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Pitchers can have rough nights. He hasn't learned how to pitch in the MLB yet, let alone how to pitch without his best stuff. Pitching in the MLB is stressful on the body and he has been on adrenaline since his call up and he is pitching more innings than he ever has.

Please continue, rain... let's have Kopech's stats wiped!

Cooper keeps his pitchers healthy. That is job number 1. Besides with the talent he's had lately would you really expect anything different.

Because MLB hitters are better than minor league hitters and the precision of the command needs to be better.

Why would you take away his electric stuff that will put asses in the seats and people wanting to watch?

Hindsight is 20/20, but clear in retrospect that the mixture of his stuff being off and the delay was not going to go well. Had to give it a shot, though.

Rofl. This thread is great. Never change game threads. Never change.

This game's a stinker but to me it's still clear as day how great Kopech is going to be.

He was consisntely 97 the last month in the minors and now he's 93-95 in the majors. They even said on the broadcast the focus tonight was on command.

Ah, finally Cooper wakes up from his 13 year nap

He seemingly got mad and finally threw one at 96.1 MPH, which didn't have a good result, either. A little bit of a Chris Sale streak in him, there. Was he really thinking he could just dial it all the way down and be successful like Sale and Rodon have been in the past at lower velocities?

Good god...wake up call for Kopech that you can't try to coast

This one.

The Rainmaker.

Read the article in the Athletic by Fegan on how the new pitchers up are having to adjust on the different seams on the MLB ball. Very interesting and a good read. Several almost can't control a breaking pitch or have some that slip.

THEY STARTED THE ARB CLOCK ON THE AAA PITCHING COACH???????

Kopech vs. Otani would be an interesting match up.

Not like Alex Smith doesn't love TEs but I have a hard time trusting Reed at all until he proves it again. I'd probably go Burton, though, with what limited tape is on the bears offense that may be what packers focus on stopping. Plus, wasn't trubisky best in middle of field? They may just try and give him the outside and prove it.

Assuming the forecast holds, the Sox would be idiots to even send him out to start. But that's what I said last time against Boston and they still did it.

This is exactly what you wanted to see out of this team. No matter what the results were, you wanted to see progress and growth from as many of the key guys as possible, plus see how players not at the center of the rebuild have shown themselves.

Good posts, @gusguyman. Don't have time to join the convo but wanted to support your thought process.

Sorry, I phrased it weirdly, but we are actually in complete agreement here. The first half was a fairly accurate representation of our team, and while we improved (I've said previously from mid 60's to low 70's in wins), we have not improved as much as the record looks like. I think adding Eloy and a full year of Kopech and Rodon gets us to upper 70's wins, and the growth we need to see from Moncada and the young arms could feasibly bring us to .500, if things go right. Glad we could all align.

Mark this date in history, I agree with this post. .500-ish with Eloy sounds about right with me, assuming no major add-ons.

I'm glad to see tank derangement syndrome hit so hard that there are now people openly rooting against the Sox to make the playoffs.

Oh I know exactly what you;re saying and agree with most of it. I don't think there's a chance either we get one or Harper or Machado. I've argued with the guys who think money is the only motivator to sign with whoever they end up with while I argued sure its the money 1st and foremost but 2 guys who haven't won a World Series will want the money and a chance to get the ring. Everything I've said up to this point is purely based on what happens if we do get one of them. Without one of them that changes everything just as getting one of them changes everything. I keep imagining Eloy being a great player right away and Moncada stepping up in a big way and Kopech not having the kind of problems Gio and Lopez have experienced even though I'm sure he will. Rodon could be an ace but he could also be the same guy we've seen over and over with dominant runs only to fall back or get injured. I'm basing everything on best case scenarios and a lot of things happening that aren't likely to happen, I know deep down that it's a year too early but I can't stop myself from dreaming bigger. The sooner we start to realize that our path to the playoffs might be quicker than anticipated due to our weak division the better. If we cant compete or get significantly better next year I think it limits the chance of success in 2020 and I keep seeing the timeline for success being pushed further away based on waiting for more prospects, If in 2020 we say OK prospects are here, now we sign free agents and expect it to all come together all at once is just as unrealistic as me wanting to go for it next year because position player prospects are just as likely to have the same kind of growing pains the pitchers do.

I can't imagine disagreeing any more. I absolutely love that logo.

Because he’s earned the right to start earning those millions now, and Hahn is depriving him of that. I can see a parallel in my own life. I’m a high school teacher, but I have a master’s degree in educational administration from a highly regarded program in addition to military leadership experience. My school’s leaders told me they want to keep me in the classroom because I’m too valuable there. I was so disgruntled by that decision that I chose to go on another deployment instead. As far as I’m concerned, that employer is dead to me. I will spare nothing while deployed to ensure that I never return to that place in any fashion. I’m at that point over a few thousand dollars a year. How do you think Eloy feels about a few thousand a day? Edit: It was implied, but I’m trying to become an assistant principal instead of remaining as a teacher (in case it wasn’t obvious).

I think is the opposite. He's been hurt this year, and still putting up replacement level numbers.

Especially fans of the team. Honestly Moncada could be the difference between a championship or two or slightly above mediocre. We shouldn’t be writing him off rather finding every positive daily and hoping he can improve week by week. I’m not one to say “he plays on our team so support him!” because trust me, there are PLENTY of guys who suck ass on this team, but guys like Anderson, Moncada, Kopech, Lopez, Rodon, Giolito and maybe to some extent Garcia, Abreu & Narvaez should be cheered for every night, not trashed.

I imagine if the Red Sox don’t win the World Series this year we probably win the sale trade.