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Not only that but you did him a disservice by including his pitiful stats against LHP. Eshleman is RH and Goodwin has crushed them . .327 .439. .673 1.112 200 wRC+

I know everyone is chomping at the bit and happy to speculate on position players even devoting multiple pages to the absurdity of Cease vs. Pederson. However a very under the radar aspect of the Trade deadline is relief pitching. I think there will probably be 10 to 15 relief pitchers traded at the deadline since they should be the cheapest yet extremely important aspect of the 2nd half and the playoffs. The Sox certainly need them . I know it's been interesting now that we saw Foster throwing a cutter and every outing by Heuer is scrutinized and no really trusts Ruiz, Fry Marshall or even Aaron Burr to be impactful . That's a lot of current arms to be uncertain about. Do the Sox contemplate moving some of those young arms for more established arms or at least arms having better 1st halves of the season ?

I think the asks for Frazier and Gallo will be high just like the ask for Lynn was high last year. But these teams that hold onto players expecting a big haul for just 1.5 years of control end up holding onto them until the returns are diminished or they hurt themselves with an injury. Gallo missed a lot of time in 2019 with a strained oblique and broken hamate bone in his wrist. Gallo has expressed a desire to stay in TX but should they really want to re sign him when they are so bad or keep him until he becomes a FA ,give him a QO (if thats still possible) and get nothing for him but the comp pick ? Will be quite interesting to see how the Bryant, Baez, Rizzo, Kimbrel, Story, Jon Gray,Scherzer Tyler Anderson, S. Marte, Castellanos will be handled and how much they end up going for as it will be for guys with 1.5 yrs left. Will pitching demand more of a premium than hitters ? Right now it seems like no one really wants to set a high market value and there will be some type of frenzy as the trade deadlines get closer and teams are faced with getting nothing for their impending free agents or a guy like Castellanos would could opt out of his deal with the Reds. Kind of amazing the Sox got Lynn for Dunning and Rodon because no one else wanted him instead of just paying for Jose Quintana who so many wanted. Sox need to take advantage of their very rare fortune in getting those 2 plus the fortune they have received in many players stepping up to fill holes created by injuries. No one should fool themselves into thinking that guys like Mendick , Goodwin, Lamb, Sheets, Burger , Leury or Hamilton would be getting much time, if any, in the playoffs. I don't think we will see the teams who truly want to win a world Series hesitate to add important pieces.

Well he is pretty bad out there and he continually gets hurt playing in LF. I think others would be OK with him playing LF if he didn't get hurt so much. That is the main concern. He does not seem to have the ability to figure out how to play the field and not get hurt. Anyone can get hurt of course but he seems to go out of his way to do things, odd things , that injure him.

Who said he isn't playing it here ?

Yolbert

He was 4 for his last 22 but 2 were 2 HR's and he took 6 walks . I guess If you take away today it was 3 for 19 with 4 walks. After today he is at .273 .357 .636 1.011 which is damn good in 39 PA's.

Cubs have a decent BP unexpectedly . They have 3 or 4 guys from the pen they may move. Kimbrel is obviously the prize but they had 6 no name guys pitching well. Wouldn't mind checking those guys out, Maples (Last pitched for Cubs 6/15 , on rehab assignment now, not doing great), Chafin, Thompson, Winkler, Tepera, Wieck (on the IL with irregular heartbeat after having earlier heart problems in the spring.)

Never ! But hopefully we can manage to snag Escobar. He just hit his 20th against the Dodgers.

Escobar just hit his 20th HR against the Dodgers.

It's ok to expect it. Really it is.

It won't always be this easy. Wait until after the All Star break But hey if the scrubs hit more HR's than the regulars .. The Sox only have 4 regulars playing. and Vaughn was forced into regular duty by injury.

Ohtani just hit his 33rd 463 ft. 116.5 MPH off a lefty I think it was Marco Gonzalez

It's so weird that you get challenged for thinking this way. I mean it's so obvious. The Sox weren't hitting HR's before Grandal got hurt. There is zero LH power in the lineup now. Then you have a guy telling you the Sox are trying to replace Madrigals production . If I had said that people would be down my throat but because it's a surly admin no one challenges him. The Sox were 27th in HR's in June . There is not a single contender in the bottom 9 teams for HR's in June and the Sox just lost their #1 HR guy from June. The Sox are 25th in HR's and that's only going to go down for the next until when ? Eloy starts hitting some ? The last team I could find that wasn't in the top 13 teams in HR's who won the World Series was KC Royals in 2015 and they easily had the best defense in baseball and a rock solid BP and Kauffman Stadium is a hard place to hit HR's with deep alleys and deep CF.

I will add that 21-24 could be another topic of discussion because many seem to think it will last longer. So if you think it will only be till 2024 who is there on the farm currently that you think can offer major contributions to the team in that time period ? And by major I mean a starter in the rotation , a key piece of the bullpen or a starter as a position player or even a quality backup who gets 250 PA's.

It's what I have gleaned from my individual conversations. I've had some people tell me to ride Rodon hard. Look at the poll results. 80% don't want to shut him down for a period. I know everyone has their own ideas on how it should be handled . A balanced approach usually means that perhaps your best starting pitching of the entire "window" is not going to be good enough to win this year without making moves to shore up the bullpen and tremendous lack of LH power or any power for that matter. If you truly believe Eloy, Grandal and Robert can provide enough power when returning from injury and Rodon can make it to the playoffs but aren't willing to supplement it adequately every year beyond this one it will be pretty much the same thing. Next year will be without our 2 best starting pitchers again unless you believe in miracle re-signings. So next year if the hitting stays healthy then the off season and deadline is looking for starting pitching but it's very doubtful they find the quality the Sox got from Lynn and Rodon. Also why make a trade for Lynn for just one year if the Sox weren't serious about winning it all this year ? If they keep trading prospects for rentals in order to get by year to year you might as well do it now at the deadline . At some point they will have to decide to be all in or else you are going to be looking at multiple years of frustration rather than multiple championships or multiple years of making the playoffs. I think it's ridiculous for you to swallow the manure that the front office is shoveling down your throat.

Beats me. I don't know what TX wants for 1.5 years of Gallo. At one point Lopez, Fulmer and Collins were ranked 38, 58 ,and 80 on MLB's Top 100 prospects list. Now the Sox don't have a single guy there though I would imagine there's a chance Burger could have made it. So I think there is a general tendency to over rate what we have on the farm. Then again Tatis, Jr.. never got a chance with the Sox to be ranked before he was traded. Maybe the Sox can pull it off without giving up Vaughn or Kopech.

That's what I think too. The Ranger's will probably wait till next year on Gallo just as they did on Lynn even though their record sucks and the rest of their roster sucks the Sox probably can't/won't put together a package that would land Gallo if he is traded this year. San Diego might do it though. We have that to look forward to.

I've approached the home field advantage angle and resting Rodon in some way many times with people here. I've brought up the home field advantage as a reason to strengthen the team with trades to give the Sox the best chance in the playoffs. What I've learned is the posters here don't care about home field advantage nor do they care about Rodon's health. The only thing they care about is not losing prospects and extending our imaginary decade of dominance that PT Barnum has sold us. I think it's possible to rest him and get home field advantage by trading for Escobar , Gallo , and some strong relievers but now you are talking about hitting the farm teams hard which very few want to do. Everyone is afraid of giving up the next Tatis and losing future superstars which would lose the Sox multiple championships. Future teams are like Christmas packages waiting to be opened with the best toys imaginable. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads... Just remember it's Jerry and Hahn promising these future gifts and in 40 years of ownership and multiple GMs they haven't been able to figure out how to sustain success. The one common thread has been JR.

The pen does need help and also need some major power from the left side. Without Grandal our leading HR hitters are Abreu (15) and Vaughn (8) Next would be Yermin (7) and he is gone. TA is next with 6, After him with 5 is Eaton (gone) Lamb (injured) and Moncada. I don't think it can be stressed enough that either Escobar, Gallo or both are needed. I just counted there are 134 hitters now with 9 or more HR's which amounts to 4+ per team. The Sox currently have 1.* * 1 because of injury ( otherwise 2) and among the 134 I did not take injured players out since the HR lists do not specify who is currently active.

He hits a lot of doubles and has 4 triples that give him that Slg% . He also has just 4 HR's. The Sox needed more power before Grandal got hurt. Now with Grandal out which takes out not only his power but also his OBP. I don't object to a fine player like Frazier only because of his lack of HR's. That's the biggest reason but he is also a 2nd baseman with 2022 on his contract and the Sox have Madrigal. So yea I'd be fine with a rental like Escobar who hit's HR's , switch hits and can play 3rd also or Gallo who brings monster power and plays RF very well who also has 2022 left on his contract without anyone in his way. Gallo is a 40 HR hitter in any season he's had with over 500 AB's.

What did a few tweets say from Eloy ? "He's feeling better than he did in Spring training. That he's feeling 110 % No 200 %." This is just from memory but I think I got it pretty close to true accuracy.

It's a good idea to get into the habit while standing at learning to keep the abdomen muscles taut while breathing. If you are fit and not carrying extra belly fat it will benefit your back as long as you work on having a firm stomach and do your back exercises. An inversion table wouldn't be bad but that's a luxury for many.

Indeed. I was kind of stoked to see how Engel would do this year . Just a lot of little signs over the years that he was ready to contribute more offensively against more than LHP . He has some very real pop and seems to barrel up the ball often now.

It would but then you are talking about a guy who plays 2nd base primarily and moving him into the OF and trading Vaughn for a pitcher. Costs less for Frazier than Gallo but Gallo is the bigger impact both hitting and fielding since he would play in his natural position of RF. Plus Frazier doesn't hit HR's and a big HR has the most influence can make up deficits, increase leads, and snatch dramatic late inning victories from the jaws of defeat. I'd rather not trade Vaughn and just ride with some extra relievers and deal with starting pitching after this year is over and we see how Rodon and Lynn situations shake out.