SpringfieldFan

I foresee a time when the biggest stars generally don't play in it once they get to play in it the first time. Just too much risk with nothing riding in the game.

Or injury. I'm guessing the former though.

How hard can it be to go from 10 pitches an outing to 100? /sarc

Would it have been so hard to go with Cease for 6, Kopech for 2, and Liam to wrap it up and get us to the break without the heartburn?

And coincidentally Blake Rutherford came from the NYY as one of the high ceiling prospects in our rebuild and has been one of the few disappointments. I think the reason for the success of the rebuild has been because a "gamble" that paid off, which was probably less of a gamble due to how well they have been at projecting green talent. At the beginning of the rebuild the Sox system was ranked a bit lower than a couple of the others because the trade-off for the high ceilings of their acquisitions was the fact they were so young that it was hard to predict which ones would fulfill it. Amazingly nearly all of them have so far, injuries notwithstanding.

When was the last time a team had three of its own pitchers in an all star game? Has it even happened before?

I'm not savvy to newer sabermetrics but isn't WAR offense affected what position you play, i.e. a 2nd baseman who hits 40 HRs has a higher WAR than a left fielder who hits 40 HR's? That said, maybe LF and DH are comparable in that regard anyway...

Hot take: if the Sox use him *only* as a DH, the value he gives them won't equal the value they would get back by trading him to a team who feels he could do more.

This might be an obtuse question but how many times has he injured himself from poor fielding decisions?

Fair enough. From what I have seen up to and including tonight though, lets just say we should be able to "visit the car lot" and have the dealer know our trade-in is running pretty damn well right now.

Can we put a padlock on Hahn's phone now? I say let's just wait for Luis, Eloy and Yaz and ride this horse home.

Remember in the '05 World Series when Jenks came in for the first time and the parayzed look on Bagwell's face which was absolutely lost trying to make sense of what he was seeing? Kopech could be the starting pitching version of that should we get there this year.

yeah its the pitching version of "disrespecting the game" lol

Fair point. However, I do recall Frank Thomas dropping off somewhat offensively the year he became a DH for a majority of his games. I know Eloy wants to field so it will be interesting to see how his offense responds to him becoming a DH if that is his future.

Lol I thought the same exact thing.

They are eight games up in the division looking at maybe four weeks ahead where they need to tread water until they are back to near full strength. Yes, its rolling the dice a bit but I don't think they need an acquisition to get into the playoffs. The only good it would do would be to secure a better first round matchup and I don't know that the price of the acquisition would be worth that.

True but neither has anyone else's either. I've seen several football scores the last few weeks.

Just to be clear, my sarcastic comment about him breaking his ankle wasn't a shot at him, it was a shot at the injury gods who seem to have it in for the Sox during what was supposed to be their success window. Same gods who let Abreu get clocked in the head by the runner for merely fielding a popup.

Feet first should be a no-brainer. Of course what will happen is that within a couple weeks Rick Hahn will be holding a press conference on the severity of the broken ankle Yoan sustained when one of his cleats oddly got caught on the third base bag as he tried to extend a double into a triple.

Well I haven't heard its not.

What if game 1 is NL hosted? Without the DH does Eloy take an outfield spot over Engel?

It's almost a circular argument for me. I don't want to give up too much for a 3 month rental at 2B *unless* they are fully healthy and viable for the WS. Unfortunately we ain't know that until after the trading deadline.

Yeah. They will manage his innings to avoid running him into the ground but do it in such a way they don't have to just shut him down before the playoffs even start.

And The ironic: Garcia's BA is now the same as Abreu's.