GreenSox

Yea, I actually think Cleveland's pretty good. They're young and kind-of streaky, but they can pitch and are well-managed.

Speaking of LOL: For the 17-10 proposition to work (there were 17 games left when the proposition was made), Cleveland would have to finish 15-14 or worse, with 14 of those games against the Royals, Angels and Rangers. Oh it could happen; but to suggest that that is likely is rabbit's-foot stuff. For my 20-7 to win the division (not "handily", just win) Cleveland would have to go 18-11 or worse; they probably will go 18-11 or worse, but it's hardly inconceivable that they get hot and do better than that. And if they go a modest 16-13 (now 15-13), that shifts the Sox to 18-9 (now 18-8) to win this division.

I doubt 17-10 gets it done, and it certainly won't if it includes 2-2 against Cleveland. 20-7 might do it.

So stupid; play to win the game. Don't takes risks for to tie it late in the game when you have only 9 outs left.

No. Just No.

This gets to what I think makes Hahn such a poor GM. It's one thing to have neither talent evaluation nor analytics skills (and he has neither) but he didn't surround himself with people who could compensate for his lack of skills in those areas. This shows either a lack of self-awareness, effort, or the old standby of bad managers in any field to not hire people who could possibly outshine you (good managers do the opposite). Kudos for the Q trade, the Eaton deals, but, otherwise, the best moves that the Sox get out of Hahn are the obvious.

Rick was only in charge for 80% of #1 and 70% of #2. But when he was fully in charge, #3, things improved. I've seen enough - Rick has earned the right to rebuild this team for the third time.

Letting him walk doesn't mean "hate". We can't return with Eloy/Vaughn/Sheets/Burger/Abreu. We can't have 1B play OF on a daily basis again. Abreu is in his late 30s, and the others are in their 20s. The others are significantly cheaper and the Sox have other needs, but also a bunch of bad, bad contracts returning that limit the resources to achieve those needs. And then the question is whether the Sox can contend next season; if so, the value of keeping Abreu rises. I think they could, but the FO simply doesn't have the chops and, apparently, Hahn's THIRD regime failure isn't enough to bring in a FO that might be able to figure this out. 1 of Abreu/Vaughn/Eloy has to go. Vaughn is our best young talent, but very tradable with ascertainable value; trading Eloy means selling low at his current performance level (so/so year, injuries). It's a gnarly situation and tough choices have to be made.

He'll probably be a solid major league hitter. Of course if you read a lot of the bloggers, he should rarely play. As for the logjam, Vaughn is probably the only one whose real value can be ascertained, and, thus, could reliably be traded. They need to let Abreu walk.

I think I misunderstood the premise of your post, which I thought was that JR would insist on cutting salary next year. If that is the case, I would rather "punt" next season and trade the movable contracts (that expire after 2023) of productive players (Hendriks, e.g.), than use our good prospects to move the dead weight (Kelly, Grandal, e.g.) to cut salary. In either case, the Sox won't sign FAs, and it's hard to see how this group contends anyway without them. Otherwise, yes the reason to DFA Harrison, Pollock and Andrus is precisely to clear roster space so that Sosa et al can play every day. The Sox really don't know what they have with these guys, and it's getting close to the "use 'em or lose 'em" or "trade 'em for very little" time. But, heck, they may keep Pollock around for next year anyway (and pray he rebounds), as the marginal cost of bringing him back appears to be under $5 mill.

Doing that sort of thing would ensure a perpetual rebuild. The worst thing they could do. They can suck it up for a year until several bad contracts roll off. Meanwhile, they can immediately DFA Pollock (and pay the $10 mill or whatever it is), Harrison, Velasquez and Andrus. In the offseason: let Abreu walk; move Hendriks (won't get much, but that contract, or at least most of it, is movable). They could trade Giolito (not a salary dump, but next year's a punt so get something for him). Now they won't sign FAs, but I hope they just don't crash the salary just to crash it. Hahn added in excess of $30 million in bad salary just last offseason; he also added a lot of bad players.

Looks like the best its been in a decade, if looked at solely by draft, development and signings (i.e. excluding prospects acquired via trading top major league talent). It's a really low bar, but on the improve.

Those 3 can't hit either hand pitching. And of the 3, only Pollock is a candidate for the "who could have known" excuse (and it's not that surprising anyway, given his age).

Narvaez was a capable major catcher at minimum salary under control for several more years whom they traded for a reliever who was under control for 2 years (only 1 contending year) at an average salary of c. $8.5 million.

Hahn's not worried if his injuries excuse is eviscerated. His clown-hat is teeming with more. Excuses is the area in which he truly excels.

Leaving the last row unfinished is a nice touch.

Sox hit the homer, and score 3. Arizona hits 2 singles and score 5. It usually takes the Sox 15 singles to score 5. Yikes

Perhaps sometime before the end of the season they could invite a juggler or a dancing bear into the clubhouse just to test the waters.

That $20 million was a woeful misallocation of resources.

The Phillies got a lot better after they booted him. As with players, I'll take the young guy over the mediocre veteran.

They'll call 2 up from Charlotte soon: Leury and Grandal. Just a disaster of an organization. But, it will all be blamed on LaRussa and Menechino.

effing Abreu

They've got to just play the young guys. It probably won't work, but it can't be worse than this crap.

I see that Pollock remains etched in the lineup and as leadoff hitter.

How about letting Engel play for a few days and let Pollock hit the pine (or the bricks). Engel can't be any worse.