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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 17:40:08 GMT -5
Woohoo. A neat win.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 17:28:41 GMT -5
These 4 and 5 inning starts are ridiculous. People made fun of "quality" starts because you could get a 4.5 ERA and get a quality start, but you have to complete 6 innings, which has become a rare thing and looks Herculean to what we see now. He was their 8th starter going into the season. I'll take it. I get it. It's just kind of crazy that 4 innings is considered an acceptable start, irregardless of who does it.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 16:45:03 GMT -5
Boy, I'd have tried to steal another inning from Criswell rather than melting the pen for five innings. These 4 and 5 inning starts are ridiculous. People made fun of "quality" starts because you could get a 4.5 ERA and get a quality start, but you have to complete 6 innings, which has become a rare thing and looks Herculean to what we see now.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 15:53:18 GMT -5
The Sox are swinging the bats today.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 15:28:40 GMT -5
Of course too much speed can kill an inning too, lol.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 15:28:10 GMT -5
Speed kills. Screw exit velocity.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 15:18:54 GMT -5
Pablo Reyes getting a hell of a pass imho. Rough year so far. Eduardo Nunez 2.0 Without the World Series HR.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 11:19:24 GMT -5
Duran LF Abreu RF Yoshida DH Casas 1B Dalbec 3B Valdez 2B Rafaela CF McGuire C Hamilton SS Hahahaha Edit - Romy on IL for Criswell Look like a 90 win team to me, lol.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 8:45:41 GMT -5
True. They were under .500 from Sept 2011 thru 2015, but I liked that stretch, hell, let's call it 2013, better. The rest of it sucked. 2021 was nice but the 2 seasons prior and the 2 seasons after have been a slog and this season looks no different and if they do as little offseason as they did this year it'll be more slog until their young core establishes themselves which might take a few more years. A long period of mediocrity. I have higher standards for the team than that. Others might not. As they say YMMV, and that's fine as we all have differing levels of what we find acceptable. 2010-2015 makes for an interesting comp. Each stretch had one good season out of 6 (or 5); one okay season; and three lousy seasons. 2011 might have been the most excruciating of them all. But of course 2013 was a championship season in the middle of all that early-'10s muck. What's extraordinarily frustrating is that the team had graduated Mookie, Xander, JBJ, and Vazquez. They also had Pedroia, Lester, and Buchholz. And they still had the #1 farm system in the game in 2015. They seemed set up for a dynasty. And what we got was: 2016: 93-69 2017: 93-69 2018: 108-54 Three division championships with two good-not-great teams and one all-time great season. Yay for that, but that's kind of a sad payout from where they started at the beginning of that run. And it's been a slog punctuated by one very fun season ever since. Compare that to what the Dodgers or Astros have managed to do across the last 8+ seasons. That should have been attainable for the Red Sox, but a series of unforced errors (peppered by some bad luck) and lack of long-term thinking prevented it from happening.
The Sox played 2019 hung over and its like they pulled the plug on the 2016-2018 team. Rarely were moves continued to be made that made the team better. That along with a meh farm system out them where they are now. To your point it was a short summit. Still wouldn't trade 2018 though. Basically like a brief marriage to produce a spectacular kid. Wouldnt trade it for the world, yet that should have lasted longer. I think the defining event was the Mookie deal and that as far as I'll go with that. They are where they are and where they've been. Just hope that there is top notch talent brought in to coincide with the arrival of the next core. Right now when I think core (circa 2026-2027) these are the names I think of: Devers Casas Bello Rafaela Grissom Mayer Anthony Teel I'm hoping Bleis, Cespedes, and Campbell soon get thought of in that way, although they're further off. I really dont have much in the way of pitchers that make me think "part of the next core", at least not yet. I hope Fitts and Sandlin and others make me reconsider but I'm not there. Hope we dont have to wait until 2026 or 2027 to be truly competitive and I hope the core will be as good as the core the Sox had around 2018 or 2007. Of course I have little doubt that the Orioles core will be, which is a scary thought.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 7:02:55 GMT -5
I can’t call this rock bottom, because it looks like so much of what we’ve seen for five years. I’ll call this half decade the nadir of my sports fandom. I’ve never had a team that was so bad, so aimless, and so hard to enjoy. I’ve followed lovable bad teams. But this is a no charisma snooze since 2019. Imagine if they hadn't been over .500 over this stretch! True. They were under .500 from Sept 2011 thru 2015, but I liked that stretch, hell, let's call it 2013, better. The rest of it sucked. 2021 was nice but the 2 seasons prior and the 2 seasons after have been a slog and this season looks no different and if they do as little offseason as they did this year it'll be more slog until their young core establishes themselves which might take a few more years. A long period of mediocrity. I have higher standards for the team than that. Others might not. As they say YMMV, and that's fine as we all have differing levels of what we find acceptable.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 6:56:35 GMT -5
While it's not ideal, at this point I go with move Rafaela to SS and go with an O'Neill/Duran/Abreu outfield against righties.
Against lefties use Reyes at SS with Rafaela back in CF and Abreu on the bench. If Reyes cant even handle that then I'm not sure why he's on the roster.
Eventually Refsnyder returns as Abreu's platoon partner and Rafaela stays full time at SS. If Abreu struggles they could get a glove for SS and move Rafaela back to CF but at least you find out about Abreu.
As for 3b, if Raffy is out short term, its Dalbec. If long term, maybe Meidroth gets a real look.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 13, 2024 6:48:30 GMT -5
Surely Adalberto Mondesi is healthy by now, right? And if he was, how many minutes until he'd get injured again, lol?
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 11, 2024 21:41:50 GMT -5
Honestly I marvel at how horrible they can be but I cant really say this bothers me much. Nothing I've seen surprises me thus far.
When I'm really invested in the Sox I ride the roller coaster of emotions because it means that much to me.
But I'm at a point the wins dont light me up and the losses dont bother me a heckuva lot. I expect them to be bad/mediocre. I don't expect them to be truly competitive before 2026 and expecting a bunch of rookies to instantly gel is asking a lot so I dont expect much until probably 2027.
So as diehard as I am, I feel a bit apathetic, probably like a lot of other fans. The Sox chose to spend some money but not a lot. They chose to be competitive but not really. They chose to rebuild, but not all the way. So we'll probably wind up with 5 mediocre seasons out of 6 with another year or two more on the way unless they start to do things differently. I do like the young core of position players they have in the minors but they will need pitching and of course defense.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 11, 2024 21:29:41 GMT -5
Reality bites.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 11, 2024 21:28:20 GMT -5
We have a plus SS, Cora is playing him in the outfield. We have 3 MLB starting caliber outfielders with Rafaela at SS, but we do not have a starting caliber SS with Rafaela in the outfield. We'll see how long it takes them to figure that out.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 11, 2024 21:26:36 GMT -5
Such a mediocre/crappy team.
I picked them to win 75 games. I feel comfortable with my prediction although they could be worse.
Cant just sit on a 7-3 record forever.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 11, 2024 20:39:49 GMT -5
Good for Wong. Cora has a pretty good track record when it comes to summoning pinch hitters.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 11, 2024 20:29:36 GMT -5
When your defense gives a team 5 outs in an inning what can you expect?
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 10, 2024 21:11:14 GMT -5
The red sox have had one bad (short) season, one good one, and two mediocre ones and the fanbase is ready to burn fenway down. If they ever did what those teams did i would legitimately be fearful for henry’s life lol Exactly The alternative is pretty much going 78-84 for basically 6 out of 7 years which builds up a lot of apathy. Not a great option either.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 10, 2024 20:55:48 GMT -5
Guess they're not in Oakland or Anaheim anymore.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 10, 2024 12:35:54 GMT -5
Campbell, if I'm not mistaken, was drafted as an infielder but is now playing corner outfield?
Wonder if he can handle 3b? I believe he turns 23 this July so if he gets off to a blazing start they could move him along to where he winds up in AA bu midyear with a chance if reaching the majors next year or 2026 more likely? They could certainly use RH power and a guy who would be an improvement over Raffy at 3b. I think Cespedes could eventually be that guy but he's really young and I'd think further away? And with Campbell's exposure to the outfield perhaps he would eventually move to LF? Drafted as a SS, but wasn't really a chance he could play there. He was playing CF in spring training apparently, but in three games so far he has DH'ed twice and played 2B once. He turns 22 in June. Ah, thanks. Glad I got the age wrong, I was trying to go by memory. Guess 2026 or 2027 more likely.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 10, 2024 11:27:25 GMT -5
Campbell, if I'm not mistaken, was drafted as an infielder but is now playing corner outfield?
Wonder if he can handle 3b?
I believe he turns 23 this July so if he gets off to a blazing start they could move him along to where he winds up in AA bu midyear with a chance if reaching the majors next year or 2026 more likely?
They could certainly use RH power and a guy who would be an improvement over Raffy at 3b. I think Cespedes could eventually be that guy but he's really young and I'd think further away? And with Campbell's exposure to the outfield perhaps he would eventually move to LF?
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 9, 2024 21:34:15 GMT -5
I hope Duran can focus on the good things he does - it outweighs the mistakes he's made by a good deal. Hopefully some veteran leadership can step in and help him move on.
I've been pretty lukewarm on the Story acquisition but for my concerns of his play slipping I have no doubt that the guy, like Duran, gives a damn, and he seems like a pretty damn good teammate - I wish him well. It is a shame he's had these injuries. I hope at some point he can stay healthy and play the way he'd like to, with excellent defense and some pop in his right handed bat.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 9, 2024 11:57:00 GMT -5
They could have had another starter or two and began with Houck and Whitlock in the pen and a couple of the pen guys in AAA so when injuries inevitably hit, the oh no you must start Houck and Whitlock crowd would still be appeased as they still wind up in the rotation but now with less quality depth behind them instead. Too bad the Sox had no money for depth. Oh wait. At some point you have to stop being such a front office sycophant. They do a lot of things very well (Breslow traded very well this offseason) but sometimes they dont which you can never seem to acknowledge. You just go into defense attorney mode. Im not being a damn sycophant... The amount of pitching injuries league wide should be sounding alarm bells at MLB HQ... You have pitchers who were the traditional/reliable rubber arm/workhorse now getting season-ending injures... I cannot recall the last time there were this many injures and its only APRIL.. that's unmanageable for any team regardless of the amount of pitching depth one has You know the point I and others were making. The injuries are ridiculous at this point but its not that surprising given the way the game has evolved. Arms aren't meant to consistently throw 100. Max velocity, max spin, max effort because of the overwhelming threat of the too easy to hit homerun creating this mess where pitchers have to throw as hard as they can to avoid contact. Until that changes what we're seeing isnt going to get better. But hey, chicks dig the long ball, fans come out, and it puts money in everybody's pocket. Don't think it's good for the health of the game though.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 9, 2024 11:35:35 GMT -5
Framber; Pivetta, Bieber, Pivetta, going down (and thats just a few of the dozens that have been injured and its not even the middle of april) Should tell you no matter the type of pitcher you are (including the once reliable workhorse) you are more likely to be IL'd than in any previous season They could have had another starter or two and began with Houck and Whitlock in the pen and a couple of the pen guys in AAA so when injuries inevitably hit, the oh no you must start Houck and Whitlock crowd would still be appeased as they still wind up in the rotation but now with less quality depth behind them instead. Too bad the Sox had no money for depth. Oh wait. At some point you have to stop being such a front office sycophant. They do a lot of things very well (Breslow traded very well this offseason) but sometimes they dont which you can never seem to acknowledge. You just go into defense attorney mode.
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