I know it's early.....and other factors like at times bad defensive play such as in the opener have contributed.....but this is now already the third game we've lost after leading in the 8th inning or later and the seasons barely over a week old. Not to mention that ridiculous meltdown by Foster in the 6th inning of the last Seattle game with a 4-1 lead. 

I'd say virtually every aspect of the way our team is playing being this bad from the beginning is a bad sign and likely more than just "getting off to a bad start."

And we've seen it happen time and time again. 

Edited April 11, 20214 yr by RagahRagah

Bullpens are extremely volatile and extremely important in modern baseball.  Preseason it looked like the Sox had a good one on paper. The results haven't been there so far.

Two big concerns so far are Bummer and Hendricks. Both of these dudes are locked up for a long time and owed a great amount of $$. Bummer has to start getting lefties out. Hendricks honestly looks pretty cashed out. Every single outing has been a struggle for him. Oakland put a lot of miles on his arm. Hopefully he doesn't implode. 

Well, I was gonna title a thread, 'What if Hendricks keeps blowing it?' (ALA the recent threads), but I guess this'll do....

9 minutes ago, JoeyCoralFanClub said:

Bullpens are extremely volatile and extremely important in modern baseball.  Preseason it looked like the Sox had a good one on paper. The results haven't been there so far.

Two big concerns so far are Bummer and Hendricks. Both of these dudes are locked up for a long time and owed a great amount of $$. Bummer has to start getting lefties out. Hendricks honestly looks pretty cashed out. Every single outing has been a struggle for him. Oakland put a lot of miles on his arm. Hopefully he doesn't implode. 

You're right....

Besides the bullpen issues, the errors and lack of hitting with RISP has been a staple of the team for the past few years. 

10 minutes ago, ShoeLessRob said:

Besides the bullpen issues, the errors and lack of hitting with RISP has been a staple of the team for the past few years. 

Lol it's been a lot longer than that. 

Hendricks will be fine.  He needs to throw more often, that's all.  

i honestly didn't understand why we didnt resign colome.

2 minutes ago, Nokona said:

Hendricks will be fine.  He needs to throw more often, that's all.  

Perhaps. But by virtue of spending all that money on him he is being forced into the action at this point, albeit not in great situations so far, and not abundantly. I think Karma bites a team in the ass if they don't build a team according to prioritized needs on paper

1 minute ago, Nokona said:

Hendricks will be fine.  He needs to throw more often, that's all.  

Hendricks looks cashed. Dude has thrown a ton of pitches over the last few years and is on the wrong side of 30. Good for him for getting his big pay day. I just wish another team would have given it to him.

To be fair, when you have starters that can't give you at least 5 innings, your bullpen will be exposed.

2 minutes ago, Big Hurtin said:

To be fair, when you have starters that can't give you at least 5 innings, your bullpen will be exposed.

Not wrong, but Kopech kinda finished off Cease’s start and then the bullpen they’re supposed to count on, blew it. 

2 minutes ago, Big Hurtin said:

To be fair, when you have starters that can't give you at least 5 innings, your bullpen will be exposed.

That wasn't an issue today though. There had been a complete game followed by two off days so the bullpen was plenty rested.

It’s a combination of everything but when the team can’t score enough runs it puts pressure on the pitching staff and the bullpen to limit the damage or go the distance. The issue right now is we’re not scoring enough runs. We need Jimenez, TA and Engel back at some point or we need to find some more power down in the minors to bring up. 

Edited April 11, 20214 yr by maloney.adam

12 minutes ago, harkness99 said:

i honestly didn't understand why we didnt resign colome.

Colome was performing well above his expected numbers so he was a candidate for regression and it looks like that's exactly what is happening as he is struggling so far.

However, we've blown several games now and Hendriks isn't carrying his weight. 

Its unclear to me why a team that has a limited budget would blow most of its wad on a closer when there's a good amount of variance year to year in relievers so I'm trying to understand the why behind it.....i mean besides the fact that we have an old school manager that hijacked the power structure from the FO , thinks its 1990 and insisted on his Dennis Eckersley, even though this team struggles hitting any halfway decent RHP and we just so happen to play RHP a little more than 70 percent of the time.

 

 

Edited April 11, 20214 yr by SoCalChiSox

59 minutes ago, harkness99 said:

i honestly didn't understand why we didnt resign colome.

Colome hasn't looked great either. His ERA is 6.75 after today

I get moving on from Colome and his high wire acts that he seemed to always get out of.

However, the gopher balls we have seen from Hendricks are a concern especially where we play our home games.  Most likely he will be fine but game threads might be nervous with Liam for awhile.

too early for this thread

 

1) We had a west coast trip

2) It's been cold af

3) New pieces on the team, new manager, weird flow for bullpen arms

4) Bad defense

 

I hate how this team is playing and hated a ton of the moves, but overreacting on the bullpen is a bad idea. This bullpen should still be incredible. 

I'm a lot more worried on the offense and SP side of things. Offense -- lots of injuries, Moncada looks horrible, and we can't hit RHP's. SP - not sold on Rodon staying healthy, Keuchel sucks, Cease is questionable. 

4 minutes ago, iWiN4PreP said:

too early for this thread

 

1) We had a west coast trip

2) It's been cold af

3) New pieces on the team, new manager, weird flow for bullpen arms

4) Bad defense

 

I hate how this team is playing and hated a ton of the moves, but overreacting on the bullpen is a bad idea. This bullpen should still be incredible. 

I'm a lot more worried on the offense and SP side of things. Offense -- lots of injuries, Moncada looks horrible, and we can't hit RHP's. SP - not sold on Rodon staying healthy, Keuchel sucks, Cease is questionable. 

The bullpen is one I was optimistic about. God help us if that ultimately ends up in the disaster category, too. 

They blew this game by scoring 1 run off of Minor. This vaunted offense against lefties. 

44 minutes ago, harkness99 said:

i honestly didn't understand why we didnt resign colome.

I couldn't understand it either.

We aren’t manufacturing enough runs right now and that’s what’s taxing the pitching staff and the bullpen. The bottom of the lineup is very weak right now because of the injuries.

Edited April 11, 20214 yr by maloney.adam

1 hour ago, RagahRagah said:

I'd say virtually every aspect of the way our team is playing being this bad from the beginning is a bad sign and likely more than just "getting off to a bad start."

And we've seen it happen time and time again. 

We finished last year 3 and 10. If this lingers for another few weeks we are in trouble because this is the easier part of the schedule. 

1 minute ago, maloney.adam said:

The bullpen will figure it out. We aren’t manufacturing enough runs right now and that’s because of the injuries. The bottom of the lineup is very weak right now.

It's not because of injuries. It is because Moncada, Leury, and Vaughn aren't slugging like we need them to. Anderson and Eloy are out and Yermin has replaced Eloy's bat. So that leaves Anderson's bat as the one missing.