Sale is a great pitcher. Possible Hall of Famer. Trading him for a backup infielder , then throwing in 17 million to sweeten the deal, is not defensible. It was a horrendous trade. One of the all time worst. And I am not anti Breslow.
If we could swap Cora for Kevin Cash, I would do it in a minute. But making a change just for changes sake? That might not work out as good as you might think.
It will be interesting to see if the Sox can deal with Rodon as well as they did with Yarbrough. They really feasted on the soft stuff that Yarbrough was throwing up there. They will need to adjust to Rodon.
There is a vast difference in watching on TV as opposed to being in the ballpark. Being in the ballpark is a thousand times better. Sadly, TV is where most of us see the games these days. And we miss a lot.
What is Varitek's job anyway. He is not the "bench coach ", whatever that is. Is he the offensive coordinator, game planner, quality control analyst, industrial engineer, babysitter or what ?
Teams today have more coaches, assistant coaches, newly created positions, special assistants and larger instructional staffs than ever before. And yet, the players seem more unsound and unsure fundamentally than they ever have.
I think the Sox lineup matches up pretty well with Warren. I wouldn't be surprised if they put a run or more on the board before the Bleacher Creatures finish their roll call.
I think the fact is that much of this comes down to personal likes and dislikes. If, for whatever reason, we like someone we will make allowances for poor results and tend to excuse things that we otherwise would not. And the opposite is true as well. Not much leeway for those we don't like. It's just human nature.
Will Warren is another one of those mediocre righthanders who don't throw especially hard. The kind of pitcher that the Sox hitters should be able to hit. I give the Sox a good chance of winning this one.
A lot of it is just opinion on the relative importance of different parts of the game. Does anyone really think that Aroldis Chapman has only been slightly better than having some " replacement " jabroni out there trying to close games? Because that is what WAR would indicate.
Hopefully the excitement of playing in Yankee Stadium, in the Boogie Down Bronx, will inspire the Sox to elevate their game and make us all proud again. And propel the boys to begin to turn the season around.
Just so you know, this was not a serious comment. Just another reminder that WAR is not a real stat. It's just a system that someone contrived for evaluating baseball players.