YourWhatHurts

I said this before but TLR needs to forget about the traditional closers role with Hendriks and just use him like Bummer or something. The guy obviously needs to get work in and waiting around for a 3 run or less lead in the 9th with this team isn't that appropriate. Last night he brought in Foster in the 6th I'm a tie but Crochet bailed him out. Hendriks ended up not pitching and then had to get into garbage time again. I would rather TLR just pitch his best guys in the tightest spots. Hold the lead or keep the tie and our offense can always win it. I mean fuck would you rather want Foster in for a tie in the 6th or with a 3 run lead in the 9th? Which situation would you rather see Hendriks pitch? If TLR keeps trying to make Hendriks a traditional closer especially considering the potential of this offense to put up late runs and the potential for the front of the bullpen to give up a lead, Hendriks may never really get going for one, and for two, you're just not taking advantage of one of your best relievers the same way you would take advantage of a guy like Bummer.

I still want a Plutko deal after thinking about it. I don't care about "getting through the season," I want our best arms ready for the playoffs. If the Twins are going to keep struggling we might just coast to October this year. The Indians FO is probably hoping for a losing streak just so they can sell. The Royals even tried harder to get better over the off-season than CLE did. And the Tigers aren't trying at all. I'm really hoping we can rest some guys during the year. Skip a start for everyone and maybe try to give Rodon and Cease extra rest. And handle both Kopech and Crochet very lightly because they might be our two best guys in the pen come October. I want these guys ready for a deep run.

Marshall IIRC is out of options so even after tonight he probably has 1 or 2 bad outings over his next 3 ahead of him before he gets DFA. My prediction is to watch Kade McClure. He pitched tonight. If Marshall is DFA a spot is open and I think it goes to him.

Cease was never on anything but an upward trajectory derailed by COVID. He was supposed to get innings last year and his first full season but it was taken from him. Rodon is just now turning into who we thought he was. But I never thought he was a head case. Burger had 2 major injuries. Lopez was going up then he crashed all the way to AAA. He's also a head case. Lopez really isn't anything like these other players IMO. He's more like Carson Fulmer than these other players. And the reason to let him go is that he is a nontender candidate on his last option year who needs to still "work it out on the field" for a team trying to win a pennant. Maybe he turns into the Orioles Jake Arrietta but probably not.

I actually really like the idea of Adam Plutko. I hope the Sox will consider that. As a serious contender we are probably going to be much better off at this point looking at low-impact quality veteran spot patches in certain places than attempting to plug in "fix-'er-upper" types in need areas and hoping to strike gold. We will probably just end up losing games that way.

We have all seen the flashes but the clock is ticking on his eventual nontender by us. And at this point I am not sure how you believe in him. But yeah if he is making progress in AAA maybe you can wait a little bit longer but still we have all seen that movie before too.

Generally I would agree that a seller would wait until later but if we are talking about obvious planned sellers and players with very limited upside going out, over whom returns are unlikely to require much haggling, a deal could come together fairly quickly if there's some motivation on both sides. I mean, some of these players are never under any circumstances going to bring back a blue chipper, not even a potential blue chipper who is in the AZL or something. When we were selling we probably already knew that a Medeiros-type crestfallen prospect was the best kind of return we could get out of Soria and that a Cordell-level player was the best kind of return we could get out of a Swarzak type of player. I don't mind "giving up max value" early if we are just giving up these kinds of players. Another very often overlooked element which makes early deals for sellers smart is the value of the time you have to "see what you have" in a player. For example, for a rebuilding team, the Sox could send out a player like Lopez and the other team could start working with him immediately to get a longer view of him to see if it's worth trying to negotiate a deal or tender him a contract in arb after the year. Also someone like Luis Gonzalez, Sheets, McClure could get MLB time immediately and still be optioned back down. I would believe there is an ability for the Sox to make a small depth deal early with someone of they want to. And again when it is a lesser caliber of outgoing player I don't mind paying max value.

I think in a Eloy and Vaughn on the corners scenario you need to replace at least one of them after their second PA in most games or 3rd PA if we're putting runners on because the open ground in both corners is too much. And we could do this at home but definitely not in a place like KC for example. But then what do I know. I mentioned above the OF of Lee-Everett-Maggs the Sox used before so at least their is precedent for such a limited OF. Although I think Maggs was better than Vaughn would be and Lee was definitely better than Eloy. Robert can only do so much. Regardless I remember finding an IF of Pods-Rowand-Dye **very** refreshing after watching all that porous OF defense for so long. I'm never really going to be excited about open OF grass but then I also don't want to trade any of Eloy, Yermin, or Vaughn either so whatever.

Adam Plutko is an option probably. He was acquired for literally nothing by the O's and is having a nice start. Plus he knows the division. They also have Harvey but he would probably cost more and would want to start regularly. I wonder if the O's would do Sheets for Plutko, or Adolfo and Dopico for Plutko, or McClure for Plutko right now for example?

I do think the Sox need to make a move to add a quality depth SP who can also work out of the front of the bullpen. Also maybe another RP. I would actually be in favor of an occasional 6 man rotation during long stretches without offdays with someone other than Kopech in it just to keep the innings down overall and prep these guys for the playoffs. We will definitely be playing baseball in October this year IMO and I would like to keep these guys fresh. IIRC Rodon has been working on extra rest and Giolito has at least tolerated it. Lynn and Keuchel are probably fine on extra rest. I am thinking something along the lines of Mike Minor or Jakob Junis would be a good addition to the team in that they probably cost a Sheets-quality player or less. Just get a guy who can make a handful of spot starts instead of relying on Stiever or Lambert and instead of pushing Kopech or Crochet too much, and otherwise put him in a bullpen mop up role. There are probably lots of options out there but ideally I would like a cheap acquisition talent wise from an obvious seller who will throw strikes and make you swing the bat to beat him. And then if there is another RP out there who is of a similar mold maybe we can do that also. Foster has options and can go down. Fry, Kade McClure, Sheets, Adolfo, Luis Gonzalez, etc. are the kinds of players you can easily move in a deal like this IMO.

Boston is a mirage. It's pretty clear to me that the Sox and Yankees are the 2 best teams in the AL, and if Rodon and Cease keep it up, the Sox are the clear best team in the AL even with the injuries to Robert, Eloy & Engel. Also it's pretty clear to me that the best team in the NL is the Dodgers and the next best teams are the Padres, Mets, and Braves in no particular order.

I wonder what would be worse defensively, Eloy and Vaughn in the corners with Robert between them or Carlos Lee-Everett-Magglio? Robert makes up a lot ground but the two guys flanking him I definitely believe would be worse than Lee and Magglio and by quite a bit.

Yerminator shouldn't catch and should play 1B if Abreu DHs. Yerminator had a great night of ABs tonight. He's starting to learn to lay off a bunch that horseshit outside of the zone and take a walk and when he learns that he is really going to be dangerous. Can't take his bat out of the lineup especially now. So start Yerminator at 1B and sit Madrigal. Put Mendick at 2B so he can actually make proper throws to 1B. I have confidence Yerminator can spot start there as long as Madrigal is not feeding him the ball.

Ruiz has looked good since ST and he's been getting better with increased confidence. The offspeed stuff and fastball command has really come a long way. He's ready for a more important role. Even though they've been gas cans I still believe Marshall and Foster can be assets to the pen. Given that we have nothing in Charlotte they had better turn it around. One positive though is that if the starters continue to get deeper into games then there will be the opportunity for those 2 to get right. One thing I think TLR needs to do is forget about the traditional closers role. Treat Hendriks like he's the right handed Bummer. Use him regularly when the game actually matters. I completely disagree with all these compliments to TLR about making the proper moves. He still brought in gas can Foster in a tie in the 6th who faced 3 batters and gave up 2 hits. Then Crochet came in. People act like it was a smart move because Crochet bailed him out but that was a shitty call that could have lost the game at the time. I wish TLR would play the tough situations like tough situations instead of just trying to stick to whatever he thinks the roles should be.

This game is a good test for Dylan. I'm hoping to start getting some of those 2005 Garland vibes with him. Coming of age. Boy becoming a man. Donkey becoming a horse. Etc.

and 1 or 2 passed balls

Leury should be the primary guy in CF while Engel is out and Mendick should be the primary backup IF. Those two should be enough to keep Goodwin, Hamilton, and Williams off the team. Maybe if Luis Gonzalez earns a spot with his bat he can get some run but to me he just looks like another 4th OF type and I would rather go for the experience instead. There must be a cheap veteran corner OF type out there on the trade market somewhere who has some pop. I'd rather get a hitter and pull the plug on some of these other players.

Fry is a gas-spewing garbage man. Hopefully he will return in some other team's uniform. I cannot imagine how much it would suck seeing a guy who is appreciably worse than both Marshall and Foster pop up on Tony's "get 'em work, keep 'em fresh" list. He will definitely be a 2ip guy under TLR like everyone else and that just isn't going to work for him.

TLR exercises the same level of moderation with his fringey bench players as he does with his alcohol. The trick for Hahn as his handler/babysitter/GM is to refrain from tempting him too much and try to get guys on the roster who will be at least somewhat useful even if he abuses them. He's really cornering the market on light hitting fast OFers though and something is going to have to change here. I mean we have Leury as the best guy but then there's Hamilton Goodwin Williams and Gonzalez all right there. Maybe Hahn can get him to play Danny in the OF more and that would help. But really you don't need any of these other shitty hitting OFers if Leury and Mendick are already here and both are playing the OF along with Vaughn.

He is a shit 3B with no range. He also doesn't walk. He's a DH who doesn't walk. Thus he's Domingo Santana. He's garbage. You can split hairs about which other shitty player he is more like or more not like, but he's still a shitty player who doesn't belong anywhere near this team.

I'm thinking about a LF, not a CF. We will have to make due with Leury until Engel is out there. We can't "replace" Robert, but by tightening up LF defensively we can help things out. Miguel Andujar, as I like to say it, is Domingo Santana. Domingo Santana is a FA. If you want Domingo Santana, just go sign Domingo Santana. I'd personally rather have the real Dayan Viciedo whose numbers have last I checked gone up in Japan, than the poor man's Dayan Viciedo who some people think is actually not a rangeless piece of no-walk garbage DH just on account of the team he plays for. In terms of overinflated Yankees guys, Andujar takes all of the cake, and he obviously eats it too. Total piece of trash.

McCann was never anybody's savior. This is all the Grandal lovers refusing to believe that Yas is overall a shit defensive bat-first C. This has been an issue for Yas for like, ever. McCann **was** at one point on a sweetheart deal. Now he's paid more money, but still probably worth his deal. At worst he'll be a $2-4M overpayment per year, but he's younger, and also at worst he's a half-time C more than a pure backup C. Yas OTOH is older, much more of an overpayment, and probably just a DH pretty soon. All of these things many other Sox fans could see. Except Hahn, the guy who for example gave all that money to Melky Cabrera and Drake's dad.

Andujar is literally a piece of garbage. If the Sox were a legit org they would give up Lambert/Ruiz plus one of Sheets/Adolfo/Rutherford and pick up Blackmon. I'd be shocked if the Rockies wouldn't do that and jump for joy. But JR wants that guy's deal down to like $6-7M per I would think for a deal to get done, which would probably necessitate throwing in a much better prospect, IF the Rockies are even interested in players over salary relief (they're not).

There will never be any deal worse than Dunn. I have been all aboard this anti-Grandal train since before the signing but there is no way Yasmani is ever as useless and shitty as Dunn. The bat will improve and he is just fine as a backup 1B/DH/C when he heals up a bit. He would be a useful player for a team that is not loaded up with like 50 DHs.

I would try really hard to dump Grandal off on the Yankees while they may perhaps be a bit desperate. Take back Gary Sanchez who sucks and cut him and some other salary because they are up against the luxury tax. But dump the remaining contract if possible. With Zacks improvement, a Collins-Lucroy tandem would be much better behind the plate. And offensively I wouldn't be worried about that so much, the main concern is why TLR is putting Leury out there so much and sitting Vaughn so much.