Dominikk85

I would have said crochet open for 1 or 2, then dunning and if he struggles pull him quickly however the last starts weren't so great by dunning maybe now I would start dunning and then stretch crochet as far as you can maybe even let him throw 2-3 innings.

I think there are several factors to why he was so good this year. 1. He is slimmer and fitter than usually 2. Avoiding the cold: jose hates the cold and is usually not good the first 4-6 weeks. This year he started the season when it was hot 3. A bit of luck. His .379 xwoba is a career high (only since 2015 available) but still he got a little lucky with a .404 actual wOBA. Regarding the final out yesterday: it was a great decision to swing first pitch here. He is clearly the best hitter of the team and it was two out. If he walks it is 4-5 and mazara is up with 2 out. I definitely take the chance of jose getting a hit and tying it over hoping mazara gets on and ties or wins it vs a lefty or McCann in case he pinch hits there.

He did always trade a lot of prospects but most of them really became busts. The only real good ones he traded were andrew miller in the miggy trade and moncada, kopech in the sale trade and both trades brought in a superstar in their prime who worked out really well. Still of course that approach is not super sustainable but he definitely did trade the right guys most of the time.

Great. Get a tired hendriks who the sox have already hit in:)

Dont agree. Best hitter of the team got a good pitch to hit and smoked it just at somebody. Even if he walks there they are still a run down, he absolutely has to rip the first fat pitch he sees there.

Dont agree. Best hitter of the team got a good pitch to hit and smoked it just at somebody. Even if he walks there they are still a run down, he absolutely has to rip the first fat pitch he sees there.

Yeah definitely save the good relievers for tomorow and hit the left handed starter

It could be though If there is a game 3 and the pen is needed early there. Also keuchel could need relief early too if it goes wrong. I think a 4 run lead in the 8 was a good situation to wait it out a little.

I think that was a good decision. It was a 4 run lead and giolito was dealing. That was exactly the time to stretch the starter and save the pen, the no off days post season means you have to take some chances. I would have pulled gio one batter earlier after the lead off got on but even giving him one extra batter was not that terrible of a decision. With 4-0 bottom 8th sox had a 96% win expectancy and with the lead off on that lowered to 92%. That was the right situation to take a chance with their best starter as the Sox pen will be used a ton the next couple days.

Hopefully the sox can get the lead again. Of course he is a RHP and the sox aren't as good against RHP but bassitt is ok but not an elite guy. The sox can't hit the top stuff righties who abuse their plate discipline but bassitt isn't monster stuff guy.

I don't think that pace is sustainable but I do hope he keeps that shape next year. He does look slimmer, maybe the prospect of being on a winning team motivated him while until 2019 the team had no chance anyway.

Yeah. Colome is the closer and he has a 3 run lead. This is definitely a situation for him.

Should gio start next inning? Or put in a reliever with a clean slate?

Neither is a good example for a low education guy who made it though. They both went to elite schools and only dropped out because their business that they founded as a student made truckloads of money. Had they failed their business either of them likely would have gotten a degree.

Mazara does have some home road splits but even if you don't think much of Hahn and Williams you can assume they did check home road splits. Mazara still had a .751 career road ops against righties 16-19 which is not great but playable

The sox definitely need to get a lead in the first 5 innings because the pen of the As is a lot better than the Sox pen which has been surprisingly good but has no real depth.

6.4 is centerfield kind of speed, that is really fast.

I never hated the mazara move. If he was what he was the last 3 years (105 wrc+ against RHP, Can't hit LHP) he would have been fine but for whatever reason (illness, injury, mechanics, mental?) he couldn't do that. But hahn couldn't have known that, you don't expect a 25-26 year old who was rather consistent (on a mediocre level of course) to decline that much, if anything you either hope he is the same or even slightly improves. A 2017-2019 mazara against RHP and engel against LHP would have been a decent albeit not spectacular platoon, I liked the thinking at the time. Can't blame hahn for that.

then you need to take him off the roster though, you can't carry a short side of the platoon pinch hitter on the roster. If you carry him at the very least he has to play the platoon against lefties, otherwise he is just a waste of a roster spot.

Doesn't Ricky have to play EE against lefty starters? It makes no sense to have a DH on the roster when you are not even using him on his good platoon side. If you are not using him against lefty starters you can't use him at all and if you don't use him at all you need to take him away from the post season roster because a roster spot is too valuable to waste it on a pinch hit only guy. That means if the front office didn't want EE to play at least against lefties, EE wouldn't be on the roster. I hope EE doesn't start against righties but if he is on the roster he basically has to play against lefties.

Hahn doesn't have a great FA track record but that is also due to the money he got to use. You are not getting good AND young FAs without paying premium money so Hahn was basically forced to buy aging guys and hoping for one last bounce back. It is much easier to be good with free agents if you are able to spend 200m.

Could be a good spot to grab a falling HS pitcher.or maybe a top HS hitting prospect who had some performance struggles causing him to fall. College hitters in that range are usually not very attractive because often there is a big drop after the first 4-5 college hitters and you only get a polished limited upside guy there. If you are lucky though a good college pitcher falls due to injury concerns like singer or faedo did.

I agree. With vaughn one of the holes will be filled and one bad spot in the lineup is ok, it just shouldn't be as bad as mazara this year. Just get on OK guy who can produce a 100 wrc+ there and the team is fine. Back of the rotation is the bigger issue, you just can't have 3 starters who regularly only go 4 or any pen will burn out no matter who manages it. Either some guys step up or you need to get a new guy. I would like to see one good addition so you have a decent 6th guy for depth because there will be injuries too.

I think this lost the clubhouse thing is bullshit. They had a bad two weeks but that happens to every team over 162 games, momentum is a myth https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fg-on-fox-the-myth-of-second-half-momentum/ The cubs had a 5 win 15 loss stretch in 2016, nobody would care about a 3 win 9 loss stretch over a 162 season.

The worn out pen can't be blamed on ricky though. In the contrary ricky actually protected his best pen guys by often putting in weaker relievers in tough spots which set up the team to fail but protected the arms of the best relievers. The actual problem was the sox only have 2 starters who can go more than 5 so the pen was used a lot. Had Ricky run the pen like the forum wanted him to do which is basically treat every game like game 7 and never put in a bad reliever in a tough spot the pen would have already been worn out after 30 games. Ricky made some bad moves but I also felt he protected colome, foster and heuer which were the only reliable relievers over the season after the bummer injury reasonably well by not using them all the time. If the forum could have decided those 3 and bummer when available would have pitched every game but then they would have been dead by the all star break. If you have a season with very few off days, starters who can't go deep and really only 3-4 relievers who are good managing a pen is a tough task. He could have gone dusty Baker and always use the best guys but that would have killed the pen.