Now imagine the lineup with Grandal and Jimenez healthy and with their legs under them, TA7/11 (Charlotte #) back, and Burger.

Right now we have a typical example of turning a negative into a positive. Sox hitting came to life without TA in the lineup . Even though it's unlikely Mendick continues on his current hot streak , imagine if he does. Bam! 2nd base problem solved in house without Yolbert, Sosa, Leury or Harrison.

Now if Moncada keeps getting better that's a good LHB . Add one more LHB somewhere and throw the starting RHP off his rhythm a bit and you get more mistakes to the RHH.

I've almost convinced myself the bad RHH most of the season until Abreu, Pollock and Vaughn got real hot is not really because of bad weather but because too many RHP get too comfortable/locked in without facing any competent LHH's in the Sox lineup. If the pitcher only has to game plan against mostly RHH that makes his job a lot easier working mostly to one side of the plate against RHH's. Hot streaks come and go but to get better consistency from the RHH you need productive LHH's in the lineup just to fuck with  the pitcher getting too comfortable.

On 6/11/2022 at 8:27 AM, Harold's Leg Lift said:

Sheets finally got sent down.  

The offense took off after they sent a black hole to the minors.  Go figure.

2 hours ago, Harold's Leg Lift said:

The offense took off after they sent a black hole to the minors.  Go figure.

Also after Tim got hurt, Eloy only 36 unproductive AB's, Moncada and Grandal sucking so I don't know if you can draw too many conclusions about sending down Sheets .

When TA returns, Mendick taking over at 2nd would be a real positive.  Really believe the Sox could use a Billy Hamilton type for the extra innings.   

On 6/15/2022 at 4:20 PM, caulfield12 said:

Now imagine the lineup with Grandal and Jimenez healthy and with their legs under them, TA7/11 (Charlotte #) back, and Burger.

Congrats to Jake Burger and fiancee Ashlyn who are expecting a baby slugger. Sox have a productive lineup. 

Edited June 16, 20223 yr by pcq

10 minutes ago, MikeKreevich said:

When TA returns, Mendick taking over at 2nd would be a real positive.  Really believe the Sox could use a Billy Hamilton type for the extra innings.   

Mendick and Burger are the only position players who can be sent down. Unless the Sox are willing to DFA Harrison and I doubt they would resort to that yet, Mendick probably goes down before Burger.

10 minutes ago, MikeKreevich said:

When TA returns, Mendick taking over at 2nd would be a real positive.  Really believe the Sox could use a Billy Hamilton type for the extra innings.   

Mendick and Engel have their hot streaks, then longer cold ones.  We shall see how sustainable it is this time after almost entirely being written off like Engel and Leury so many times.

1 minute ago, CentralChamps21 said:

Mendick and Burger are the only position players who can be sent down. Unless the Sox are willing to DFA Harrison and I doubt they would resort to that yet, Mendick probably goes down before Burger.

Yeah, Burger has the unique power threat whereas Leury and Harrison overlap too much and Leury can play SS in a pinch.

That would be playing Pollock everyday in LF, Vaughn in RF and Burger at DH.

Mendick and Engel are valuable but not quite everyday big leaguers. Adam is getting older 

1 minute ago, pcq said:

Mendick and Engel are valuable but not quite everyday big leaguers. Adam is getting older 

Pretty close to the same age as Leury, although Garcia has been playing seemingly forever, since the last massive stock market crash.

24 minutes ago, CentralChamps21 said:

Mendick and Burger are the only position players who can be sent down. Unless the Sox are willing to DFA Harrison and I doubt they would resort to that yet, Mendick probably goes down before Burger.

I'll he shocked if Harrison is not DFA'd soon.

7 minutes ago, KrankinSox said:

I'll he shocked if Harrison is not DFA'd soon.

So the argument for keeping Harrison and sending Mendick down is then if you have an injury later in the year, you have someone to bring up.

3 minutes ago, CentralChamps21 said:

So the argument for keeping Harrison and sending Mendick down is then if you have an injury later in the year, you have someone to bring up.

That's a weak ass argument. You have Sanchez and Sosa in that scenario. Harrison is cooked. Mendick has earned his spot. We have already wasted enough time fucking around with Leury and Harrison as the starting 2B. I'm not saying Mendick is the long term answer, but for now he has the job until he squanders it. Harrison's time is up.

18 hours ago, KrankinSox said:

I'll he shocked if Harrison is not DFA'd soon.

I agree with you . . . But, with this organization, I would not be shocked. They have spent years preparing us for these kinds of decisions. 

18 hours ago, CentralChamps21 said:

So the argument for keeping Harrison and sending Mendick down is then if you have an injury later in the year, you have someone to bring up.

Just a bad argument. DFA’ing him also opens up a 40-man spot so if you did need to add someone, you could add Sosa or Yolbert.

Edited June 17, 20223 yr by Bob Sacamano

There are no bad arguments in the POSITIVE THREAD. Just different perspective we all respect since we all have the same goal of enjoying baseball and winning a world series!

31 minutes ago, he gone. said:

There are no bad arguments in the POSITIVE THREAD. Just different perspective we all respect since we all have the same goal of enjoying baseball and winning a world series!

TLR is a great manager

31 minutes ago, ron883 said:

TLR is a great manager

He's certainly built a nice track record. There's always something to learn from another individual. Good to have different perspectives, age groups and backgrounds across the clubhouse

On 6/17/2022 at 2:55 PM, ron883 said:

TLR is a great manager

Hall of Fame even. 

Nice win today. 

On 6/16/2022 at 12:10 PM, Harold's Leg Lift said:

The offense took off after they sent a black hole to the minors.  Go figure.

I think there is and has been a ton of dead weight on the roster. Lots of opportunities for addition by subtraction for sure. If I was Hahn, I would continue going through this team with a weed wacker.

If you truly want to stay positive and be optimistic here are a couple thoughts.

We know Tony hides minor injuries and, for example, who is available to pitch at any given moment. I don't believe it's unreasonable to believe the team will get healthier and Tony will make better moves when he has the options. Yes he's past his prime, but he's been on the winning side of more World Series than anyone on the roster or in the front office. Some of his blunders may have been unannounced injury driven.

Players don't usually fall off the cliff. We have a lot of guys slumping early. To get back to average, they may all get hotter than Texas asphalt in summer by September and October. 

And we have the easiest schedule coming up. 

 

Here’s something that seems truly bizarre for us to chew on:

since the 8 game losing streak - despite all the injuries and bad play - the Sox are 25-22 (.532 winning percentage). If they were to play at a .532 winning percentage for the rest of the season, they would still win exactly 84 games… so they only have to play a few games better over the next 99 games than they have in the last 41 games to win 90 games. As bad as they’ve seemed to be, it’s been pretty decent, winning baseball over the last 41 games. 

Edited June 19, 20223 yr by Greg Hibbard

My positive post: Of all of our fill in, super subs, I kind of like Mendick. Also Vaughn is pretty good hitter.

Another Positive post: Basically the Sox win as many games as they lose so that means we Sox fans are happy 50 percent of the time.

And a non Sox positive note: Likeable Yermin ... I hope he gets called up by SF soon to see if he's got anything. Hope he gets a chance again.

Edited June 19, 20223 yr by greg775

17 minutes ago, Greg Hibbard said:

Here’s something that seems truly bizarre for us to chew on:

since the 8 game losing streak - despite all the injuries and bad play - the Sox are 25-22 (.532 winning percentage). If they were to play at a .532 winning percentage for the rest of the season, they would still win exactly 84 games… so they only have to play a few games better over the next 99 games than they have in the last 41 games to win 90 games. As bad as they’ve seemed to be, it’s been pretty decent, winning baseball over the last 41 games. 

Also that Mendick has stepped up for TA, Burger for Moncada and even McGuire and Zavala for Grandal

Chew on this. McGuire the last 30 days is 15 for 43 , .349 .404 .442  .846

Zavala since his call up .313  .294  .563  .857