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Might as well live in the real world. Revolutionizing pitching isn't happening. Best you can hope for is a lot of quality starts (6 or greater IP while giving up 3 or less runs.) 10 playoff teams were the top 10 teams in quality starts. #11 ? The Sox. 1 less QS than the Dodgers and Yankees. The Astros had the most (94) or 58% of their games. There were only 37 Complete Games in all of baseball this year. That's 30 teams X 162 games (4860). .0076% which is quite a bit below 1%. 22 of 30 teams had 1 or 0 CG games.

Being left handed helps. Plus he's got the Piazza like swing where just barreling it up on his natural swing sends it out to any field. That bomb he hit to left field was just a sweetly balanced swing on a pitch a couple inches off the outside corner.

And since I was talking out of my ass based on what I saw from him this season I will back it up now that my eye test was extremely accurate. Checking statcast info Robert's 1st pitch swing % was 49% , highest on the team. His normal swing % is 61.5 % so thats of all the pitches he sees he swings 61.5% of the time ! and that leads to this. Guess who on the Sox gets the least amount of meatballs to hit ? It's Luis Robert whose Meatball % is 5.6%. Yes there is a statcast thing called Meatball % ! If anyone needs to lay off of pitches it's Robert and he couldn't even TRY to do it when he was hurt which was the perfect time to do it. Just terrible terrible coaching or Robert just not listening.

He was an automatic out anyway . What did he go while he was playing injured 1 for 30 or something ? Work the count , and maybe u actually get a walk to help that way with your speed or maybe the pitcher grooves one. He does not have to swing at the 1st strike he get's because he can't tell the difference between balls and strikes good enough. But he does recognize hangers pretty good.

That'ss besides the point. As long as you are in there playing make the best of it and use it as a learning process. I'd be telling him look I know you're hurt and it hurts to swing. Look at the 1st 2 pitches .Look at the spin , the release point. They're supposed to know the pitchers' strengths and weaknesses and have a plan against them. He should know already how he is going to be pitched. It's up to him to learn to make pitchers throw him strikes and if they don't then take the bloody walk. Learning opportunity misused by a dumb player or dumb coaches not telling him what he should be doing .

Well that's about the stupidest approach possible. He's a free swinger as it is so why even bother throwing him a strike ever ? That's how pitchers approach him. He swings at the 1st pitch a LOT . 1st rule of baseball: you become a much better hitter when you get ahead in the count and a much worse hitter when you get behind.Why swing to make contact if swinging at all is painful . You need to look at more pitches any way to eventually reach your full potential so what better time to look at more pitches than when it hurts to swing the bat ?

That's the problem with most of the core. They aren't worth what they are starting to get paid until they start playing more games and living up to the hype. Robert may never be the runner and fielder he once was due to the major injury and constant injuries since. The odd thing about him playing hurt and 1 handed was that he didn't even bother looking at more pitches. You would think that he and his coaches MIGHT suggest that now would be a good time to work on your plate discipline since you are having a hard time swinging the bat and look for pitches to drive. Nope he just went up there hacking. Your walk rate shouldn't be trending down when you swing 1 handed. The pitchers pitch him the same, a ton of stuff off the plate,sliders away, curves and sinkers down, fastballs/cutters in. He just refused to stop swinging at it all. Sox need to think about him playing a corner and if they look for any LH OF, expand the search to include CF.

I don't think we know what we saw. We're not privy to any offers Hahn got or why it took so long. Maybe he had 4 or 5 teams he was talking to and went with what he thought was the best deal which usually for him is an old guy.

To be fair how do you know they even attempted to get a younger player? Maybe Hahn thought Pollock was better than any young player(s) he could get.

That hammer of his is nasty ! One of the best in baseball.

Yep and they had 17 rookies making their 1st MLB appearances this year. This was how our rebuild was supposed to go. I've been begging for Hahn to trade for more young guys in the last 2 years. I listed young guys in the Kimbrel thread after I got over Segura and specifically LHB. Did the same thing at the trade deadlines and off seasons in between wanting Happ and Wendle. Went over the Dodgers guys they were likely to trade and mentioned McKinstry and Outman. Scoured the D'backs young LH OF's. But nope Hahn kept on trading the young for the old and letting Charlotte and the rest of the system become a barren wasteland.

I saw the score was 8-1 . Then looked later it was 8-5 and I thought Mariners coming back . Then next time I looked I see they won !

My criteria is interview as many as possible. Ask them about their knowledge of the team and the players and organization. A candidate should come in prepared and knowledgeable. If they seem to lack knowledge of the Sox then that would deter me. I'd have a lot of questions and figure each interview could last at least a few hours.

I'll have to watch the replay and if if the camera caught your catch. Nice !

I was totally against it before. It's his best season since 2017 so getting a repeat next year of what he's done with the Sox since they've had him seems highly unlikely for a 34 year old. However his glove is very good. He can steal a base every now and then and 17 HR's would be tied for the most on the Sox if he had hit them all with them.

You're there and did you really ?

Is it my imagination or does it seem like Eloy is pulling the ball a lot more ?

Thank you for the shout out. Unlike the other organizational s%*# ,many many here wanted nothing to do with retaining Rodon. You can never ever give the Sox the benefit of the doubt. The easy thing to say with his injury history and their knowledge of his medical reports based on the 2021 season that Rodon was too high risk to bring back. We went out on a limb saying not only wasn't he injured last year but with his revamped mechanics he stood a good chance of continuing to pitch well in 2022. I had countless discussions with our resident medical expert about it and I knew the odds favored everyone heavily that at some point Rodon could break down. Some times the risks are worth it when you're talking about a guy who just put up the best season of his career in 2021 especially when you are gunning for a World Series. But hey they were able to spend it on Craig Kimbrel and in turn paid extra for Pollock and the injured Joe Kelly and 3 years of Leury. That's a lot of old crap instead of paying for your 29 year old pitcher when you're supposed to want to win.

Good for Carlos Perez ,1st MLB RBI gives Sox the lead and he takes 2nd on the throw.

Cueto. Full year of good pitching and good health.

Yup that magic pixie dust has wore off, 7 innings, 2 runs.

Harrison Ding ! Ding !

So for the college draft you suggest the Sox stick to slot and stop going over slot since the draft is a crap shot anyway and going over slot does not necessarily guarantee that guy will make it while it will cost you better choices in later rounds when the farm needs talent not a bunch of long shots 10K Seniors.

Are there 2 different periods to sign Int'l players during the year ? The main time in starting January 15 and July 28th ? I think it would be best to focus on January and go after the best then, which is what most clubs do right ? If older players become available later a lot of teams are out of money which may give a team who saved some to be in a better position. But the player may just decide to wait til the following January and prepare himself for a showcase . Is this an accurate assessments of how Int'l signings work now ? A lot has changed in a short period of time. We saw reports in the summer that Cuban prospects RHP Ubert Mejias (21) and C/UTIL José Ferrer (22) were declared free agents by the MLB Commissioner's Office. SO their signing period according to tweets would be next July 28, 2023. These could be guys the Sox go after. They are more their style.

s%*# doesn't roll up hill. Employees take the crap. Because if ,as an employee, you bash you employer, you aren't an employee much longer The guys upstairs judge you , you don't judge them.