bmags

Controversial opinion but that Gehrig guy was pretty good.

I'm not sure we can every really just do a "players that went here" thing. If we had those picks, we probably don't trade up for montgomery. We made a lot of trade ups last two years, maybe we end up with a lot more guys, more depth.

RR was pretty bad the first two weeks. He's been pretty normie manager since. It's really not worth the energy you guys put into it. We haven't been bunting. We haven't been stealing stupidly. And our bullpen management has been exceptionally difficult due to our starting situation, and he's done a pretty damn good job there.

this. Use our catcher combo more, take advantage of hot engel, drop EE when he does. If he catches fire, reap the rewards. But it just seems very unlikely we'd catch fire from Mazara.

Actually I think this is the one.

The tigers and royals are only awful because they had to play us 20 times so far.

This is another good point why I'm just trying to create some room for Ricky for last night. I thought his management of the pitching on Sunday to get him the leeway to throw his best bullpen at the twins last night, along with how he actually managed the bullpen last night when everyone was struggling with command was actually great. Not just correct, I think he did better than most. I thought Ozzie was a pretty bad game manager overall, but then he managed the perfect playoffs in 05. I'm kinda hoping that Ricky shines in the spotlight. We literally don't know, because he's never been close.

I'm leaning TA because of the bolded. This offense is not the same without him. That said, it really can't be stressed how much better Abreu looks on defense. He really has worked his ass off to keep himself productive as he's aged. He's the man.

I didn't realize Angels had played better as of late. If they were in NL they'd have a shot, but looks like AL Central's 3rd place team + Yanks have this wrapped up now. That said, if they make it close it's probably trout again? It's going to be interesting. The counting stats are really in sox favor right now, and there wasn't enough of a season for WAR to be available to hit people over the head with for Trout.

But given the pitching injuries this year, sox don't seem to be out of place. Luckily, knock on wood, only Lambert's took him out for the season. We have a shot to get our best reliever back for October. Kopech would have been a lot of fun this year, that's my biggest wish. But I really just vividly remember thinking in 2016 how upsetting it was we couldn't make it work with Abreu, Sale and Q. And watching Abreu not just be on this team, but smashing his way to a top 5 MVP season while mentoring and being the leader, carrying this team into the playoffs. Damn that makes me emotional just thinking about it

Just want to emphasize to enjoy this. I have good friends who one is a Reds fan and the other a Phillies fan. We were all excited for the season, especially the Reds fan. Phillies look like they can sneak into the 8th, and Reds need to fight like hell to do so (would be at expense of Phillies). That could have easily been the sox this year. Robert could have rightfully struggled mightily. Tigers and Royals could have given us more of a fight. TA, Abreu and Eloy could have been good but not great, and we'd be middling. Our bullpen could have cratered. We are focused a lot on what the few things the sox could do now to make better. But this really is perhaps the best case scenario if you run this season 100 times. I've only had a sox offense like this a few times in my life. It's only felt like a handful of times where you felt like the sox were the team that the other team had to worry about flipping the game on its head. This is good shit!

I think Ray Ray's description that the correct move is to optimize for defense is right, I'm just saying that it's not this insane move to keep Eloy in knowing he's first up in the bottom of the 9th. But these adjectives that he was "scared" but also...asleep, that is just whining. I don't think we are going to flip our outfield every 9th inning from hereon out. Had Eloy just batted in the 8th he'd likely have been subbed. If it was the playoffs he'd likely have been subbed. He took a shot, trusted Eloy, and he likely won't for rest of season. He's done much worse stuff than this. Eloy should just catch the ball.

fully agree here. The only superstar manager I'd actually care for is Francona anyway, and that's mostly just cause I like him.

If hitting was this easy everyone would be Tim Anderson.

Do I think hitters facing major league pitching can aim at a player and hit it there? Not really and I'd welcome how the distraction may hurt them.

So...that's what Ricky was doing though... You are open to the possibility of a pitching meltdown but in that case sox are supposed to try and overcome that with 8 (7 if you don't count EE) bats, and basically giving away an out with Dyson.

I'm on team SoxBlanco. I would have agreed with Dyson in left, but when I realized at the time Eloy was first up I understood the rational. Especially since Adam was in Right. While what happened was a possibility since Eloy sucks in left, another was a walk and a home run and your defense didn't help you at all. Then you still have one of your best hitters in the lineup.

Rosenthal: https://theathletic.com/2067811/2020/09/15/rosenthal-assessing-mvp-races-padres-surprise-weapon-mookie-at-second-more-notes/ I actually think that after modernizing quite a bit, this may be the year that MVP voters go to more traditional stats which may lean in sox favor. Rendon and Trout have been sensational...but it really does leave a certain taste in your mouth to celebrate such a crap team. If TA can finish with batting title and keep up his power numbers, I actually think it's his. Which ... is the most incredible thing. Absolutely incredible.

Because they haven’t made the playoffs in 12 years?

Colome was huge with his 4-out save.

That's going balls out?

Don't forget Mike Shirley took over his role for this draft. 2017 is mostly unfortunate just due to missing out on a tremendous top 10 that falls off a cliff when the sox pick. Aside from maybe Evan White, there isn't much to be excited about the rest of the first round. But the three picks ahead of the sox were Addell, Hiura and Haseley. Haseley isn't amazing or anything, but 3 mlb producing players just ahead of them, and basically meh the next 20 picks if I'm being generous. Pretty crappy pool of talent that year.

I still think people are overreacting about Eloy being out there in the ninth, and that RR actually had a good game feel for the bullpen which was more important ?‍♂️

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Love this team. Love this board cause I know in ten years I’ll make a reference to Adam Engels fake bunt single in a regular season game and everyone here will know what I’m talking about. Lets take this damn division