JUSTgottaBELIEVE

Who was this big time pitcher on the Braves World Series team that you speak of?

Sox have a core of Eloy, Robert, Moncada, Cease, Kopech, Vaughn, TA locked up for years. They shouldn’t need major reinforcements unless those guys fail to produce. They’ll definitely need to invest in starting pitching again in the near future if they don’t extend Giolito though. And hopefully guys like Colas and Cespedes become solid contributors as guys like Pollock and Abreu move on.

Yes, I will give you Cole. That was their Lynn trade for sure.

Point is, everyone complaining about the offseason hasn’t paid attention to what teams like the Astros do every offseason in the midst of their contention window. Which isn’t much.

And I wouldn’t consider Michael Brantley any more of a significant FA signing than someone like Grandal.

Huh? Weren’t Verlander and Greinke midseason trades? We’re talking about the offseason.

How have they not invested in starting pitching!?? They traded for 4/5 of the rotation (Gio, Lynn, Cease, Kopech) and then went free agency to sign the 5th (Keuchel). I think they’ve invested a lot of resources in starting pitching over the course of this rebuild. Just because your starting staff isn’t super expensive doesn’t mean you haven’t invested in it.

Sure. But let me ask this..how often have the Astros improved on paper in the offseason during their contention window? Typically they’re losing guys like Springer, Correa, etc. to FA and not replacing them with splashy signings or trades. Or am I missing something?

Just simply throwing money at starting pitching in free agency isn’t a wise decision. Most of these guys will bust. Heck, the highest paid pitcher on the Sox signed a couple years ago in free agency is a guy that might be DFA’d this season. FA pitcher signings have a history of being very risky. Outside of the elite, most of their best seasons are prior to their free agency years.

Yes, I’m saying the Sox are a lock for the playoffs this season barring catastrophic injuries in which case not even Rodon would have made a difference.

Guys from 2021 playoff roster no longer on the team: Rodon, Tepera, Cesar, Kimbrel, Hamilton, Collins new guys this year: Gravemen, Kelly, Harrison, Velasquez, Cueto, Pollock, McGuire Gravemen/Kelly replace Kimbrel/Tepera, Harrison replaces Cesar, Velasquez/Cueto replace Rodon, McGuire replaces Collins, Pollock replaces Hamilton (?) overall, a wash to me. Bottom line, need the core players that were already here to produce. Also, don’t discount the possibility of trade deadline deals. Tepera was a great pickup last year, Cesar and Kimbrel not so much. Hopefully they do better on those deals this July.

Yikes. Wonder if he holds up into this fall putting in that type of workload (if it continues). We’ll see!

Or put another way, Gravemen and Kelly are almost equal to one Rodon both in annual salary and total salary. A little cheaper for those two per season than Rodon so maybe you add Velazquez to this season as well. Kopech replaced Rodon in the rotation so they had a void in the bullpen since Kopech vacated his spot to join the rotation. Graveman fills that Kopech bullpen role. Only need 4 starters in the playoffs. Are the Sox better off with Lynn, Gio, Cease, Rodon in the rotation and Kopech and ? in the pen like last season come playoff time? Or Lynn, Gio, Cease, Kopech in the rotation and Gravemen and Kelly in the pen? I’m not sure but I’d probably take the latter personally.

For this season, pretty much what Balta said. For next season, who knows. Kelly eats up about $8.5M of the ~$20M it would cost for Rodon next year.

Let’s not forget he had a 0.72 ERA in April for the Sox last season. As I’ve said before with Rodon, it’s not what you do for me in April, it’s what you do for me late in the season and playoffs. Giants not exactly easing him in either. Already 274 pitches in 3 games after a shortened spring training. Let’s see where he’s at in another 5 months.

So much for the Giants not overusing him early in the season like the Sox did last year. Rodon probably leading MLB in pitches thrown thru 3 starts.

Meh

Why does CLE hit poorly in warm weather? I don’t know. Some guys are perennial slow starters like Abreu, Grandal, etc. while others are not.

Don’t win trophies in April. I doubt the Astros are concerned that they’re about to fall into 4th place in the West. Long season. Best teams rise to the top in the end. Sox are still the best team in the AL Central by a lot.

I don’t like sitting the regulars either but people acting like they win this game if they play the regulars is dumb too. It’s not that simple either. This offense has been lackluster all season. The scrubs provided a .759 OPS in game 2. I’m not sure the regulars would have done better considering they haven’t so far this year…

This team doesn’t hit in April. We already know this. It happens every year. Need the pitching to keep them in games and hope to survive April with a record above .500 and then let the bats warm up.

See post above. The scrubs didn’t cost the Sox this game as much as we’d like to pin it on them. The regulars need to do better. It’s that simple.

Not automatically, no, but like I said the regulars in game two were terrible. If those guys hit better, they win this game. The scrubs Haseley, McGuire, Garcia, and Medick reached base 6 out of 14 plate appearances.

Nah, not worried about Cleveland. They started well last year as well. Their lineup stinks and their rotation won’t stay healthy all season either.

My point is, how do you know the regulars would have done any better? They sucked in game 1 and the ones that played in game 2 sucked as well.