hankchifan

Venable did not have a good game with the bunt with 2 strikes, and this lack of aggressiveness not sending Antonacci to steal. It was likely that the Twins would not have even attempted a throw to second, afraid that Acuna would score from third. I would award Venable the Pedro Grifol Memorial Award tonight.

Sox have a better team today than the Cubs , particularly pitching and offense. Cubs have a better defense, but the Sox has good core of young, hungrier, skilled players, while the Cubs have a bunch of highly payed older players underperforming. IMO.

Also who called for a splitter on an 0-2 count when the batter could not catch up to the fastball twice? Quero, the pitcher or the bench? Don’t trust QUERO judgement. He is a terrible catcher. He is leading MLB in losing ABS CHALLENGES as well.

The big issue was Teel getting hurt at the WBC playing for ITALY! In hindsight, he should have been told not to do it.

Particularly with 2 strikes.

Bunting with two strikes was giving an out away and not moving the runner either. I think that play cost us the game as we needed to score B10. Shame.

Big Trio or Three Amigos ?

We can also consider options like Big Trio or Three Amigos ?

In the meantime, Kopech sits at home. Rare win for the Sox front office along with Mune signing.

Beni has been hitting better lately.

The Sox are moving to a Japanese centric foreign contingent from the Cuban centric era. The Japanese are looking better so far.

He is only 5’6”, 150 lbs. so don’t expect too much on the power side. He is primarily a second baseman with lots of energy and high OBP.

Hicks should not have been in a high leverage close game situation. IMO.

Still a better chance with Grichuk a career 200+ homer guy than QUERO who is hitting like .150 with very little plate discipline. IMO.

Our biggest weakness now is the bottom of the lineup , when is populated by QUERO/Romo and Acuna, all hitting below the Mendoza line.

Proved right. Grichuk just hit a homer as PH. Compare that to Quero.

Supporting Acuna and Quero in the same lineup, with their below the Mendoza line batting average is unsustainable. Hill much better than Acuna. Benintendi starting to hit also helps. We also found the new. 9th inning closer in Taylor. If Seranthony was closing tonight, we may not have won this game.

We need a better closer than Dominguez if we want to contend.

Laz Diaz is the new Angel Hernandez.

Give the Hawk a phone call to ask for a suggestion.

We need Teel back healthy ASAP. Quero and Romo defense has been very mediocre, particularly catching the ball behind the plate and also poor on ABS challenges.

And the Rate is a homer friendly park, so it should continue.

I would like Mune better at batting third. Better chance for someone on base when he hits a homer.

At least Beckham is not on today, otherwise it would be nonstop verbal diahrrea. Bring out the Pepto Bismol.

Quero has been even worse at ABS challenges. Venables needs to instruct our catchers and pitchers, to allow the pitchers to make the ABS challenges and not the catchers. Writing about ABS, it brought back memories about Angel Hernandez. He would have overheated the system from overuse by now. IMO.