35thstreetswarm

We haven't really hit one of these stretches this year, though. Sure, we've had a series here and there against mediocre to bad teams (and have underperformed in several of them), but we always turn around and immediately get the Yankees or Dodgers or some such. Our first half schedule was uncommonly tough. This is the first long "break" from good teams we've had. That said, I'm on record as saying this year's Sox have no discernible pattern based on team quality (or if they do, it's that they play *better* against good teams) so I have no idea if this easy stretch will help them. I'm inclined to guess that the combination of injury returns, unmotivated opponents, and positive regression combine to help them though. I'll go 13-6.

I saw that and assumed the 9th inning put it over the even dozen page count that usually matches up with easy wins.

yeah I’m not seeing much of a correlation between opponent quality and Sox play. The Sox have played really well on the road against the likes of NYY, Tampa and Boston and shit the bed at home against Baltimore. It seems the Sox win when they are playing well and lose when they’re not. Hope they play well.

I missed the game—can someone explain the “classless” reference?

Joe Maddon is pretty widely believed to be a poor in-game manager—bad example. Terry Francona, Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy. That was not hard.

Ricky was a dogshit manager. And yes he was.

It’s clear they need to coach him not to hit balls so hard. I mean unless it’s absolutely necessary

Really hated Gio right out of the break. Should’ve been Cueto

What in the world? I assume it's not a concussion or they would have said so. Very scary. Hope he's ok.

I'm so annoyed at the Apple TV situation I just bought tix to watch the game in person. Take that MLB!

FIFY.

Yes, I predict the actual return will be this or less.

...and there it is, the one-player list. My Soxtalk career is complete

That's more than the haul for Sale. Pretty sure that's more than the "ante" to just get the Nats to pick up the phone.

No, they don't. The Sox aren't paying $500M as their window is closing. I think a lot of people are talking about the price of 2.5 years of Soto with full knowledge he'll walk.

Cue Soxtalk Tech Support thread

I would take that bet--I'm just about Vaughn's biggest fan but Soto is one of the 3-4 most exciting players in the game. BUT I think the two will be comparable *enough* that sending Vaughn -- plus multiple valuable prospects (likely the top tier of our farm) -- for Soto would be a bad trade.

It is the all-star break. I don't know that I'd be expecting a ton of injury-related news to be coming out of the org this week. Hopefully we'll get an update in a couple days.

It's tough for guys taller than 99.9% of the population to succeed, but not as hard as it is for players with names starting with "X." Think about it - you've got Xander Bogaerts and almost nothing else. Good for him for persevering and overcoming that obvious handicap, tho

Depends on what the "++" is. Nobody is suggesting Eloy + Colson alone would get it done. But I agree that Eloy as the centerpiece probably won't work, it's just what I want.

This is my fear, too. Our best top-level assets are ML-ready types like Vaughn/Eloy, etc. If they're not interested in one of those guys I don't think we have the minor league talent to compete with other suitors.

Eloy, Colson ++ and we’re on.

I'd be good with that. This is our window, for better or worse, so we should go for it if the right "big" move is there. I'm not in favor of swinging light, though. I don't want to keep giving up long term pieces for things we don't really need, or for lateral moves. I'd put a Happ trade more in the second category than the first. I wouldn't be shocked to see an improved Pollock put up numbers comparable to Happ without giving up a thing.

Ha! If that’s the price I can’t imagine any team trading for him.

Jealous—it must be fun to see us beat the Twins amongst those weird-ass fans of theirs.