Jake

Well folks, Emmanuel Clase has a career 1.83 ERA. He's hard to hit, especially when you stink. Sox countered with Brandon Eisert, who got squared up twice and one of the two proved decisive.

Benetti's speaking voice is like having Nolan Ryan's fastball. Just have to have a half-decent head on your shoulders and you've got a broadcasting career in the bag. Schriffen's voice is 92mph with a little bit of run. McKnight is 89mph and dead straight.

Eisert had a pretty nice run going but he's gotten pretty shaky as of late

I don't think either are super good, but Schriffen is a professional broadcaster who made the fans mad while McKnight is a nice guy who the fans like but isn't a professional broadcaster. I've made my peace with Schriffen — just imagine that he's a dog who was transformed into a man and a lot of things make sense, including his excitement when the subject of dogs comes up and his generally happy demeanor in all circumstances (except when umpires make bad calls)

2 strike three whiffs on curveballs since I posted this

Ball was only going 74mph so probably more like de-capped

Taylor has pitched pretty well as a major leaguer, but I continue to be surprised at how his offspeeds just aren't generating any swing and miss. His fastball is getting about 35% whiff rate, which is quite good for a heater. But his offspeeds are all a lot lower.

If they add a rule that 1. every field has a catwalk above the infield/outfield 2. you automatically win if the ball hits the catwalk Vargas would be the most valuable asset in the league

There's my franchise centerfielder

Not really fair to McKnight given his inexperience, but I don't think he's been good as PBP or sideline guy. Very much feels like a second teamer.

Walks love finding their way around

Benny looking extra Italian going around the bases

Wonder how long they stick with Civale going forward

The kids can play

I don't really mind Colson at 3B as long as he's not *always* playing there. But they also should consider playing Lenyn there, it's something he's done before and done just fine with it.

Steve has been full of s%*# for a long time, he just sounds like he's not if you aren't thinking about what it is he's saying

I have a suspicion Robert never said anything

Some teams, including Sox teams of the past, discourage or prohibit use of outside labs/coaches/etc. At minimum I'd say it's a good thing if the Sox current leadership lets guys go get external help when they want it. Even better if it works when it happens.

If they can get Lenyn a therapeutic use exemption for Adderall he'll be an All-Star

I have no regrets on trading Crochet. Only had two seasons before free agency, limited track record of success, and significant injury history. I wish him the best but it made no sense for the Sox to hang onto him given how soon he hits free agency and how little sense it would make for the Sox to give him a long-term, high-dollar extension like the Red Sox chose to. Whether these particular players pan out, I don't know. That's the occupational hazard. But trading him was the right decision and the perceived value of the players the Sox received exceeded my expectations.

Just hire Rojas as a roving instructor and get it over with

Sox making the Guardians pay for an error again

I suppose this has already been discussed, but does anyone know why we are playing this Will Robertson kid? Are we just required to plug in a player with platoon advantage at every position even if he sucks? I guess the playing time given to Rojas suggests the answer is "yes."

Schultz's first two hits were softies, but the third sure wasn't. I wonder if he will even stick around on the top 100 lists

Regarding Vargas, Statcast would indicate he's been getting some horrific batted ball luck during the recent tough stretch. Not that Statcast says he deserves to be running a 1.000 OPS, but quality of contact would make you think you'd hardly call it a slump at all. I still like his swing decisions so I'm not super worried about him yet. Shane was having a lot of good luck in the early going, but to me the biggest thing that has changed is he's not getting much use out of his changeup. The results are worse than before and he's throwing it a lot less. The rest of his arsenal is generally unremarkable so he really needs that pitch. I don't know if the issue is that he's lost the feel for it or he's just foolishly giving up on it for some reason or another.