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Lance vs. Lance Lance-a-lot Lance Off Lance Party Lance Fever Lance the Night Away Everybody Lance Now Let's Lance Lance, Lance Do You Wanna Lance ? Joust in time !

Ron isn't in So Cal so he won't be with us as well.

I would hate it. 3 of the 1st 4 are RHH against the righty McCullers with the nasty horizontally breaking slider ? Yoan has to be in there to balance it out. He looked liked he found his power stroke the last 2 weeks of the season. Keep Yas 4th against RHP, maybe 3rd if Abreu is under the weather. I might even want Sheets ahead of Eloy but that's not going to happen. Tim , Moncada, Yas, Abreu, Robert, Sheets, Eloy gets 3 of the 1st 6 lefties against McCullers. I know Eloy 7th is bad but he hasn't looked that sharp lately. McCullers also walks a lot of guys so having 2 of the 1st 4 hitters our 2 most likely to walk also helps to put the pressure on McCullers. Don't let him settle in . Keep the pressure on him right away.

On September 15th when I asked for the HR totals at the end of the season it stood: Moncada 11 Sheets 9 Eloy 8 Robert 8 Final season totals Yoan 14 - hit 3 from Sept 15th on Robert 13 -hit 5 from Sept.15th Sheets 11- Hit 2 from Sept 15th Eloy 10- Hit 2 from Sept 15th I said they'd all finish with 11 so it's great they did better than that especially Yoan and Robert. Those 4 hit 12 combined HR's from Sept 15th to the end of the season. I predicted only 8 more and you predicted 11 . You got Robert and Sheets exactly . I only got Sheets right. Eloy disappointed us both. Moncada did better than we both expected which is huge for the post season if he has found his power stroke.

Is it just me or do others feel there should always be a thread about Luis Robert on the front page ? I mean ,after all there, is an 8 page thread on Jarred Kelenic in the Diamond Club.

So far holding true what I said about HR's providing 45-50% of the offense in the playoffs. Might be higher than that now with only a 2 game sample size but when the World Series is over it should be in that range.

Get a really big nice monitor for your computer and use the reddit streams on bilasports.net . I'm in the L.A. Market and just watched the TBS feed and the whole Dodger/Cards game. I don't do it often so I'm no expert and if I am going to do it more often I'll need a bigger better monitor and just when I do that someone will figure out a way to stop those streams from happening . Use adblockplus on your computer and keep it on there and x out the chat box.

This is the kind of stuff that no fan should be asking. It's just idiotic to have to figure out how to watch a playoff game of your favorite team especially if you watched games all season out of market on MLB.TV. You're a fan all season , your team makes the playoffs 2 seasons in a row for the 1st time in it's 120 yr. history and it's like now the cord cutters have to scramble around trying to figure out what else they might have to temporarily pay or which streaming service I have to get a free trial with and remember to cancel it and which service is carrying the games I want to see and if it will stay the same through every round. I got a nice 50" 4K TV and I'm reduced to watching games on my computer with a 21" monitor in SD.

Ha Nope we just live about 45 minutes apart and decided it would be fun to watch together.

Me and @hi8is will be watching the game together at my place ! Besides this is already pinned. Is this not the game thread ?

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/32345105/eddie-robinson-former-gm-oldest-former-mlb-player-dies-age-100

Engel's hitting stats the last 2 years he has about an .820 OPS and 122 OPS+ . I know its only about 200 AB's combined but that's good.

Post All Star break his hitting stats are worse than Hernandez so that's a bigger sample size.I'd say if Vaughn see any AB's it will be against LHP at DH only if Engel can start every game in RF. I understand Vaughn gets a lot of rope around here because of what he may become but currently his role is very limited. Remember all the people here who said Vaughn had to play all of the time in LF with Eloy DHing ? Remember all the people who said Vaughn had to play every day no matter what ? Let's face it, he has received the benefit of the doubt all season because of the lack of quality options in the OF and criticism of him has met with scorn but right now he has issues and if he gets any playing time before the season ends he has to show something. He needs to start being treated like any other player with limited OF defensive skills and in a huge slump. He's had one great month and that was July. I'm not sure how to get 2nd half stats against LHP only . Maybe that would paint a more favorable picture of Vaughn's hitting.

Vaughn has been pitiful lately. Leury and Engel should be choices ahead of him in RF. Engel ,if he can, should be in RF every day and Leury at 2b every day. That would be the best offensive and, frankly, the best defensive alignment at both positions or at least equal at 2nd base.Hernandez' offensive woes seem to be affecting his D. He's had his head up his ass for a while.

I think in Houston we are going to have to out hit Houston. Hard to hold that lineup down offensively. I think Cesar's glove is over rated at this point. He hasn't been that good. He's looked lost at times, can't get the ball out of his glove a few times that cost a DP, didn't cover 2nd on a potential DP and that's just stuff I can remember from the past week+.

Cesar has looked a little boneheaded at times there.

I am a huge proponent of HR's making the difference in the playoffs. However that being said, Leury has been BY FAR the better player since the All-Star break and if that continues in the playoffs Leury would be the easy choice to keep innings going and being on base for the HR's from the other guys. Also with the Sox road struggles having a guy who is also far better on the road helps tremendously.

I think he should. On the road Leury hits .297, .357 , .413, .770. Hernandez .220 , .290 , .354 , .644 The last 28 days Garcia .354 , .393. , .512 , .905 , 140 OPS +. Hernandez .247, .313, .385, .691 69 OPS+ Also at this point I don't think anyone can really say Hernandez over Leury makes that much of a difference defensively. The 2nd half of the season Leury has been consistently impressive while Hernandez has epitomized the struggles of the 2nd half and the trade deadline . Let's all hope the powers that be can see what is clearly visible and not let the trade deadline acquisition determine who starts in the playoffs.

I think it's how you view hitting that would make someone favor either one as a hitter and their value to the offense. I put more value on slugging percent since extra base hits move runners along farther than getting walks does. If Yoan could ever get up his slugging to Anderson's level while maintaining his OBP then he would be more of a 6+ fWAR guy instead of 4 . But for now Anderson means more to the offense.

I'm not so sure about it being the key. I certainly think it helped. But I would imagine it was a combination of things. Seeing clearly is always a good thing but making changes that need to be made physically until they become 2nd nature probably meant more. Bob Gibson said he couldn't see very well in the documentary Fastball. I'd recommend this to anyone that hasn't seen it. A must for baseball fans who dig the history of the hardest throwing pitchers in baseball history. It also has some of the last film of Tony Gwynn and Ernie Banks. It should also give you some idea on just how very difficult it is to hit once the fastball speed is very high.

This is just the way I saw it happening. Everybody was bummed the Sox kept losing but with the division a cakewalk , resting guys was happening . I always said I had hoped the last 7-10 of the season , even after clinching the division, that LaRussa would start playing the regular lineup more to get them playing together heading into the playoffs. They will probably finish exactly where I said they would in a post 3 weeks ago when I said 24-29 games above .500.

Sox cant get rid of more young pitching. If they get rid of anyone it'll be Kimbrel.

FB topped out at 93 bottomed out at 88 . Threw the change up as much if not more than the slider. He showed he had a good game plan and knows how to pitch. But if you are looking fpr signs of the fresh Rodon that guy is gone.

If they hang on it's the 1st time all season at 23 games above .500 I believe .

I suppose fatigue is just not being able to snap things off as when you were stronger. He just can't recover to the point of feeling strong and fresh. The slider is probably the pitch that puts the most stress on his arm. If he can throw the change effectively he can be effective too.