Flash

MLB career (7 yrs) - 46-41 W/L; 4.24 ERA....hardly the ace Sox fans annointed him as. Throw in his new (relatively) short arm delivery and, well.....

Having TA, Vaughn and Robert hitting 1-3 is badass. Hope TLR doesn't get cute and start mixing and matching.

If Lynn is 'right' upon his return, Gio slots in a our #4 starter (if stack ranked according to who you'd want in a must win). I do tend to agree that he hardly looks like an ace and I'm not convinced his short-arm delivery is very effective.

Luis Basabe

Might have had the foresight to move Luis Gonzalez to RF like the Giants did...Avg. 338/OPS 860. Steller defense.

McGuire appears to handle pitchers (I.e. Kopech) extremally well. Provides a great 'open glove' target and frames the borders very well. We're gonna need Grandals bat to come alive but it seems like our pitchers enjoy throwing to McGuire.

Personally, I doubt Donaldson intended any racial implication and I think his locker room interview supported his intention. The silver lining is this incident might be the match that ignites a more united and cohesive team spirit which, in my observation has been sorely missing this year. I was gratified (and a bit surprised) to see Grandal sticking up for TA. It showed veteran leadership that again, seems to have been missing. I don't much care if there is further retaliation tomorrow but do hope we use this to coalesce as a team and adopt an us vs. them attitude from here on out.

Good context and rationale. The challenge is what needs to happen to turn things around? If you just focus on player moves, you have to start with the two highest paid guys and sort out how to proceed. Abreu's contract expires after this year and it will be interesting to see what the team will do, but, in meantime, he has become an easy out. The same can be said for Grandal but he at least provides defensive value and I'd expect his OPS to climb from current depths. I also have to wonder about clubhouse and locker room dynamic. Sox rely on a mix of Latino and US born contributors but its not obvious who the team looks to for collective leadership. They don't seem to be responding to TLRs leadership.

A bit melodramatic but we might look back on this win as a singularly important turning point in Sox season. Both because Cease had the weight of the world on his shoulders and was up to the task as and, had he not been, it would be hard for anyone to be optimistic about the rest of the season despite being this early in the year.

Whether a ball is hit in the air vs. on the ground or not hit at all often relies on a pitchers ability to induce a certain outcome. For instance, some pitchers are better than others at inducing ground balls and when that happens, there is now a reliance on the fielder or fielders to perform their part, which might include several players touching the ball. In order to facilitate the desired outcome, the Catcher signals for a certain pitch to be thrown to a certain location. Based upon the pitchers approach and a particular hitters tendencies, the infielders might shift to defend certain areas (same w/OF). At the end of the day, of course, as in any sport, there is a need to perform your role better than the person lined up across from you but to suggest 'the fate of an entire team comes down to the individual performance of a single player', way oversimplifies the subtle aspects of the game that are the very definition of a team sport.

Respectfully - what positions (non-pitcher) do you favor Sox player vs. Twins?

Maybe so but short of 1B and C, I'd pretty much give the other positional advantages to the Twins.

Does the division really suck?

Wow...really had to dig through the archives (6/17/2011) to pull up that piece. Solid point(s) though.

Was not referring to how well they get along off the field (if that is what you mean by 'tight knit'). On the field, I see no sense of team spirit and/or combined purpose. I see a bunch of individually talented (and flawed) baseball players from various backgrounds who have yet to coalesce as a team. Individual contributors who also like one another isn't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Sox are not a team in the sense model organizations (Cardinals, Rays, Astros, others) are. The Sox are a collection of individual contributors, each with enough talent to tease a bit of optimism but each with flaws to their game. Be it mental/physical toughness, lack of range, poor plate discipline, poor pitch recognition or just weak in fundamentals, this bunch is lacking throughout the lineup. There appears to be no 'team culture' , no veteran leadership, no camaraderie and no sense of playing for one another. For periods of time, you can mask team flaws with pitching excellence. When Gio, Lynn, Cease and Kopech are 'right' Sox have a better than fighting chance at a W but not signing Rodon changed the calculus and shines the spotlight back on the position players...a group of individuals who show up and collect paychecks.

Wow. Hadn't heard that. Thanks for the update.

If Sox wanted to demonstrate a commitment to this season and fanbase, it wouldn't be the worst thing to reengage with Boras about Comforto.

Unbuttoned jersey and gold necklaces?

It was a hypothetical I posited prior to start of '21 season and this Board threw up all over it. Some of the comments in defense of Eloy were hysterical. The majority of posters here have consistently overvalued Eloy from day one, wouldn't surprise me that some here still do.

Dammit...there goes the Eloy for Corbin Burnes trade.

Very frustrating indeed. Sox made a bet on Carlos' arm health and so far its been a bad bet...almost unconscionable. One can easily argue Rodon is the best LH pitcher in baseball and certainly among the best w/either hand. Sure would look good on the mound for the Sox about now and we intentionally took a pass. Not what winners do.

😜 Comforto would have had that one in his back pocket

Damn...Caratini was a guy we should have pursued. Inexpensive, hits LH and solid D. Milwaukee gave very little.