CaliSoxFanViaSWside

Ok lets not start misquoting me before we go any further please. I never said the solution is trading all the starting pitching. Please quote something I actually said otherwise it's not worth responding to. It really subverts actual baseball discussion when you paraphrase or put words in someones mouth.

If you believe in the 2nd wave sure. I don't. I'd rather win the World Series now. We all know with Reinsdorf around there isn't going to be any sustained success. For that to happen the Sox would have to operate like a cross between the Rays and how they operate now. It feels like its getting better in that regard with Katz and some other changes but the talent evaluations are still lacking as is going after guys who process talent on both sides of the ball. It still feels like the team possesses too many 1st base , C, DH types and is short on up the middle athletic versatile well rounded players. All of this should have been accomplished at the beginning of the rebuild. Instead of spending money on it they spent money on idiotic veteran players and picking up those 1st base DH types I was talking about.

Kelley could be beyond the window years away from contributing if he ever does. Stiever , Dahlquist, Thompson , Sheets, Adolfo, Rutherford, Lambert Burger. Do any of these guys excite anyone for the near future window ? The problem the Sox face is actually deciding who among the lower level prospects on the rise in the organization are worth trading because those are the guys the other teams will want and who among Stiever , Kelley, Thompson, Dahlquist and Lambert they will part with since pitching is always in demand.

Oh we have another Hahn catch phrase to throw around : “We’ve talked all along about making sure the juice is worth the squeeze. The juice this year may be a team that’s capable of winning it all. That’s pretty big juice. Is the squeeze going to be worth it to increase those chances?” Is the juice worth the squeeze ? Definitely. As my old man used to say " Who does he think he is kidding" or "You can't bullshit a bullshitter". I find it highly unlikely that they went through the rebuild only to decide at every trade deadline that they won't do anything. Of course they proved me wrong last year by not doing anything and surprisingly fans bought it as "we weren't ready" . This is the biggest carrying water for management BS I have ever seen. There is no excuse not to make every effort to improve a playoff caliber team into a World Series type team or at least at capable of advancing a round or 2. I'll always wonder how much more Texas was asking before the trade deadline last year and what they eventually settled on for Lynn. The Sox have needs in the BP and on the field . The only thing stopping the Sox from making deals would be Reinsdorf. The starting pitching staff is the best and cheapest it will ever be. This year is possibly the Sox best chance to win the World Series in the window because we are already nearly halfway there. Get the pieces you need and quit screwing around with the fans heads and pocketbooks.

If that was the only choice sure but now u have Goodwin, Engel and Lamb. Engel hits LHP well and there's even a decent chance he will also hit RHP though not as well but better than Eaton and provide exceptional defense which is a big factor to consider.

Escobar has more HR's than Schwarber.

I really don't either but I'd sure as shit try to get him to be a starter eventually.

I doubt it with 99.9 % of my brain. They know him being effective through the playoffs gives them a better shot to win the World Series. In order to get to that point his IP have to be managed. It was already said in March that they had a plan for him . I know $3M a year is motivation for sign with the Sox but I'm sure they talked about how he would be used before he signed. I'm sure he was told he would be given an opportunity to win a spot in the rotation and if he did there would be a plan to keep him as healthy as possible. They also know that if they do not abuse him he has a better chance to resign with them. He knows after this year if he stays healthy he may get a lot more money so if he feels he's getting abused he can shut himself down. It also hurts the Sox on the free agent pitcher market if word spreads that they don't care about the health of their pitchers in a walk year. Nor will that reputation help when trying to get guys like Giolito to sign an extension. Big Picture.

Longest you can stay in a rehab assignment is a month. So yea a few weeks or 10 days sounds about right.

Eaxctly. He has been wild in the zone . I think he had the 1st 2 guys down 0-2 then Collins sat outside on the 0-2 that shoud ve been a slider off the plate outside and he got it inside and it was whacked for a hit. Missed his spot again on either an 0-2 or 1-2 count . Collins sat outside agiin and he threw it pretty much down the middle or a bit inside again. Totally missed his spots and was hurt by it. Some wanted to blame Collins and his pitch calling but it's very hard to do that unless you notice on every pitch if the pitcher shook Collins off. The camera doesn't focus on the pitchers face before every pitch so it's hard to know for sure. Ultimately it comes down to not executing the pitches that were settled on. Kind of like when Vaughn struck out because the ump screwed him people got mad at TLR for not going out there and yelling at the ump which he has shown he doesn't do because it won't change anything . I know we as fans don't like TLR but since the Mercedes incident some would like to see LaRusssa make a public display of support for his guys. That makes sense of course but it's also a part of the anti TLR sentiment.

Oops sorry I gave you a laugh when I meant it for Blackout Friday. But hey it adds to your points total so not all bad.

You are filthy !

Yea we already have a glut of OF's now. Some of them are going to be removed from the equation eventually. Of course just forr fun you can have Shwarber DH against RHP while taking an occasional turn in RF thus removing the need for Lamb However without DH games in the World Series that negates Schwarber somewhat but increases the value of Escobar or anyone who has some positional versatility. I'm still on the Escobar train unless they pony up for Starling Marte.

LO its not about who hits more HR's ! Go look at my explanation above because I thought you might be thinking the stupid HR stat means something else.

Hard to say how it shakes out. Vaughn is a very valuable piece against LHP. Engel is likely to stay so that leaves Hamilton , Goodwin, Lamb , Eaton, Mercedes. It's up to all of them to see who stays and who goes . 2 months left to see who seizes the opportunity. Shouldn't rush to judgment on any of them. Injuries as usual will play a role. If you are just talking about when Hamilton gets back that's a tough one. It just might be Yermin but that would leave a lot of OFers on the roster so yea IL Eaton. but that's only a temporary fix. Or I hate to say it jettison Lamb or see if you can make a trade early enough where it's not an issue.

They've been socked by pitching injuries.

Give me the 7-3 win every time. It is tempting to say the way it ended just to emphasize my point about the need for a couple of relief pitchers but having them actually pitch better helps too since I'd rather save the prospect capital it may take to get RP.

Mainly because he has still has 10 HR's against RHP. The Sox are probably looking for a rental. That fits Escobar. They probably are not looking at guys you described who are either not rentals or would cost more. The obvious place to fill the need is 2nd base. Not likely to be an OF (Starling Marte fits FA hits both RHP and LHP well but will not come cheap.) since Eloy and Robert are coming back unless we can find a way to also trade Eaton, Hamilton, Goodwin or Engel. Anyone who actually rakes RHP is probably an All Star player and not cost effective.

Ok thought I'd comment on this again because I realized you might not understand the HR stat we are talking about. Let's say there's a game where our opponent hits 3 HR's but the Sox hit 1 but the Sox win. That count's as a W for the Sox when homering. It would count as a L for the team that lost when homering. It counts games in which a team has a HR or 0 HR's .So you can be out homered in a game and still get a Win in the stat if you win the game. So if the Sox have 20 games in which they hit 0 HR's they look at their record .If in the other 40 games they hit a HR they look at the record. If both teams hit 0 HR's then one teams gets an L and the other team gets a W. Hope that clears things up.

Might as well pass out 10 of them. That was a total team effort.

Oh nice it feels like you are quoting me because I have been very fond of saying "It takes a team" in the last few weeks , usually at the top of the winners thread when I beat everyone else to it .

Ok cool I thought you were just talking about guys who would ve started today. I really can't think of one guy who hasn't had some nice contributuions in a lot of games. When you add them all up its a lot. Mercedes was huge for a while, Hamilton had a nice little run for some games and always contributes defensively and on the bases when he gets on. Vaughn kills LHP and while he'll never be an above average fielder , he's steady. Lamb has hit some HR's got some walks. Goodwin comes up gets 5 RBI in his 1st game, adds some speed and can play all OF positions well enough. Leury does Leury things , Speed and defense inf. and OF and good enough hitting. Engel finally back robs a HR and hits 3 HR's in a short time. Mendick has a big dick and big balls. Grinder extraordinaire . Sorry if I have left anyone out . Edit: OK I forgot Collins and he's the backup catcher and Giolito and Rodon both like throwing to him. He's probably the 2nd most polarizing guy on the team behind Madrigal because his pitch calling and framing get scrutinized to death by those who don't like him . If its good enough for Gio and Rodon he's good enough for me. Always nice to have a guy who can hit RHP with power on the bench.

Just follow my lead Jack. Read all my posts very carefully. You will find me right just about all the time.

He wouldn't have started today against a LHP but you never know with Larussa .Maybe he puts Hamilton in CF and Goodwin in RF. But I'll sure take the major contributions we got from Collins, Goodwin and Lamb against the lefty Yarborough.

4 if you count Moncada and Madrigal. 5 when you would normally expect Engel against a LHP.