oldtimer

This Red Sox team is having an unbelievable hot streak. It has recognized good players but not a superstar. Rafaella is getting there and Gray is having a season, but we have No Judge or Othani. It's all about team.

The Sox have many impactful players who could return before the year is out, Of those, Rutschman, Story and Kiner-Falafa seem closest. In addition Anthony, Crochett, Mead, Oviedo, Crawford and Houch might become available in Sept. Arias is also a dark horse for promotion. With an unbelievably hot team now, who drops off the 26(27) man roster to accommodate any of these. Rutschman has a spot to fill, Story and Kiner-Falafa not so obvious. Anthony could be an Impact player and Mead was acquired to fill second base. It's a good problem to have but management needs to consider the disruption of a red hot team when returning guys from the injured list.

With 50 games left, if we win half of those we wind up with 86 wins. We will probably be better than a 500 team so 90 wins is qu ite possible, which means a playoff position. With what we have returning, we are a threat in the playoffs. None of this looked likely a month ago. Time to congradulate Breslow for his actions.

The prime years doe a starting catcher in MLBB is in the 27 to 30 YO age range. The average number of games started behine the plate is in tthe 90 to 110 range while the number of games played in is in the 110 to 130 range. Lets hope Adley can give us that kind of commitment going forward.

We have been among the worst teams in MLB for a number of years with one exception and yet haven't had top picks. This year we pick 20th and our second pick was traded, so it is unlikely that we will see any help from this years draft in the near term.

If the Sox win the Mets series, will they be sellers or buyers?

Devers demonstrated over time that he would always be deficient defensively at 3rd base. While a power hitter, he sometimes showed inonsistency at the plate. To me it was a bad bet to give him such a lucrative contract. Moving him to first, even if he had been positive about it, was a questionabled bet. I'm happy that Breslow got out of that contract but unhappy that he didn't find a power bat for the team.

Tampa has a max salary of 109 Mil and a 43-31 record Boston has a max salary or 196 mil and a record of 31-44 Sure, owners should spend money but they should do it wisely. Breslow is supposedly an analytics savant and look where that has gotten us. Many of the fans on this site identified the problems prior to the season yet not enough was done to solve them.

A lot of Sox fans have been patiently waiting for the team to build back into a contender. We have been waiting for ownership, management and coaching to make moves that result in a competitive team. That has not happened for several years and if anything this year it appears we are becoming less competitive. This past season, it was obvious that we needed to find some right hand power hitters, We made some improvements but were unable to move forward. If Breslow is a savant at assessing talent, he surely isn't one at making deals. They are kidding themselves if there is any talk that doesn't involve selling at the deadline or before. I would also recommend looking at the most promising prospects. What is there to lose?

I just got back to Florida from a nearly 2 month road trip and the sale of my second home. I had trouble catching Red Sox games but its just as well. What a shame that the Sox were unable to field a competitive team this year and acually have regressed relative to the competition. The fans here knew we needed a power bat or two and sensed we might not have the stellar pitching we had a times last season. Clearly we are now sellers of players and we should aim for better results next year. If we have prospects that are possible future high end players, now is the time to get them experience. The approach the team has used for the past few years has not worked. Is it ownership? is it management and coaching? I've been a fan since the 1940's and have seen the ups and downs along the way. I can say we are in a protracted down swing now.

So, should we be sellers and get experiennce for guys like Arias, while taking the beating? We are taking that beating anyway and so little hope of having a competitive season with the existing team anyway. Meanwhile, the low budget Rays are leading our division.

And now we hear the Sox need to address the obvious problem of scoring runs. I'll posit that obvious problem was recognized by the fan base long before the season started. What does that say about the front office and ownership?

The Sox get runners in scoring position with less tthan 2 outs but then don't make contact. Poor hitting fundamentals.

Look at the start the Rays have had vs the Sox. We have had and continue to have a larger payroll but they get results. It's got to be roster construction, management and coaching. I had hoped for a series win against the Rays but we are off to a bad start. Even a split at this point would be okay but we can't afford a series loss.

We have slow to terrible starts in 7 of the last 8 years. Whether that was due to insufficient good players caused by owner indifference, poor general manager transition skills or poor coaching is hard to say. It is probably due in part to each of those, but I supported a change of coaching as at least one approach to improve the reslts.. Finding the teaming 8 games below 500 is not a good place to be and we have started the difficult process of digging out. If I look at the players this year I would say we are either better or worse at the following positions: RF Better CF Better LF Worse but Duran is showing signs of life now he is leading off. Anthony should come along but 4 OF? !st Better 2nd Marginally better with Mayer consistently playing and help on the way. SS Worse. Slow start both offensively and defensively. Recent signs of improvement. Arias in the hole. 3rd Worse. Good defense but poor offense to date. We shall see. C Worse. Navarez with numbers way below his best form DH About the same. ok hitting but no real power SP Better A plethora to choose from if we get past the injury bug. Other teams would like our situation. RP Worse. We are good on top but lack depth to date. My take is that we have a decent team but the very poor start has put us into a deep hole. Crawing out of that hole will take a major effort. While we are good, it certainly would help to address weak spots and soon.