5GoldGlovesOF,75

Just tuned in to NESN. A guy on a promo hypes the push towards the playoffs and adds "maybe even a division title." Then the announcers note that instead of Criswell starting, the Red Sox will OPEN with a reliever they just sent to the minors earlier this week. On the mound for the Orioles (tied for most wins in baseball) will be the top of the rotation starting pitcher they traded for last winter. You know, the guy who started this year's MLB All-Star Game... This is where we stand in mid-August 2024.

We'll never have enough pitching and moaning about it.

WE keep saying that, but Boston keeps putting sub-par band-aids there (and people keep buying tickets to watch them, so what do we know?). Look, I'm all about bats -- keep shaking that baseball tree -- and I'd rather keep Mayer, the guy who led Double A in hitting. Gunnar Henderson leads the AL in errors, but anybody would take him because of his O. I'd much rather trade Arias, but like you always say, big league teams are looking for big league-ready talent in any trades. No matter what, the Sox have to get some legit arms asap; as far as I'm concerned (and I am) a TOTR starter is never wasted, as far as years of control and if the club is ready to contend. An ace can stabilize an entire pitching staff, share grips, batter books, recruit/entice other stars to join, and most importantly -- save innings, shoulders and elbows, especially those in the bullpen. Any rebuild, any improvement, has to start with a starter.

Come on, why. Because this is a forum when fans blab about their baseball team. And as for young guys, this is a discussion that comes up every year -- and the likes of Robin Yount, who started at shortstop in the majors at 18, and made the Hall of Fame... or Al Kaline, who never played a day in the minors, and also made it to Cooperstown. I don't know how good Arias is or can be, but if he's a better SS than Mayer (reporters whose job it is to cover prospects are already speculating he may play another position) then it makes it easier for the Red Sox to make a blockbuster trade soon for PITCHING... because all threads come back to the same point: this team is always going to stink or fall short or go nowhere, until it pays somehow for legitimate pitching.

Announcers have always read ads in between plays, but we could still ignore them and follow the game on the tube. But actual commercials? Never during an inning, not to mention cutting screens in half, when viewers are trying to watch the action. We can't even X them out like pop-up ads on computer monitors.

He's not removing a cancerous tumor from someone's vital organs. He's playing a game.

But have you seen the groupies in A ball? Btw, this exchange was only about bringing up a glove-first SS. If a guy is the highest rated fielder in the system at a position, he can probably play D on the best-groomed diamonds under the best-lit parks in the country. Sox fans have seen a few inferior defenders called up to the majors in the past couple years who can't...

Pen right now looks like the one my cat knocked off the table that the dog demolished: cap is chewed, spring's missing, ink's all over the rug.

Right? How can a professional baseball player possibly play professional baseball professionally on the same size diamond under the same rules in ballparks he doesn't have to travel to on bumpy bus rides with no air conditioning, without eating only fastfood!

And base umps must keep their hands in their pockets during all pitches to avoid the temptation of solo TV time calling swinging strikes on hitters who only bat their eyelashes. It's way past time baseball checked the check-the-check; those aren't swings, never were, and appeals add nothing to the game.

If it's just D, then why not bring up 18-year old Franklin Arias, who is rated a better defensive shortstop than even Mayer? Arias moved all the way up to #6 on MLB.com's latest Red Sox prospect rankings. He also crushed low level pitching this summer (batting righty), so why not give him a cup of coffee at Fenway, and if he looks like the next Jose Iglesias... ... then Breslow can feel confident this winter to trade Mayer -- who's hurt again in the minors -- for an actual good big league pitcher young enough not to fall to pieces a week after he puts on his new Red Sox jersey.

Most disgusting is when a network splits my screen in half to show an ad while an inning is still being played. I'm going to start marketing TV screen half-curtains for cranky old fans, and become a hundredaire.

From the beginning, some of us said Giolito was a bad bet. What good are more innings if he sucks, like he did in 2022 and 2023? Sure, Breslow and Bailey were betting they were going to fix Gio -- but even if we don't assume the new stress on more sweepers stressed out his elbow -- this guy wasn't The Plan to fix the rotation... ... that was clear with the opt out that would let him leave if he did turn out to be the next Gausman. However, if Gio was mediocre to bad, but ate innings with his two-year borderline 5.00 ERA, then he could opt in. That meant they just wanted him to help get them through another year or two on the mound, so they could field a team and sell tickets. Meanwhile, with no additional rotation acquisitions, discerning Sox fans got what they won't pay for (by choosing not to visit Fenway): No Quality and No Quantity.

He's been too serious ever since pitching through three levels in the minors for Boston in 2011. That was also the last year in the majors for former All-Star outfielder Aaron Rowand, so the two probably never met. If Rowand and Martin ever did face each other, it might not have been slapstick. But you can bet your bippy it'd be very interesting...

The only way the Red Sox knew they could count on Chris Sale was if Big Panda sat on him, and El Guapo put an abacus on his back.

Boston is 10-14 since the All-Star Break. Six of those losses came in the opponents' last at bats. And in what may be a record in a single month: the Red Sox lost three games when they were: One. Out. Away. From. Victory.

They acquired the best hitter on the trade market since Mookie Betts, and the guy has been arguably a better fit in New York than Marcus in LA. The only downer for Yankee fans is that Juan Soto, like his teammate Aaron Judge, is having an MVP year -- which means if KC makes the playoffs, no one deserves the Most Valuable Player award in the league more than Bobby Witt, who's doing it all by himself.

Every year: Spend/Invest/Trade/UPGRADE and never cross a freaking bridge, whether it's rickety boards or steel and cement. Anything less is unacceptable to their fanbase.

I'm not saying the Padres aren't desperate or looking at a window, but any team living a couple hours from LA probably should be. At least fans in places like SD and Philly have reasons to be excited the past few years, because they're clubs are always going for it. (if you've been a baseball fan long enough, you know no success is actually sustainable for very long...)

We've been advocating free agency and trades for half a decade now through the Bloom/Breslow Era to improve the big league pitching staff. Posters have listed plenty of examples of each to show additions to the roster -- but very few have contributed to make the Red Sox a winning team that truly has a chance at a World Series. Some have been bargains, others total wastes of money, but compared to other clubs that are going for it, there's a stark contrast in picking up an arm or two to get through the summer in Boston, or always pushing to stockpile for October -- like in Philadelphia or even San Diego. The Padres' entire rotation -- Cease, King, Wauldron, Darvish, Musgrove -- was acquired through trades, some that were blockbusters. They never stop trying to upgrade the bullpen, either, like dealing for Tanner Scott at the deadline. They already have Robert Suarez and Yuki Matsui, both inked from Japan (Matsui, an underrated signing last winter, leads the pen in games and IP). This is also the org that traded four guys for Josh Hader a few years ago, and let him walk after last season. Yes, SD has blown a ton of money on star power, but the Pads are now posed to go deep into October because of their pitching.

MLB.com's latest farm system rankings have Red Sox at #7, explained by the usual super position prospects, and stupor in the pitching department. Houston's farm is rated dead last, #30... and yet somehow -- almost every year -- they pump out fresh regulars to replace departing mainstays (like Springer, Correa, Maldonado, etc) and find good MAJOR LEAGUE pitchers to fill in for injured arms. When a team advances to the final round of the playoffs with a chance at the World Series for seven straight years, it isn't luck. Smart billionaire owners of other clubs must look less at Yale and Tampa and more towards Texas for inspiration -- and future employees -- if they're actually trying to win...

I'm not a betting man, but I'd bet there's nothing worse for baseball bettors than bullpens blowing a game (unless, you're a reliever who bet against yourself...). For fans and players, losing a late lead and ultimately the game is the absolute worst. When your club gets blown out early instead, it's easier to accept that it's just not our night. But when your offense mounts a comeback, and pitchers and fielders hold the line, it gives us hope. And when one or two relievers then cough it up -- right at the end -- they take all that hope and spit it back in our faces. Happens to every team, a couple times a season. But three or four times in a month? Nothing in baseball is more revolting, disgusting, depressing and remote crushing. The frequency of disaster confirms it's no fluke, and we all know last night won't be the last time we have to regurgitate this agita. It's just not our year.

I don't care if the baserunner is "out of it" because his shoulder hurts -- doesn't the first base coach remind him how many outs there are, in a one-run game, with a teammate on third in a sacrifice fly situation?

Abreu goes deep and Sox retake the lead, 3-2. That's Wilyer Abreu, who is somehow behind the Rangers' Wyatt Langford as some people's AL Rookie of the Year favorite. Langford: 1.1 WAR, 0.2 dWAR, 6 HR, 44 RBI, .237 BA, .667 OPS Abreu: 2.4 WAR, 0.3 dWAR, 13 HR, 46 RBI, .269 BA, .832 OPS