9/30 SOX @ O's 7:05PM

[Old Red]

Lay it on me. You were right.

I was wrong.

Again.

If the Sox were the same team as earlier in the season I would agree with you, but they are far from it.

[moonslav59]

If the Sox were the same team as earlier in the season I would agree with you, but they are far from it.

I’m confused. I’m agreeing with you and you disagree with that.

[Old Red]

I’m confused. I’m agreeing with you and you disagree with that.

No. I’m just saying that the Sox are a different team now, and not as good.

[Swiharts Ghost]

Xander has been atrocious at the wrong time .The lineup is dismal at hitting middling Pitching the Defense is so bad it’s shocking they are even in this position .The 2021 Redsox are truly the most schizophrenic Redsox team I’ve ever witnessed .I will say this though without Sale this was the best team in all of MLB for awhile ??? It’s nuts to say it out loud but true .With Sale and Kyle as additions ? Instead of putting the hammer down they literally turned into a pumpkin before our very eyes .I am not sad about the team because we do have talent on the way via FA and minors .Seattle ,Toronto ,NY and Boston have made for an entertaining summer for sure .Call me crazy but I’m AL east all in this year and the team I hate ???? I loathe Mookie Betts and The Dodgers .I want the Dodgers beaten soundly .The Yankees have a rough road and let’s face it Tampa and Houston although good teams do not have the explosion of Toronto or NY .i will enjoy the playoffs this year regardless.Boston Redsox will have to win the next 4 games to begin some magic .Boston will likely win two of three then Toronto sweeping the orioles and Seattle sweeping the Angels .The wildcard for Boston could come down to two outs in the 9th .Guys pretend like you don’t care but we do and this weekend is go time literally....I would love to wake up Monday with Mac Jones and the patriots with a pure shocker and our Redsox securing a Wild card spot .Lets Fucking Do this !!!!!!!

[mvp 78]

This team sucks.

[jung]

If the Sox were the same team as earlier in the season I would agree with you, but they are far from it.

This is not unusual especially for the Red Sox. They rip through the league like murder's row in the first half. Then the entire league has a book on them and they fall apart in the second half. Is their approach to AB's any different the second half than it was the first....NOPE....not from where I sit. Have pitchers been taking advantage of that in the second half....YUp.

Don't just look at X man. Look at all of the Sox bats from the first half and look at the second half numbers. A couple have done reasonably well but in the main, the numbers are not even close.

[moonslav59]

This is not unusual especially for the Red Sox. They rip through the league like murder's row in the first half. Then the entire league has a book on them and they fall apart in the second half. Is their approach to AB's any different the second half than it was the first....NOPE....not from where I sit. Have pitchers been taking advantage of that in the second half....YUp.

Don't just look at X man. Look at all of the Sox bats from the first half and look at the second half numbers. A couple have done reasonably well but in the main, the numbers are not even close.

Are you talking about the 70’s Red Sox?

BTW, first half OPS .761/ second half .799.

We ran out of the comeback mojo.

3run jobs in the first half/ solo blasts in the second.

The piss poor defense caught up to us. The rag tag pen that had somehow held us together for 4 months, gave it up more often than we could handle.

The Houck-Sale replacing Perez-Richards wasn’t enough.

Schwarber, Iggy, Shaw & Robles gave us enough to make up the difference, but the other gave it back and more.

We did get some answers to important preseason questions, and not all were what we hoped for, but I do think we filled a few holes and watched our farm improve. I’m feeling better about 2022 than I did last September or the start of this season. That is little solace, right now.

To watch the promise and dream this season gave us for so long go down the drain against a team like the O’s brings us full circle to the first series of the year. We were tied with everyone before that April series, and now we’re tied for the last slot with 3 to go.

How fitting.

We went on a long winning streak after that sweep, but I think the magic is all used up.

Maybe what I thought was grit was just a mirage- just a tease.

I know it’s not over, but now we let the Ms into the party with the Jays knocking on the door.

It’s hard to find optimism, right now. Probably tomorrow I’ll have a different outlook, but this is the pits.

[jung]

Are you talking about the 70’s Red Sox?

BTW, first half OPS .761/ second half .799.

We ran out of the comeback mojo.

3run jobs in the first half/ solo blasts in the second.

The piss poor defense caught up to us. The rag tag pen that had somehow held us together for 4 months, gave it up more often than we could handle.

The Houck-Sale replacing Perez-Richards wasn’t enough.

Schwarber, Iggy, Shaw & Robles gave us enough to make up the difference, but the other gave it back and more.

We did get some answers to important preseason questions, and not all were what we hoped for, but I do think we filled a few holes and watched our farm improve. I’m feeling better about 2022 than I did last September or the start of this season. That is little solace, right now.

To watch the promise and dream this season gave us for so long go down the drain against a team like the O’s brings us full circle to the first series of the year. We were tied with everyone before that April series, and now we’re tied for the last slot with 3 to go.

How fitting.

We went on a long winning streak after that sweep, but I think the magic is all used up.

Maybe what I thought was grit was just a mirage- just a tease.

I know it’s not over, but now we let the Ms into the party with the Jays knocking on the door.

It’s hard to find optimism, right now. Probably tomorrow I’ll have a different outlook, but this is the pits.

You can't just take the OPS first half v second. Who gets the AB's and what is their OPS, first half v second.

Player 1st H OPS, 2nd H OPS, 1st H AB's, 2nd H AB's
X .930 .749 321 199
Rafi .917 .829 330 246
JD .926 .791 324 238
Kike .747 .826 279 217 X
Renfroe .780 .884 281 227 X
Dalbac .673 .953 243 170
Arroyo .762 .846 143 15

The big 3 of X, Rafi, JD fell off significantly. Kike and Renfroe improved and got AB's. However they were not enough to make up for the collapse of X, Rafi and JD. Dalbac improved mightily but did not get enough AB's and neither did Arroyo. I did not include VAZ as his OPS remained the same 1st Half v 2nd Half.and

Plus if there is one tactic that crosses over all pro team sports its control the big guns of your opponent and let the rest do whatever. Control the players that win games for your opponent and you stand a very good chance of beating them. That would be X, Rafi and JD for us.

In retrospect, Bloom might have been better off not bringing in Schwarber and Cora might have been better off moving Dalbac up in the batting order to get him more AB's once he started clicking. That might have been just enough to pull them up into a solid 2nd WC from nowheres-ville.

The pitching has been for shit all year long and that was going to be their Achilles heel from the start. They had to hit enough to make up for middling pithing at best. They had a rotation of 5 inning wonders that got worse as the year wore on and a patchwork, inconsistent bullpen.

[moonslav59]

You can't just take the OPS first half v second. Who gets the AB's and what is their OPS, first half v second.

Player 1st H OPS, 2nd H OPS, 1st H AB's, 2nd H AB's
X .930 .749 321 199
Rafi .917 .829 330 246
JD .926 .791 324 238
Kike .747 .826 279 217 X
Renfroe .780 .884 281 227 X
Dalbac .673 .953 243 170
Arroyo .762 .846 143 15

The big 3 of X, Rafi, JD fell off significantly. Kike and Renfroe improved and got AB's. However they were not enough to make up for the collapse of X, Rafi and JD. Dalbac improved mightily but did not get enough AB's and neither did Arroyo. I did not include VAZ as his OPS remained the same 1st Half v 2nd Half.and

Plus if there is one tactic that crosses over all pro team sports its control the big guns of your opponent and let the rest do whatever. Control the players that win games for your opponent and you stand a very good chance of beating them. That would be X, Rafi and JD for us.

In retrospect, Bloom might have been better off not bringing in Schwarber and Cora might have been better off moving Dalbac up in the batting order to get him more AB's once he started clicking. That might have been just enough to pull them up into a solid 2nd WC from nowheres-ville.

The pitching has been for shit all year long and that was going to be their Achilles heel from the start. They had to hit enough to make up for middling pithing at best. They had a rotation of 5 inning wonders that got worse as the year wore on and a patchwork, inconsistent bullpen.

1. How was this season “as usual?” You never answer Ed that.
2. Yes, Perez and Richards dropped off severely, but there was always the plan that Sale would replace one, and Houck’s limited innings might be bunched as a later season starter.
ERod did way better second half.
Eovaldi and Pivetta remained pretty steady.
Sale and Houck did not go deep into games but were an improvement over the first half starters they replaced.
3. The pen got worse- way worse. They carried the team for almost 4 months, but they broke down badly. I’m not sure it was overuse due to the lack of starter innings as the season wore on. We carried 13-14 pitchers almost all year, and shuffled minor leaguers in frequently.
4. Our defense was bad from start to finish, but it seemed like their mistakes hurt more in the second half.
5. We stopped hitting 3 run homers and more solo blasts.
6. We kept getting men on base, but we declined in big hits and increased DPs.

One can easily view the first part of the season as a mirage, or a long period where everything went right, but we regressed to the norm or lost our mojo, but I still think this was a seriously flawed but good team deserving an excellent shot at making the playoffs.

We improved in many areas and learned where we still need progress. We have a lot of players coming off the books and options on others. Our farm looks stronger and deeper than it has in years. While much of the farm is too far away to help in ‘22, it still is a reason to think we are moving in the right direction. Two of our best pitchers, this year, Houck and Whitlock, were in the minors before this season. When was the last time we said that?

There are still 3 games left, and we’re tied. That should be viewed as a good thing, except for the fact that the last week has been a catastrophe. It seems like a month ago, we won 7 straight, but that was just last week!

We thought the easier ending schedule could give an edge Maybe we didn’t deserve, and maybe the Nats will roll over for us, but now we have to hope other teams lose, too, and that sucks.

I still like our chances. There are reasons why the Jays and Ms aren’t ahead of us, already. They have flaws, too- as do the Yanks.

I’m still gonna watch every pitch of every game and feel confident we can win, but this past week has been brutal on all of us Sox fans.

Keep the faith. Brighter days ahead!

[jung]

1. How was this season “as usual?” You never answer Ed that.
2. Yes, Perez and Richards dropped off severely, but there was always the plan that Sale would replace one, and Houck’s limited innings might be bunched as a later season starter.
ERod did way better second half.
Eovaldi and Pivetta remained pretty steady.
Sale and Houck did not go deep into games but were an improvement over the first half starters they replaced.
3. The pen got worse- way worse. They carried the team for almost 4 months, but they broke down badly. I’m not sure it was overuse due to the lack of starter innings as the season wore on. We carried 13-14 pitchers almost all year, and shuffled minor leaguers in frequently.
4. Our defense was bad from start to finish, but it seemed like their mistakes hurt more in the second half.
5. We stopped hitting 3 run homers and more solo blasts.
6. We kept getting men on base, but we declined in big hits and increased DPs.

One can easily view the first part of the season as a mirage, or a long period where everything went right, but we regressed to the norm or lost our mojo, but I still think this was a seriously flawed but good team deserving an excellent shot at making the playoffs.

We improved in many areas and learned where we still need progress. We have a lot of players coming off the books and options on others. Our farm looks stronger and deeper than it has in years. While much of the farm is too far away to help in ‘22, it still is a reason to think we are moving in the right direction. Two of our best pitchers, this year, Houck and Whitlock, were in the minors before this season. When was the last time we said that?

There are still 3 games left, and we’re tied. That should be viewed as a good thing, except for the fact that the last week has been a catastrophe. It seems like a month ago, we won 7 straight, but that was just last week!

We thought the easier ending schedule could give an edge Maybe we didn’t deserve, and maybe the Nats will roll over for us, but now we have to hope other teams lose, too, and that sucks.

I still like our chances. There are reasons why the Jays and Ms aren’t ahead of us, already. They have flaws, too- as do the Yanks.

I’m still gonna watch every pitch of every game and feel confident we can win, but this past week has been brutal on all of us Sox fans.

Keep the faith. Brighter days ahead!

The main cogs in the Sox hitting wheel's inability to adapt is not encouraging. Either they have to change those main cogs, particularly JD and maybe even X as he appears to be aging none to gracefully or they have to change the manager who seems to simply not care or they have to change the entire system that generates this attitude of not caring about fielding and not caring about plate discipline because they appear not to have realized that they were being analyzed and taken apart while they are being analyzed and taken apart.

Fielding has been hideous all year and bringing in a guy to play 1st base that was not a 1st baseman is also less than encouraging. The Sox have gotten slap happy about just moving bodies around the infield and outfield and it shows. As for their big bats, clearly they had been analyzed and taken down a notch 1st half to 2nd half and had no answer. Their hitting suffered during HITTING SEASON! The answer was to adapt which they did not do, obviously. You can't change out the 3 guys you most depend upon for offense to win games in the middle of the current season. But "Oh well, nothing we can do about it" was not the right answer.

They might back in to a WC at this point. But there is not much here to consider championship calibre at the moment, not AL championship or any other championship.

[mvp 78]

Xander isn't aging gracefully? WTF are you talking about?

fWAR
2015 4.6
2016 4.9
2017 3.2
2018 4.9
2019 6.8
2020 5.1 (prorated)
2021 5.0

Where's the drop off? I don't see one.