supernuke

If the Big Hurt calls you Leroy, then your name is Leroy.

Even if it is 2 and out it is 2 games of playoff experience for a young core. I'll take the playoffs.

Come on EE, just retire now. You had a nice career.

Yes!

Need robot umps now. There is no reason not to have them.

Bullshit call but you have to be swinging with Angel behind the plate.

Gotta get to Lester now.

Almost have to go Lopez if we get to a game 3.

Not looking like a #3 for the playoffs anymore.

Signs of life!

AJ Hinch and Alex Cora will both be looking for work next season.

Please no, AJ is awful.

Kopech hasn't seen real game action in 2 years, of course he is going to start in the minors. That isn't really an I told you so moment.

The every 4th day thing seems like it would be a deal breaker. It would mess with the rest of the staff.

I vote for Slappy.

I think pitching was more important than an RF at the time and is going forward.

What's done is done. Grandal is the guy going forward. What this team needs to worry about is pitching. we will need a TOR starter and some bullpen help before we can think about going far in any future playoffs.

If given the choice I would rather the Sox be the 2020 AL Central champions than not the 2020 AL Central champions.

I am sure McCann won't be here next year, he would be foolish to not find a job as a starter. The only slim possibility is that the Bromance with Giolito is so strong that he can't tear himself away. I am not deluded enough to think that Grandal is bad, I just don't think that spending the money to upgrade from a B to an A+ made sense when there are still D's on the roster. It also becomes more frustrating when in an admittedly SSS we haven't seen that A+ player. Some articles I have read have indicated that framing abilities decline rapidly at around age 31, if the elite framing disappears is Grandal still a top 2 catcher?

I think you greatly underestimate James McCann. I see a guy who worked hard to change his approach at the plate and became a much better hitter because of it. He is completely changed form the hitter he was in Detroit. I think you over simplify things by showing the first half and second half numbers from last year. Going month by month you get: April .357/.400/.536 May .338./372/.514 June .275/.363.500 July .173/.212/.309 Aug .274/.330/.476 Sept .250/.314/.453 One horrible month of July is really dragging down the second half numbers. it looks to me like the pitchers finally made an adjustment to him in July and he had to adjust against that. He may not put up those first half stats over a full season but I believe he is clearly much better than a .250/.300/.400 hitter.

I really wish Sandy Alomar would have just taken the damn bench coach job when it was offered to him.

There only appears to be 1 potential #1 starter on the FA market this off season. If we are getting one it would likely have to be via trade.

Yep, and all I am saying is that so far we haven't seen all that was advertised.

I certainly hope they can find a #1 starter this off season. I would expect a regression from Giolito at least for his fist season without McCann. Hopefully they also find a backup catcher that will be able to work with Giolito if he can't click with Grandal.

I think another thing working against him is that after the signing he was presented as having this great knowledge in working with pitchers and he was going to be able to get more out of the pitchers. That hasn't seemed to happen so far. He was also an elite framer but for that hasn't shown up yet either. I have read a couple of articles that have said that framing abilities tend to drop off rapidly after age 31 so it is possible that we may never see that elite framing.