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Or Buerhle too . Just good old boys who don't necessarily have to squeeze every dollar out of teams. Some guys just end up saying how much different can my lifestyle be with $70M over $40 million ?I'm sure they get all kind of advice about taxes eating up large portions of big contracts so the more you get is better but sometimes when you are bird hunting the bird in hand is better than the bird in your sights.

The only reason why I didn't say it was I just wanted to enjoy the moment. I can always cry later if the deadline deals underwhelm us all.

That was the 2nd thing that popped into my head also.

Oh yea. Never expected this especially at a team friendly rate but glad I traded Dunning for him.

Yessssssss ! ! Lynn helps a lot for the next few years but the Sox will be facing a different set of problems at the deadline next year. I'm happy !

Yordan Alvarez is a great hitter and he struck out 4 or 5 times yesterday too. The point is good pitching beats good hitting. The Sox do all those things you are suggesting . The have charts and graphs and computer programs on ipads that the hitting coach goes over with the players before games. Every player is different they all recognize spin differently. The pitchers study the hitters tendencies too. This guy will swing at high fastballs ect. The problem is hitter are going to swing the bat. Thats how they became good enough to get to the majors.Very hard to change what guys have been doing all their lives and suddenly they need their brain along with instead of muscles and eye hand coordination. Ted Williams was a great hitter with many theories but he also had great eye sight, maybe better than a lot of guys with 20/20 vision. It's some very minute things that separate the greats from the has beens. Approach and game plans surely help but you can't get blood from a turnip and the Sox have to play with a few turnips in the lineup now. Approach has to be ingrained not just something you can change just like that. Guys like Grandal are rare in their ability to size up pitches that are balls. He doesn't automatically feel he has to swing the bat unless it's absolutely necessary or he can narrow down the pitch into a certain part of the strike zone that is advantageous to him. Probably over 50% of the best of the best, all MLB hitters, are just hackers up there with natural ability. Sure many improve their approach and develop but some things are just ingrained. That's why you see hitters smack themselves in the head after swinging and missing a high fastball. They hate being outsmarted by the pitcher and hate they they did it again after being told and coached and practice not doing it.

That is also a possibility if they feel they aren't getting good enough offers but they are a long way off from being competitive. They'd be idiotic to throw good money after bad. More like that kind of talk is a ploy to make it seem like moving Gallo isn't a priority to make it appears like they would have to be overwhelmed to give him up.

Jon Heyman said multiple teams are after Escobar and you can bet your bottom dollar that the market for relief pitching will be very strong. With the normal season following the short season, injuries and uncertainly about how arms will hold up in the 2nd half could drive the market.

I always thought the cost would be steep for Gallo but not as steep as you or others. Texas did the same thing with Lynn last year and asked for the moon and probably ended up with less than they asked for at the deadline. Or perhaps they tuned down Dunning before but realized they weren't going to get a better offer. The Gallo situation seems oddly similar. Starting pitching seems to go for more at the deadline than a position player. Maybe a team like the Yankees end up with Gallo and will be willing to pay more since a huge power bat with their RF dimensions might be more important to them. Maybe. Houston with Kimbrel, but teams willing to make big moves do so. There aren't a lot of household names among starting pitchers on the trade market unless you think Scherzer will be moved. Kyle Gibson, Sonny Gray, German Marquez, John Means, Danny Duffy all could be moved. I'll be watching Texas to see if they repeat the Lynn scenario or get overwhelmed for Gallo. Many times what we end up saying is "yea that was too much " or "is that all it took ? We could 've beat that."

I can tell by who you had the Sox parting with that you are generally optimistic. Did you have your rose colored glasses on typing those trades ? I'm surprised I didn't see Rutherford, Mercedes, Matt Reynolds, Luis Gonzales, Zack Burdi, Marco Hernandez, Nik Turley, Nick Williams or Tim Beckham in any of your trade proposals .

Hmm wonder if there was anything about the trade with Atlanta earlier for Neslony that had anything to do with LuCroy.

Still funny to me that you thought I was going all in but you think the Sox are going to get 2 good position players and 2 relievers while I think we end up with 1 position player and 2 relievers. Maybe it's because I suggested Gallo but I would be fine with Marte.

Escobar happens , no other position player. 2 good relief pitchers .I have no idea who will be coming or going. Perhaps going will be our younger relief pitching that hasn't done the job this year but did well last year. (Heuer, Foster ) . They have promise, they still need time that the Sox may not have the luxury of giving them.

Because you bring in a new pitching coach and voila ! pitchers can make changes in everything they have been doing all theirs lives just like that right ? Some guys can't do it. Some it may take a year, some a month and other's only days. Then there's the whole mental side of it ,going with something different to help you at the highest level when what you have done your life is what got you to the highest level.

The strength of the team is starting pitching. The last thing the Sox need to be worrying about is pitching Cease in the playoffs. He did just fine today but he is not a finished product. I heard John Smoltz talking and he is probably talking from experience. He said as a starting pitcher probably needs about 90 starts to understand how to pitch. We see the great stuff from Cease starting to blossom this year. That's a great sign. He's getting it over the plate and hitting his spots a lot more. But like any young pitcher he cannot always be consistent from start to start with the command or stuff. We know where the weaknesses on the team are. No matter how much we like Hamilton, Mendick, Heuer, Burr or Engel/Goodwin , no matter how thrilled we are with Billy Hamilton some of them are not good enough to be starting or even on a playoff team that expects to make a serious run. The bullpen needs minimum 2 arms and the lineup needs at the very least Escobar and strong returns of Eloy and Robert. Patch up the pen add another bat . I don't care if its Gallo in RF . I don't care if it's Escobar but one of them has to be a strong LH power presence. It kind of sucks that we will have to depend so strongly on Eloy and Robert and eventually Grandal coming back to full strength. But it is what it is. But even if they are 3/4 of themselves at full strength with one more LH bat and a couple of arms this team is ready to make a long playoff run. Right now it's a tedious waiting game and so far the Sox are holding up pretty well. Just have to wait it out. It's not the end of the world if the Sox lose to Houston now. We will be a much better team in September and even better in October.

I think they did see him as a starter and a high end starter. That's why they took him in the draft when they did. You don't pick a guy that high to be a reliever. Maybe he can still throw 101, maybe not. That's not the point. The point is his development. He's good enough now to get a lot of guys out throwing 97 and with his slider but he has to develop his secondary pitches to be better as a starter and get better command. Right now with 2 pitches he is still good enough to be one of the Sox best relievers. He's a work in progress as a starter by relieving. He will probably follow the same plan next year as Kopech is doing this year. The only thing that can stop that is arm problems which might be the main reason why he's dialed it back. The only other reason would be he just can't do it any more .But even if he can I highly doubt he or the Sox are convinced that throwing 100+ is in his or the teams long term best interest .

Now I know why they lost !

Need Sale's Scissors.

Things have a way of working out when there are innings to be gained through injury and professional baseball people involved who do those things for a living. Kopech isn't going to go 200 innings next year but if you can get him to somewhere over 125 that will be good progress. Katz and the Sox are on top of it.

All we can do is be patient and see what happens at the deadline and with our guys coming back. It's helpful they can dick around looking for internal options 1st with such a big lead. No one actually thinks Reylo is going to be an answer but if he looks competent for 2 weeks they can see if he's a piece for the rest of the year or trade him if there is anyone interested. We are all aware that the lineup now isn't ideal but so far the scrubs have made it work. Just have to hope they can keep the big lead in the division until reinforcements arrive or the pixie dust wears off.

Might as well just say 3-9 in the order had a horrible game.

What exactly does running him out there mean ? I hope you mean after you build up his arm again to the point he an pitch more than 4 innings and while doing that you still have to manage his inning since he hadn't pitched in 2 years but sure for you personally you don't have to worry about that stuff.

If you are setting the bar really high with a guy barely removed from college pitching 6 innings while throwing 101 your expectations are too high. All young pitchers struggles . Every single one of them.

A silver lining for a game with Lopez.

Kind of a long way to go to make that assessment. Cease has been healthy and in the rotation all year. Kopech is back to 1 inning appearances after his injury.