5GoldGlovesOF,75

... but only if the injury will force him to miss around a year-and-a-half while they pay him to work out.

I think maybe Breslow isn't concerned with the pitching depth. Building it back up is his forte, after all, and he must be fairly confident he can keep scouring other club's systems for arms and profiles that Boston can acquire cheaply and develop.

It's a valid point, but the real point is that Mickey Gasper has boosted the offense for weeks with a superstar bat. The sample size matters because in that specific sample we've seen the club's top two hitters all season go down with injury -- and both were slumping in their last five games: Contreras 3-for-19, Rafaela 3-for-18. This thread may be about August, but Mickey has carried it over into September. According to bb-ref, in the last 28 days and 16 games, Gasper has this slash line: .525 OBP /1.000 SLUG /.1525 OPS No one is really that good, but no matter where the Red Sox offense ranks in this age of bad hitting, we all know they're just not that good. It's a good thing Mickey has been the past month.

Baz beat the Sox at the beginning of June when they were still swinging invisible bats, then lost to them in July when they used the enchanted mallet of the mighty Thor. He was tough in both outings, but now the line-up is different again, missing two free swingers -- one our HR leader, the other our hits leader -- but with the healed guys and trade acquisitions replacing them. And we still have Abreu, who recently edged Rafaela in AL position player WAR (they're #4, 5) and the league lead in doubles. Wilyer is also second to Alvarez in extra-base hits.

Sogard is one of the 8 best position players on the team this season. Story has yet to show defensively that he should be the starting shortstop in the playoffs, even over Sogard, who does everything at least competently. Story on a doubles streak only makes him a candidate as a RHH DH in the postseason... though not if Jones is still batting .500.

Hit more dingers. HRs are the preferred way to score, because nowadays they're a lot more likely than three different batters stringing together three hits in the same inning. Merloni said modern good hitters now bat .250. Ichiros bat .300.

This one looked like a playoff game: tough starting pitching on both sides and shaky bullpens. Home runs drove in most runs. Pivotal moment: Jones' slide that prevented a DP before Sogard's game-winning blast. Clutch hit that stayed in the park: IKF's game-tying single inside the bag. Key play: White holding onto a pop-up despite getting run over by Abreu (easy on the greenies, Wilyer).

You just specified what posters must mean when they say playoffs are a crapshoot: those playing like crap get shot down fast. And this is why I don't like resting guys who are hot. But if Sonny Gray needs to skip a start and not go on the IL, that's different -- the Sox did it with Pedro every summer. Or if Rutschman is damaged goods (or bads) and you don't want to admit it, just invent another injury to give him more time to heal... let's see, what will fans buy? I know, he strained something else from swinging too hard -- like Casas and Anthony.

The Miracles also had to beat three Cy Youngs with a batting order that was basically the 2026 Woosters and roosters that just staged the greatest comeback in the history of this summer.

Who knows. I just remember as a kid when the Orioles had one of the greatest teams of all time. In 1969 they were so far ahead in September that Earl Weaver rested all his stars. They swept the ALCS but barely won two low-scoring games in extra innings, then got totally shut down by the Miracle Mets in the World Series. The next year with the exact same team, Weaver pushed the pedal to the metal. In the postseason Baltimore won 7 of 8 games and rings by scoring 60 runs. To be fair, those O's had All-Stars at every position and in the rotation; not quite Worcester recruits and youngsters just getting good.

Agreed. After the dropping 3 of 4 in the Bronx, they know they're not hosting any Wild Card series.... so why push it. And there are only 22 games left. Say they go 8-14 -- definitely doable if they're going to keep giving up 8 runs a game like the past week -- and finish with 83 wins. That still means one of the clubs chasing them: Baltimore, Toronto, Texas etc. will need to go 15-7 for Boston to miss the playoffs. Anything's still possible, but i caution again: if they take it easy, it's not so easy a month from now to just push a button and be good again.

I don't like giving away games in September to rest key guys for October. First, you have to get to October -- and nothing is guaranteed with this hot and cold roller coaster there's no tomorrow like there was yesterday offense... and burnt out pitching staff, Second, when has this strategy ever worked in baseball autumns: let the hares sprint to the finish line and we'll tortoise in our shells and then turn on the jets before it's too late...

Then I look at the Yankees getting Garcia and his .850 for a handful of arms or an armful of hands -- none as good as Eyanson. Some posters would say, "And where would we play Garcia?" And Lou Gorman would say, "Where would we play Willie McGee?" The Yanks have about 8 DHs, but their answer would always be that they'll use Garcia in the batting order when they need a 30-home run guy to hit a bomb off Boston.

The iffy thing for me was throwing a new catcher into action with a pitching staff already established as one of MLB's best for four months (even when the offense was invisible). The rotation and the bullpen had meshed with Narvaez and Wong and even Gasper. A new catcher, even an All-Star, needs time to learn the nuances and trust of his battery mates... which is why it's better to start such a transition in Spring Training. Even a Hall of Famer like Pudge Rodriguez failed after being traded at the deadline twice: in 2008 and 2009 he went from a positive WAR to a negative WAR when traded from Detroit to New York, and a year later from Houston to Texas. Why the panic move by Breslow? (I also call it that considering how much he gave up) Was the main impetus just to keep AR out of pinstripes?

Determined by New York employees and an umpire who on Friday missed five of six straight challenges when he was standing right behind home plate -- not 150 feet away.