We will see what this team is made of…

[NWINFan]

7 hours ago, Buehrle>Wood said:

Maybe this series. Not for the Sox majority of the season.

Injuries can't be used as an excuse for recent performance. Regardless, if they can win five of the next 11 and then mop up on the Cubs and Pirates, they can go into September with almost 80 wins. That should do it for the division. The playoffs are another story especially with LaRussa at the helm.

[Buehrle>Wood]

42 minutes ago, NWINFan said:

Injuries can't be used as an excuse for recent performance. Regardless, if they can win five of the next 11 and then mop up on the Cubs and Pirates, they can go into September with almost 80 wins. That should do it for the division. The playoffs are another story especially with LaRussa at the helm.

The discussion was about the whole season though. 

Also, the division is beyond over. The Indians and Tigers aren't playing any sort of catch up.

[SCCWS]

8 hours ago, Buehrle>Wood said:

Maybe this series. Not for the Sox majority of the season.

Based on totals, Yankees and Astros  have more players and lost time this season than any AL teams.  Now the importance of the players who lost time is somewhat subjective. 

 

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/disabled-list/cumulative-team/

[hogan873]

I'm not worried about the division.  The Sox can play around .500 ball the rest of the way and easily win the division.  What concerns me is the playoffs.  The Sox haven't shown to be consistent against good teams.  They have looked good at times, but when they look bad, they look really bad.

Hendriks will get his shit together and so will Kimbrel.  They both have great stuff, and I think the slip-ups we're seeing are all mental.  The rest of the bullpen has looked pretty good lately.  Tepera is as-advertised.  Crochet has stepped up and been really good lately.  Kopech continues to be great.  Bummer is returning to form.

The offense concerns me more.  The inconsistency is maddening.  Good hitting is contagious, and so is bad hitting.  Too often we're seeing the team go into the late innings down by a few runs, and then we'll see a spark and score a run or two.  But it's not enough.  I have been feeling good about only a few guys' at bats: Abreu, Eloy, Robert, Vaughn, TA (lately).  The rest of them...I get very nervous when the game's on the line when they come up.

This is the stretch when we'll see what this team is made of.  So far it's concerning, but there's time for adjustments, and Grandal will be back soon.

Here's my "get your shit together" list:
- Moncada
- Hernandez (has looked pretty bad lately)
- Hendriks
- Kimbrel (he seems to have caught long-ballitis from Hendriks)
- Keuchel (throw strikes for god's sake)
- All hitters who love the double play
- TLR and his lack of willingness to review close plays
- The entire offense when they shit their pants facing bad pitching

[harkness99]

11 hours ago, hi8is said:

A 5 - 11 record against contending playoff teams while fielding the Chicago Knight Sox.

The Yankees just beat us with a Triple A pitching staff and bullpen.

So that excuse doesn't really fly in this latest series.

[ShoeLessRob]

Luckily our division is horse shit and we can probably win it with 80-85 wins, but I don’t understand the notion that these games are meaningless. Wouldn’t you rather see continued growth/improvement from the players which ultimately leads to wins for the team in the playoffs? Nothing since the all star break makes me believe this team is a serious contender for the World Series and isn’t that the ultimate goal? I understand health is number 1, but if they are all healthy and playing like shit, what’s the difference?

[Rey21]

21 minutes ago, ShoeLessRob said:

Luckily our division is horse shit and we can probably win it with 80-85 wins, but I don’t understand the notion that these games are meaningless. Wouldn’t you rather see continued growth/improvement from the players which ultimately leads to wins for the team in the playoffs? Nothing since the all star break makes me believe this team is a serious contender for the World Series and isn’t that the ultimate goal? I understand health is number 1, but if they are all healthy and playing like shit, what’s the difference?

Agree 100% I don’t understand how any fan can see the Sox go 1-5 against the Yankees and not be slightly concerned, regardless if the Yankees make the playoffs or not this is the caliber team they have to beat to win a World Series. I don’t think there’s a flip of the switch that the Sox are just gonna turn on come playoff time. 

[SonofaRoache]

3 hours ago, Buehrle>Wood said:

The discussion was about the whole season though. 

Also, the division is beyond over. The Indians and Tigers aren't playing any sort of catch up.

My point is about recent poor play. We got guys back and made savvy trades, yet the results are still not good thus far. There is no guarantee they ever become good enough against good teams. Then, even if we do get hot at the right time, we may be playing every playoff series on the road. Which may negate any heat that we have at the time. That is what I am concerned with. The division race is over as are the injury excuses. Let's get rolling. 

[Snopek]

16 hours ago, ShoeLessRob said:

So below .500 since the AB, I see TLR’s second half speech really resonated with these guys. Idk what happened, but they haven’t won shit yet.

 

31 minutes ago, Rey21 said:

Agree 100% I don’t understand how any fan can see the Sox go 1-5 against the Yankees and not be slightly concerned, regardless if the Yankees make the playoffs or not this is the caliber team they have to beat to win a World Series. I don’t think there’s a flip of the switch that the Sox are just gonna turn on come playoff time. 

The arrogance is a little off-putting. Like, it's weird to me that some folks just can't entertain the idea that there might be some AL teams better than the Sox. I've seen the Yankees quickly dismissed as non-contenders, despite the fact that they're only 2.5 games back from the Sox in the W-L column.

Don't get me wrong -  I think this is a VERY good Sox team and I'm beyond excited for the potential playoff run. I just struggle to understand the cocky posts that state one's hopes as fact (and then invalidate those that don't see it the same way).

[southsider2k5]

1 hour ago, Rey21 said:

Agree 100% I don’t understand how any fan can see the Sox go 1-5 against the Yankees and not be slightly concerned, regardless if the Yankees make the playoffs or not this is the caliber team they have to beat to win a World Series. I don’t think there’s a flip of the switch that the Sox are just gonna turn on come playoff time. 

And if that is the case, this was never going to be a World Series winning team anyway.

[mqr]

1 hour ago, Rey21 said:

Agree 100% I don’t understand how any fan can see the Sox go 1-5 against the Yankees and not be slightly concerned

3 of those games happened with half the roster on the DL, and they two they dropped this weekend went down to the final at-bat. I would not look too far into it. 

[mmmmmbeeer]

1 hour ago, Rey21 said:

Agree 100% I don’t understand how any fan can see the Sox go 1-5 against the Yankees and not be slightly concerned, regardless if the Yankees make the playoffs or not this is the caliber team they have to beat to win a World Series. I don’t think there’s a flip of the switch that the Sox are just gonna turn on come playoff time. 

I mean, there are some teams that are just horrible match-ups.  The Yankees are a nightmare for Sox pitching.  They're patient as all hell, feast on fastballs with HUGE power, and seem to intimidate the Sox a bit just by being the Yankees.  

I'm not going to worry until we see us look especially weak against other good teams this month.  I put little to no value in looking at our current record against teams over .500 considering the injuries we've had.  

[Colome's Hat]

Just now, mmmmmbeeer said:

I mean, there are some teams that are just horrible match-ups.  The Yankees are a nightmare for Sox pitching.  They're patient as all hell, feast on fastballs with HUGE power, and seem to intimidate the Sox a bit just by being the Yankees.  

I'm not going to worry until we see us look especially weak against other good teams this month.  I put little to no value in looking at our current record against teams over .500 considering the injuries we've had.  

Yeah.  I also just think the fact that 4 of those five losses were really coin flip games.  I think with Yaz in the lineup this weekend, we take 2 of 3.

[Balta1701]

15 minutes ago, Colome's Hat said:

Yeah.  I also just think the fact that 4 of those five losses were really coin flip games.  I think with Yaz in the lineup this weekend, we take 2 of 3.

Well...one feature to the playoffs is that a lot of games fall into the category you just labeled "coin flip games". Because they're playoff games, the other team never gives up, and they will fight all the way through the last pitch of the last inning. The other way to think of games like the ones we just went through are "playoff atmosphere" games, and at some level - the Yankees had a serious advantage on that. 

[Snopek]

12 minutes ago, Colome's Hat said:

Yeah.  I also just think the fact that 4 of those five losses were really coin flip games.  I think with Yaz in the lineup this weekend, we take 2 of 3.

What about with Rizzo, Sanchez, Urshela, Gleyber and Chapman all available for the Yankees?

Also, they still lost all those "coin flip" games. Oh, except for the Field of Dreams game. They won that coin flip. 

[ShoeLessRob]

18 minutes ago, Colome's Hat said:

Yeah.  I also just think the fact that 4 of those five losses were really coin flip games.  I think with Yaz in the lineup this weekend, we take 2 of 3.

The same can be said for the Yanks they were missing several key players due to COVID/IL.

[bmags]

I mean the sox may not have a switch flipped, but lots of world series teams or teams deep in playoffs have a flip switch before and people didn't know the switch would flip. 

They are good, they have a lot of good players, but are in a bit of the doldrums which are incredibly frustrating and there is a chance they never shake out of it this season which would suck. But I think they will.

[Balta1701]

1 minute ago, ShoeLessRob said:

The same can be said for the Yanks they were missing several key players due to COVID/IL.

Torres, Sanchez, Urshela, Cole, Montgomery, German, Rizzo, Chapman, Frazier, Kluber, Andujar. Some of them are always injured...but yeah, that's pretty much a triage ward.

[Balta1701]

1 minute ago, bmags said:

I mean the sox may not have a switch flipped, but lots of world series teams or teams deep in playoffs have a flip switch before and people didn't know the switch would flip. 

They are good, they have a lot of good players, but are in a bit of the doldrums which are incredibly frustrating and there is a chance they never shake out of it this season which would suck. But I think they will.

I can think of veteran teams in sports that say "We can flip the switch towards the end of the season and turn things on when we need to". I'm not sure I can immediately think of a young team doing the same.

[Kyyle23]

Fuck, only veteran teams have the switch!  Season over go bears 

[Balta1701]

1 minute ago, Kyyle23 said:

Fuck, only veteran teams have the switch!  Season over go bears 

Give an example then? Please, I can't think of one. 

[ShoeLessRob]

This team looked terrible against the A’s in the first round last year, I don’t think they can “flip a switch” if they’ve never done it before. 

[mqr]

2 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Give an example then? Please, I can't think of one. 

That team in 2005 that for the most part had never been there before. 

[Snopek]

6 minutes ago, bmags said:

They are good, they have a lot of good players, but are in a bit of the doldrums which are incredibly frustrating and there is a chance they never shake out of it this season which would suck. But I think they will.

This is basically how I feel about the team, but I'm just surprised at how controversial of a thought the bolded part seems to be around here. 

[bmags]

7 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

I can think of veteran teams in sports that say "We can flip the switch towards the end of the season and turn things on when we need to". I'm not sure I can immediately think of a young team doing the same.

I mean the 2010 giants, 2017 yankees I didn't even think that hard.