caulfield12

Who’s below? Pirates, Rays and A’s? That in and of itself is very telling. Risk averse on bigger contracts but more than happy to spend money like drunken sailors on a weekend past on utility guys, aging veterans, bullpen. The core is obviously stronger than 2016, but the finishing moves are almost anti-Braves 2021. Then we’re supposed to turn around and praise them for spending so much when it’s crap decision after crap decision. Rodon and Kimbrel QO’s leads to Kimbrel staying leads on the roster after the lockout eventually leads to VV/Pollock/Harrison/lesser draft pool for the 30th ranked farm system. It’s like losing all the money you brought to Vegas then borrowing another $10,000 or putting it on a credit card in an ill-advised attempt to get back to even.

He’s equally well suited to play 2B and any of the OF positions, though. Which is kind of Jack’s point about positional flexibility.

We should just shut up and appreciate having a team to cheer for still in Chicago, basically.

That worked so well in AZ with him and Dave Stewart. God help the Sox. Pujols, Wainright and Molina will never retire.

Alternative thread title. We’re kind of tired of being sold a false bill of goods as Sox fans. .500 and not even mired in mediocrity as the White Sox, Tigers and Royals are ranked 13th through 15th in AL RS/RA differential. We are 7-12 against some of the worst teams in baseball, somehow. Meanwhile the Twins are 13-5, a massive 6.5 game swing in the standings. That doesn’t happen by accident. Not for almost 1/3rd of a season now when we finish playing Toronto and TB. Those boos for Keuchel should have been aimed at the executive suites higher up in the stadium. There are many more totally embarrassing games than ones we can be proud of our team

Some of us never understood why the management team that brought us the need for a rebuild was put in charge of then fixing all the problems they’d created in the first place. A number of us, but not a majority, were concerned Kimbrel would not be able to adjust to having his closer’s role taken away. That was proved correct, and even LaRussa questioned the fit, albeit after the move was already made. Abreu was 1st and 16th in MVP voting these last two years. $50 million for three years at his advanced age was hardly highway robbery, but it has certainly turned out well, at least until this season. That said, Vaughn should be starting at first base now, everyone in the world knows he’s playing out of position. And now he’s still blocked. Hahn said we didn’t have the inside information about why Jimenez was not in fact injury-prone. Not sure what kind of analysis they have which backs that up. Probably the same internal information that supports Gain Sheets getting the lion’s share of DH time. Grandal never should have gotten more than three years…simply because every catcher starts to fall apart rapidly in their mid 30’s post steroids era. Many, including Balta, expressed concern/s about all the other aspects of his defensive game not related to framing, particularly blocking pitches, throwing out runners and pitch selection. No secret at all the Dodgers didn’t trust him at all the last year he was on their playoff roster, not unlike the Yankees parting ways with Gary Sanchez. Not sure why not addressing RF (Pollock never had the arm and him playing LF was just an accident) or lack of quality left handed hitting added is a feather in Hahn’s cap? Every GM passed on him, so doesn’t everyone get credit for doing due diligence? The fact we fixated on Conforto was simply because every other option was already off the table. In reality, he had no desire to do anything besides stand pat with our current roster and hope for the best…which has turned out so well. Finally, everyone screamed about overpaying Kelly…giving Leury three years when nobody was competing for him at that price and certainly 75-80% thought Harrison’s 1.5 fWAR wouldn’t stand up and would look more like his 2-3 previous years in the desert. Oh, and we skipped about 10-15 starting pitchers that would have been useful…starting with Rodon. Cueto might have bailed them out temporarily, but we simply can’t just continue to give away 25-33% of our starts to the opposition and still expect to go anywhere.

They did find Narvaez and McCann…what happened to them is a totally different argument. They “developed” Avi Garcia but ended up letting him go. One can argue the merits of that as well. Another is not getting a single useful outfielder (for the Sox at least) from that famed grouping of Basabe, Steele Walker, Luis Gonzalez, Rutherford and Micker Adolfo. To this date, we still can’t manage this relatively simple task…whereas the Indians/Guardians have kept coming up with guys from all points of the globe with 1/3rd our overall budget. The only move that has been decent was Graveman…let’s wait at least 5 more starts from Cueto outside the division before declaring full success. At least he has stopped the bleeding and is keeping the Sox 8n range of the leaders.

Kimbrel TLR named manager this woeful offseason by Hahn as well as ongoing conditioning/training issues too many aging vets and especially Grandal going in the tank...mismatch between those aforementioned veterans and younger core not peaking simultaneously

Or he's just going to cite his Astros' career, postseasons, 2020 Sox pre Oakland. Inflated ego.

Barlow has been unbelievable this year. Fortunate to get the bottom of the order, but Gordon and Kepler aren't easy outs…and their rookie 1B was 2/3 in the game before he was the first out via K. Ball didn’t leave the infield after dicing up Gordon with a curve.

Make that 23 ribbies thanks to Big Energy softball tosses. 7 homers in 7 games.

Anderson up to .363 now. Almost as hot as Story and JD Martinez.

Oops had to be Story. Filling up one season of stat lines in a week and destroying fantasy leagues.

Our new replacement for Kelly.

We would need Walter Payton, Mike Singletary and Fridge Perry to come back in this one.

Man, Matt Barnes is toast.

And a two or three minute soliloquy comparing Vaughn and Pujols.

The next city controversy will be KW and Hahn saying they are retooling on the fly and not rebuilding. Cubs didn't get away with that PR parlor trick.

Need Owens and Josh Fields out there too. Ehren Wasserman.

Shades of our former LH Michigan QB who couldn't field a ball and throw it to first to save his life.

Kyle McCulloch is warming up, with the ghost of Kris Honel.

Great. More traumatic memories of bad Sox moves of that time period, him and Cory Snyder.

Make that -41. Only a quantum computer can even keep up with Boston scoring.

SOX -40 Tigers -47 Royals -61 Three worst differentials in the AL right now. All have something in common.