JUSTgottaBELIEVE

Coming into this season, Abreu, Grandal, Robert, Eloy, Pollock and Moncada all had career OPS of ~.800 or higher vs RHP. TA struggled a bit against RHP but was respectable. Vaughn and Sheets were largely unknowns. On paper, this lineup should be league average against RHP at worst and very good at best.

Nah. The problem is your boy Grandal isn’t hitting this season and guys like Moncada, Eloy, Timmy, and Robert have either been bad or hurt. Monday morning QBs will say they should have signed Joc Pederson but he’s the exact type of player that would come to the Sox and forget how to hit. Plus he’s not very good defensively. No offseason signing would have saved the Sox to this point. Live and die with the core.

Sox had/have enough DH types. I hated the idea of signing another, LH or RH. Besides, what good ones were even available? Everyone was touting Conforto and he didn’t sign with anyone and then got hurt. Avoided that disaster.

Haha yea. It’s ridiculous to be frank. Jose is one of the hottest hitters in mlb right now and has been the Sox best hitter over the past few years (TA is right there with him as well).

He’s still the best hitter on the team just like he was 3 years ago. How do you know trading him now increases the Sox chances of good baseball now and in the future? In fact, I’d say trading him now decreases the Sox chances now and in the future.

Meh. No one predicted this type of downfall for Moncada, Grandal, and Eloy. Those are three guys that had historically hit RHP very well. They can still turn it around this season (once healthy) but needs to happen soon. If they do turn it around, the recent offense that has been quite good over the past 10 days will turn into the great offense everyone expected.

And yet, this was the same exact sentiment from you and others 3 years ago. Oh god, can you imagine if the Sox had traded him and missed out on his MVP season and production since? Hahn would never have heard the end of it.

I think more importantly is balancing the lineup with hitters that can hit both RHP and LHP. It doesn’t matter if you’re a left handed hitter if you can’t hit righties (Sheets) or a switch hitter that’s supposed to help against RHP but isn’t (Grandal/Moncada).

It’s still just mid June and the Sox are 3 games back from a playoff spot. Even if it were the end of July and the Sox were in the same position they’d still have a very good chance of making the playoffs when you consider they have the easiest remaining strength of schedule in the AL.

I’m perfectly fine with letting Jose go the Konerko route into retirement. Beats the alternative of acquiring a couple minor league prospects that max out at a Leury Garcia profile.

They scored 14 runs in 3 games against LA. Not earth shattering but nearly 5 runs a game against a quality pitching staff like LA is something. They’re clearly trending in the right direction on offense. Abreu can carry an offense on his back when he heats up.

@southsider2k5 was mocking me a couple weeks ago for saying the offense was going to heat up. I’d say they’ve heated up!

There are exceptions to everything but in general you can’t win a title simply building around free agents any longer

I think this nails it on the head. It’s happening across the league, not just with the Sox. Almost like these guys get paid in FA and either lay off the juice after signing or perhaps their work ethic declines because they’ve already been paid.

Right now other guys are outplaying Moncada and Eloy (the 2021/2022 version of Eloy). Quite frankly, they need to earn their playing time.

Should be the starting 2b. They actually have a bit of a logjam when Eloy returns because you can’t sit Vaughn or Burger.

Pretty sure he thought the game was over

I mean, I’d certainly take a 4-5 record in the last 9 games against the Jays, Rays, and Dodgers, 6 of which were on the road.

Another quality start for Cueto. Not bad for a #5

Wow

That’s pretty incredible. I was born that year so I don’t have any memories of that team but I know my dad loved them.

Interesting. Didn’t realize the ‘83 team started that slow.

Shutout the Dodgers? Now that’s big boy stuff.

Twins have no chance against the Yankees every year. It’s actually quite remarkable.

And I thought TLR was an idiot, Roberts making TLR look like a genius relatively speaking