almagest

Colson only saw one strike in that at bat and it was a cookie

I mean I’ll take that He was hitting the ball hard into bad luck for a bit, now he’s under everything and popping it up.

Acuna can’t bunt either

Wow did the As ever blow that

Antonacci swings at everything

For sure. Trading Semien and Bassitt plus Tatis for basically nothing should also factor in this timeline. The Sox were trying to build sustained success with no LATAM or Asian pipeline, no top end free agents, and little help coming from their drafts. It's not surprising just trading for a bunch of top prospects and doing the bare minimum everywhere else wasn't sustainable, and ended up bottoming out as the worst team of all time.

I'd be pretty happy with a Dansby outcome if they get the Cubs version. He's been worth 4-5.5 bWAR each of the last 4 seasons, and 3.3-6.6 fWAR in the last 5.

I think Renteria not getting another MLB job tells you what you need to know about him. Firing him wasn't the problem, it was bringing TLR back instead of Hinch. Though I wonder about Hinch - Tigers absolutely collapsed down the stretch last year and started off really poorly this year, though they've turned it around recently. We pretty much all thought rushing Crochet up was a bad idea. Same with Vaughn. Treating Crochet like they're treating Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz would've been a much better idea. Imagine if he came up in 2023 or 2024 instead of burning 2 (or 3? dunno how the TJS year factors) years of control for basically nothing. Vaughn maybe would still suck but there was no reason to rush him up, especially after COVID killing the minors for a year. I've been beating the "not signing Harper was the biggest mistake the Sox made during their 'window'" since he signed with the Phillies and I stand by that. It was the first sign of impending doom. I would take everything Jerry says publicly or "publicly" with a giant grain of salt. Giolito is still holding out now and is basically wasting a year of his career and earning potential. Not sure there's anything any team could do that wouldn't piss off a guy like that. I get he thinks hes not getting what he's worth but dude MLB is TELLING you you're not worth what you want. Take a prove it contract and stop making terrible decisions.

The Rays certainly do

It really just amounts to the same problem they've had since 2023. When you can't score runs you put a ton of pressure on the pitching, and they do not have the pitching to absorb that pressure.

Oh lord death by a thousand cuts

Wow did Dominguez ever not have it today

Welp

A near-MVP season? I mean I GUESS I'd take that

Pereira not looking bad since his return

Fair enough. Wonder what the Sox could have traded to equal Jax. Definitely no one in the bullpen. Houser for Bradley instead of Mead/Davitt/Peoples maybe? No idea if that was even on the table or if Tampa had their sights set on Jax.

Last 5 games Robert is positively Acunian - 2/19 (.105 BA), 1 BB, 3 SO, 1 RS, 0 RBI, 0 XBH, 1 GIDP

When you've been as bad offensively as the Sox have it all piles on like that.

Taj Bradley has been good for four starts and he was a well below average starter for 350 innings before that. I get that he's young and this was likely at least a solid trade that only cost a pretty good reliever, but if Taj started off terribly this year you wouldn't be bringing this up.

At least they didn't get shut out

See.

Here comes Acuna to ruin it

I'd be fine with that outcome

So you're saying the move is actually "No, MORE Benintendi!"

Some concerning signs but I'm waiting more than 17 games. I want to see what getting their "ideal" lineup out for a few months looks like. Probably not many more offensive reinforcements coming besides Hays (unless Braden Montgomery continues his hot streak), but I imagine Hagen Smith will be up at some point, and the bullpen will continue to shuffle until they find something that works. I still think 70-something wins is a likely outcome, but if they continue to be far off that pace even after getting healthy/getting promotions to MLB done then we'll know something isn't working.