vilehoopster

I'm excited about the young bats: Romy and Frazier. Keep it goin' boys!!!!

You can point to this and that during the game, but this loss is 99.9% on Reynaldo. A devastating loss. This blown game is up there with Engel dropping that foul ball last year. Reylo served that win to TB on a dish. He just showed that he can’t be the closer. Pick someone else, whoever. He can’t be any worse.

Moncada right back in at 3rd base and sit Burger down? Really? That was the mistake the Sox made last year. Don’t repeat it. Burger just hit a homer in three games in a row, and you want to replace him with the guy with a .626 OPS last year. Moncada is not going to rake ever because he’s not going to care, ever.

Burger seems to be doing just fine against right handlers the last two days. That sample size means as much to me as his small amount of at bats against righties before this series. I said this like a month ago, however bad he is or was against righties, he was leading the Sox in homers last year before he got hurt and was then later replaced by Moncada. Why is he not in the lineup? Play him at 1st or 3rd or DH, but it seems completely obvious that the Sox need to be getting him lots of at bats and have him in the lineup everyday.

What’s the deal on Crochet? In early spring training it was he’d be back by May. Then when the actual season started it was mid-May. Now according to that Merkin article it late May or early June. It’s s%*# like this that drives me crazy. Why don’t our guys get better. Look at Moncada, when we 1st heard, it was a game of the Minnesota series, then the entire series. Isn’t the latest now that Moncada will miss the Baltimore series. Does it ever happen the other way: where a player comes back earlier than expected from an injury, ever?

I am sooo tired of this lack of depth s%*#. Really, was there another Tim Anderson out there for the franchise to grab. How about another player with Eloy's bat? Was or is he out there an available? Another Moncada? Our backups are just fine as backups go. But they're backups. It's silly and unreasonable to somehow imply that "better depth" could replace an Anderson, Eloy, and a Moncada. When you lose players that good, any team or franchise is going to be hurting very badly.

On the topic of Sheets cutting off the throw home. According to Ozzie on the postgame show, that cut off mistake is on Grandal. Ozzie said the catcher can see where the guy is rounding 3rd, the cutoff man can’t. It up to the catcher to communicate to cutoff man to let it through or cut it off. He began and ended his comment on the topic saying it was Grandal’s mistake.

Thank you. I agree. I wanted to throw Liam in there too, but didn’t want to sound overly optimistic. I think he will help a ton too. I expect Clevenger to be, at least, solid today, and that is all Sox need to get a win today.

I agree. And I halfway agree with Pedro: starters will get things figured out and be solid/ above average. Until Crochet gets back, don’t like that bullpen.

First you hold the easy score, but then you send Vaughn. What a dumbass !!!

“Maybe push the rest of the so-called stars to stay in the starting lineup as much as them“ I agree with this.

I am really excited about Oscar Colas and so glad he's going to be in RF for the Sox this year. But I am not so naive and overly optimistic to think he's not going to have his struggles, especially with striking out. After seeing how Robert was tearing it up and then hit that terrible slump after pitchers figured him out, I have to believe Colas will have similar struggles. So, what do we realistically hope for from Colas to finally solve that hole in RF and help the Sox win the division? One thing I completely expect is very strong defense, covering a big area and really making a difference with his arm. I'm sure he'll have some bad plays, but overall, I think we fans will be very happy with his D. On offense, again, I really worry about strikeouts and don't expect a high batting average; but I expect some real power too. With the expected help on defense, I expect and would be happy with a .230 average, 20 home runs, and 25 doubles. I think that is realistic and would go a looong way to helping the Sox to win the division.

I’m already past that BS. If he pitches really well and helps Sox make playoffs, I’ll nominate him for Sainthood.

“1B is a sieve though and the outfield potentially a disaster again.” I don’t think either one of these is true. I’ve never hear any concerns about Vaughn’s defense at 1st. I would think he’d, being younger, would be at least as good as Abreu on D. Are there concerns about Vaughn’s D at first? Outfield defense should be a team strength: gold glovers in left and center and Colas is athletic enough to be in center at times and he has the great arm in Right.

I completely agree with this. Was it a game last year or the year before, where the Sox had a game on National TV, and the announcers kept questioning, over and over, why TLR had him batting lead off. What an incredibly stupid misuse of a player. At some level, you know that had to be embarrassing for Leury. IMO, Tony, more than Leury, is responsible for fans disliking Leury.

I agree with the majority here: I think keeping Sheets is a total no-brainer. Not only does he has a good bat against RHP, he seems to have, far and away, one of the most consistent bats on the roster.

Well in 2022 it was .212/ .273 OBP/ .353 SlG/ .626 OPS: doesn’t seem like nonsense to me at all.

I don’t know about “off the bench” as opposed to in the lineup. What is that? Four HRs for Burger so far this spring, at least four; I think it’s five. Before you dismiss his results to just spring ball, remember he was leading Sox in HRs until hand injury and we were somehow subjected to Moncada’s bat the rest of the year.

Someone remind me or clear this up for me; but when Burger disappeared from or was remove from the Sox line up (I forget why? To make room for Moncada, or wasn’t it a hand injury?) But whatever reason, wasn’t he leading the Sox in homers at the time he when down? Again wasn’t it injury and while out they gave 3rd base to Moncada? What happened then and wasn’t he Sox HR leader at the time?

I agree with this guy 100%. That people are bitching about is move shows that no matter what is done, people are gonna turn it this way or that to b**** about management and Hahn. Over half the people complaining here are the ones who were complaining about lack of depth and what’s the fallback if the rookie 2nd basemen don’t work out. I come here for information and be among my fellow Sox fans, but really, sometimes this board is a total drag. Please God, let’s start playing baseball soon.

I agree with this guy: I’m completely excited about the upcoming season. I was bummed out on the Clevenger thing for a while but now over it. If he pitches or not, let’s start playing ball. I want to see TA and Benintendi get on base and Robert, Eloy, and Vaughn coming up to knock them in. I want to see Colas. I want to see it all.

Clevenger is dead to the Sox. There's a real possibility (I would say a very good probability) that the Sox won't be paying much of his salary due to MLB suspension. We were told over and over the money would be spent. We're in the window, NOW; I absolutely believe that now is the time. I don' t want any "sitting at the table" BS. Sign this guy. Here is an absolute need. The Sox can't really compete for anything with Martin or Banks as their 5th pitcher. I just read Wacha wants 30 million for two years, pay it Get this guy. Signing him would turn a terrible off-season into a very solid one. I was listening to the Chuck G. podcast and it was talked around, but it was brought up about how, due to fan anger and indifference, it was probably a good thing there was no Sox Fest this year. This would buy so much excitement and hope for the Sox fan base. It would really get a buzz going as spring training approaches. Come on, the money is there. You told us when the time came, you would spend the money. The time is here; it's now. SPEND THE MONEY!

You know what? I think this is a very good idea. part of this is I’m a big Jake Burger fan and want his home run power back in the line up.

I listen to the Chuck Garfien podcasts, and in a couple of his last few podcasts, he's mentioned that Crochet could really be a big addition to the bullpen when he returns. The problem is that, for me, I don't want him to return to the bullpen. When he gets back and recovered from surgery. I would really like the Sox to bite the bullet and invest the time in sending him to the minors and work on him becoming a starter. I guess my logic on this is that they spent such a high draft choice on him, it seems that he would be much more likely to justify that high selection as a starter than as a reliever. I see the problems with doing this. 1) That's a lot of time pitching in the minors stretching him out to be a starter. (I really don't know but I think I remember people here implying it's a year and a half in the minors). That's a year and a half he's not in the bullpen. 2) And that's the other problem, the only two lefties in the Sox pen are Bummer and Tanner Banks. So I can see why the Sox would want him in the bullpen as soon as possible. I think the Sox have to start thinking about the future of their starting rotation. Giolito will probably be gone after next year. How much longer for Lynn? And, again, I just think he would be more valuable to the Sox as a starter. I think I remember reading that Crochet wants to be a starter. Is that still true? Would he be willing to spend time in the minors to build up and become a starter. Please, there are many on here who know more on this topic than I do. Help me out. Is this a good idea? Would it or could it work?