tjp1684

I seem to remember their TV or radio guys talking about how they were playing the perfect team to beat. This season won’t be easy, but it’s nice to have games or stretches like this.

I wondered why we would make a move to bring aboard a guy who is going to strike out a lot, even as a back-up C. Then I thought about how he seems to fit the low cost but low reward guys we brought in last year. I would rather bring in a catcher at $1 million a year than a low reward, high cost move like Maldanado at $4.25 million. I guess the positive, Thaiss gets on base over 100 points more than his BA. If he’s a guy who can help develop our young pitches, great. If not, he’s easy to jettison.

These statements ring incredibly hollow without action. The fact that he hired Grifol, then Getz, show he has no interest in winning. He’s 88 years old and spent much of the last 20 years watching his teams not compete. You would think he would want to make a run for it with one of the two teams. Hopefully he is still wanting to sell the Sox, and we get a buyer who wants to compete for championships.

Good for them getting the opportunity. I don’t see DeLoach and get excited that I’m going to see someone starting for us in 2025 or 2026, which puts him at like 27/28 years old. Hopefully he can double hit batting average from the last time he was up. Might as well give innings to anyone else in the organization who can throw them. Maybe you’ll find someone who can win a few games, make an early statement for next year.

An albatross deal is different for each team. It’s dependent on budget and willingness of ownership to spend resources. For the Sox, A’s, $15 million is a significant chunk of payroll. The Dodgers, Yankees, Phillies, Mets - they could eat several of these. Most teams could survive this. For the Sox, current ownership will use this deal to justify not spending for a few years. The impact to the Sox is much worse because most other teams would not let one bad deal like this handcuff them (or use it to justify not spending money). Benintendi has been awful. He would have been DFA’d if not for this deal. But he is not the only problem we have. He’s also putting up bad numbers being healthy. There are other signings we made that don’t make sense in overpaying bad talent and blocking younger guys who could get experience. Why waste $15-20 million in deals for bad FA signings? Sure you could flip them for a prospect, but what about our brass has shown they can make good trades?

We’re up 4-1 with 3 innings left. In my mind, I’m running through scenarios of how we will blow this against another team that does not appear to care about winning right now.

They’re definitely spot on. Grifol will get canned. He never should have been hired. However, considering that this team comes across assembled like Cleveland in Major League, it is clear Getz was instructed/constrained to do this or has no clue what he is doing.

Yet we give Benintendi 5 years, $75 million. He’ll be the reason we don’t spend money the next 3 years.

3-22 to start the season 14 game losing streak in May/June 19 game losing streak - haven’t won since July 10th Who do you hold responsible? When it’s this bad and poor decisions are made on the field and off, it starts with ownership and transcends to the front office and manager’s office.

Looking at a line-up without any sort of offensive punch day-in and day-out is embarrassing. Our “top hitter” today from today clocks in batting .228. We had 2 guys batting under .200 and another 2 under .210. Compare that to the Twins where their worst guy’s batting average was .233. OBP…we have nobody with a .300 or higher. You can’t score runs if your entire team lacks the ability to hit and/or get on base at even a mediocre level.

There is a solid chance we keep extending this streak. From a batting perspective, our best hitter today by average (.238) and OBP (.305) is Lopez.

It’s hard to give a grade without knowing the net of all these cash considerations. We essentially took a sub-standard prospect haul and gave away cash. The best I could give us is a D. The return stinks of seeking a quantity of A-level guys vs a higher potential prospect. I know Pham wasn’t going to be back, that we have no confidence in Kopech, and we were on track to buy out Jimenez. Set all that aside, Fedde plus Kopech/Pham had more value than a bad prospect haul and us sending out cash. That was a poor deal. It’s almost like the directive was to shed anyone we could for whatever we could just to dump salary. It would be hard to believe we’re building a roster for anytime before 2027, and I don’t even see much help for that out of this deadline. This team needs some miracles on prospects to pan out and a new owner that will invest in talented free agents. Since Jerry is likely going to use the horrible Benintendi deal to avoid these type of signings while he is still owner, we should expect another round of puzzling offseason signings and no clearer picture towards assembling another MLB team.

When I saw this deal, I wondered how much cash got thrown in to us. I sat there wondering if we got a few million in cash or if the goal was to just shed payroll, with JR lining his pockets, instead of getting the best quality players. There is a lack of guys capable of what Fedde has shown who are available right now. That along should have given us a solid player in return. Maybe one of these guys pan out, but on its face, this trade is difficult to swallow.

I would rather have the $4.25 million towards a better FA signing and more innings/ABs for other options.

Crochet increasing his trade value with this performance. Amazing! Too bad we couldn’t get him insurance runs with 1st and 2nd with no outs.

He would have a heck of a lot more RBIs if we would get runners on base for all of his XBHs. 50% of his hits are XBHs. As long as he stays at .230-.240 or better, a contender who loses a middle IF is going to want him. I like having him on the Sox since he is an ISU alum, but no idea if he would re-sign here next year.

Took the kids to Cards-Rockies last night to see a different ballpark. They asked the score of the Sox game a few times, and I explained how it kept growing in favor of the Red Sox. We talked about how it may not be worth the $1-2 we would pay for tickets and the fees from whatever seller. It was only halfway joking that the may be Sox letting people in for free later this summer hoping for the parking and concession revenue. For what we spent coming here ($32 for 4 tickets, $16 in fees, and $80 in concessions), the concessions was the big moneymaker. There is no way we would spend that going to likely see a horrible game like this one.

Stake a 5-1lead; give up a pair of 2-run HRs to tie it. Yeah, isn’t that kind of expected? Doesn’t help with RISP and an 0-27 catcher swinging at ball 4. No guarantee we’d score, but it would be a much better opportunity with bases loaded and one of our higher-producing hitters up. There is zero reason someone already at -1.4 WAR should be playing as much as he can.

Swings at ball 4 to ground out and move to 0-for-28…sigh…he’s hitting under 0.08 with about 90 ABs. That’s atrocious even if trying to say, “Anything he can do with a bat is a plus.”

I don’t disagree that people on this board could put together a better roster or coach better on the field. In fact, I would prefer that over Grifol. However, doesn’t a good chunk of what’s happening lay at the feet of JR not giving the resources to do what is needed? We also spent on guys who don’t add much and block AAA talent from getting exposure. Unless that is somehow on purpose. If Getz wasn’t given the green light to add enough MLB-level talent, there is no way we could compete. This team would probably perform better if we replaced some of our starters with bench guys on other teams. I was happy when we signed Pham because it meant we were getting someone who could noticeably contribute. Paul DeJong was a decent signing for the cost if he could hit above .230 because he gets a good amount of XBHs. Right now he’s batting .231 with 18 XBHs out of 39 hits. It’s just those 18 XBHs have netted just 20 RBI - we don’t have many guys who get on base and most of his HRs have been solo shots.

It seems like as an owner you have to have money set aside to eat a contract and move on. Teams that sign a bad contract and then use it as an excuse to spend nothing more to compete won’t succeed. Perhaps they’ll put in an amnesty provision once owners like JR are out. Players will like it because it will give more money to more players.

I would agree that it means we would not compete in 2025. I can’t see that being until 26 or 27 where we try to do something. I have no faith in JR investing in key FAs next year though to complement hopefully some young talent panning out. Seems to me we go with not-the-lowest payroll but then work to pare it down with trading away guys we signed and replacing them with guys making the minimum or just above-minimum.

Dejong. He’s hitting .256 with 3 HRs and 4 2Bs. Sadly, people aren’t getting on when he’s notching XBHs. He isn’t lighting the world on fire, but he was a .226 hitter last year with 14 HR.

Can it be “all of the above?” A manager who shouldn’t be leading this team. A front office that put together a poor, cheap, underperforming roster. Players who realize this is a bad team with some just cashing paychecks. An ultimately an owner who needs to sell the team.

Normally I would say this would be the time where we would clear the bases and then fall 7-3. Maybe he hits another single or draws a walk and keeps this going. Sadly, the odds of us winning this game are like 0.001%.