Dominikk85

then you need to take him off the roster though, you can't carry a short side of the platoon pinch hitter on the roster. If you carry him at the very least he has to play the platoon against lefties, otherwise he is just a waste of a roster spot.

Doesn't Ricky have to play EE against lefty starters? It makes no sense to have a DH on the roster when you are not even using him on his good platoon side. If you are not using him against lefty starters you can't use him at all and if you don't use him at all you need to take him away from the post season roster because a roster spot is too valuable to waste it on a pinch hit only guy. That means if the front office didn't want EE to play at least against lefties, EE wouldn't be on the roster. I hope EE doesn't start against righties but if he is on the roster he basically has to play against lefties.

Hahn doesn't have a great FA track record but that is also due to the money he got to use. You are not getting good AND young FAs without paying premium money so Hahn was basically forced to buy aging guys and hoping for one last bounce back. It is much easier to be good with free agents if you are able to spend 200m.

Could be a good spot to grab a falling HS pitcher.or maybe a top HS hitting prospect who had some performance struggles causing him to fall. College hitters in that range are usually not very attractive because often there is a big drop after the first 4-5 college hitters and you only get a polished limited upside guy there. If you are lucky though a good college pitcher falls due to injury concerns like singer or faedo did.

I agree. With vaughn one of the holes will be filled and one bad spot in the lineup is ok, it just shouldn't be as bad as mazara this year. Just get on OK guy who can produce a 100 wrc+ there and the team is fine. Back of the rotation is the bigger issue, you just can't have 3 starters who regularly only go 4 or any pen will burn out no matter who manages it. Either some guys step up or you need to get a new guy. I would like to see one good addition so you have a decent 6th guy for depth because there will be injuries too.

I think this lost the clubhouse thing is bullshit. They had a bad two weeks but that happens to every team over 162 games, momentum is a myth https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fg-on-fox-the-myth-of-second-half-momentum/ The cubs had a 5 win 15 loss stretch in 2016, nobody would care about a 3 win 9 loss stretch over a 162 season.

The worn out pen can't be blamed on ricky though. In the contrary ricky actually protected his best pen guys by often putting in weaker relievers in tough spots which set up the team to fail but protected the arms of the best relievers. The actual problem was the sox only have 2 starters who can go more than 5 so the pen was used a lot. Had Ricky run the pen like the forum wanted him to do which is basically treat every game like game 7 and never put in a bad reliever in a tough spot the pen would have already been worn out after 30 games. Ricky made some bad moves but I also felt he protected colome, foster and heuer which were the only reliable relievers over the season after the bummer injury reasonably well by not using them all the time. If the forum could have decided those 3 and bummer when available would have pitched every game but then they would have been dead by the all star break. If you have a season with very few off days, starters who can't go deep and really only 3-4 relievers who are good managing a pen is a tough task. He could have gone dusty Baker and always use the best guys but that would have killed the pen.

They need a DH, a RF and another SP. -DH will come from internal (Vaughn) -SP could come from internal (kopech) but depending on the number of innings he can throw and the development of cease another guy might be needed. Ideally you have giolito, keuchel, dunning, cease and kopech being the guys but kopech could be limited to about 120 innings and we don't know how much cease can improve the command. They sox just don't have much pitching depth -RF has to come from outside the org. There is no standout prospect for the OF in the org and mazara doesn't seem like the answer even if some health issues are resolved. Engel has done a good job but he isn't an everyday corner outfielder.

I like it. Obviously the sox could easily lose that series especially if they keep hitting like the last 7 games but still oakland at least has 2 left handed starters and an OK but not super great offense. The sox need to score early though because he As have a lights out pen, so they sox need to score multiple runs the first 5 innings The As are not an easy opponent but definitely prefer them over the Yankees or Indians.

I think Melvin is a better manager than ricky but the award always goes to a guy improving a team from sub .500. The last guy who came from over .500 was Showalter in 2014 (85 wins). The Rays simply were too good in 2019 with their 96 wins. I think that is stupid but that is the way it is. The voters are not going to see a guy who lost the division in ricky but a guy who turned a .450 team into a. 580 team even though that is not the whole story of course.

I also don't think he should win it but he is going to be. MOTY is always a guy who takes a sub 500 team to a playoff spot. Kevin cash might be the better manager but the Rays won 96 games last year so he is not going to win it Recent examples: 2019 baldelli 78 wins to playoffs 2018 Melvin 75 wins to playoffs 2017 molitor 59 wins to playoffs Yeah last week was bad but the whole body of work is judged and that is still better than expected. Manager of the year is a sub 500 to playoff guy every year and really ricky is the only candidate who fulfills that even though I think that is stupid.

The last week was terrible and Ricky made some bad decisions but you are fooling yourself if you think he will get fired. The sox team overall did outperform their talent despite the last 6 or 7 games. Not saying the sox don't have talent but they were projected for about mid 80s wins and they won 35 games which is the equivalent of 94 games. That means the team did perform at least 8 or 9 games better over a full season or about 4 games better over the shortened season (zips had them win 31 games). Now of course ricky did make bad decisions and people will say you have to look at circumstance but there really is no precedent in baseball history were a manager of a projected mid 80s win team won mid 90s games gets fired. I don't think ricky is a great manager but get used to the fact that he is coming back 99% next year. Next year he will be under the microscope though, expectations are higher and if he is let's say 5 games under .500 at all star break he could get axed. But for this year get over the fact that Ricky is not only keeping his job but also win manager or the year because no AL team improved as much as the sox and no AL team beat the projections by as much as the sox.

I also would not want to face Cleveland. The weakness of the sox hitters is plate discipline (both lots of Ks and not a lot of walks) and the indians are the kind of pitchers who can abuse that. Sox hitters need pitchers who make mistakes so their power plays and the indians pitchers just don't make many of those.

Sox are now set to play yankees because of the Indians loss. Indians lost 8 0 to pirates, I wonder if they were tanking.

I love the fastball. It is straight and doesnt move but it has tons of spin and a good axis creating lift and tons of swings and misses (17% swstr). He just needs to make sure to throw it up in the zone where is is very tough to hit while down the straightness of it will not play so well. He also has surprising control already, not super fine command but around the zone most of the time. I wonder what to do next year. You have to try making him a starter but those pitches in high A would be a travesty. Could you develope him into a starter in the majors over a multi inning role next year? Or couldn't he really develope his third pitch here? He could be solid as a 2.5 pitch guy (like denilson lamet) but that wouldn't be ideal.

I like the replay and would like robo ump at home but hate those calls where a player is off the base a 1/100th second

Don't want to be nit picky here but madrigal almost ran into another out, if the throw at home is on target he is out by 15 feet. It was two outs though (and EE up) so it wasn't that bad.

Are the Indians tanking to avoid the Yankees? Down 8 0 against pirates.

That is some bad throwing.

Or he hates the cubs more:)

You are right, read that wrong. I think that current spot is not the worst thing then, As are not easy but definitely prefer them over the yankees. Still hope they win at least one out of the last two for the confidence of the team.

Most important is imo to avoid third place because that puts them in the bracket with cleveland, NY and tampa. The other bracket you get the twins, As and astros which is clearly the easier path to the WS.

This should definitely seal that cease is not starting. Make him a reliever for the postseason

It will be either be the As, yankees or astros. I think the best outcome would be second, the As won a lot of games but while their pen is lights out neither their lineup nor their rotation are fearful. The yankees would be not good to face as they got most of their injured guys back. Astros weren't great but I still think they have an extra gear.

I don't think it affects the players confidence, every team has a 5 game losing streak over 162 games, it is just at a bad time. The rondon decision was bad but also consider that the sox had very few off days recently and coming up and the pen has been taxed a lot. I would have liked to see crochet there but he might not been available. Ricky didn't always manage the pen great but he also had to use it a lot because the back end starters are so bad