nrockway

three feet off the plate, dumped into right field. I love it. statcast in shambles.

let's get that old guy trashing Robert back on, it seemed to light a fire.

feel like Stoney didn't need to say "thank god we nuked Japan"

"MLB minimum wage" is a very funny turn of phrase as if it isn't, like, 50 times more pay than the federal minimum wage. I wouldn't mind if some team paid me 3 million dollars (minus agent fees and my willing donation to the Cuban govt of course) to suck at baseball and hit on my teammates' girlfriends. Maybe not the last part. Too bad about Oscar but, like, he's an idiot and was given ample opportunities. Hopefully he'll stop being an idiot and figure something out. He was OPSing under .600 in AA which is just weird, he's better than that.

I was thinking about that Howard Dean bit, only it's "we're goin to Arizona, then we're gonna go to Arizona and Arizona and Arizona and finally we're going to Arizona to take back the World Series...YAH!"

perhaps. you're probably right. I wouldn't say I'm giddy, just optimistic. and if a situation could go one of two ways, why not look at the glass as half full (at least when it comes to sport)? I don't think it's a complete fantasy. Fantastical thinking was me thinking our team last year could've played .500 ball. life is miserable enough, baseball is pretty fun, would rather think "that kid is gonna be awesome" versus "we're gonna be in the cellar for the next decade". the latter might be true, but I'd tune out of this team like I tuned out of the Bulls if I believed it and wasn't entertained. my impression is that this reconstituted Sox organization is much less of a mess than whatever Reinsdorf Jr. is doing with the Bulls, and there's some reason to think the Sox will be a contender before the Bulls are. Getz is clearly more competent than Karnisovas despite Karnisovas having a "better resume" and "more experience". also, it just seems like the baseball landscape has changed. we just set the "most losses" record last year, now it appears the Rockies will do it. you add in the terrible 2018 Orioles and 2019 Tigers, it seems that an outsized number of these historically horrific teams set records in the last decade and that it's only getting more extreme. the discrepancy between the 'haves' and 'have nots' is widening, which seems to parallel American society as baseball so often has. this might be an indictment against major league baseball, which isn't the point of this post, but interesting to think about why there are seemingly many more 'bad teams' these days. Now, that historically bad Tigers team has turned into a very good team with more talent in the wings, meanwhile the Orioles built a 'great' team that has already collapsed (a la our 2020 Sox). that's to say, I think our fortune can change quickly and historical precedent is probably not that helpful (same as it wasn't for Garrett Crochet and his lack of innings pitched). I think we should bear in mind how big a step forward for the franchise it was to replace Hahn/Ken. A lot of us give Getz a hard time, maybe it was a nepotistic hire, but the positive organizational changes are becoming more apparent. What would David Stearns have done differently with the Sox aside from not sign Fedde? Would he have brought Juan Soto here lol? Probably would've signed Sean Manea who is not playing major league baseball this year. He hired some very competent people to come work for the team, it would seem. I made a joke in the game thread about how bad the Orioles are since firing Fuller, but the org's three biggest hires this offseason were: Venable, McKinven, Fuller and all three of their former teams have gotten much worse despite similar rosters. Is it a coincidence? Almost certainly, just pretty funny. I think the one total blind spot for fans is amateur scouting and drafting. yet, it seems to me the team has finally gotten over the Wilder saga and is finally back to operating in the DR with a new academy opening in 2026. Ultimately, my take is that there were innumerable mistakes that accumulated over the years that hurt the Sox in the present and that these issues are seemingly being addressed under a new front office. It probably takes years to bear fruit, but I'm not "giving up on the team" specifically because these changes were made and the grand scheme moves make sense to me even if I wonder why guys like Josh Rojas or Martin Maldonado are signed to several-million dollar deals. There are enough bad Getz deals made to go along with the good deals to raise some skepticism, trades or free agency, but so far it seems like the positive outweighs the negative.

That's actually awesome. I thought Beckham was getting better and that he would be the inevitable replacement and that it wouldn't be so bad...but this one's a little out of left field (out of the bullpen?) but not unwelcome -- I had no idea he was from Gary. IMO he sounds better than he did last year, less outward negativity, but he's been a ghost for years. still occasionally funny.

I like that site, usually they're better about discussing players' attributes. I specifically wanted to see what they wrote about the Vaughn option and was disappointed by the blurb... but the Sosa bit stuck out specifically. If you just look at his bbref page, yeah maybe he looks like a 4th year player who isn't really catching on, but I think we see a player who has finally "figured it out". The "utility player" bit is funny in particular, because I don't think we would've considered him even an average defender before this season. Poor analysis. His double/near grand slam is the highlight for the season of me so far. Very dramatic. He calls time before the at bat begins, then nearly slugs a grand slam with that giant grin on his face. I'd love if there's a photo of it.

liked hearing what Fuller said about it on the broadcast last night...seems they've really stepped up the services offered at the AZ complex. is it a 'bad sign' to send a player to AZ or is it unprecedented because there was nothing worth sending them to? hopefully it sticks with Colson. I think it's a good sign for player development in general, hopefully the ACL guys are getting something out of it...Profar jr. not looking so hot thus far.

almost looked like a major league lineup today, gonna be really exciting when we get the next crop of players up. Colson and Ramos look like they're turning it around even. The sting of them floundering was helped somewhat by Meidroth and Vargas looking like MLB regulars, but what a boon if they can play to their former top 100 prospect potential.

he just got unlucky. he hit it really hard. really.

mlbtraderumors.com recently described Sosa as "a utility player with a subpar bat". definitely going to prove that assessment wrong, the contact remains and the power has arrived

"what's the problem with their center fielder?" which soxtalk poster was that?

didn't some of our guys try to stab a Royals coach to death? Disgusting and sad though. Annoying that the discussion on gambling isn't really a national topic in the political realm. Fundamentally, nobody cares. Some states have laws against it, generally conservative ones, so why have liberal states decided that addiction and criminality is a reasonable and sustainable source of tax revenue? Why do they tell me that the casino is a jobs program? I thought the Dems were the ones who cared about the common man, but their actions are that of a laissez-faire, pro-business party; seemingly some of Ronald Reagan's most loyal acolytes. Furthermore, nobody talks about how this move to legalize gambling is directly oppositional to the native tribes of the land. We reneged on yet another deal with them, one that actually had beneficial economic impacts on Indian lands -- and kept it so gambling was possible, though fairly difficult for the average person. I think gambling is much more of an issue when kids can do it from dad's cell phone, less so when you have to drive for hours out to the middle of no where to do it. Absolutely no ethics or self-awareness, they probably did a land acknowledgement when they christened that new Bally's casino. this article probably summarizes (i dunno, didn't read it) some of the key points of this argument. but you could also probably just google "indian tribes, gambling legalization" and read a bunch of documents put forth by the various tribes impacted by it. back on Liam, I hope he turns it around, but he seems done and is complaining about his role. not a great look to me. obviously that doesn't excuse the behavior of psycho fans, but I probably wouldn't be demanding a higher leverage role right after giving up 5 runs in 1.1 innings. although he is still pumping his fastball, could just as easily be a tough stretch. semi-amusing that all these Red Sox players are publicly questioning management. they took on a bunch of our players and seemed to take on the drama. maybe Giolito is the shitstarter 👀

it's about relativity, dog. it's the easiest position to play. i think it was everybody's expectation that one of colson or quero would eventually play it.

seems thoughtful. I think we've seen the 'philosophy' translate a little bit, but jury is out. Baltimore has obviously had an unexpectedly putrid offense, I wonder if they're missing him.

seems likely that Teel is coming up soon and the three catchers can all play first base. in addition to Sosa or Vargas or frankly anybody. first base is easy.

delete this edit: lenyn "vladdy, but the other one" sosa continues to rock. i think i even saw him not swing at a pitch a foot off the plate.

In the infinite parallel universes, there is one in which the Sox have ohtani, judge, Soto, etc + narvaez — and still lose. There’s one where they win as well, infinity and such.

anyone ever tell ya you're quite impolite? i think you should chill out.

imagine spending 3 hours being annoyed and then spending another 3 hours talking about how those 3 hours annoyed you

How many aged center fielders named "Taylor" do we need on our team? My vote is for zero. There are like 10 bad outfielders on this team that are probably better than both Palacios and Taylor (and Taylor) and still probably shouldn't be in the major leagues. I say we give Julks and his 1.000 OPS another shot before we go sign my dad off the waiver wire. Let's get Tauchman up here. Pass on Slater, frankly. None of these guys should be on the team next season, so maybe this isn't even worth discussing, but we notably have a plethora of really bad outfielders in the minors who might still be better than AARP cardholder Chris Taylor. Time to start imagining the Zavala/Summerhill/Montgomery outfield, Sox fans.

this game could've been so much better. you knew with this weather and wind conditions, Wrigley was going to be a bandbox and it was going to be a high scoring game. both teams should've scored 10+. Vargas was incredible, probably the best game of his career, right? hitting the ball consistently in what seems to be a repeatable manner, but his defense in particular has impressed me. he's not 'passable' at third base, he's actually good. Vargas, Meidroth and Sosa have all played some stellar defense and all three guys I thought were 1b/dh risks. all three look like every day players at worst, you could envision Meidroth replicating a lot of Tim's production at SS with less power but better obp and better defense (we'll see). on the other end, you have Robert and Vaughn combined 0 for 8. Vaughn at least progressively crawls down the order and has more days off than he used to, but it seemed like Robert was turning a corner and then fell flat. I think Robert will be fine because it appears he's 'adding' new wrinkles to his game (walks/stolen bases) and is as good defensively as ever, but Vaughn is just...I think at this point irredeemable. There are like 4 other guys you'd rather give at bats to who combined make less than he does. I think Robert takes it personally that PCA is the hot new center fielder in town and is outperforming him in every category...he tried really hard to throw him out at home when there wasn't a chance, a stark contrast to him holding the ball last season as some nobody tagged up to win the game. I think LuBob is playing like he cares and is still contributing despite his ice cold bat. I think the biggest loser of this game though (besides all of us) is Venable. Questionable calls on positioning in that big inning, but one starts to get the impression that he'll just throw in the towel when the odds aren't very good. Castro and Gomez, who are these guys? In a lost season like this one, this series vs the Cubs is an important one and you should be managing it like you're trying to pull a miracle out of your hat. 6-2 is not an insurmountable lead particularly in these conditions. And this Sox team actually hits the ball a little bit, but the conversion rate of hits to runs has to be even worse than last year.

seems to me this "idea" of yours is one you just made up in order to levy a passive aggressive personal attack.

wtf. just throw it to first base at this point lol