vilehoopster

For many reasons, Thursday strikes me as very interesting.

Uh-oh, it’s time for me to go on my (brief compared to other ones) anti-war rant. In 2019 Alex Colome, I admit often scaring us to death, had 30 saves in 33 save opportunities. If I remember an earlier anti-war rant correctly, clearly better than anyone else in MLB that year with more than a dozen or so saves. His WAR from that year is 0.9. How stupid is that? Can anyone argue that he was worth less than one win to the Sox that year. That same year, Abreu hit 33 homers with 123 RBIs. His WAR that year was 2.5; the exact same as Yolmer Sanchez’s 2.5 WAR in 2018 when he hit .242 with 8 homers. WAR can be and too often is a pretty stupid, can’t-see-the-forest-for-the trees statistic. So to my point, Andrew Benintendi, in the last week alone, has been more valuable to the Sox than just one win so far this year.

He said, “Burger’s OPS during his awful slump”. That’s a big difference. Burger at his worst still brings a better bat than Moncada.

As I said pregame, Cease has a level of suckiness that equals this team.

Cease goes in at 3 and 3 wins. Is my memory correct that Cease was 2 and 0 after his 1st three starts, a little more than two weeks into the season? I have a friend who is a Yankees fan, and I bet him that Cease would have more wins this year than Rodon. I was betting expecting that Rodon would be injured and miss a huge part of the season. The funny part is that I was completely right, but I could still lose the bet because the Sox have sucked so badly. And Cease has certainly done his fair share of sucking up too.

Back to last half inning. Sox HAVE to get Burger out of the lineup. He’s an automatic out. If you figure in today, he’s batting under .100 for his last 15 games. Replace him with anybody . . Any body.

Being completely serious. Okay, it’s now safe to bring in Lopez in bottom of 8th. But I’d get someone up quickly if he starts to struggle.

It’s got to be tough being a Sox pitcher. You go in knowing that if you (and the bullpen) give up more than two runs, your team is probably going to lose. If you’re lucky, giving up two runs might make the game go into extra innings. If you give up three runs, Sox will probably lose. Four or five runs and Sox have no chance.

Starting with that horrible, horrible, devastating Friday night loss to Tampa Bay that launched the Sox into a downward spiral of lost series after lost series. There are more examples after that in the following month. Look at the spiral of lost series Sox are stuck in again. A huge, probably the biggest factor, was Reylo giving the game away against the Dodgers with the grand slam . . . . the loading the bases and the triple today. It just seems like every one of his blown saves/ losses just completely suck any spirit hope out of both the Sox and us fans. I keep seeing people on here saying get rid of this guy or dfa that guy, but no one seems to want to unload Lopez. Let me get that ball rolling. The Sox need to unload Lopez NOW. Pedro stop, completely stop, putting him out there. He’s killing us.

We cannot unload TA fast enough !!!!!!

Boy, a lot of people bothered by little, silly stuff. I’m perfectly ok with . . . Sox math. I like the pictures people who win send. It’s a tradition and breaks up the game. the Nationwide jingle/ song. It’s a commercial just like any other one. Jessica Mendoza last night. She seemed to know what she was talking about, which isn’t always the case with some announcers, too often female ones. Gordon Beckham. Is he as good as Stoney? No, but he’s solid and a nice change of pace. I know many on here disagree with that. Now what drives me crazy: I know that Stoney and Jason can’t tell us when it’s obvious the team is just plan being bad and uninterested. But what drives me crazy is when the Sox are facing a bad, bad pitcher, a pitcher who has been hit really hard his last few games or even all season. And yet, the Sox can’t get a hit or walk or anything due to lack of interest and terrible plate disciple. I know Jason and Stone can’t say stuff like, “How can he swing at that?” or “That was a pathetic at bat for Yoan”. But it drives me crazy when Steve and Jason talk about “what great stuff” the pitcher has tonight. They go on and on about how great this garbage pitcher is tonight, like he’s Cy Fricken Young. I understand they can’t bad mouth the Sox, but don’t lie to us all night telling us it’s this bad pitcher suddenly being great, when it’s obvious to us viewers that the Sox are just sucking up tonight at the plate.

As a Sox fan, there are few teams in the NL that I am afraid of. The Marlins certainly ain't one of them. I'd be disappointed if Sox don't win this series.

Can we PLEEEEEASE play Burger tomorrow over Moncada. Or, how about 1st base and sit down Vaughn’s limp bat.

How can Sox continue to sit their best power bat, not even close. Play Burger and sit Moncada. It is sooo simple. I believe with a bigger sample Burger’s road batting will quickly improve.

Agree 100%. Also, list me as one of those who believe it’s much more about lack of motivation than about injury or a bad back.

I know this is off topic and seems weird, but I was at that s%*# show of a game today, in left center field. Anyway I saw a bird, clearly a raptor of some sort, fly over our group. I would guess it was a kestrel or a falcon, and it struck me as very odd to see a bird like that in a crowded and loud place. Then later when I was in the concourse avoiding the sun for a while, I saw it twice land on the left field foul pole. It landed, flew off, then returned a minute later. I’ve read of falcons nesting in tall city buildings, so I guess it possible. Has anyone else seen it before or know anything about it?

This is a good point. Stuff like this drive me crazy. What is the deal with sitting Burger? You HAVE to find a way to get his .885 OPS in the lineup.

When fans start listing and complaining about players doing the bare minimum and just collecting a pay check, Fat Keuchel (oh, I'm sorry. I mean Lynn) has to be at the top with anyone else on the team. He has to know (had to know for the past couple years) that losing, even 15 or 20 pounds, would make a difference in his pitching: Make him more athletic, help his stamina, and absolutely help him avoid injury by lessening the strain on his legs. But nope, nothing; if anything, he gets fatter each off season. He could care less about his teammates or winning. Just keep cashing that paycheck. In no way can he be seen as a leader on this team, regardless of the BS that Jason and Steve try to feed us. If you were a teammate of that fat butt, would you have any respect for him?

Agree with this 100%. No matter how bad it gets, I always want them to win the next game.

Nice job Fat Keuchel of giving your team absolutely no chance to win this game today.

I'm excited about the young bats: Romy and Frazier. Keep it goin' boys!!!!

You can point to this and that during the game, but this loss is 99.9% on Reynaldo. A devastating loss. This blown game is up there with Engel dropping that foul ball last year. Reylo served that win to TB on a dish. He just showed that he can’t be the closer. Pick someone else, whoever. He can’t be any worse.

Moncada right back in at 3rd base and sit Burger down? Really? That was the mistake the Sox made last year. Don’t repeat it. Burger just hit a homer in three games in a row, and you want to replace him with the guy with a .626 OPS last year. Moncada is not going to rake ever because he’s not going to care, ever.

Burger seems to be doing just fine against right handlers the last two days. That sample size means as much to me as his small amount of at bats against righties before this series. I said this like a month ago, however bad he is or was against righties, he was leading the Sox in homers last year before he got hurt and was then later replaced by Moncada. Why is he not in the lineup? Play him at 1st or 3rd or DH, but it seems completely obvious that the Sox need to be getting him lots of at bats and have him in the lineup everyday.

What’s the deal on Crochet? In early spring training it was he’d be back by May. Then when the actual season started it was mid-May. Now according to that Merkin article it late May or early June. It’s s%*# like this that drives me crazy. Why don’t our guys get better. Look at Moncada, when we 1st heard, it was a game of the Minnesota series, then the entire series. Isn’t the latest now that Moncada will miss the Baltimore series. Does it ever happen the other way: where a player comes back earlier than expected from an injury, ever?