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Yea I'd love another Evan Marshall

Burger with the 321 wRC+ against RHP so far is very nice. A couple more big hits today and it starts to be very interesting if it isn't already. His strong suit was against LHP so would be great to see him pound Valdez who is a quality pitcher.

Nice to see the HR's flying again and Gio get untracked. Doubtful Burger or Sheets will be around at all for the playoffs but imagine having that power on a consistent basis if Eloy returns to his former status as a hitter and Escobar is added. Then add in Robert if he can be the Robert we saw before his injury. Wouldn't even need his power but if we got it, look out. Expecting Grandal to amp up to his usual self might be a little more challenging given how late he may actually return but I'm looking forward to it all.

He certainly does. He nailed it. I'd give him a whole box of cookies. I'd also like to pass out cookies to those who didn't like him as a person. Character matters, the Sox usually care about getting players who are high quality people.

It would make the movie better.

Well said.

Thank you Magilla.

Night and day difference between last year and this year with him. Next year or even later this year could also improve now that he knows what he's doing more than last year. You piece it all together start by start. Some starts you falter some you advance. All part of the learning curve. But I'll take 3 runs in 5.2 innings with 10K's , every game he pitches. IDK what that translates to in ERA or FIP or XFIP or whatever but that's him doing his job. If he win's or loses that's up to how the rest of the team does their jobs. Remember you may want to categorize it as mental focus but that's too easy. It's physical also. It's getting in enough reps and repeating your mechanics until it becomes 2nd nature and even then one little thing can throw you off from game to game.

That's how I approach the trade deadline. I get on Soxtalk and look for the Orange hot topics. Doesn't matter to me what twitter is saying in the least.

Just a lovable Big Bastard

Maybe. .500 is good for attendance in the near term to get people in the new stadium and familiar and comfortable with it but if that's all they want it can probably be done without Gallo. You don't need to spend big money on Kershaw or Story. I doubt the attendance increases much with native Texans on the roster. .500 is not a good place to be for the future of the team. Agreed that they are interesting but usually that means you'd like them not to be Colorado Rockies type interesting.

The point is teams do always want starting pitching. It might be expensive crap starting pitching to you but a guy who can make all his starts and have a 4.00 ERA in the AL is quite useful to a lot of teams and they will trade prospects or a near MLB player for him. It's not unheard of.

Crochet long shot. Cease super long shot or any starting pitcher currently in the rotation + Kopech super long shot. I would really be surprised.

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.