WookiesOnRitalin

Statistically, you're right, but Tony needed a way to get Hendriks. GC was a great way to get there especially if he was locating. Looks like TLR made the right call.

Depends on the situation mostly. If I'm a manager, you get six good innings out of Dallas. You got a 5 run lead. You know you need to get some of those bullpen arms some work. Surely...I mean surely, you are not going to allow a 6 spot in the 7th right? In terms of percentages, a six spot with a five run lead is rather low. So it was a good opportunity to get Heuer and Marshall out there. They just did not show up and pitched like garbage. Heuer could not locate. Was opening up his hip way too early and the ball went everywhere. Lastly, we got a long way to go. You get 6 innings out of a 30+ year old starter and a 5 run lead, sit him. I'd make that call 9 times out of the 10 unless the guy is just absolutely being lights out or a top tier pitcher like Bieber.

The problem is not RealGM. It's the NBA. I grew up watching a different brand of basketball. I've written some quite lengthy posts about how killing hand checking is killing the game. The game hit a low for offense in the early 2000s with only 1 team scoring over 100 points. I believe it was the Memphis Grizzlies who in the mid 2000s were the last team to hold an opponent under 90 points for an entire season. Now, there is not one team who does not allow over 100 ppg. It's a shooter's league. Less emphasis on rebounding, defense, and tougher play. The game is soft. The players are soft. Lebron is king of the soft era. It's not impressive and it's boring.

My overall impression of this game is that the team has the ability to put themselves in a position to win most nights. The other night, they had the bases loaded with a chance to win in Cleveland and then Jose pulls an outside pitch right into an easy grounder ?. Bullpen is rather terrible except for a few highlights (Kopech, Crochet, and Hendriks). It's fair to assume that the Sox will make some moves in order to shore up the situation. Cannot wait to see what the lineup can do at full strength. Lastly, NICKY MAGIC WITH THE POWER STROKE. When I saw it leave his bat, I was like, that might have a chance. Kid will never be a huge OPS guy, but damnit, if he does not have a good approach and about as ideal as you can expect for a 9-hole hitter.

Thanks. I've been following Soxtalk for about as long as RealGM. I could not locate the pw to my old login for here so we just went with a new one. There is also only one WookieOnRitalin and hopefully it will remain as such.

Teams are hitting .340 on Keuchel on the third trip through. It was likely the reason he was pulled.

So one of the solutions for decreasing ball speed is just to make sure the guys who are pitching to throw more, more often, and likely getting more injured? How about pitch minimums for relievers and starters? Or perhaps inning minimums? I think there are other ways to handle the problem then cutting the amount of the staff on the roster. That seems stupid.

Four Gamer against the Tribe will be a very, very important series for the club. Coming out with anything less than 2 games will probably not insure a lot of confidence in our ability to beat them for the division. If the boys somehow take 3, then they will have a stranglehold on the division. Our starting pitching has been just been great and it is arguably the best rotation in the league right now.

My God. How can the Dodgers be 2 at this point? Sure, I think they will bounce back, but for a team to lose 8 out of its last 10 games? Come on. This is why I always take these rankings with a grain of salt.

The Sox had their opportunities all series and did not execute. Sox left a ton of men on base with some of the best batters at the plate. The team was in a prime position to win the series and unfortunately, did not capitalize. Rodon was a head scratcher considering how horrible he has been. Dallas putting up a dud in Game 2 was also not helpful. The Sox will learn from this and hopefully be better for it next year. The starting rotation and RF seem to be the biggest priorities so hopefully those adjustments will be made in the offseason.

Oh absolutely. This is the beauty of team sports. I do believe Robert will figure it out. He's too talented and surrounded by a lot of great guys (Jose, TA, Eloy). It has been a blast watching the team grow over the last two seasons. We got a talented roster and one of the things I wanted to see from this team is could they hang in tight games and pull them out or play from behind and eventually put themselves in a situation to either tie or win the game. That is a sign of a maturing team. When things start poorly, do they give up or do they anchor down? The boys have done a good job this year fighting in pressure situations against good clubs. They have proven that even if you do beat them, they are difficult to beat in a series as they usually bounce back pretty well the next time out. It's tough to keep a good hitting club down for long, but it does happen if the opposing rotation is filthy. I think the resistance here is that I am being critical of a fan favorite rookie who I think is a super special player assuming he can figure things out at the plate. The good news is that he has been so horrible at the plate that he really has no where to go but up. Let's just hope he finds some groove so he can contribute come playoff time.

RF. DH. But agree with the idea that we should see if we can bring in another rotation guy even it is for a year while guys like Stiever, Kopech, and Crochet continue to develop.

This is true, which actually supports my thesis that people need to pump the brakes when it comes to anointing players as "legends" or "great" before they actually prove they can do something consistently. The conclusion would be the same for Tatis as it would be for Robert. If Tatis does not start hitting, the Padres will be in trouble in the playoffs. He's currently batting .205 against the Dodgers this year with a .650 OPS. You need your big guys to show up against good teams otherwise it hurts your chances of winning. Saying so does not mean you're a negative nancy. Just acknowledging that a player is struggling and it needs to change soon if the goal is to win. Also, Robert is now batting .103 in September with an OPS of .340. This does not mean he is garbage. It just means he's currently hitting like....garbage.

Growing up as a kid, the show was fun, but the real cool stuff was in the Archie comic series which I would buy every week at Walmart when it came out. The avatar is from a specific storyline in the series where a future Raphael and Donatello travel backward to the past to recruit their younger selves to help fight a new enemy in the future. It's a dark series which made it much more fascinating by comparison to the bubble gum version of the TV series/Movies. The comic actually predicted the polar caps would melt and flood the coasts. So the majority of New York is underwater in the future. Kinda prophetic considering that was 25 years ago.

This has been my avatar on a variety of forums for the better part of 15 years of internetting and most jokes have already been done.

I am not. The difference is that I expected such struggles while there is an entire thread dedicated to his "greatness" when in fact he has yet to prove anything at this point. My view is "slow the roll" and let it play out. Rookies struggle. Eloy struggled. Yoan struggled (but is struggling again...). The problem is not the talent. It's obvious. However, if any hitter on our roster was batting sub .200 for an entire month during a playoff push, they would also receive criticism. Does this mean I give up on Robert? No. It just means that fans need to dampen their expectations and understand that he is a bit of a black hole in the lineup right now. That's not conjecture. That's just a fact. If we want to do damage in the playoffs, we will need Robert's bat and it is my hope he finds it.

*yawn* You'll have to do better than that my friend.

Oh, I 100% agree that Robert needs to play simply due to the fact he is our best outfielder. With that said, we should pump the breaks on Robert's greatness until he proves he can hit consistently which he has not done and is at this point slumping into a .200 average. I will poo poo on him until I think he figures it out. When that happens, I will celebrate that success with everyone else. Until then, criticism is warranted especially when others poo poo on other players on our roster for hitting just as poorly.

Have to win the first series first which I qualify as a 50-50 shot with the poop show that is Robert's bat at current.

This won me over. Sign him!

Luis Robert is now hitting .235 and hitting worse than Grandal. At this rate, he'll be batting .200 by season's end. Yes, I am being a party pooper, but without Robert swinging it, our chances of winning in the playoffs are 50-50 at best. We need that man swinging lumber and he's swinging a wiffle bat right now. Yuck. Otherwise our MVPs are carrying us yet again. TA and Abreu. What a combo this year. Glad to see Dallas pitch well with a limited pitch count. Keep him healthy for the playoffs.

*rimshot* More of a Valium kind of guy myself, but to each their own. ?

We will see, but there is not much time for them to get their stuff together.

Yasmani apparently has only one redeeming quality as a hitter. He is currently batting .292 on the road. So, let's just play Yas in away games cause he cannot apparently hit at GR Field. ?

Luis Robert has got to get something figured out. He's arguably been one of our worst hitters in the month of September. Currently throwing up .130/.226/.196 for a stellar .422 OPS. The first two months were so good, but he's just been rather dreadful. If Luis or Yoan figure anything out by the playoffs, man oh man we could be frightening. Unfortunately, Luis is hitting horribly and Yoan has been just average. Got to figure out some way to get those guys going especially if we want to do any damage in the playoffs.