oldtimer

JD could hit close to 40 this year if he remains hot. That with his rbi total and 300 avg might tempt him to opt out. Still, how many teams in thee American league are looking to add a $25+ mil DH to their roster.

I am one of those guys who believes we are cooked but I am willing to wait for the mathematics to say it emphatically. At that point there will be time enough to discuss going forward, although some of that has been done already. The Sox need a Mission Statement. What are the short term and long term goals, and what are the approaches that will allow the mmission to be achieved? Along with that, who should we have lead us? In a business, if the CEO screws things up the board replaces him. Not so different here.

In a way, but some players can do the job very well and the team still can have a bad record. An example would be Devers who has been terrific. So it was the play of some of the players and in particular the starters who for whatever reason didn;t get the job done while guys like Bogie and Devers did very well.

Given the probabilities of getting into the WC and based on the road we have to travel and with the pitching we can muster, I advocate starting to bring in pieces that might help the team now and also be a precursor for next years team. There aren't a lot of moves to make at this point but Chatham for Owings or Chavis returned instead of Owings would be one. The other is the status of our fourth ranked minor leaguer and pitcher Mata. The description of him sounds interesting and we are in desperate need of good pitching. Seems like an obvious move. It's now only 7 days from callups anyways, so I don't think waiting will make that much difference. I would have made the moves a little earlier.

We are on the road at the Padres, Rockies and Angels for a total of 8 games and 5 of those without a DH. We are able to use E-Rod, Porcello, Johnson and Eovaldi. We follow that up with 7 games at home against the division leaading Twins and Yankees. We need to win at a 70% chance and/or Oakland and TB need to lose more than half to stand any chance. Mathematically it is still possible, but realistically not so likely. Love to see them play but at some point we need to bring some future players in for a look. A good start would be to bring Chavis back in place of Owings. His 10 days are up tomorrow provided he has recovered from the shoulder strain.

That comment about Ortiz is untrue and sshould get you disqualified from the site. A-Rod was the big juicer and lair to boot.

I remember being in the sky boxes one day when both Yaz and Reggie Smith has a chance to tie or win the game with a single hit, even a fly ball would have helped. They were competitive with each other that day and both weren't cheated at bat with big swings, typical of JBJ sometimes. Both did nothing and I remember we lost the game. Yaz was a great player, but even the great ones let you down at times.

Didn't they trade Billy Hamilton? I don't know the rule, but I suppose they can bring a replacement player in for him. Happens so rarely that even us oldtimers don't know how it works.

God love him for what he has done and that he still has that interest. I'm approaching 80 and have shaky hands causing double stikes, so I can imagine how difficult it is for him. I hope he can hang in there and let someone help read to him and type his input. He has earned it/

Crap certainly does happens and it seems, mostly to us. What strikes me is the lack of fire shown. The team goes through the motions. Maybe Pedroia would have produced that fire but no such luck. The guys who seem to push a little are Devers and Vaz. Maybe Cora should go out and kick a little dirt on home plate or kick ass. The talent is there offensively, but it doesn't happen.

I hate to say it but I agree with this list.

The offense looked flat again and this time against a weak starter and the same pen they saw the night before. Looking down the order and it is hard to see any bright spots. Maybe its time to bring up some kids who will play with more enthusiasm. Hard to be much worse than what we saw in the last two.

Second night in a row scoring 2 runs and the offense being quiet after the 2nd inning. Baserunning has not been solid nor has hitting with runners in scoring position. Too many strikeouts and Cora having to substitute a weak hitter in Owings with two runners in scoring position. Our vaunted offense can and does go cold at times and could also use some beefing up in the off season.

Maybe it's just you!

The end of July convinced me. The only hope then and now is that both Oakland and TB collapse.

Our incredible offense ran into good pitching. Note that Nola didn't throw over 94 mph but had a nice assortment of pitches and kept our hitters off balance all night. Only JBJ did much and that in itself was intereswting.

Lets put it another way. Would I pay 22 Mil for a DH if I had that choice today? The answer is no. JDM has done what was expected of him and more but i aging now and is prone to injury with his back. He is a liability in the outfield defensively, so he has to be looked at as primarily a DH. He probably has helped some of our guys with their hitting, note Devers taking a deep breaath before stepping in for instance. The JDM contract is history and I wouldn't increase it to keep him, but we have to live with it for 2 more years unless he ops out.

We may have better prospects. He hasn't shown the ability to be a starting pitcher for us going forward. Best to cut ties and find better.

Wasn't all bad, Nola went over 100 pitches and just maybe they will take him out in the 8th.

Mokkie did his job. Single and stolen base, but Devers, Bogaerts and JDM were handled by Nola. The good news is that Nola will probably only go one more inning so we will get a shot at their BP with the top of our order. I expected Johnson to be weak, but he got through to the BP only giving up 3, which is a good thing for our starters these day and if our BP can hold, there is a good chance to win this one.

Nola is not invincible!

Of course I root for the team as always but realistically, we are putting Johnson up against Nola tonight. The difference in era is significant. Yes we have good hitting but our pitching staff can hurt us and makes the probability of gaining ground low.

Thanks. With an older person, you never know and his wife is not a lot of help to him at this time due to age. They do have caring friends nearby. Just part of getting old.

I don't know where this entry should be put, but since you bring up the $30 million risk on Sale, it reminds me of a thought about long term planning of the team's finances and how it will work with the long term contracts that we currently have on the books. In general, I foresee: 1. There will be some cap limit on spending going forward applied in an effort to keep a competitive balance between the large and small market teams. How it will be structured and how it may change will depend on player's union input at the next negotiations. The point is that there will be a limitation. 2. The Sox have some fairly near term contracts and some long term contracts that are meaningful. Price is a 2 year one, Price for 5, Bogie for 4 I believe, Pedroia winding down, Eovaldi and JDM. 3 The Sox will have to deal with JBJ, Betts and Porcello and E-Rod near term and have Beni and Devers who will begin to be paid. Devers is superstar material and money needs to be reserved to keep him. 4. We probably need new GM leadership as it appears to me that we have a predicament going forward and our current GM made the decisions to put us into the situation. We need to rebuild our farm system while trying to keep the seats filled until we can restructure our contracts going forward. 5. I would say few fans see how we can trade away the most damaging contracts we currently have, so the emphasis should be on not committing to additional long term ones that will not likely pay dividends for the team. Right now it looks like Porcello, JBJ and in a year, Betts will need to be dealt with. Others we just assume are gone with the exception of Leon and Holt, both of whom are questionable for the longer term. I'd expect Porcello and Jbj to be gone and an at value offer to be made for Betts. We'd be better with him but not at $30 mil for 10 years. It will not be an easy time for the GM going forward. Lets hope we get a smart yet hard headed leader who considers the long term.

Be Smart