CWSpalehoseCWS

This is exactly were I'm at with them. Hahn is like a puppy that just got his balls snipped by JR. He's far too timid and incompetent to make a meaningful trade or shake it up. We're going to get the classic "we aren't going to force a deal to make a deal" BS lingo.

The Sox are far from the Rays. Hell, many teams aren’t like the Rays. I also wouldn’t group Hendriks into the same category as Kelly, Harrison, etc. - he’s a legit top 3 closer in baseball. Worth every penny. Neither of us has a crystal ball. I just like the Sox chances with Hendriks at closer over Lopez/Graveman. It’s not unproven that setup arms struggle at closer and closers struggle in setup roles. I love how Lopez broke out of the pen last year but I’m not convinced he is a future star closer in the making. I definitely fall into the category that contending teams that are serious about contending have shutdown proven closers.

Don’t count out the fact that Hahn can’t ever admit failure. He HAD to pick up the option to prove he made the right decision in acquiring Kimbrel and prove he had positive value to other teams (he didn’t).

There’s far too many people here assuming the Sox can absorb the removal of Hendriks and not experience a drop in production. There is no guarantee that Lopez and or Graveman will be as effective as Hendriks has been. I don’t think it’s wrong to say it is a gamble to use him to improve other areas that need addressing. Doesn’t mean it can’t work out in the end either - but it wouldn’t surprise me if the Sox move him and we are all bitching late-May when the Sox are struggling to close games out.

His knees probably can’t handle regular catching duties. Throw in the new rules and maybe they fear how much opposing teams will run on the Sox.

So the Brewers gave up a future pinch-runner and got William fucking Contreras for 5 years?!

That’s a good landing spot for Manaea. That ballpark should help him put up better numbers.

https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1602090358833352706?s=20&t=V-tJqYKaYsuCi9CDm30gCA Huh, not sure why the tweet didn't load.

That's the beauty of baseball. It's such a team sport it's impossible for one player to make or break a team. Does it make it easier? Sure, but we rarely see the best team win the whole thing.

I tell myself for every dollar Cohen spends, a piece of Jerry dies to deal with the pain.

Can't help but wonder if Hahn blames twitter again for this "falling through."

It's not that. They're inept with extremely narcissistic personalities at the helm. They will look for every excuse as to why it failed without ever looking in the mirror. That's the culture JR creates when he refuses to turnover or hold people accountable for their mistakes. The talent (if there was any to begin with) in that FO left long ago.

Pedro holding players accountable should help. We all know that type of attitude was lacking from anyone with real power last year. From all accounts Grifol and Montoyo can be real hard asses at times. I don't think he's going to be enough to turn the whole thing around, but the effort should at least seem better.

Kepler for ReyLo should put Hahn up against a firing squad. That would be highway robbery. Kepler is trash. If the Sox traded any major league pieces for him it should be equal trash, like Diekman or Kelly.

I don't ever remember a comparison to Gwynn, but I think the term "elite bat to ball skills" was used quite a bit. Little did we know that their definition of that was elite [weak] bat to ball skills.

Here is an interesting writeup I came across. https://rogermunter.substack.com/p/rule-5-decision-nick-avila Talks about his re-worked repertoire he used this year.

Only the good die young. That bastard could go well into his 100's.

Losing the World Series? The difference between the Astros pen and the Phillies was night and day when it came to late innings.

The amount of fans that hate Moncada and Yas, I can’t even imagine.

You can’t really depend on Crochet for anything this year. He’s going to be busy getting himself right. If you trade Liam, you better be ok with seeing more Kelly, Ruiz, Diekman, and Lambert in higher leverage roles. Because everyone is going to be bumped up. I don’t have faith that Graveman is going to be fine - he looked very human at times last year, and we have no idea if Lopez is even capable of being a 9th inning guy. Think of how well the Matt Thornton experience went when Jenks was finally cut. Losing Hendriks, while possibly improving a different area of the team will make the bullpen a mess IMO. You’re essentially banking on the lineup being able to put up runs consistently to keep them out of tight games.

100% agree.

Absolutely agree. Cheap-ass JR. I love Liam, I would hate to see him moved. I also don’t see the reason a contending team trades their closer, and still has the intention of competing - ask the Phillies how well that worked for them not having a shut down pen.

Maybe it could involve Moncada? What’s something a majority of Sox fans get frustrated from that he would say makes “us” happy? Yoan being moved.

Hmmm. He loves sticking it to Sox fans. Hard to know for sure.