I feel better about the pitching than I have in a couple years. While Shane Smith and Vasil fell each in their own way , Taylor, Hicks. Burke, Hagen Smith all emerged to provide quality innings. Newcombe was so valuable and Davis Martin had an early season spurt better than any he had in his career . Unfortunately it didn't last.

There are a lot of question marks regarding the starting rotation and now the bullpen but there are also a lot of candidates or you might say trade candidates . Problem is you need frontline pitching now and can't wait for it to develop and you may have to replace, Newcomb and Taylor in the pen which are both big losses. Do you keep Martin, Castillo, Kay, Sandlin, Schultz, Thorpe, McDougal, Shane Smith or invest in the future of some of the younger ones in that group ?

I'd keep the RH OF bat on the back burner and go after strictly pitching now. As always is the question with the Sox and Reinsdorf will they go for a top of the rotation arm? Can't expect a Skubal unfortunately because he's exactly what they need. The rest of the FA starting pitchers can just as easily flop in a shortened season just like so many trade deadline starting pitchers flopped in the 2nd half.

Also because of the potential for a lengthy lockout and the potential for anyone to bust or boom it's just a matter of preference. Outside of Skubal I have no preference on the pitchers to sign , start, move to the pen or trade. What I suspect will happen is the Sox sign a guy or 2 with plenty of question marks like Taira (if there's a lack of bidding) or May and trade a couple of pitchers.

Edited 27 minutes ago27 min by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

5 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

It's Wrigley Field, they probably have a trough for bathing