his next 2 starts. ER/IP last few starts (in reverse order) 0/8 4/5.2 0/6 3/4.1 0/7 6/3 4/7 1/7 0/8 7/5 5 of his last 10 starts have been "iffy" or worse. Is that what you guys want for the playoffs? Really? It's not even 'an issue?"

I hope he gets at least 2-3 games in before the playoffs come.

Too bad DD's FA signings haven't had the immediate success of the vast majority of his trades.

Dojji head in sand. Fear tired Sale in the playoffs. Sale= best playoff hope.

Once we clinch, rest him a couple of days. Have you looked at the schedule? Assuming we need 2 starts by Sale in the next 10 games AND win the division 9/21 Off 9/22 @CIN Porcello +1 9/23 @CIN ERod +1 9/24 @CIN Fister +1 9/25 TOR Pom +1 9/26 TOR Sale +1 9/27 TOR Porcello 9/28 HOU ERod 9/29 HOU Fister 9/30 HOU Pom 10/1 HOU Sale 10/2 off 10/3 off 10/4 off 10/5 Game 1 Sale on short rest? WTF!!!!! (Or Pom on normal rest) 10/6 Game 2 Sale with no extra rest? 10/7 off 10/8 Game 3 Porcello? 10/9 Game 4 ERod? 10/10 off 10/11 Game 5 Sale? If we clinch before the last day of the year, we'd end up having Sale go on 9 days rest or going on 4 days of extra rest. If you're worried about how well do after getting extra rest, getting 4 days extra is worse than 1 or 2. so that argument made against resting Sale now actually works against that argument. My contention is that is probably ebtter to give sale 1-2 extra days rest for 3 times in a row rather than give him all the extra days off at once. Here is Sale's record on various days rest: 3 days 5.40/ 1.80 4 days 3.10/ 1.08 5 days 3.25/ 1.03 6 days 1.88/ 0.98 I'd have given him 2 days now, so he'd pitch 9/22 @ CIN (+2 days rest) 9/29 v HOU (+2) 10/5 Game 1 (+1)

It's not getting "fancy". It's been done countless times with success and failure. I'm trying to change this pattern: Career OPS against .587 April .538 May .594 June .628 July .645 August .746 September One could ask, how well did pitching the daylights out of Sale work for the White Sox and Sale's end of season success?

Sale was leading the league in IP before tonight's 111 pitch outing. He's been up and down the second half- much like his career numbers' pattern. 1st half 2.74 /0.974 WHIP 2nd half 3.28/ 1.143 WHIP I agree winning the division is important, but it will do us little use, if "his arm falls off" on the last day of the regular season. Maybe, I'm over confident with our chances. Maybe one extra day of rest before the end of the season will be enough for Sale, but I think he would greatly respond to extra rest.

111 pitches. I'd not have even started him tonight. We better rest him plenty from now until game 1.

Maybe we should pitch Sale for 3 complete games- 140 pitches each- just to avoid a tiny chance of having to play in a play-in game. NOT!

We win the division by 4 games.

It's pretty simple to understand. No need for vulgar insults. We don't win jack without Sale being 100% strong. He's started to look shaky and has a history of dropping off late in the season. We can't afford him to not be "the man". Yeah, I get the argument that we have to clinch, but look at the schedule, he's scheduled to pitch the last game of the season-- no way we do that, so he ends up getting 9 days of rest once- right before his first playoff game. I could easily ask "are you EF'in nuts? We not rest him 2 extra days now, 1 extra days before his next start and then 1 extra day before his first playoff game? If we gag this season, it won't be because Sale was pushed back 1 game twice. Besides, we're not going to lose our lead. I'll just say this: without a strong Sale, we have no chance.

Moreland. No, seriously, anybody but Sale. Maybe give Price 2 innings, Workman 2, Velazquez 2-3...

Why can't we ever get guys like this Pablo character?????

They will. Book it.

I wouldn't have pitched him tonight. I'd have given him 2 extra days rest, and then 1 or 2 extra here on out. We need him to be rested and strong for game 1.

We don't know if he was overhyped. Plus, the Sox don't do the national rankings. He was highly thought of, before we even signed him.

Logan Morrison just turned 30. TB has a way of finding player that have a career year there, then move on and suck again. Morrison did well his first 1.5 seasons way back in '11-'12. (He was over .800 his first 800 PAs.) From 2012 to 2016, he never got above .735 and was below .710 in 3 of the 5 seasons. Not someone I'd gamble on, but he might be a better choice than Moreland.

This year only? Margot couldn't have done better than Young? Probably much better. If we are judging Guerra and others in hindsight, then don't we have to wait to judge this trade and Espi one, too? I think Logan Allen might be the sleeper in this deal.