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I know!! Next thing you know, he’ll be talking about how indifferent he is about them! The nerve!!

If they decided spending heavily in a year in which Sale was a potential non-factor, I can understand that. Especially if it was only to put it off for one year…

At this point, it’s a safe bet Houston has several contingency plans in the event Lance McCullers gets hurt. What throws them off their game is if he actually stays healthy…

And no one said “truthiness” before Stephen Colbert!

And yet people will use it in front of “pure”. I consider them Satanists. Especially those P&G nutballs who decided their soap was 99 44/100 % pure. Pure means 100%!!! No wonder everyone used to think you were satanic. (Truth is, Proctor was satanic. Gamble just played along.)

"Seldom" just means "infrequently." No one would ever argue with "very infrequently"...

Well, in Florida it means something else. Especially if you're all wicked up...

Once Sale was lost for the year and ERod went down, and Ryan Weber was bumped up to the role of #3 starter, the correct move would have been to deal Betts anyway...

The word "very" is also grammatically incorrect for anyone from Boston. The proper diction to convey this particular meaning is "wicked"...

He threw 8 IP in 4 games. Since he is off until at minimum Friday, I don't that workload was career-ending...

They also lived and died with rookie pitchers. The only reason their rookie pitchers' records were 1-2 in the series as opposed to 1-3 was because they pulled Shane Baz before he could blow the entire lead in game two...

And that was all made extremely evident in the ALDS with Tampa, where teams that got 5 IP from their starter went 3-0. Tampa's downfall was trying to get 25 IP from their bullpen in 3 games...

There' a big difference between "post-season experience" and World Series rings. The entire Rays' lineup had post-season experience except for Wander Franco, and he did not exactly look like he felt intimidated at the plate. And they got much further with last year's team that had barely any post-season experience. What the Rays did have was a team that a little too dependent on it's bullpen. Shane McClanahan in game one was their only starter to go beyond 2 innings (and did so in the only game they won). And after that, the Sox saw the same parade of relievers and maybe got a little too used to them...

FAir enough.

Betts was an all time great, but one year of any player making $25mill rarely gets back superstar talent. Bloom did well in that trade. not great, but well...

Sawamura lead the Sox in BB/9 and HR/9 for all pitchers with more than 50 IP. And I don’t mean he lead them in a good way…

Interesting. Not so sure Mata, who is probably out until June or so, and even then hassome minor league work to do, is tht much of a trade entivement. But Oakland might be interested. The one caveat is that if Oakland is able to offer arbitration with any players I listed, I would say Pinder is the most likely, followed by Bassitt...

The starting options via free agency strike me as less than tantalizing. Scherzer is obviously the king, but is 37. There are a few other good ones that I have opinions on both ways like Stroman and Gausman, but how many years should the Sox commit to for either of these guys? The reliever market, on the other hand, at the very least will require fewer years of commitment. The trade market is probably one of the more likely options. But who will be the sox trade bait to get a good starter or reliever? I think Jarren Duran is probably high on the list, simply because it's very possible there is no real role for him in Boston even if Schwarber does not come back. If the Sox keep Kike in CF, then Duran does become expendable. And that he makes no money means he is not priced out of any team's budget. When it comes to adding a starter, the first place the Sox need to look is Oakland, who is going to have a boatload of arbitration cases and will probably look to move a few. Their arbitration-eligible players include Frankie Montas, Sean Manaea, and Chris Bassitt just from the rotation. Also, they will have to deal with closer Lou Trivino, 3B Matt Chapman, 1B Matt Olson, RF Ramon Laureano, and Util Chad Pinder. No way they even try to sign them all. There is a reason they went all in on Starling Marte at the deadline; they knew this team was breaking up. That Marte is leaving and Laureano is on the block does potentially mean that Jarren Duran should certainly be a player who garners some interest...

I think you mean Austin Davis. Anthony Davis is still in LA...

That would have been interesting. The Rays using rookie starters in all 4 games of the ALDS?

It's not really Cora's fault either, thanks to that new rule about facing 3 batters minimum. Really, it makes the LOOGY a thing of the past. So while Davis did get lefties out, that's not exactly a role teams should be trying to strengthen anymore. So if one wants to argue Bloom maybe shouldn't be trying to get a guy solely to face LHH, since, you know, that rule was already in place, then, yes, one can look at Davis' overall stat line with distaste...

The real downside is the 69 innings and that he has a drastic dropoff after 4-5 IP. If the Sox put Houck in the bullpen next year, along with Whitlock, that is absolutely not a problem. Teams don't count on starters for the heavy IP the way they used to anyway and the bullpen is actually getting to be more and more important. It's no longer primarily a place where ineffective starters get banished to. The real downside here is the only starters the Sox know will be back are Eovaldi and Pivetta. So it is very possible that one or both of Houck and Whitlock move to the rotation simply because it seems like is easier to rebuild a bullpen than it is a rotation...

Arroyo, Verdugo and Whitlock as well...

And Iglesias!

I thought you were a Jets’ fan?