5GoldGlovesOF,75

It's ironic reading those scenarios and thinking that for fans born around the turn of the century, modern Red Sox fans are type A and Yankee fans are type B...

Great stats aligned. If the Red Sox can win the WC game and get into a playoff series, Cora's weapon of choice won't be Whitlock, but Houck. I'd still rather have Betts than Moncada (bWAR: Mookie 4.6, Yoan 4.0), but I'll take Verdugo over Benintendi (bWAR: Dugie 2.6, Beni 2.7). On the mound, Miley and Kimbrel have dropped off the second half. The bronze plaque that runs the White Sox can win it all if someone can somehow convince him to use Kopech like Andrew Miller of the mid-teens.

A LOT of us would have settled for the last-place 2020 Sox to get back in contention and play meaningful games in September. As a longtime fan, that's what I hope for every year. Summers are always better when the Red Sox still have a legitimate shot -- and that's not an elitist statement because after more than half a century of rooting, I'll never say -- like some people a few hours south of Boston -- that the season's a failure if my team doesn't win the final game (what a miserable way to go through life).

Casas, Winckowski and Ronaldo H. promoted to Triple A... which one makes the majors first? Probably Josh, in a '22 pitching crunch (twinbill?), when another young arm gets used and is unavailable.

I heard an interesting interview with Pedro Martinez, who noted that Sox fans should consider ourselves lucky that we are seeing "Hall of Fame" production out of Bogaerts and Devers on the same side of the infield at the same time together. Offensively, comparing their numbers since 2019 to other contemporary left-side combos and even all-time great combos, Pedro may not be exaggerating.

WAR, for the most part, seems to slight relief pitchers over any other players, including starting pitchers (I think because of the number of batters faced and retired). As for Rivera's status as an all-timer, there was never a doubt when he was active that Mariano (not Jeter) was the single difference that elevated NY over Boston in an era when the rivalry peaked. The Sox -- or any other team -- just couldn't replicate a pitcher who automatically shortened so many games for 16 seasons.

LaRussa is (in)famous for modernizing late-inning usage of the 9th-inning closer and regular set-up men -- Eck, after lefty Rick Honeycutt and right Gene Nelson (depending on best match-ups). Joe Torre then took the blueprint and won more pennants and World Series in New York, with Mo Rivera, lefty Mike Stanton and righty Jeff Nelson. The problem that teams and fans have dealt with for over 20 years now is that everyone else felt the need to develop their own automatic 7th-8th-9th guys -- and few, if any -- were ever as dependable as those headlined by Hall of Famers (an interesting study would be to compare the amount of "blown saves" in the bigs pre-Eck -- when one guy who was on was allowed to finish -- and post-Eck -- when so many more fickle relievers were used every night). Rivera was always the one reason the Yankees were always a little better than the Red Sox for a decade. The fact that the Sandman was the deciding factor in so many pennant races and title chases for 16 seasons -- when he was basically the best player in baseball at his position -- makes it befitting he was the first unanimous HOFer.

The reason the Yankees have been vastly overrated the past few years is that they feature below-average players at two vital defensive positions: shortstop and catcher. Clubs can bash their way to the postseason, but will be inevitably exposed if inferior at two key positions. Maybe the Red Sox can advance with Devers and Bogaerts, who both won in the past. It remains to be seen if Toronto isn't ultimately sabotaged by Bichette, who leads the majors in errors at shortstop.

Your entire analysis of your team was erudite until this fallback excuse. Any intelligent Yankee fan has seen enough of the articles (there was one just the other day) of the MLB's unreleased reports of New York's complicity -- right there along with Houston, Boston, LA and all the teams that lost -- in the sign-stealing culture. Maybe Marwin Gonzalez was a fraud leading '17 Houston in RBIs, but isn't about time to admit that guys like Correa 6.7 WAR and Altuve 28 HRS this year are just superior big leaguers?

Cora does his best with what he's given for a roster. Robles is good now, and maybe he'll be lightning in a bottle through October, but if he morphs back into Gagne circa '07 in a crucial moment, it won't be Cora's fault.

His name is Tony and he currently manages a first-place team in Chicago. His prototype's name is Dennis and he currently analyzes salad, moss, shoes and bridge pieces on NESN. Before those guys, a relief ace or fireman (they weren't called closers) regularly came into games before the 9th and most were good to the last out.

How can we not like a guy whose walk-up song is "Soul Kitchen" by the Doors? A song written almost 30 years before he was born... there's a throwback guy focused on getting a pitch to hit in his zone.

... you can lose and then lie that you really won... but there's no way intelligent fans, media and the league would ever fall for it.

Cora's plan for the last 14 games: Sale will start the 6 games vs. Baltimore, with Houck, Whitlock, Pivetta and Richards pitching the final four innings each night; Eovaldi and ERod will split the starts in the other 8, with all hands on deck in the bullpen.

O's pen threw high leverage innings every night vs. NY.

Joe Churches!

O's swinging from their heels vs. Sale, almost as if they have nothing to lose, no pressure, and there's only two weeks left in the season. Pedro might say a few up-and-ins could make it more uncomfortable for relaxed hitters.

I won't buy one. Yellow is cowardly, blue sad. And they really stick out like a yellow shirt in a sea of red somethings: shirts, caps, letters, stockings, number one fingers, etc

Sox may have to figure out an "injury" to an infielder so they can add Joe Churches to the postseason roster.

A hard-earned DP Oops, wrong thread

Good point -- which makes viewing the box even less reliable: the 2D outline isn't representative of the actual 3D (or as you point out 5D) zone. As for high breaking balls, some umps give up on them out of the hand or when they reach the plate -- but because of the depth of the actual zone, we viewers see some called balls hitting the target mitt "in the window" as Eck calls it... Let's hope Sale's slider is vicious and cutting deceptively out of the zone tonight!

Serious question: Since we all know that the distance of a batter's "letters to knees" or even the unofficial "belt to knees" fluctuates with every single individual, do networks ever expand or constrict dimensions of the box to reflect each individual strike zone? It sure doesn't look that way to this viewer.... Btw, wouldn't modern computer tech have a way to automatically and instantly update every at bat accordingly?

... and a goalie stick. And lend it to Vazquez.

If he were smart, he'd refuse to catch that...

So of course expect to see lots of bleeders, bloopers, bobbles, overthrows, blown saves and platoons of ghost runners on second every night at the witching hour.