Nick

Moon took that out of context....it was sarcasm for all the Leon lovers on this board.

I'm pretty certain I said it in jest.......that was for all the Sandy Leon lovers on this board who swears certain members of our staff can't pitch to Vaz. If Vaz was catching the pitchers would be giving up 5 runs......oh wait....

I don't have JBJ in my line up. I'm willing to give Chavis more AB's and Marco a long look.

This line up should score some runs, no? 1 Betts 2 Devers 3 Xander 4 JD 5 Beni 6 Chavis 7 Vaz 8 Marco 9 CF Good enough to be a playoff team?

We're kicking him while his down but 2019 is on the Players. The group of Sale, Price, Porcello, E Rod, Eovaldi, the pen, Pedey, and the position players simple did not get it done. IF you think that's on DD, well go right ahead. DD maybe responsible for thinning out the farm system but no way is he reponsible for lack of production from the $243M bunch. sorry for the double post...I thought I was simply editing.

As luck would have it, DD's contract expires after the season. Good thing we didn't extend him from the World Series hangover.

I'm suggesting using a hybrid approach. Always having cap space to go for it if needed at the trade deadline. Trade for high end one or two year rentals.

Remember Chris Freakin' Sale? Moon and I thought we can't live with out him? Now we're finding out maybe we shouldn't have extended him. Why can't we live without Betts? We can't win a championship ever again without him? I'd like to think not. Why can't we take the approach of Rays with a twist? Go big at trade deadline? Ray's and A's understand the economy of small market clubs. You SELL when the value is high. I'd like to see Sox take that approach. First, make an offer to extend the player. (Xavier). Then buy a rental at the top of his game at trade deadline. Obviously we still need a strong farm to execute that plan. How many young major league ready starting pitchers can we get for Devers? (my favorite Red Sox right now)

JBJ is a luxury we can't afford any longer. He's your weekend, vintage convertible that breaks down too often (read it no hitting for long stretch) and you have kids going to college next year. Time to get rid of it and cut the losses.

It's about choices. $11M can buy us a #5 starter plus good glove defensive CF.

We have failed to develop starting pitching in our farm. Are there any former Sox minor-leaguers pitching in the majors? Every highly regarded prospect ends up in the pen. WTF?

That's fine if EVERY reliever does the job. A break in that chain could cost you the game if your starter is only going 3-5 every game. I do agree that Yankee organization is in better place than Sox's right now (if you ignore the last 15 years or so).

It's very easy to make decisions in hindsight. After the world series, who in their right mind would have traded or hoped Price would opt out? I also thought Eovaldi signing was good move. Obviously there was a gamble with his health. My thought was more in line with 2019 being Porcello's last year only because of the size of his current contract. You can't pay everyone $20M plus. Eovaldi would have filled Porcello's spot for 2020 while the team developed a starter out of minor leagues during 2019. I'm still convinced that had the starting rotation pitched to its 'norm' we would be in the hunt for playoffs. Sox chose to spend money on starters and they have simply not performed. Going forward, do we rethink about the allocation of pot of money? Do we insist on not signing starters that will go well beyond 30 when the contract is up? My preference is always having a wiggle room to sign absolutely best player when that player will get us over the top, not to get into the playoffs but to give us chance to win it all. I thought the Yankees were exactly in that position. They chose NOT to add a top of the line player. I wouldn't be a happy Yankee fan right now. To me, both Houston and Dodgers are better. The goal is not to win 105 games. The goal is to win the World Series.

STARTING PITCHING 1.3 IP 3 H 3 R 3 ER 5 BB 1 K Well at least he didn't give up 5 runs....

Together, the "big 3" went from 11 out of 90 in 2018 to 28 out of 69! Finally a stat that makes sense and easy to follow.....thanks Moon. I think that pretty much sums up our season.

Porcello, who was brilliant for a long stretch, took the loss after allowing five runs on five hits in five-plus innings. He fell to 10-9 and his ERA rose to 5.67. $22M Benefactor pitched 5 innings and gave up 5 ERs. Why do we keep babying the guy? He's had a horrible year. It's a bad pitching day. Say it. He was brilliant?

I will tip my cap if you win the whole thing. Everyone else is in second place. You still have some work to do.

It's going to be difficult to overtake two teams with similar records. We still have 4 games remaining versus Tampa but no more games against the A's.

So many Monday morning quarterbacks here.....Had we done the 'right thing' and say Sox had signed Kelly, then there's another $8M mistake this year and perhaps two more years. Our bullpen payroll is less than $10M. We're not 5.5 games out of wildcard spot because of the pen. It's still all about our starters. Chris Sale of old could have put us firmly in the wild card spot. Anyone remember how good this group was going to be? Sale, Price, E Rod, Eovaldi and Porcello? By the way, at what point do we move away from Johnson? When I looked up correct spelling for 'mediocre', his face pops up. Doing the same old s*** over and over and expecting different outcome is true definition of stupidity. An organization with the highest payroll doesn't have a guy any better than Johnson?

Sale never shakes off catchers because he can execute throwing every pitch at highest level or he did. He's that confident. Surely no one here is dumb enough to think Sale and Leon is 100% in sync. More likely, Sale trusts Leon and has confidence in all his pitches.

So Red Sox will be no good forever?

Starters are 14-1 with a 1.79 ERA in past 17 games Houston that is......yep easy to see where we are lacking...

My apologies...I was wondering who DHern the prospect I never heard was.........got it...

Moon with all due respect, we know what the f*** Johnson & Velazques can do as starting pitchers. Why not let Hernandez start? He was in the pen to help the Sox get into the playoffs. If they're out of it, why not start him? Johnson and Velazques aint't going to pitch any better than they have been. We know their ceiling. Move on. We're better than them.

Yeah, it makes no sense. Using his logic, Sale should be a Cy Young candidate this year. Woefully underpaid at $15M while his rotation mates are making $30M, $22M and $17M.