CentralChamps21

If the Sox think Davis Martin is going to be a starter at the major league level, having him in the Sox bullpen instead of starting at AAA isn't going to help that cause. At some point, the starting pitchers have to go 6 innings consistently and the offense has to score enough runs that we don't go to extra innings so often and have to use the bullpen so many innings.

I so wanted him that past offseason. Would look great in the lineup between Robert and Abreu.

Matt Foster

Feels like the game hinges on Jose here.

Looks like his foot came off the bag. E-Leury

Harrison in for Moncada

He looks like he's really close to going on a tear.

Leury's foot looks like it's broken. Better put him on the IL.

Sheets should be in the lineup against any righty that doesn't have an A+ changeup.

Even that one should have been hit a lot farther than it was.

That was after the tag though. No play was being made on him at that time. Yes, that was a stupid play by TA, but how about the pitchers stop loading the bases and throwing 30 pitches in the first inning?

You know the Twins are getting at least 2 more runs after this gets overturned on top of it.

Has Josh Harrison ever pitched on back to back days before?

When is the last time anybody other than Cease was ready to pitch in the first inning?

Eloy in LF batting 6th.

Vaughn appears to be passable in the OF because he catches everything he gets to, but he's so damn slow that he doesn't get to much. A lot of stuff just falls out of his reach that a faster guy like Eloy, even though he looks really bad out there, could get.

Even if you aren't willing to pay a premium for FO guys from Tampa or other places, invest a little bit in an analytics department and listen to them. Anybody with an understanding of basic statistics and some baseball knowledge can run correlations on dozens of stats and identify the most successful characteristics of players. The Sox either aren't doing this or are completely ignoring the data. Numerous posters here have noted that a high ground ball rate correlates very negatively to scoring runs, and a low strikeout rate has almost no correlation, but the Sox continue to operate as if they're entirely unaware of this.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/league?season=2022#statcastHitting 5th highest 1st pitch swing % 2nd highest chase % 4th highest GB % 4th lowest launch angle This is one or both of 1) the hitting coach doesn't understand that these metrics are bad or 2) the players are not responding to being coached Since the same people hire the hitting coach and the players, the failure lies at the same place regardless.

I've turned this game off, but if the "Fire Tony" chant becomes audible, let me know and I'll switch back over.

Yeah, at this point "Richie actually got anal" is more likely than "Sox about to get hot"

If there was a way to have him play in Arizona until June 1 and then join the Sox, I'd definitely bring him back. Can't justify paying him to occupy a lineup spot in April-May though.

Steverson was fired because, in 2019, the combination of Leury Garcia, Yolmer Sanchez, Adam Engel, Yonder Alonso, Ryan Cordell, John Jay, Ryan Goins, Charlie Tilson, and Jose Rondon combined for 2,577 plate appearances, which dragged the team hitting stats down in a way that no hitting coach could overcome. If they had looked instead at these guys, they might have kept him: Player / ISO in 2019 / Career ISO / Difference Jimenez / .246 / .231 / +.015 Moncada / .233 / .173 / +.060 Abreu / .219 / .222 / -.003 Castillo / .209 / .171 / +.038 McCann / .187 / .139 / +.048 Anderson / .173 / .159 / +.014 ===== So there was essentially no impact on Jose Abreu and slight impact on Eloy and TA, but Moncada, Castillo and McCann (all on different teams now) had substantially higher ISO in 2019 than their career totals. Firing Steverson and replacing him with a guy known for high contact and low ISO screams one or both of two things: 1) the Sox as an organization have no clue what metrics drive hitting success or 2) a decision-maker in the organization had a personal connection with Menechino and insisted that he be brought in and Steverson fired. The timing of Menechino getting hired a year after getting fired by Miami, and not coinciding with a new manager, strongly suggests #2.