Hugh2
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Everything posted by Hugh2
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Hey, one place can be the difference between October baseball and golfing in Florida. I think the Sox success is due to their blend of spending and constraint. They’re a top payroll team, but they’re unwilling to consistently go above that threshold like LA. They’ve avoided big contracts and embraced them, they’ve hoarded prospects and emptied them out for people like Chris Sale. People can say what they want, cry all day, and whine because we didn’t outbid the world for a player or because we don’t want to top the Dodgers in spending but what MLB team has had more success than Boston in the 21st century? You can’t argue with two decades of results.
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How much did the groin pull delay his recovery? Because it didn’t really seem to delay him at all, maybe a day. Schwarber is now #1 on the Sox in OPS. Anyone who says they didn’t do anything significant isn’t even worthy of a response at this point.
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As much as I love JD you let him walk. Unless he wants to cut you a deal you don't invest in 34-year-old hitters asking for top dollar. Not when you might have to deal with a Bogaerts opt-out too, and Devers/ERod will need extensions. JD is the odd man out. If the money was there........I'd put it into another starter.
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I'd take it even one step further, is Schwarber really not playing 1B because he's not ready and the Sox thought he would be by now? Or are they just not playing him there yet? He's only been in the lineup for days, and Dalbec had been hitting, and we know how Cora likes to rotate guys and go L/R/L/R etc.
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Can he hit?
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why?
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You don't know, nor do I or any of us exactly what was planned or hope for internally. He returns when Dalbec is OPSing over 1.000 the past week and Duran's bat disappeared. It's not like he has been back for long and he could still see significant playing time at 1B this year, especially if Dalbec turns back into a pumpkin. If Dalbec lights the world on fire for the rest of the season and Duran struggled to force the Sox to plug Schwarber in LF it just makes the trade look even better.
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I mean you're not wrong but is it really up to him? What about Bogaerts? Devers? JDM? Verdugo? One guy can't do it all, I don't care if it's Rizzo or Trout, the Sox hitters need to pick it up.
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He's playing, he literally was delayed by two weeks. It's not like he was out for the rest of the season. It makes perfect sense when your boss tells you you can't go over the luxury tax.
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Ok so they won 1 series and lost 3? that's still a skid, the team was skidding before the all star break.
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Well the answer to the question could be yes. He just started to play and we have 6 weeks left in the season. 6 weeks of baseball left with a guy who was out OPSin't Rizzo and Cruz and everyone on this team not named Devers.
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I'm not sure this is an agreement, disagreement thing. The W/L record is what it is. A week before the ASB they lost 2 of 3 to LA, they lost 2 of 3 to Philly, they lost 2 of 3 to NYY, they split a two-game series with Toronto, then they did win 3 out of 4 against NY and split with Toronto again but then proceeded to lose 3 out of 4 to TB. They won one series, split two and lost 4. They were sucking before the deadline.
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It could be that, or it could just be them being cautious. They develop a plan with a player and stick to it the same way they waited and brought Sale up. Did they really need to pitch him one last game in the minors? or were they just following their plan. I think they're just following a plan with Schwarber. They don't want to throw too much at him at once.
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Postdeadline? they lost the series before the all-star break and have sucked ever since. They started this decline week before the deadline.
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I mean, effectively they're exactly that. I get that they're not and we can have that semantics battle if you want to? I will just concede and say you're right but here me out on this. A deadline acquisition is to acquire a player who you previously did not have. Chris Sale has not pitched one inning for the Sox up until recently. In terms of value-added, wins added, semantics aside, it's an acquisition.
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Hey Schwarber can catch???? lol
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I mean, the two biggest holes on the team were 1B/LF, you know he can play one.......and if they really want to they will just plug him at 1B. A lot can be said about that, but it happens, and it's more successful at 1B than anywhere else. Nothing is guaranteed in life but I think that was their mentality. They also traded for a bat first. If you can ignore the 2 weeks on the DL, he was a very significant offense upgrade. Schwarber OPS >> Cruz/Rizzo at the deadline and the Sox literally got him for peanuts. Sale/Houck = a more significant upgrade than any of our competitors. Honestly, I like what they did, staying under the cap and making sneakily significant upgrades.......it just hasn't worked out. The only thing I would have liked to have seen, and the criticism that I think may be well deserved is they could have put a little bit more effort into upgrading the pen. At this point, I'm not even sure they'd have ONE more win if they did so, but it will help them down the stretch.
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Normally I would agree with you, and I still think you may be right, but I'm not 100% sold on that. Dalbec was in one of his (one week month) hot streaks the past 14 days, and Schwarber had just returned from an injury. Plus Duran isn't hitting either so it made sense to just stick him in left. I still think we need to try him at 1st at some point. At this point, I'd rather give Duran some at bats for the next month and see if he can take a step forward rather than Dalbec.
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Bobby Dalbec is also due to turn back into a pumpkin, it's time to see what Schwarber can do at 1B.
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Yeah, 1st base is the least of my concern, at least....next to the offense overall. The team isn't scoring zero runs because of one position, the entire offense is slumping and slumping badly.
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In a year or two you will just need a guy behind the plate who can hit and throw the ball. I bet when Robo Umps arrive we will start to see the offensive value of the position rise.
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There’s also a difference between a guy who slumps for 5 days vs. 2 weeks. Yes, all hitters are generally streaky, but some much more than others. I miss watching Gwynn hit.
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Great points, I would like to defend Downs a bit. You can count on one hand how many pitchers he’s faced who are younger than him. He effectively skipped AA after missing a year. That was a huge leap and it’s obvious now the Sox Rushed him. If he started the year in Portland and mashed, everyone would be very high on him. I think some guys might have passed him with their performance, but I don’t think he’s done a lot to hurt his value. His value will really start to decline if he struggles next year, but it’s very easy to write this year off considering he lost a season to Covid, and got rushed up skipping a level.
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If we signed DR on August 1st people would be bitching and moaning. People just like to complain.
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Remember how horrible Devers defense was the first 5-6 weeks? He must have been a plus (slightly) defender since then to put up a .0 Dwar. This seems to pass the eye test two. After an ugly start Devers has looked much better at 3rd.