poppysox

No!

Just ok with Steve and Jason and agree they are better this year. I sometime listen to the visitors broadcast and believe me there are worse broadcast teams than ours. Be content with what we have. Not easy to make a bad game seem interesting.

Settle on Robert & Madrigal being part of the championship teams with Jimenez being DH/1st base or LF against NL. Put our resources into pitching, extensions for our young core and McCann. Pitching & defense wins championships.

Edgy might be a good trait for a manager (Joe Girardi) or perhaps nurturing (Ricky). We can all see the difference. Sometime one method or the other seems to be the way to go. Current team seems to be full of nice guys being managed by a nice guy. Maybe that's great or maybe we need more edge. It's probably good when no one excepts being bad.

Player who have an edge to them often play for winners. Ty Cobb, Billy Martin, Early Wynn and AJ all had that edgy personality and I wonder if it didn't contribute to keeping their teammates heads in the game. I know that I'm guilty of liking my "nice" players and was recently thinking how likeable most of our players are. We always see TV shots of players fooling around happily in the dugout or playing mouse ears when on base. Maybe we need a couple of edgy players to keep us focused.

Let's face it...we robbed them.

Perhaps you haven't noticed that Houston loses very few games at home.

We lost the two games (bullpen game & Verlander) we all probably expected to lose. Now we have 2 games with realistic chance. If we grab 1 game in Houston it is a moral victory.

We have nice things...just need to use them in a better way.

I remember a video of Eaton reaching over a barrier (SoxFest or spring training) and lifting up and interacting with a kid with some handicap. The kid and his parents were excited and happy. It showed a side of Eaton that was very human and nice. It certainly influenced my opinion of him. I think his trade was a good one for us and we were overpaid. However, I don't buy into his being a 100% jerk.

We're at the stage of rebuild where AAAA people who are major league ready but blocked are of more interest to me. Need to start deciding who the 25 guys are that take us to the promise land.

Robert-Tilson-Best Outfielder you can get in trade for Colome may well be the FO plan. Would probably be the smart thing to do with only one + years of control. Jimenez moves to DH dabbles at 1st base & outfield.

The growing pains of a rebuild. Soon (maybe two years) we will start looking like Houston.

Those are the guys I'm talking about. You will need money for fair offers if you want to extend.

I'm not talking at all about journey man type players. I'm talking about stars who have been embraced by a fan base and have been treated fairly in negotiation with ownership. Be loyal to the fan base who has cheered you instead of chasing the almighty dollar.

Loyalty and respect is involved in both types of work. As a die hard Sox fan...if I was a player making 20 million I certainly wouldn't leave my club because someone would pay me 22 million. Loyalty is not what it once was in baseball and the sport is not better for it.

It's odd how multi millionaires with fan adoration leave their position with a club to get a few more million with another. Yet, a guy with a good middle class living stays with his employer because he feels well paid and respectfully treated.

We gave up the least valuable of the 3 assets to get 2 members and maybe 3 of our rotation. Actually, the returns on all three deals are pretty darn good. Hahn does very well in these type of negotiations.

It won't be long before the Sox look like what Houston does now. Win 2 out of 3 games and be near impossible to beat at home. Wish we would get Robert, Collins, Madrigal and Cease up to big club asap. In the long run players will develop better and faster by playing against better players IMO.

The bullpen did a very nice job tonight. Three one run innings with nothing disgusting happening. With Houston's club no one can expect to hold them to under 3 runs. Needed to find a way to score 4 runs. Maybe juggling the lineup would pump some life into things. Leo Durocher pulled the lineup out of a hat to wake up a sleeping offense. Durocher was the manager who said " nice guys finish last." Maybe we suffer from a little of that.

Would take this pitching performance from a bullpen game every time. Very good job IMO.

Where has Osich been keeping this stuff. He looks really good tonight. By the way...bullpen had a collective quality start.

Be still my heart...an Alonso hit.

Can't win if you don't score any runs. The pitchers have done a serviceable job so far. The hitters...not so much.

Osich with a 6 pitch inning. Very impressive!