CentralChamps21

No, you don't risk it, not with Vaughn up next. This is 100% on Mendick.

Reese shouldn't be expecting a runner to tag from 1st on the 2nd out.

Honestly Yaz striking out is probably better than putting it in play here.

His splitter hasn't been great tonight. A good lineup probably has 5-6 runs off him by now.

I don't think anybody said he would never hit righties. Most said that due to his very limited time in the minors it might take a while before he could.

Need to get Vaughn a triple somehow.

Not sure why you don't have the .167 hitter bunting with a runner on 2nd and no outs.

Vaughn's 1st inning homer went 123.4 meters.

I think we've found our permanent #2 hitter.

Ooh, I know, it's LaRussa.

I guess against this lineup you have to be satisfied with any 1-2-3 inning even if it takes 18 pitches.

Maybe not a strike but center cut an inch below the zone is not where you want to throw an 0-2 fastball.

So glad we had our worst OBP guy batting in front of that Vaughn homer.

I think Grandal's done. Back to back fastballs down the middle and missed both.

If the person who started the previous game's thread doesn't show, at some point someone else needs to do it, but we've got an hour yet.

@ShoeLessRob how about a game thread?

Of all the stupid batshit right wing positions TLR has, why couldn't anti-vax be one of them? Get someone else making the lineup for 3 days.

There are $13,889 reasons for Cease to get vaccinated and $49,383 reasons for Graveman to get vaccinated.

Look at the bright side, batting the slowest guy on the team leadoff won't be a liability if he never gets on base.

Current rules allow a team to carry 26 guys on an active roster, with no more than 13 of them being pitchers (temporarily 14 through 6/20). For any given game, you have a minimum of 4 starting pitchers who aren't going to pitch in that game, so you're effectively working with a 22 man roster. If you have a position player or relief pitcher down for 4-5 days, you may not want to put him in the IL but you're really starting to get thin on options. How about doing something like football/hockey where you could have 27 guys on your active roster but only 22 active for any one game? A minimum of 12 would need to be position players. Then you aren't short if a guy is needs to be off for a few days. If you don't have anybody who needs an extended break, there's almost always a reliever who would be unavailable anyway from having pitched 2-3 days in a row. Yeah, this adds a 27th salary to your payroll. Don't know how to compensate for that, but if that can be worked out, is this a good idea?

Can't bring anybody up to take Cease's spot:

Cease and Graveman are temporarily off the 40, so they'll need two of those three spots when they come back. They'll need one for Lynn. Won't need one for Crochet. Not sure about Stiever.

I've never thought the Sox weren't favorites to win the division, and I still don't unless TA is out beyond August 15. The problem is that this team will win the division, lose the WC series to Toronto or the DS to Houston and management will think they made good moves because they won the division. I still think the best chance to win a World Series in '23 or '24 will be if the Sox miss the playoffs entirely this year and some kind of shakeup results.