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Sox Therapy — Where Thinking Red Sox Fans Obsess about the Sox Sunday, April 04, 2021I Declare That Not A Good StartSo I don’t think I’m out on a limb there with that title. Still, rather than try to dig into assorted cliches, justifications or excuses let’s just try to break it down a bit. Stuff That We Were Worried About That Went OK; JD Martinez - The Sox need the big DH to be an offensive star if they are going to do anything this year. The early returns after a fairly mellow spring are very good. 6 for 12, 3 RBI and the club’s only homer is definitely doing his part. Very good news indeed. The Bullpen - Maybe this needs to be somewhere else because I’m not sure if people were concerned about the bullpen or not. I think it was more an unknown than anything else. Having said that I think the performance this weekend was very encouraging. Hirokazu Sawamura in particular impressed but Matt Barnes, Austin Brice, Garrett Whitlock and Philips Valdez all threw well. Josh Taylor obviously was terrible on Sunday but otherwise the bullpen looked good. Matt Andriese had some struggles finding the zone on Friday though Lou Merloni fairly made the point that having missed the last week of Spring Training some rust was to be expected. His outing looks a lot different if Kike Hernandez plays that double play ball cleanly though. Some of the Starters (yeah I know) - The fact is that both Not That Nasty Nate and Tanner Houck pitched very well in their first starts. Had the defense backed them up a bit better their lines would have even looked better. If Eovaldi can be healthy I think he should be expected to be effective and Houck looked very promising as the depth starter he is being asked to be for now. Stuff That We Were Worried About That Went Not OK; The Defense - The most glaring weakness on this team was exposed in the worst possible ways. Not only was it a rough weekend it was a rough weekend at inopportune times. It’s one thing to make errors, it’s another to make them when you can end innings with runners on base in close games and that is what happened both Friday and Saturday. Strikeouts - Even those of us who feel the offense can be productive have to recognize the Sox are going to be prone to the strikeout. That is going to lend itself to the slump particularly when they pile up. Bobby Dalbec (0 for 10, 5Ks), Hunter Renfroe (0 for 7, 3Ks), Franchy Cordero (0 for 5, 3Ks) (h/t Jay) did not exactly hit the ground running. It’s like a lineup of Brian Daubachs, when they roll it’s going to be fun, when they don’t it’s not. Some of the Starters - Oh yeah, him. Garrett Richards did not come out firing on all cylinders which was not what the Sox needed after dropping the first two games of the series. It’s one start but he struggled in Fort Myers particularly with his control and the Sox can’t afford to be giving away too many starts. Stuff We Felt Good About That Went Not OK; Hitters Not Named JD Martinez - Mabye the biggest problem this weekend was the absence of offense. Xander Bogaerts, Kike Hernandez, Alex Verdugo and Rafael Devers combined for two hits. The Sox aren’t winning many games if those five guys contribute nothing offensively. The only remotely optimistic note is that Kike drew a couple of walks continuing an improvement he showed in March. So anyway, it’s one ugly weekend to be sure but it was only one weekend. It won’t get easier with Tampa coming to town. 159 to go. Jose Is An Absurd Balladeer
Posted: April 04, 2021 at 05:50 PM | 27 comment(s)
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1. Jay Seaver Posted: April 04, 2021 at 07:05 PM (#6011582)I opted to go to a movie this afternoon, but did he reach base on a passed ball or something? I mean, I'd believe it.
What really would frustrate me isn’t so much if they aren’t good as if they are dull again. If they go 71-91 but Dalbec hits 30 homers and Verdugo blossoms into a star and some pitcher has a big year I’m ok with that. It was the absence of being interesting last year that really grated.
I'm glad there are some fresh young faces in the lineup and pitching staff. That always brings hope.
Bring on the Rays!
Andriese is weird. He's not throwing enough strikes for me but he's been snakebit. Kike booted the double play ball against Baltimore that would have ended the inning then last night another inning ending DP blew up when the ball hit the bag. Still feeling good about the bullpen.
I'm liking the lack of good contact Sawamura is getting with both his splitter and his slider.
Speaking from experience, this is both feature and bug. Great movement, has no ####### clue where its going. It's all fun and games until he hits one of his wild patches and he's unplayable while he works it out, except in mop up.
MLB already "pushed the boundaries of uniform design." Nike's are almost as dumb and pointless.
Having RT(entire)FA now, egad, it's like a transcript of Marketing douches congratulating each other on how bold and brilliant and synergistic they all are.
El Flaco?!
I'm not an alternate uniform fan in general, especially for baseball, but I like these a lot. Just as a one off tie-in with the marathon, if they're a regular thing I won't be into that at all (although the fact that the marathon got moved this year makes it a little more complicated).
That said I 100% agree that the marketing language in the articles is the worst.
Is it too late to edit the thread title?
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