Chimpton

Yes but did the Phillies also have a dodgy batting line up who can't hit RHP, no starting depth a crumbling pen and a senile manager?

Collapses like that are exactly why we should be concerned. The win streak was nice but we were hardly playing world class ball and giving up 6 in the 9th yesterday was just shameful.

That's if you can call what he is doing 'managing'.

Just wanted to congratulate Dallas on a decent effort today. I thought bringing him out for the 6th was pushing our luck and so it proved.

The team is still 20th in batting average and 29th in fielding so whilst they have got better there is still plenty of room for improvement.

A 5 game winning streak against 2 poor teams, if they can continue this against better opponents then I will stop being concerned but 5 games is a good start. Also it wasn't so much the fact that they were losing so many games it was more the fact that they were so bad in all those games and lacked basic fielding, batting or pitching ability that was the bigger concern.

It just seems ridiculous when a SP can get a loss for pitching one terrible innings that sets you on the way to a loss but can't get a win for pitching 4 scorless innings! Still I suppose all rules don't have to make sense.

Just a quick question from a UK Sox fan still learning all the rules, but how come Reynaldo gets given the win just for pitching the 5th? Kopech pitched 4 scorless innings when all the Sox runs were scored.

Most of that is caused by the one game, in the others he has allowed 3, 4 and 0 runs. I'm not saying he is good, or that he should necessarily stay on the team, just that when your 5th starter is giving up 3 or 4 runs and getting no run support he will lose, and last night was not his fault as the pen once again coughed up runs and they cost us.

Whilst Keuchal has undoubtedly been poor this season, he has had very little offensive support across his 4 games 10 runs in 4 games to be precise, and 5 of them came in the 9th yesterday. In two of his losses the team mustered a grand total of 1 run in support. He is definitely a 5th or 6th starter but we knew that already, but the biggest problem is the absolutely pathetic offense that is doing nothing to help out the starting pitching no matter how weak that pitching has been.

The weather must have suddenly warmed up.

To score runs you have to be able to hit the ball

When only one player in the line up has a BA over.230 and 5 have a BA below .200 I'm not sure you can expect a win with Keuchal pitching.

Also realistically a retool with the players we have to trade would be nigh on impossible, which players other than Vaughan, Cease, Kopech and Giolito (none of whom you would want to trade if it was just a retool) would actually generate much of a return

When does the rebuild begin? The 'years' of sustained success after the last one seem to have come to an end.

The FO will probably trade him now for a relief pitcher!

What about the Cubs?

I wouldn't trust Hahn and the FO to get that right based on their track record.

Maybe a picture of Jerry waving a wedge of money ???

More serious is the thought that the 'years of success' promised during the rebuild appear to be over, the squad was not good enough to advance in the post season last 2 years and if anything looks worse this season, the farm system is empty so no possible trade chips there and there is no possibility of more money from Jerry, and there are too many underperforming players on big fat contracts who no one else would want, so I'm not sure where any improvement would come from. I know injuries are crippling the squad but the complete lack of depth was an issue for most on here but not the FO, and even if they were all fit that only puts us back where we were last season when the post season lasted one dismal series.

Makes you wonder if the Sox even have a strength and conditioning department.

Losing is one thing, every team, even great ones, go on losing streaks but it is the insipid manner of these defeats that is most worrying. They are playing like a team winding down at the end of the season who have nothing left to play for.

Agree on the pitching and 2B but I can't agree completely about Eloy just yet. He may be hitting badly at the moment but his BA is better than Abreu, Sheets, Robert and Grandal. Mind you all of the above named are doing badly at the moment, I'm just hoping the warmer weather has an impact eventually! With Eloy if he is still like this by the All Star Break then it may be time to move on from him.

The biggest worry is the lack of offense. Dallas Keuchel was worse than we expected and that game was gone after 2 innings but in the 2nd game the pitchers did their bit limiting the opposition to 2 runs and still the offense could only muster 2 runs across the 2 games. Yes the rotation is weak (hopefully Giolito is back healthy very soon) but unless the offense pulls its weight to help them out this season could go south very quickly.

Agreed, this team is good enough as is to make the post season, but unless the starting pitching gets strengthened before then it will be hard to progress. But a 6-3 start while missing your 1-2 starting pitchers and your starting 3B is better than I was expecting.