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Maybe they grew up together? And have an extensive history dating back to Little League? Maybe we are just assuming it all took place in Sox-Yankee games?

That’s my point. They didn’t win without them. (And you need a history lesson if you think Buckner”s error was a problem.) But the Sox had plenty of great players over nearly nine decades and didn’t win. But ever since Epstein started with an analytic approach - which has undoubtedly changed over the past couple decades - four rings. But some critics only acknowledge this approach when it doesn’t work and go blind to it when it does…

Yes. Once the Sox started using the analytic approach, they did start winning. Even those early 2003-2004 teams were stacked with hitters who fit the OBP mold that was trendy at the time. Are you saying analytics had nothing to do with the titles?

I’d struggle with the notion that Radars struck out anyone 47 times when his total was only 629.

You keep all this complaining about analytics. Perhaps you liked the team better when there were no analytics but we did have the occasional 86 year championship drought?

They did try to get pitching. Things didn’t work out, although I lliked Graterol. The notion that he got less as time goes on is kind of silly. Verdugo has been getting better. And really, Downs had this horrible development path he’s trying to adjust to, but he’s only 23 and in AAA. Wong never struck anyone as an MLB starter…

My point all along. And that was just one potential solution…

I was talking about in the off-season, post lockout. And plenty of relievers were moved very late in the off-season. Baltimore, Minnesota, Chicago (AL) and San Diego all shook up their bullpens with trades very close to opening day. Including moving 4 pitchers with closing experience…

So you think he’s worthy of starting but not good enough to fetch a reliever in a trade? That’s a pretty small gray area…

I agree. I expected him to move on the arms in Oakland, and I assume he checked in but I really don’t know what transpired beyond no trade. I’m not surprised he didn’t sign a starter. The market was pretty barren. But I did at the very least expect an arm. Obviously he bypassed the names I recommended (and probably with good reason) but I was surprised nobody was added…

Due to the lockout, Sale was not allowed to let the team know of his condition…

Fair, although he is typically in the 0.5 to 1.0 fWAR range, which is pretty good fr a position where almost no one gets 3.0 fWAR…

It tells me that MLB managers place some importance on defense and not so much on batting average less than 3 weeks into a season…

And if, 5 days from now he brings his ERA back under 2, will you still feel that way? He’s really only had one bad outing so far. I think the jury is still out, just like it was 5 days ago…

Of course Duran could be worse. He might hit just as poorly and played poor defense. (He’s nowhere near as good defensively as either of them.) I do disagree he isn’t worth a good reliever on his own. Especially if that reliever makes more than minimum wage. The Guardians were prime targets with their loaded bullpen and question marks in the OF (although Kwan has turned into a story on his own). But getting another starter - unless they made a trade with Oakland or San Diego - was tougher. The available pitchers still on the market were just a bunch of fungible retreads…

5 days ago his ERA was 0.00. Certainly no one thought he morphed into Sparky Lyle, but how many people thought he wasn’t wry good? Two outings later and 1.1 IP later it’s 6.76 and he was a clear mistake?

If they had kept Houck and Whitlock in the bullpen, they’d be much better. But they depleted the pen to fill the rotation. One of the biggest issues with the lockdown is they didn’t know Sale would be unavailable for however long. If the Sox knew Houck would have to move to the rotation, perhaps the off-season goes different. But it looked to me like Houck and Whitlock were going to be the late inning shutdown guys. Obviously rotation depth is important enough, and failing to capitalize on the Oakland fire sale could have kept the bullpen intact and in much better shape today. But that also depends on whatever the asking price was for Manaea and/Or Montas. (In the case of Montas, it was obviously a bit high, since he is still there unlike a lot of others.) Manaea didn’t look like he went for much, but that doesn’t mean Forst didn’t ask for a lot from Boston. The big surprise was holding Duran when he probably could have gotten a shut down reliever or another MLB starter that kept both Houck and Whitlock in the pen. Nothing against Duran, but there’s nowhere to play him in Boston right now…

The opening day rotation didn’t look to have both Houck and Whitlock either. Right now the bullpen is suffering a trickle-down effect from injuries and non-vaxxers…

It was clearly not an afterthought. Until Story was signed in March, the only new MLB players Blom signed were relievers…

Robles was brought in last night to face Bichette, Vlad, Kirk, etc. If you relegate him to the ninth inning, who do you suggest faces these guys? Diekman had a lucky break with getting to face the 7-8-9 hitters and got beaten. But I don’t think you necessarily get a better result by letting Diekman face the heart of the order and save Robles for the bottom…

Or that the Sox scored more than 4 runs for the first time in 8 games…

But is he better than Downs and Wong?

A no hitter gets the front seat. Every dad knows that…

No Red Sox hitter has hit a home run in the last 41 innings (and counting). The last one came on in the third inning of Friday’s game in Tampa…

But it also drastically effects the max innings a reliever has to handle. As does the ridiculous specialization. How many innings are teams getting from a bullpen over a season now? I’d guess 650-700 on average…