4/3 - Giants @ Sox

[ChiSox59]

2 minutes ago, Autumn Dreamin said:

Catching coordinator per the staff announcement.

Saw that, guess I didnt realize he'd be suited up on the MLB staff.  Good for him - really enjoyed his interviews as the acting manager in Charlotte last season.  Seems like a great dude.

[ChiSox59]

3 minutes ago, Ryanado said:

Can anyone please give me any ray of hope for this season?

I’m from England and have to watch most games at night (1am uk time). 

This year already seems like the last. Bullpen is c**p. Terrible with RISP.

Starting rotation seems to be the strength. Is there much noise about Reyanaldo Lopez starting again? He fits into the number 5 starting pitcher role.
 

I’d rather see Kopech out of the pen. I don’t think he’s a starting pitcher 

Just my view from this side of the pond

Its an 162 game season and they just went into arguably the best team in the AL's home field and split. Sox are fine - its one game.

[LittleHurtCG]

4 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

I'd say the first 4 games the teams played with alot more fire than the TLR days. Today...not so much.  But every team has stinkers.  The half a billion dollar Mets lost 10-0 today.  That's just  baseball.

Under 500 record. In third place in the division. Bad run differntial.  Seems very similiar to last year. 

 

[AJ'S Cousin]

There are a few positives so far this year. Moncada, Anderson, Robert and Vaughn look very good so far. Grandal looks ok, Cease is Cease, Cy Young candidate I believe ever year going forward. Lynne looks ok. The bullpen totally sucks. Very worried about Kopech. Is he done as a starter? Starting rotation with the exception of this Kopech debacle. He should have been pulled whe it was 4-0. 

[ChiSox59]

Just now, LittleHurtCG said:

Under 500 record. In third place in the division. Bad run differntial.  Seems very similiar to last year. 

 

Lol its 5 games dude. Relax. Or don't, I don't really care.  

[Spumoni]

1 minute ago, ChiSox59 said:

Lol it’s 5 games dude. Relax. Or don't, I don't really care.  

For real. As much as it sucks to have an opening day like this every single team has these days. 

[Ryanado]

1 minute ago, ChiSox59 said:

Its an 162 game season and they just went into arguably the best team in the AL's home field and split. Sox are fine - its one game.

Thanks, I appreciate the reply. 
 

i agree that a split in Houston was great. But this bullpen has been lit up in every single game so far

[ChiSox59]

3 minutes ago, Spumoni said:

For real. As much as it sucks to have an opening day like this every single team has these days. 

Some fans just want to live with one foot off the edge of the cliff at all times. 

Edited April 3, 2023 by ChiSox59

[ChiSox59]

Just now, Ryanado said:

Thanks, I appreciate the reply. 
 

i agree that a split in Houston was great. But this bullpen has been lit up in every single game so far

Yeah, pen needs work. Gonna have to stay afloat until Crochet and Liam are back. Sox schedule is tough in April, but opens up. Just need to not get buried next 60 days and win the series against the not great competition (Giants included in that for sure).

[The Grinder]

We historically are cold starters.

[hankchifan]

7 hours ago, reiks12 said:

Unfortunately work will prevent me from watching this one ?

Do you have DVR?

[soxrwhite]

Wooo Boy, was that bad!

[hankchifan]

2 minutes ago, The Grinder said:

We historically are cold starters.

Abreu is doing much better in domed and warmer Houston.  He sucked in cold weather.

[Highland]

For a time now, I have wondered why people are still high on Kopech. He came up late in the 2018 season and has logged in a little over 200 innings.  He is definitely not finished yet, but, in my mind, he still has to prove himself. Every pitcher gets shelled from time to time, but I'm still waiting for him to stay healthy and learn to be a pitcher. 

[JoshPR]

53 minutes ago, The Beast said:

Bryan Shaw is available.

Not sure why they didn't hang on to him.....

[The Kids Can Play]

I said Ruiz needed be DFA after the last bad outing and now with this even worse debacle outing he needs to absolutely 100 percent be F*@#ing DFA tonight. 

In three outings he has 2 innings, 6 hits, 7 ER's, 3 BB's 31.50 ERA, Whip 4,50, 2 HR's. His fastball is much slower than in previous years and still has zero movement. His slider is pathetic and not a major league secondary pitch.

Let me remind everyone he was bad last year as well In 2022 he had a 4.60 ERA, 1.42 Whip. Let's quit with this nonsense he will turn it around and he is just off to a bad start and it's only 5 games in. 

This once again, is all on Rick Hahn and his front office of scouts and executives who have no clue in how to identify pitching talent, then drafting or trading for it and then finally and most importantly, then coaching and developing it.

Only with a loser POS owner like JR, can an inept GM like Hahn still have a job.

[Bigsoxhurt35]

This team is going absolutely nowhere 

Edited April 3, 2023 by Bigsoxhurt35

[dohnut]

13 minutes ago, Highland said:

For a time now, I have wondered why people are still high on Kopech. He came up late in the 2018 season and has logged in a little over 200 innings.  He is definitely not finished yet, but, in my mind, he still has to prove himself. Every pitcher gets shelled from time to time, but I'm still waiting for him to stay healthy and learn to be a pitcher. 

I think he'll be a great reliever. Move him back to the pen - not sure we have super-great options for #5, though. 

[The Kids Can Play]

57 minutes ago, fathom said:

Yeah time to move on from Ruiz. This is just an amazing bullpen Rick put together.

Not only an amazing bullpen Rick put together, but one amazing con job of Rick pretending to be a good GM.

[The Kids Can Play]

15 minutes ago, Highland said:

For a time now, I have wondered why people are still high on Kopech. He came up late in the 2018 season and has logged in a little over 200 innings.  He is definitely not finished yet, but, in my mind, he still has to prove himself. Every pitcher gets shelled from time to time, but I'm still waiting for him to stay healthy and learn to be a pitcher. 

We all had big hope for Kopech. Let's not forget he was the second biggest piece to the 2016 rebuild in the first big trade involving Chris Sale. He is not anywhere close to that pitcher we thought we were getting. He has lost that upper 90's velocity that was suppose to be his strength. His secondary pitches are not strong either. Sadly for us, he might be nothing more than a future middle reliever. 

[joejoesox]

48 minutes ago, AJ'S Cousin said:

There are a few positives so far this year. Moncada, Anderson, Robert and Vaughn look very good so far. Grandal looks ok, Cease is Cease, Cy Young candidate I believe ever year going forward. Lynne looks ok. The bullpen totally sucks. Very worried about Kopech. Is he done as a starter? Starting rotation with the exception of this Kopech debacle. He should have been pulled whe it was 4-0. 

you won't see Grifol pulling starters early in games until either post-ASB, or if the Sox are slipping behind in the division by like 5-6+ games

he will let the starter get creamed bc the alternative is to pull him early and burn up the pen

I will say this, Sox have an off day tomorrow right? today should've been the exception to the rule. he should've had someone up in the 3rd inning just in case. if they had a game tomorrow, I'd understand leaving Kopech out there. but they have a freaking off day tomorrow. rookie manager gonna rookie. 

[Highland]

6 minutes ago, The Kids Can Play said:

We all had big hope for Kopech. Let's not forget he was the second biggest piece to the 2016 rebuild in the first big trade involving Chris Sale. He is not anywhere close to that pitcher we thought we were getting. He has lost that upper 90's velocity that was suppose to be his strength. His secondary pitches are not strong either. Sadly for us, he might be nothing more than a future middle reliever. 

The hype was too much, but there was little for us to cheer about in 2018. And the hype was not his fault. But, even when he came up, he shown a tendency for wildness. Hitters were glaring at him because his fast balls were coming too close to their heads. He wasn't throwing at anyone; his control wasn't there. And there were stories of his wildness in the minors. Hopefully he can find himself. The Sox can't afford to lose a starter. They can afford to lose Ruiz. What that pitcher is still on a major league roster is beyond me.

[The Kids Can Play]

47 minutes ago, AJ'S Cousin said:

There are a few positives so far this year. Moncada, Anderson, Robert and Vaughn look very good so far. Grandal looks ok, Cease is Cease, Cy Young candidate I believe ever year going forward. Lynne looks ok. The bullpen totally sucks. Very worried about Kopech. Is he done as a starter? Starting rotation with the exception of this Kopech debacle. He should have been pulled whe it was 4-0. 

If Kopech cant get his velocity back and his breaking pitches aren't better placed with more movement, then yes he might be done as a starter in the near future. It's one thing if Kopech's previous nasty stuff was there and he just got hit hard and had a bad game. His stuff wasn't there the entire outing and that is why he was hit hard today. Keep in mind this was a Giants team that got shutout in 2 of the 3 games in their prior Yankees series.

I do agree with you Kopech should have been pulled sooner. This is a concern with me about Grifol as a rookie manager and learning to properly use the bullpen.

[ChiSox59]

Cueto hurt 

[The Kids Can Play]

2 minutes ago, Highland said:

The hype was too much, but there was little for us to cheer about in 2018. And the hype was not his fault. But, even when he came up, he shown a tendency for wildness. Hitters were glaring at him because his fast balls were coming too close to their heads. He wasn't throwing at anyone; his control wasn't there. And there were stories of his wildness in the minors. Hopefully he can find himself. The Sox can't afford to lose a starter. They can afford to lose Ruiz. What that pitcher is still on a major league roster is beyond me.

Maybe the hype was too much, but that is what great winning organizations with great minor leagues do...and that is develop, coach, teach and harness that wildness from a Kopech type pitcher when they have so much upside potential. Does any ML team just find pitchers throwing upper 90's and they just automatically become stars in the big leagues? The fact certain teams like the Dodgers always find, develop and have great pitching is not by luck. On the flip side, the fact the Sox struggle every year finding great pitching is a huge organizational structural problem, as far as the coaches and scouts we have finding and developing our pitching talent.