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Can this team just flip the switch come Oct 7?


brijames1957
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Let's be honest, this team has been coasting for weeks if not longer. They are 26-23 since the All Star break. They have had no challenge to winning the Division. Right now the team looks bored and lifeless and just waiting for the Playoffs to start. They have 23 games left and it looks like they will clinch the Division sometime in the last week of September. 

If that is the case they will have about a week left in the regular season when they clinch and then a 4 day break before the Playoffs begin. So how do you get this team in playoff mode when they have been playing with no challenge or pressure for months? Can you just keep resting guys these last 3 and a half weeks of the season and then expect them to be ready to play at their peak come Oct 7? 

Normally you rest your guys after you clinch but the Sox have been sitting guys for weeks now. Can they just flip the switch and go from playing out the season to playing in pressure packed Playoff games? It will be very interesting to see how TLR handle these last 23 games. I would almost like to see the Playoff lineup out there for the last 3 or 4 games just to get them playing together and in the right mindset for the Playoffs. 

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I’d like to see them full roster/full effort the week in Detroit and Cleveland. After that they have Monday and Thursday off the last week, and nobody that’s in the playoffs already, cares the last weekend. The starters will probably go 4 innings, and the bench players will get starts. By the way, Sox will clinch Sep 21 or 22 in Detroit. They’ll go to Cleveland as division winners.

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3 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

No way. It's clear they are just above .500 because of a total lack of effort and intensity. It has nothing to do with missing key players. They are screwed. They will be lucky to even be in a game after the 5th inning in the playoffs .

Fresh comedy

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If the Sox won last night, this thread wouldn't have existed. Everyone can blame DK because he wasn't very good, and hasn't been good, but the fact is, their line up is missing several pieces. Kuechel would have had to have thrown a shutout to win last night. Once the bats get healthy, everything will fall into place. You won't have to worry about Kuechel, he won't be in the playoff rotation. 

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3 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

If the Sox won last night, this thread wouldn't have existed. Everyone can blame DK because he wasn't very good, and hasn't been good, but the fact is, their line up is missing several pieces. Kuechel would have had to have thrown a shutout to win last night. Once the bats get healthy, everything will fall into place.

On paper this makes sense. Just like on paper the bullpen is untouchable. It’s not that simple. Baseball is weird. But keep stating your hopes as facts.

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It isn't coasting as much as getting healthy.  This team has spent the entire season chasing health.  More than the hitters, we have to get the pitching healthy.  If you we get Rodon/Gio/Lynn/Cease healthy in a month, everything else fills in from there.  Once you make the playoffs the rest becomes a crap shoot.

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7 minutes ago, Snopek said:

On paper this makes sense. Just like on paper the bullpen is untouchable. It’s not that simple. Baseball is weird. But keep stating your hopes as facts.

It is a fact. This team hasn't had it's full line up all year. Whether they ever will is a pretty good question, but if they do, it's a different team than they are currently fielding, but keep being miserable. It's a lot better than being happy. Even their 3 top starters are out right now. As long as everyone is healthy. this team is stacked.

And the flip the switch narrative is wrong as well. It infers some sort of effort issue. Teams go from hot streaks to cold streaks back to hot streaks all the time. So apparently flipping a switch is pretty common.

Edited by Dick Allen
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11 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

It is a fact. This team hasn't had it's full line up all year. Whether they ever will is a pretty good question, but if they do, it's a different team than they are currently fielding, but keep being miserable. It's a lot better than being happy.

Ah yes, so much misery in my post. Back to the old ‘if you’re not 100% optimistic, you hate life’ thing. Great stuff.

12 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

As long as everyone is healthy. this team is stacked.

Yes. Absolutely. No one is arguing that, or at least they shouldn’t be. As long as everyone is healthy, I think this is the best team in the AL on paper. But that is very different than saying “once the lineup is healthy, everything will fall into place.” A lot of things have to go right for that to happen. Can it? Of course. Will it? Sure hope so, but I’m not expecting everything to align perfectly. That’s silly.

Okay, back to my miserable existence.

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1 minute ago, Snopek said:

Ah yes, so much misery in my post. Back to the old ‘if you’re not 100% optimistic, you hate life’ thing. Great stuff.

Yes. Absolutely. No one is arguing that, or at least they shouldn’t be. As long as everyone is healthy, I think this is the best team in the AL on paper. But that is very different than saying “once the lineup is healthy, everything will fall into place.” A lot of things have to go right for that to happen. Can it? Of course. Will it? Sure hope so, but I’m not expecting everything to align perfectly. That’s silly.

Okay, back to my miserable existence.

I mean at the end of the day all the Sox can do is control what they can control, and the rest will play out.  There is no reason to be miserable about it.  To me, that is the silly part.

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15 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

I mean at the end of the day all the Sox can do is control what they can control, and the rest will play out.  There is no reason to be miserable about it.  To me, that is the silly part.

Couldn’t agree more. But again, not expecting things to play out perfectly does not mean being miserable.

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10 minutes ago, Snopek said:

Ah yes, so much misery in my post. Back to the old ‘if you’re not 100% optimistic, you hate life’ thing. Great stuff.

Yes. Absolutely. No one is arguing that, or at least they shouldn’t be. As long as everyone is healthy, I think this is the best team in the AL on paper. But that is very different than saying “once the lineup is healthy, everything will fall into place.” A lot of things have to go right for that to happen. Can it? Of course. Will it? Sure hope so, but I’m not expecting everything to align perfectly. That’s silly.

Okay, back to my miserable existence.

Because basing how they will play in October on how they are playing now is silly. They are basically playing glorified Spring Training games presently Are they able to "flip the switch" on Opening Day?  The goal is to get the team as healthy as possible and take their chances.

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1 minute ago, Snopek said:

Couldn’t agree more. But again, not expecting things to play out perfectly does not mean being miserable.

Who cares though?  
 

They have the most talent in the league and it’s not even close really.  Look how hard they’ve been fighting health all season.  
 

Everyone in the game threads just needs to shut up and look at everything the team is doing through the lens of “we just want all our guys to be healthy in the beginning of October and we have a really good chance”.  
 

Nothing else matters.  Nothing.  No TLR decisions matter.  We have 4-5 pitchers who will probably get a CYA vote.  Go see if the other teams everybody is scared of would like to have that.  
 

 

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4 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

Because basing how they will play in October on how they are playing now is silly. They are basically playing glorified Spring Training games presently Are they able to "flip the switch" on Opening Day?  The goal is to get the team as healthy as possible and take their chances.

I think you have me confused with one of the ‘live and die by every pitch in the game thread’ folks. Sure, I’d like to see them playing better right now, but getting healthy is absolutely the most important thing the rest of the regular season.

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I agree that getting this team as healthy as possible before Oct 7 is the most important thing. I'm not criticizing TLR or this team at all. They have had a great season especially considering all the health issues they have had to deal with. Winning the Division will be a helluva accomplishment. I just really want them at their best come playoff time. 

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