*OFFICIAL* 6/5/22 Winning Ugly in Tropicana SOX 6 TB 5 Postgamer

[Frater Perdurabo]

Good job by the bullpen. Just enough offense. Bad defense due to playing a first baseman in RF and a catcher at 1B.

[Harwar]

Play Burger & Mendick against the Dodgers . "never **** with a winning streak" ~ Crash Davis.

[ChiTownTrojan]

As soon as I saw the lineup, I was thinking they should have sat Yaz and put Engel in RF against the lefty (with Vaughn at 1B). The RF/1B defense ended up costing the team 4 runs and a whole bunch of nail biting.

Burger has really turned it on over the past week. Until Moncada gets on track, they should at the very least be splitting time evenly at 3B. The Sox need to play the hot bats.

[ChiTownTrojan]

I just found out that Vaughn’s middle name is Clayton. How is his nickname not “Dice”?

Andrew “Dice” Clayton Vaughn

[shingo10]

WIth a 6-0 lead and your "Ace" on the mound you've got to win the game. Not thrilled with the inability to win a blowout game but at least the pen was nails. That would have been a devastating loss. Whew. Now gotta start playing better at home. Yes it won't be easy but a good time to rough up some of these Dodger pitchers who don't have a loss yet this season.

[StanBahnsen72]

At least we have a few guys you can feel good about when they come to the plate- Mendick, Vaughn, Robert, Abreu, Burger. Grandal continues to play like a guy who father time is quickly taking down. Nice to see Graveman and Henidriks in lockdown mode.

After all this crap- we're only 3 out in the loss column- with Lynn and Eloy soon to return- so it looks like we have a little hope at this point.

[Frater Perdurabo]

The Sox are now finished with the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays for the 2022 regular season. They are 11-8 against those teams, which is a .579 winning percentage.

Now if we could just win more games against the AL Central.

[longtimefan]

An easy victory turned into a not-so-easy, heart-pounding win. Why? Tony had the wrong players in the wrong positions. But at least, he got the batting order right.

[voodoochile]

Great job by the bullpen made this a less tense game than it could have been. Bummer, Graverman and Hendriks just nailed it down, which was the plan when this season started. When Kelly comes back that's gonna be a tough back end if these guys can keep it up.

Team pounded out 16 hits and every starter other than Pollock had a hit and most of them had 2+. Vaughn is a ****ing machine. Man just born to hit. Nice to see signs of life from Robert and Abreu staying hot. McGuire even up to .220 now.

Real solid road series win.

[Domeshot17]

I like the top of the order there. Screw ego, run it back with Danny and Vaughn 1-2 next game, put Moncada 9 until he figures it out. Today was the first time in a while I felt like we had a lineup that was constructed to win.

[berwyn]

I just found out that Vaughn’s middle name is Clayton. How is his nickname not “Dice”?

Andrew “Dice” Clayton Vaughn

Because no one cares about a faded comic who wasn't funny to begin with?

[ChiTownTrojan]

Great job by the bullpen made this a less tense game than it could have been. Bummer, Graverman and Hendriks just nailed it down, which was the plan when this season started. When Kelly comes back that's gonna be a tough back end if these guys can keep it up.

Team pounded out 16 hits and every starter other than Pollock had a hit and most of them had 2+. Vaughn is a ****ing machine. Man just born to hit. Nice to see signs of life from Robert and Abreu staying hot. McGuire even up to .220 now.

Real solid road series win.

To play devil's advocate, they pounded on the LH starter, but then couldn't do much of anything against a string of RH relievers over the next 7 innings.

McGuire is hitting .289/.333/.356 over the past month (and it's been better than that in more recent samples). Obviously no power, but in this lineup that's an above average hitter. At least he isn't the complete black hole that he was early on (.376 OPS in April).

[ChiTownTrojan]

I like the top of the order there. Screw ego, run it back with Danny and Vaughn 1-2 next game, put Moncada 9 until he figures it out. Today was the first time in a while I felt like we had a lineup that was constructed to win.

I agree. Gotta go with the hot hand and have them batting towards the top of the lineup. Yesterday if you looked at the OPS+ of the guys in the lineup, it pretty much went from highest to lowest - not exactly, but there was a clear split between those above 100 and those below 100. It was very refreshing to see.

Guys like Moncada and Grandal who are struggling can bat in the bottom 4 until they get back on track. Yes the Sox are going to need them to eventually start to produce if they want to make anything of this season, but having them constantly come up in the middle of a rally only to have ugly at bats that kill the momentum is not a way to get them to bounce out of their slumps.

[Frater Perdurabo]

To play devil's advocate, they pounded on the LH starter, but then couldn't do much of anything against a string of RH relievers over the next 7 innings.

McGuire is hitting .289/.333/.356 over the past month (and it's been better than that in more recent samples). Obviously no power, but in this lineup that's an above average hitter. At least he isn't the complete black hole that he was early on (.376 OPS in April).

Grandal:
Grandal has said that his struggles are due to lack of strength in his legs. My admittedly rudimentary understanding of training is that strength is built by:

Step 1: Lifting/moving heavy weights to break down muscle fibers;

Step 2: Consuming protein, drinking water, and resting those muscles for 4-5 days so that the body can rebuild the muscle fibers to handle the resistance it previously encountered;

Step 3: Repeat Step 1 with increased weight;

Step 4: Protein, water, and rest; repeat…

Increasing the weight/resistance is what causes the body to build back more/larger muscle fibers, and the multi-day rest period is what gives the body time to build the more/larger muscle fibers.

If so - if Grandal needs to build strength in his legs - then he ought not be catching and he ought not be standing out in the field, either, because neither activity is going to allow his muscles the necessary time to strengthen between workouts.

McGuire:
McGuire is batting .270 against RHP, and .000 against LHP.

Coupled with his good defense and framing, McGuire presently is acceptable as a platoon catcher.

Roster suggestions re: catcher:
Put Grandal on the DL, and call up either Pérez or Zavala to be a straight platoon partner for McGuire. While Pérez has been impressive, Zavala might be the better bet right now given that he’s got a 1.217 OPS v. LHP in Charlotte.

After the All Star break, Grandal should have his leg strength back and be ready to contribute.


Other roster suggestions:
Send Sheets down to Charlotte to get his timing back, and bring up Haseley. Pollock has been OK against LHP but bad against RHP this year. He and Haseley can platoon in RF until Haseley cools off, and the RF defense would be significantly better.

When Eloy returns, he and Vaughn can share LF/DH, and Vaughn and Abreu can share 1B and DH. Engel would be the late inning defensive replacement/pinch runner.

Jake Burger’s emergence with the bat provides a window for Moncada to do a DL stint himself. It’s pretty clear he’s still not fully recovered from his oblique injury. His defense seems unaffected, but his swing remains problematic. I’ve been a clear Moncada supporter but if this team wants to have chance in the playoffs (if they can make the playoffs), a fully healthy Moncada is a must.

[Irishsox1]

Grandal is 33 years old. The only reason the Sox are sticking with him is his $18.25 million dollar contact which goes thru 2023. He's "hitting" .163 with 2 home runs and it's June....put him on the DL or bench him.
Moncada is a real problem because he has limited trade value if the Sox were to try to move him. Another guy that should probably play less but is probably telling the Sox he needs to play more to get his swing back. Play him less and he further diminishes his trade value, play him more and he turns it around...great but they could play him more and he could somehow be worse, thus hurting the Sox on the field now.

After this season, a lot of the older players and coach should be let go. Put up the yellow warning tape because it's probably rebuilding time.