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Looking back and forward


CentralChamps21

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Just now, reiks12 said:

This is unacceptable, plain and simple. We cannot waste another year being stuck in the stone age. 

Yeah the lack of shifting this year became very evident against the Astros. How many up the middle ground ball hits did we give up to left handed hitters in this series alone? It had to be close to 5 and a lot of those came in big situations. 

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1 hour ago, SpringfieldFan said:

I think the team was just too young, individually and collectively. Most of the core is very young and one could argue Crochet, Vaughn and Sheets typically wouldn’t be on an MLB roster yet.

As a whole, the regular lineup has only been together a little over a year and for most of that period COVID and injuries kept them from even playing together as a team. Then, for better or worse, the liberal resting of players kept the team out of action as a full unit once everyone *was* finally back.

Given that, how are they supposed to be expected to triumph against the battle hardened elite on the biggest stage when October comes calling?

I agree, I think they never fully bounced back from their injuries. It’s like they were playing catch up for the whole year. They didn’t have their full lineup playing the whole season and that’s probably what taxed the pitching as well because they were having to pitch more innings and they were having to rely on there bullpen quite a bit.

Edited by maloney.adam
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21 minutes ago, chw42 said:

Yeah the lack of shifting this year became very evident against the Astros. How many up the middle ground ball hits did we give up to left handed hitters in this series alone? It had to be close to 5 and a lot of those came in big situations. 

I just read that shifting is actually included in DRS, so that could also play a factor in going from the top to the bottom. My god.. how does the FO allow this to happen?

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5 minutes ago, reiks12 said:

I just read that shifting is actually included in DRS, so that could also play a factor in going from the top to the bottom. My god.. how does the FO allow this to happen?

Yes DRS does account for shifting, which actually means that the team being worse defensively is not only because of the lack of shifting. 

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3 hours ago, SoxBlanco said:

Yes, of course. Rick made moves trying to win a World Series. Craig and Cesar decided to suck once they got here. 

Stop it. Craig's demise wasn't hard to see. Look at his previous 2 seasons. GARBAGE. Hernandez was an aging, mediocre players. His demise isn't surprising either. Hahn most definitely deserves blame. 

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15 minutes ago, ron883 said:

Stop it. Craig's demise wasn't hard to see. Look at his previous 2 seasons. GARBAGE. Hernandez was an aging, mediocre players. His demise isn't surprising either. Hahn most definitely deserves blame. 

Agreed, you dont look at 30 some innings of good relief work and think thats worth your #4 pick and a relief prospect with tremendous upside. Just a terrible trade, and before you say im using hindsight i said the same thing in the kimbrel trade thread when it went down.

Now Hahn has to worry about 2b, Cesar CANNOT be the answer.

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2 minutes ago, reiks12 said:

Agreed, you dont look at 30 some innings of good relief work and think thats worth your #4 pick and a relief prospect with tremendous upside. Just a terrible trade, and before you say im using hindsight i said the same thing in the kimbrel trade thread when it went down.

Now Hahn has to worry about 2b, Cesar CANNOT be the answer.

It's Romy time, baby. Romy is about to take the AL Central by storm. 

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This is gonna be last post for a bit jsut because after this whole playoff run,  I need a break from baseball.  But I will say I think part of our disappointment is that this has never happened before.  This was the Sox first back to back postseason appearances in franchise history.  And maybe outside of 06 or after the 08 season, we aren't really conditioned for this.  The fact is, we have a really amazing core group of players who are young and who are only going to get better.  And we play in a division that quite frankly won't have a team ready to really do serious damage against us for another few years.  The team absolutely needs some additions but I think we can win the World Series next year.  I would really like to see us go after Semien at 2nd base.  I'm very willing to let Vaughn compete for a job in RF and have Sheets be the DH.  But Semien at 2nd base would be a game changer.  And resign Tepeara.  Kimbrel, I'm up in the air on largely because I think he showed his real self in the last week of the season and in Game 4.  It's pretty fucking obvious to anyone who was watching that Tony used him pretty badly in Game 2 and in this game (He should have had a clean inning).  But $18 million is a lot to pay a set up man.  That being said, I think this team will be very competitive next year.  

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Looking back at this season, part of me thinks that having more of a challenge to win the division would have benefitted the Sox. It was too easy to get into cruise mode in the second half and they didn't really have any 'pressure games' all season until this series against the Astros. With a lot of young players , and some of the older ones, it was easy for bad habits, such as sloppy defense to be acceptable and poor plate discipline because a loss here or there didn't really matter as the division was won from so far out. 

I'm not saying I want him back, but one thing Ricky R. seemed to be drilling into the players was to maintain standards at all times, I just didn't get that impression this season from TLR, other than his needless criticism of Yermin for hitting a home run.

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For me, the Sox are less a team and more a collection of individual players, many of whom have gaps in their games that defy their positional requirements and batting order. Missing the discipline to control the strike zone and wait for pitches they can do damage against, or a willingness to take walks if pitchers try to work around them. Lacking the notion of situational hitting such as not swinging at the first pitch when the pitcher is struggling with control. Personally, I don't believe we can reach the promised land with both Jiminez and Abreu in the middle of the lineup...they are simply to easy to strike out or induce into weak contact. For me, Abreu stays and Jimenez goes (I have been advocating trading  Jiminez for two years as his trade value has steadily declined). I believe '22 and beyond is less about acquiring specific players and more about  sorting from among the current roster, then packaging the redundant (i.e. Eloy) to acquire positional talent who bring more than one-dimension to the roster. Guys like Vaughn, Sheets, Collins, Jiminez, Abreu and to a lesser extent, Mercedes all have value but have similar profiles and short comings to their games. We can't play 'em all.  

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