GT: 4/1 | Sox (1-1) @ Astros (1-1) | Giolito vs. Urquidy

[Lip Man 1]

1 minute ago, CBJ03 said:

Somehow he's arguably been their best player for the first 3 games of the season. My god the overreactions through 3 games are spectacular. 

Which frankly isn't saying much is it... based on the predictions. Moncada's career has been one big tease, all the talent in the world, always an excuse for it not to be realized.

[The Mighty Mite]

7 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Typical Moncada game...strikes out multiple times in key situations with runners on base...makes a big error and then after striking out walks gingerly back to the dugout like he's been seriously hurt.

Somehow, someway as i was told in November by sources the Sox need to cut bait with this guy.

Bullpen again fails in the later innings. Ruiz has more lives it seems then Leury Garcia. Why he is on the team still is beyoind me. 

Agree on everything you said especially with Moncada, he's my least favorite Sox player since Claudell Washington.

Edited April 1, 2023 by The Mighty Mite

[ChiSox59]

5 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Typical Moncada game...strikes out multiple times in key situations with runners on base...makes a big error and then after striking out walks gingerly back to the dugout like he's been seriously hurt.

Somehow, someway as I was told in November by sources the Sox need to cut bait with this guy.

Bullpen again fails in the later innings. Ruiz has more lives it seems then Leury Garcia. Why he is on the team still is beyoind me. 

Cut Moncada? My lord you’re such a blow hard. 

Edited April 1, 2023 by ChiSox59

[fathom]

3 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

Cut Moncada? My lord you’re such a blow hard. 

I’m excited to see how the ball is jumping off his bat. Now if they want to cut bait after this year when his salary skyrockets, that’s a whole different argument that we have a long time to discuss.

[Lip Man 1]

3 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

Cut Moncada? My lord you’re such a blow hard. 

Who said anything about cutting him? "Cut" means simply getting rid of him, trade him for anything you can get.

Reading is a skill sir. Try it some time.

[Dan Pasqua]

12 minutes ago, fathom said:

Would love to know how many pitches out of the zone they swung at.  Seemed like 40

Imo They lead the league in swinging at balls out of the zone.  

[The Mighty Mite]

4 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

Cut Moncada? My lord you’re such a blow hard. 

I believe Lip meant that the Sox needed to trade Moncada, not actually cut him or DFA him. 

[Jack Parkman]

1 minute ago, fathom said:

I’m excited to see how the ball is jumping off his bat. Now if they want to cut bait after this year when his salary skyrockets, that’s a whole different argument that we have a long time to discuss.

No matter how good he is this year there aren't a lot of teams that will want to take on $29M for 1 year or $49M for 2. 

[soxfan49]

2 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Who said anything about cutting him? "Cut" means simply getting rid of him, trade him for anything you can get.

Reading is a skill sir. Try it some time.

Why would anyone want him? If *you* know he's a bum who's always hurt and who comes up short in big moments, why would *an MLB franchise* anybody give up anything remotely good for him especially when his salary is about to rise?

[Lip Man 1]

8 minutes ago, JoshPR said:

So put Burger at 3rd? C'mon man

It wouldn't be ideal but the impression I get with Burger is that at least he gives a damn.

“The problem is some of these guys just don’t care, they want to win sure but they already have gotten their money with these contracts before they proved anything. Moncada would strike out and just walk back to the dugout like no big deal, he fouls a ball off and now he can’t play for three days? His contract makes him untradable but he needs to go.”

"Another one was the Triple Play Game  against the Twins. (Author’s Note: The Sox ran themselves into an 8-5 triple play on July 4. They wound up losing the game 6-3 in extra innings) Adam Engel faced the music afterwards, he made a mistake and owned up to it. Moncada who also made a mistake was nowhere, he was already gone. Then the next day he was saying that he didn’t know people wanted to talk with him.”

“It could happen, maybe there’s a 5% chance this front office could get it right. But first the front office has to admit they made mistakes. The catcher (Yamani Grandal), third baseman (Moncada) and shortstop (Tim Anderson) need to go. They need to get guys with a higher baseball acumen, the lack of urgency, the way they beat themselves this season was embarrassing."

 

[CBJ03]

7 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Which frankly isn't saying much is it... based on the predictions. Moncada's career has been one big tease, all the talent in the world, always an excuse for it not to be realized.

Yes, the guy hasn't been a superstar but outside of his first year in Boston, the guy has still had positive WAR, even last year. Total disaster. 

[Lip Man 1]

Just now, soxfan49 said:

Why would anyone want him? If *you* know he's a bum who's always hurt and who comes up short in big moments, why would *an MLB franchise* anybody give up anything remotely good for him especially when his salary is about to rise?

Who said anything about getting something good? Trade him for anything just to get rid of his salary. Maybe another organization can get through to him. After five years now I suspect nothing is going to change with this guy. Like the song said, "Whatcha see is whatcha get."

[Lip Man 1]

3 minutes ago, CBJ03 said:

Yes, the guy hasn't been a superstar but outside of his first year in Boston, the guy has still had positive WAR, even last year. Total disaster. 

As many stat based folks will tell you (and I'm not one of them, I don't understand many of them) WAR isn't the be all/end all. 

Leury Garcia had a positive WAR for a number of years, was he a good player? Be honest.

Moncada isn't the answer, in many respects his limitations and his lack of baseball sense (getting thrown out at third with no outs being the latest example) is hurting this team.

He isn't the only reason, of course, but in my opinion he's a big part of things. 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Lip Man 1

[Highland]

15 minutes ago, ScooterMcGuire said:

Here is my main concern. They have zero problems getting guys on base. They have all kinds of problems getting them in when they need to. And this problem is not new.

Losing Abreu didn't help that. (Yes I realize letting him go was probably for the best).

I agree. Today they got one run without the benefit of a home run and that was a on broken bat blooper. Of course, we like homers, but sometimes you just gotta get the ball into the outfield with runners in scoring position.

This was a winnable game. Other than their bullpen, the Astros didn't look that great. I don't know what Moncada was swinging at on that last pitch.

[Dan Pasqua]

We need a guy like Buster Posey to command the staff.  Until then it's just gonna be more of the same.  You can't win in the NFL without a QB, and I believe you can't win in MLB without a stud catcher.

[Snopek]

After three games, my negative takeaways are the bullpen doesn’t instill a lot of confidence and Robert needs get his s%*# together.

Otherwise, this feels like a completely different team than last year.

Give it a little time, y’all.

[Lip Man 1]

1 minute ago, Snopek said:

After three games, my negative takeaways are the bullpen doesn’t instill a lot of confidence and Robert needs get his s%*# together.

Otherwise, this feels like a completely different team than last year.

Give it a little time, y’all.

Fair point. We'll see, the April schedule is difficult and the bullpen won't be getting any help for awhile so they'll have to perform better.

[CBJ03]

1 minute ago, Lip Man 1 said:

As many stat based folks will tell you (and I'm not one of them, I don't understand many of them) WAR isn't the be all/end all. 

Leury Garcia has a positive WAR for a number of years, was he a good player? Be honest.

Leury career war of 3.9  in 10 years. Yoan at 13.5 in 8 years. Not even close to being the same player. Everything tells you that including your eyes. And as a bench player Leury was fine for a couple of years. It wasn't his fault that Tony played him at every opportunity for 2 years. 

[The Mighty Mite]

6 minutes ago, soxfan49 said:

Why would anyone want him? If *you* know he's a bum who's always hurt and who comes up short in big moments, why would *an MLB franchise* anybody give up anything remotely good for him especially when his salary is about to rise?

 

1 minute ago, Snopek said:

After three games, my negative takeaways are the bullpen doesn’t instill a lot of confidence and Robert needs get his s%*# together.

Otherwise, this feels like a completely different team than last year.

Give it a little time, y’all.

I agree, it's only 3 games and if we win tomorrow we get a split in HST which is pretty good against the World Cheaters in their home park. There are concerns with the bullpen and with Robert who seems lost while at the plate, not sure what he worked on in ST but he hasn't adjusted at all from last year still swinging at bad pitches.  We need to give Grifol a little time also, sounds like some want to can the guy already.

[Lip Man 1]

2 minutes ago, CBJ03 said:

Leury career war of 3.9  in 10 years. Yoan at 13.5 in 8 years. Not even close to being the same player. Everything tells you that including your eyes. And as a bench player Leury was fine for a couple of years. It wasn't his fault that Tony played him at every opportunity for 2 years. 

According to Retrosheet.com his BFW for seven full seasons is only 2.6, he's had one very good season 2019 (4.4), other than that? Perfectly mediocre with two years of a negative rating.

Like you say the eyes tell you a lot.

 

[Timmy U]

9 minutes ago, Dan Pasqua said:

We need a guy like Buster Posey to command the staff.  Until then it's just gonna be more of the same.  You can't win in the NFL without a QB, and I believe you can't win in MLB without a stud catcher.

Well, yeah. Buster Posey is a likely HoF. We need a guy like that at every position. 

[Lip Man 1]

1 minute ago, The Mighty Mite said:

 

I agree, it's only 3 games and if we win tomorrow we get a split in HST which is pretty good against the World Cheaters in their home park. There are concerns with the bullpen and with Robert who seems lost while at the plate, not sure what he worked on in ST but he hasn't adjusted at all from last year still swinging at bad pitches.  We need to give Grifol a little time also, sounds like some want to can the guy already.

Could Robert's wrist still be bothering him?

I agree I'd love to get a split in Houston but Clevinger pitches Sunday and he hasn't been impressive shall we say in the spring. 

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Go get 'em tomorrow !

[CBJ03]

8 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

According to Retrosheet.com his BFW for seven full seasons is only 2.6, he's had one very good season 2019 (4.4), other than that? Perfectly mediocre with two years of a negative rating.

Like you say the eyes tell you a lot.

 

 

[Autumn Dreamin]

13 minutes ago, Snopek said:

After three games, my negative takeaways are the bullpen doesn’t instill a lot of confidence and Robert needs get his s%*# together.

Otherwise, this feels like a completely different team than last year.

Give it a little time, y’all.

Lots of positives that bode well for the rest of the season:  TA being TA (but he walks now??), Yo staying hot, catcher duo looking great, front 3 of the rotation are solid, team fighting back when down, improved defense, overall good hustle and health.

Lots of negatives that should improve with time: rookie manager learning the BP without 2 of our best arms, rookie OF adjusting to MLB pitching, Robert and others finding a rhythm at the plate, arms still getting a feel for their stuff and work capacity.

You don't play the Astros on the road every series, and they'll win more games playing like this than they'll lose. This is the toughest possible matchup to start the season, and they aren't looking overmatched.

The fact that we can all point to individual ABs as the difference instead of being out of it from the start because 3 core players are on the IL and we got 6ER in 3.2IP from our SP should be more than enough to dispel the idea that nothing is different.

Unfortunately, even if the team has improved...Sox fans stay the same.