SpringfieldFan

So basically we are talking about an adult Chuck E. Cheese with adult beverages. Ok works for me, given the exploding scoreboard fireworks are so pathetic compared to the early days.

Apparently they don’t need to because they can just use their Swiss Army knife (Leury) for their heavy duty everyday needs.

So much of this the Kimbrel trade. Lots of money for (now) little projected return weights the resource allocation numbers. That’s half of it. They also lost Madrigal, who could potentially provide wins at a negligible cost. Now they can’t get him back and Kimbrel is damaged goods on the market. Horrible. Just spitball wishing, but I would dream they could find a team that would really like an elite CLOSER and offer them a 3 week try before you buy on Kimbrel and if he returns back to being a effective in the closer role they finalize and the other team buys out the contract. Just dreaming…

He’s done - Koch done.

Wherever the roster itself stands on raw talent, you also have to apply a managerial correction factor.

Actually, we’ve learned the bullpen “mess” never sorts itself out no matter what you do - so don’t worry about it and get another starter

Good grief someone put a padlock on the dumpster already.

I'm tradio-radical: 8 man batting lineup. No DH's and no pitchers hitting. Limit the active roster to 10 pitchers to get away from the hyper-specialization the bullpen roles have evolved into. No regularly scheduled split doubleheaders. Give the fans both games back to back again for the one ticket and don't coddle the players with the extended break. Old school.

In theory you don’t even need 9 batters. You could go as low as 4. Hmmm…TA, Grandal, Eloy, Robert, and rinse wash and repeat 9 or ten times every day. Edit: on second thought I would miss Robert’s defense.

The draft lottery is what intrigues me. I think what makes it viable is the expanded playoffs. They want to keep teams from tanking for the #1 pick but if there weren't many playoff spots you would probably see teams tanking anyway - for a spot in the lottery. Now there are enough playoff spots available to lure them away from that. My preference, though, would have been to not have a lottery but instead have the bottom few teams awarded the top picks from best record down. That would be real incentive IMO.

Honestly, all this is one more reason making me wonder just what I am rooting for as a fan. The players aren't tied to their fanbases since they they are just moving around to where their contracts will be best and I have no interest in following, much less rooting for, the owner and his wheeling and dealing.

The elite players on the market are going to other teams, the Sox sign another cracker Jack reliever, and Leury is available to fill the holes. It’s groundhog year again.

I’m thinking mop up roles and blowouts, etc. Of course if someone rings Hahn’s phone he should answer it, serious inquiries only.

At this point maybe they should just keep Kimbrel and move him into lower leverage middle relief and see if they can rehabilitate him into something of value either to them or another team. Currently as he is he is of zero value on the market. That means closing days are potentially over for him but he might be agreeable to that since at 34 it might be time for him to retool a bit.

That’s not all. The 1981 strike led to a split season and the Sox were not one of the 4 AL teams in the playoffs despite having the 3rd best record overall. Grrr…

no, cuz...

The playoffs are mostly a crapshoot, yes. That is why the ideal way to get to a legitimate champion was when there was only a WS with the two pennant winners. Its not like football; it takes a ton of games for the elite to percolate the to the top and the pretenders to filter themselves out. Yet now we bring them back in to the equation for a series or two? Yes we do see teams like Houston returning to the playoffs often and having success*. I think in those cases it is because they have been an elite team that has successfully gone thru the grind of regular seasons which allows them to get acclimated to the playoff environment thru experience so they can perform on that stage. If you can’t establish sustainable success your playoffs fortunes are a roll of the dice regardless of your talent. * cheating notwithstanding of course.

Plus its all just not fair to the fans (of course why should they matter in all this /sarc). I used to have a buddy growing up. We would play wiffle ball in the back yard. I was a Sox fan; he was a Cards fan. Each of us would mimic the lineup of our team and it we knew our lineups by rote because that's what the teams put out every day. We could have probably recited each other's lineups at the end of the summer. Those days are gone.

Hahn needs his checkbook and phone privileges revoked. Full stop.

There is no good answer but I would have to say trade either Abreu or Sheets. Anyone else would be trading low. Sheets is attractive but its based on a small tenure. Abreu is a known quantity and inarguably valuable. He would bring a great return and the time to take advantage is now where he is about to start the downside of his career, and with his GIDP already an issue. He of course will be back as a coach in 10 years anyways.

I think the team was just too young, individually and collectively. Most of the core is very young and one could argue Crochet, Vaughn and Sheets typically wouldn’t be on an MLB roster yet. As a whole, the regular lineup has only been together a little over a year and for most of that period COVID and injuries kept them from even playing together as a team. Then, for better or worse, the liberal resting of players kept the team out of action as a full unit once everyone *was* finally back. Given that, how are they supposed to be expected to triumph against the battle hardened elite on the biggest stage when October comes calling?

The only thing this debate has accomplished is confirm what we already knew - that Gen X is the best one.

Well if it goes as it’s been going at least it’s better for me that they get dispatched because they obviously have no business advancing rather than have a close series and lose in a heartbreaker.

Is Houston this good are the Sox this bad? How would either fare against TB or BOS later?

Microcosm