While Garrett Crochet has been a popular trade candidate heading into the deadline, the Red Sox are one team that doesn’t appear to be in the mix for the White Sox left-hander. In a recent edition of the Fenway Rundown podcast, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo said that Boston has “not talked about Crochet at all….That is, at this point, not something they’ve aggressively tried to do.” Since the Red Sox are loath to move any of their top three prospects (Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, Kyle Teel) in trades, it seems hard to imagine that Chicago would accept a offer from Boston that didn’t include at least one of those three minor league stars.
The Yankees may also be limited participants in the Crochet sweepstakes, as Jon Heyman of the New York Post hears from a source who says the Bombers “are not that into” Crochet as a trade target. Since Heyman also wrote a couple of weeks ago that the Yankees “very much like Crochet,” this could indicate a change in New York’s plans, or perhaps the Yankees’ interest has been tempered by Chicago’s asking price. The White Sox are understandably asking for a huge return for Crochet in any trade, and Chicago’s particular interest in Spencer Jones as part of a Crochet trade package may have clashed with New York’s inclination to keep one of its top hitting prospects.
More from around the AL East….
- Drew Rasmussen is set to begin a minor league rehab assignment on Sunday, which marks the Rays right-hander’s first game action since May 11, 2023. Rasmussen underwent an internal brace surgery almost exactly a year ago, and if all goes well in his rehab work, should be on track to join Tampa Bay’s rotation at some point in August once he is fully ramped up. Acquired from the Brewers as part of the Willy Adames trade in May 2021, Rasmussen has a 2.70 ERA over 249 2/3 innings in a Rays uniform, and had seemingly cemented himself as part of Tampa’s rotation before the brace surgery put his career on hold. While it may be a lot to ask for Rasmussen to immediately return to his old form after such a long layoff, his arrival should be a nice boost for the Rays as the team hopes to get back into the playoff race.
- Forearm tightness forced Blue Jays prospect Ricky Tiedemann out of a Triple-A game on July 10, and TSN’s Scott Mitchell (X link) reports that Tiedemann isn’t suffering from any structural damage. Jays manager John Schneider told reporters yesterday that Tiedemann is getting a second opinion on his injury, though Mitchell writes that Tiedemann has “had multiple opinions already. If he’s having another and something turns up, it’ll be a surprise to a whole lot of people.” Since Tiedemann looks set to return to action at some point this season, it counts as good news for the 21-year-old southpaw, whose three-year pro career has been limited to 140 innings due to a variety of injuries. Tiedemann remains a highly-touted prospect, but his health woes and some increased control problems are concerns as he approaches his 22nd birthday.
Are the medical professionals giving Ricky a clean bill of health the same ones who thought Bo was good to go?
He ‘s made of glass………..” Ross can do better’…….
If Ricky stays healthy through the end of the season I wonder if he could get called up in September
Save him for 2025. His innings are so limited he’d be better off getting 30-40 in AAA
So now we are talking about teams that have no interest in trading for certain players? LOL!!
Can’t wait for the article about the Red Sox not having interest in signing Soto this offseason ;O)
Unlike Queen Victoria, you are easily amused, and hyperbolic.
lester – You would need to follow baseball, specifically the Red Sox, to understand.
no what you said was just as he described it. hyperbolic.
____________ remains a highly-touted prospect, but his health woes and some increased control problems are concerns.
At least 100 names could probably fill in that blank. Sad.
W ho paid you more to write that great story the Yankees or the RedSox?
Trade rumors you linked the wrong spencer jones, the one you have does not play for the yankees
Hopefully Breslow does something and gets this team some help however, I do have my doubts that he does anything at all.
Al – I do think they may trade for a starting pitcher who is NOT a rental, because next year they will be without Pivetta and I can’t think of any scenario where Whitlock returns to the rotation. But they won’t give up a premium prospect or two for a top starting pitcher.
And no matter how well the Sox manage to play the rest of the season, there’s always Cora lurking with his awful managing.
Did you watch tonight’s game? The Fox announcers kept going on and on how Cora’s decision to intentionally walk Smith last night in favor of facing Freeman was a huge mistake … which of course it was.
And what about tonight when Cora left in Winck who was clearly struggling bigtime, even though Jansen was ready to enter the game. That doubleplay on an excuse-me swing was a gift from God, and yet Cora STILL managed to lose the game by leaving in Weissert who was struggling badly just like most of his recent games. Horn has been tremendous this month and hadn’t pitched since July 5, so why on Earth didn’t Cora bring him in??? Dumb, dumb, DUMB!!
BTW – Anybody who thinks Devers is the worst 3B should watch Taylor, he is twice as worse as Devers.
The White Sox would probably want 2 of the big 3 from the Red Sox for Crochet– among Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony and Kyle Teel. Or 1 and both of Miguel Blais and Yoeilin Cespedes. No doubt they want a major prospect haul and likely other controllable current major leaguers for a guy with Crochet’s talent and two more more full years of control.
They can forget about that.
DickDollars: It seems like Mayer was drafted ten years ago. Is he still not ready for the bigs?
I’ll take the bait, He was drafted 3 years ago and is hitting .300 in AA, on pace for 45 doubles, 25 steals and 15 HR. No he’s not ready for the bigs but that’s fine
Also, Mayer was injured most of last year, missing a lot of development time.
Even one of Mayer, Anthony, Teel is an overpay for Crochet.
Chicago would be best to trade him while his value is so high, but he already had TJ, and was primarily a reliever prior. He’s a risky investment.
If theyre going to trade from the big 3 prospects, go after Skubal.
The return for Crochet should be similar Cease, I would honestly think it should be less but teams might overpay.
The Tigers aren’t trading Skubal.
Agreed. Not comparing the pitchers but Whitlock is proof as to why you don’t give up your prized minor league talent for a young pitcher who already had TJS regardless of the season they’re having.
Dewey: Since practically every P has undergone TJS, I doubt that’s too much of a deterrent.
Many have had the procedure but certainly not practically everyone. The problem is when they come back, you don’t know how much they can throw each year as they rebuild their arm. It seems everyone is different. Crochet? Too much risk for anyone but the Phillies who barring injuries, their so deep already that they can manage his innings. They’re a team ready to win in 24. With Boston, it’s still a wild card and prayers situation.
Crochet was primarily a reliever due to not having much experience in the minors (since he pretty much was in the bigs since he was drafted) and had TJS so he is likely good for a while, not sure why people keep trying to depreciate his value over ‘nothing-burgers’. He was always destined by the White Sox to be a starter and lo and behold he is. That said, the Sox would be stupid to trade him but that would be on par with the way the org has been mismanaged since ‘The Chairman’ has been the owner.
This is the same nonsense the Tigers tried to pull with Boyd. Sure, extra years are nice but Crochet is not some top of the rotation arm for a playoff team. The Tigers front office and all their unrealistic fans who would comment here asking for crazy packages hopefully look back and regret they got greedy and simply didn’t trade him for a decent package.
It might be too early for that assessment. At this point, this could all be posturing to get the best price.
Black Ace57: As someone who has seen all of Crochet’s starts, he IS a top of the rotation arm. He’ll definitely be traded in spite of having a few more years of control. So does Burger who Getz traded last year despite having hit over 30 homers at the time. That shatters one of Getz many lies, this one about getting rid of players who have no more years of control beyond this season.
but but but, the Sox ‘made an offer’ which Crochet turned down (never mind it was probably an insanely low ‘Chairman’ type of deal). The Sox would be dumb to trade Crochet, but that ..again.. would be on par with this org.
It wasn’t Getz who traded Burger last year, it was the old regime of Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams.
Hahn and Williams who were the architect of the 2017 rebuild which was successful until you-know-whowho hired you-know-who – and were gone before last season, when Burger was traded.
Getz was Hahn and Williams’ Protege… Im not impressed with him yet. Unfortunately it will take time to see if he is making good moves, but considering how this team was build this past season.. not very impress, rebuild or not, that and Grifol still being around… Fail to show accountability and you have a bunch a apathy in the locker room. with players believing ‘if the coach sucks, so can I’.
News flash.. It would take a proven ace, with multi year club control to get 2 of those 3 mlb top prospectes and not a guy fast approaching his innings limit with just 1 season afterwards left.
Put it another way. 2 of those would be asking for more than Boston 8y ago gave the chisox for proven ace Chris sale who still had 2y left on his deal.
Why some can’t be real and keep the bias to themselves here is bewildering.
Moncada and Kopech were supposedly can’t miss. Sox kept the true can’t miss prospect in Devers. While there are no guarantees, did the Sox correctly analyze their prospects or get lucky? To me, Kopech was always part of the deal and Boston’s refusal to include Devers over Moncada was a smart analysis considering how much Moncada cost the team.
Dewey – Sorry but that’s not accurate. Primary two players was always Kopech and either Benni or Moncada. ChiSox wanted Devers on top of the main two players, Dombrowski instead talked them into accepting two other prospects.
It was never between Moncada and Devers.
I think the Pirates should put on their big boy pants and make a deal for Crochet. A thee with Skenes, Crochet, and Keller would be tough for any team to beat in a series.
Staying in the NLC, Milwaukee has the prospect capital and the need at starter but I think he ultimately winds up in Baltimore if the Os finally relinquish some of their future talent to help the current club.
I don’t think there’s any way the Os give up one of their top 3 prospects as they’re all top 15 in the game. But they can put together very attractive packages for any player built around Kjerstad/norby/bradfield/beavers/etc. If they’re in on him they’ll likely get him even without holiday/mayo/basallo.
Unless Boston goes one of their top 30 prospects in the game.
One of their big 3. If Boston was willing to trade Mayer the Orioles would have to get serious to land Crochet. I don’t think Breslow but if he did offer Mayer it would tough to beat a Mayer led offer.
No F’n way Mayer who is healthy now is being dealt. Next year he’s likely the starting shortstop with Story if he’s healthy playing second. Hamilton is the surprise who could stick as well or be used in a trade. That speed is in demand and he could be a huge trade piece of Story returns to the player they thought they were getting (big if). I also believe in Yorke. Not sure what they say in Grissom. Hopefully it starts to show.
Slider: Other than the Phillies, I can’t think of another team that doesn’t need a SP.
True, but many in need can get away or add a pure rental.. the Pireates would set their staff up nicely for a few years.
The White Sox are going to miss out on obtaining several good prospects from the Yankees by continuing to insist on Spencer Jones. I am glad the Yankees didn’t give on Cease, and are even less willing to give him up for Crochet. Spencer Jones is the truth. The White Sox can trade with the Padres.
And that’s exactly why the Yankees won’t win jack in the playoffs if they even make it. Those prospects aren’t doing nothing for you this year. And you’ll lose Soto in the offseason bcuz they’re to cheap to pay him.
The Yankees aren’t cheap, but that is a funny comment from a fan whose team is preparing a fire sale. Soto will be a Yankee, don’t worry about that. I think that it is funny that the Sox would only accept Spencer Jones in a trade with the Yankees for Cease, but then traded him to the Padres for a different former Yankees prospect. I’m sure Juan Soto is looking forward to a lineup that includes Judge, Soto, and Spencer Jones for the next ten years. The White Sox are looking forward to ten more years of being trade deadline sellers.
Spencer Jones got a long way to go
Sure thing bud. Just remember the Yankees have the same number of rings as the Sox have over the last 20 plus years… One
The difference is the 30 years in a row of playing winning baseball, I suppose. Bud.
The White Sox will be in last place this year and next year and the year after…..
larkraxm: Who would be left for the Sox to sell after they trade away Crochet, Robert, Pham and Fedde? Getz doesn’t know how to rebuild. What he’s doing is digging the Sox into a deep hole. Even if he does get some top prospects it won’t help. The Sox don’t have the coaches to develop talent. As Swanson has shown on the other side of town: Chicago. Where good careers come to die.
But the Sox have 4….oh wait, never mind, I’ll stay out of this
Getz doesn’t know how to rebuild.
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I’m curious what you base that on. Hasn’t he been on the job only a few months?
This year, yes as predicted and probably next year too. 2026 could be an interesting year for the Wsox.
Are you one of the same White Sox fans who screamed that Quintana was a top #2 at worst arm or Cease was a real difference maker and that the Yankees were crazy for not trading much of their minor league system for either…..yeh, you were……keep him…the Yankees aren’t that stupid to trade and guess what…..Soto in The Bronx is a real possibility……good luck losing!
Dominguez and Hampton are the only intriguing ones for Crochet. Young cheap starters are the most valuable trade commodity. WSox got Thorpe essentially via NY-was only a Padre on paper for a short time.
LAD, Balt or staying put is the most likely result.
Crochet does not have a track record of pitching a lot of innings in a season. This year he is finally over 100 innings for the first time in his career. I doubt I would trade a huge haul for someone without proven durability.
This is a long-term play/buy if properly assessed. Crochet has that “it” factor of nasty and confident. WSox did next team a solid easing him last year after TJS. Someone can tack 2yrs on top of his 2 for an ace in age 26-29 seasons for security prior to FA.
SPs with ton of miles on arm get crazy money.
The “it factor” only matters with a proven track record which this guy doesn’t have…..starter/reliever…gee we really don’;t know…..pitch count…..coming back off of injury…..sorry you WS fans make us laugh…… the Yankees pass.
Not to mention Crochet is better than any starter the Yankees have minus Cole.
…the Yankees pass.” God, I hope so. I hope Crochet goes to a team I can stomach to watch.
I hope it’s not the Dodgers. Their best prospect is Rushing and he’s not significantly better than Quero. Du Paula is interesting, but not good enough to headline for Crochet. They have nobody else in the top 100 of some lists. It’d be either quantity over quality or a very small upgrade at C when the team has gaping holes all over.
Doubt it will be Baltimore. Their offer will be something like Povich and their #30 prospect (“who’d be #1 on literally any other team in history!” -O’s fans).
My guess is Padres. Pirates would be a lot of fun, though.
The Yankees are not trading Dominguez for Crochet! That is hilarious. He has about three months of MLB success as a starter and is already on a pitch count. I don’t think that is the kind of player that you need for a stretch run.
lark: He’s leading baseball in Ks. He’s a lefty. He’s young and controllable. Last year was his pitch count season. He’s over 100 innings already. If he wasn’t playing on an A league team who could score some runs and field the ball, he’d have a much better record. Dominguez is as good as he’s going to get while Crochet is only getting better. I just hope he goes to a PO contender. Anyone other than the nyy.
Overhaul: Crochet isn’t staying put. Whether it’s this month or the off-season, Crochet is as good as gone.
Spencer Jones is the truth.
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What about his K-rate? He’s headed towards 250 Ks in 600 ABs this year.
Then I’m sure the White Sox don’t want him included in the trade anymore. I didn’t say he was ready. Plus, it’s what he does in the other 350 ABs that has the Yankees and White Sox excited about his potential. And also, K-rate of a young hitter is not concerning. Learning plate discipline is what the minor leagues are for.
And exactly who worries about “k” rates in todays MLB….every player is striking out at alarming rates, the BA’s are in the low .250’s and pitchers K rates are up due to all of the above…..the kid could strike out 200 times and if he hits 35 HR’s would be hailed as an allstar…..
rocky: Power hitters usually have a BA in the .250 range because they’re free swingers. High K rate, high HR and RBI numbers.
Hey Joe
One might overlook an alarming K rate. But his .238/717 slash with 10 HR’s vs AA in 342 PA’s doesn’t exactly compensate for his at bats when he doesn’t strike out. Or instill confidence for a trade partner that he is worthy of headliner for a blockbuster trade.
Spencer Jones is 23 and he’s struggling in AA he’s striking out almost 40% of the time that’s Bobby Dalbec level of swing and miss. I get that the Yankees struck gold with Aaron Judge but he never had the crazy swing and miss that Spencer Jones has. It’s not unusual for big guys like that never hit enough Judge is unusual.
I’m sure you have a better read then the White Sox scouts that keep insisting that he be included in a trade with the Yankees, and also the Yankees scouts that refuse to include him. You are smart.
How many other over hyped wankee prospects have there been that the scouts thought were superstars?
Well…there are approximately 5,500 minor league players that are somewhere between properly hyped and overhyped. I started this by saying the White Sox are overhyping Spencer Jones by not taking a haul of prospects not named Spencer Jones from the Yankees. All prospects, including the Yankees prospects, are evaluated independently by outside evaluators that rank system prospects and entire systems. The Yankees don’t have a hype man out selling their prospects to other clubs. They all have their own scouts.
I’ve only read “insiders” like Nightengale re the WS insisting Jones be part of the deal. For me. Insider chat comes off as Charlie Brown’s teacher. I haven’t researched or read a direct quote from a WS scout. But I would think if a WS employee scout spoke to the press similarly… he’d get fired, no?
The Yankees farm isn’t good enough (unless you’re a Yankees fan) to acquire the big names without Jones or the Martian involved. The white Sox aren’t going to be missing anything the Yankees had to offer. He’ll probably just end up an oriole for Kjerstad (a much much better prospect than Jones anyway) or some form of Norby/beavers + package the Yankees can’t compete with. The Yankees farm is just not good.
Well… I appreciate your take, but independent analysts, such as Keith Law, rank the Yankees farm system as 7th best in MLB. Fangraphs lists them as 6th best. danumd87 2 has a hot take that puts Fangraphs to shame. You know, who sucks though? The White Sox. Their record ranks them 30th in MLB.
lark: Sports writers are hardly qualified to be “independent evaluators.” Scouts are. I’ve talked to quite a few scouts at games. If they see a player they like,they tell a higher ranking scout who sees the player play himself. Most of the time the first opinion is wrong and the team passes.
I don’t understand the White Sox hard on for Spencer Jones. Spencer Jones sucks, dude is a bust.
Crochet is pretty much innings shot for this year after his TJ. Can’t really expect any help this year I’d think…
How much more can Crochet pitch this year? To me a young hungry team that is on the bubble makes more sense to trade for him.
Texas: Crochet hasn’t missed a start so far. You’re confusing what you perceive is going to happen to what is actually happening.
The Orioles are likely offering a package that doesn’t include Mayo, Basallo, Holliday, Cowser or Kjerstad. Beavers and Fabian have comparable MILB records to Jones. If Jones were in the Os system he’d be in the range of no. 6 to 10. So they will offer a package at least as good as Chisox ask of the Yankees. I don’t believe that Jones was the end of the Chisox ask.
That being said, I think Crochet stays with Chicago. There’s no reason to trade him for anything that isn’t an overpay.
the yankees’ deadline priority should be upgrading the offense
Agreed. Having no production from 3rd base and LF is a problem.
It’s like Severino said, they only have two bats right now.
Why does Roman Anthony, in his photo, look like an old British comedian?
Some said the Sox wouldn’t get a haul for Cease. They did great. However, Crochet is even better, cheaper and comes with 1 more year of control.
The haul will be huge from some team, no doubt.
Roob – Who do you think is that desperate to give up a haul?
Check Crochet’s numbers. He pitched in college where he gave up more hits than innings pitched and walked 3.0 or more batters per 9.
He graduates in 2020 throws 6 innings of shutout ball and Ks 8.
In 2021 he’s a reliever and appears in 54 games gives up 42 hits and 27 walks so his ERA is 2.82 and his WHIP is 1.27.
In 2022 he’s hurt and does not pitch. In 2023 CWS uses him as a reliever who throws 12.2 Innings. So 12.2 IP since 2021 when he was reliever. So in college he pitched 65 innings his sophomore year and that’s his peak number of innings until 2024. He is at 107 innings and has done well but are teams willing to pay for his next 43 innings assuming he can make it to 150? Crochet’s value lies in his 2 arb years in 2025 and 2026.
He’s risky since this is his first good year starting since his sophomore year in college but hopefully he has no more surgeries before his control years are up and he’s worth extending after we see two years of excellent pitching.
I am not a Mayer fan so I would lead with the big name little talent guy and then throw in Yorke and Abreu since Abreu has big league experience and we have a lot of outfielders and at least 3 should be better than him by 2025.
Even with Mayer rolling with an .860 OPS you’re going to keep pretending he’s a bad player. Gotta love a guy who can’t admit when he’s wrong.
Troll is definitely the right name.
Teddyballgame – I guess your name is ironic. hahaha
Trollfree is the name not Troll. Your insult is an act of being a troll. Me not liking an under performing Mayer is NOT an action of being a troll, it’s simply someone who disagrees with you. An educated person would know that!!! hahaha
Do you actually believe that how Mayer is doing in AA at age 21 is validation he is a good player? Also, If you learn to read I said I wasn’t a fan of his and I have documented what a huge disappointment he is as the 4th pick in the draft in 2021. I did not say he is a bad player I said he is a pretender. He’s all hype and no substance so far and a short hot streak in AA hardly proves otherwise.
Change your name because you are a disgrace to the real Teddy because you have no understanding of the game.
it’s obvious you’re not mayer fan because you bury him every chance you get for ridiculous reasons that are always wrong.
Toll free is the best she knows beisbol
Trollfree: In case you haven’t noticed, Crochet is no longer in college. He’s a rare breed, succeeding in the worst organization in baseball. And you might want to check his numbers this season, four years after he graduated from Tennessee.
avenger65 – I did check this year’s numbers. Did you actually read what I wrote or did you go off on something you disagreed with and forgot to read the rest?
I said he is risky. Why? Because he has no track record other than his current hot streak. Sample size is very important when trading farm system players for a guy who is pitching well at the moment. Three big risks with Crochet are:
1 – In 2024 we have no idea how long he can be as effective as he has been because he’s never pitched this many innings.
2 – This years stats don’t compare to any other year’s stats dating back to his freshman year in college so is this a career year of his new norm?
3 – Will a change in scenery create a change in performance? If not, then he is good for at least 2024. If he can repeat his current 2024 performance (despite it being a small sample) then he is worth the players I mentioned and more.
I don’t dislike Crochet, I simply think he presents a lot more risk than others in the short term but may be a guy worth getting in the long term.
TF – What do you think of Cora’s pitcher management the past couple games? He’s right back to making horrific decisions that prove to be costly.
Not good timing with the tough schedule ahead. Did you know after Wednesday they play 28 straight games against the Yankees, Rangers, Mariners, Royals, Astros, Orioles and DBacks …. all teams that are still battling for the postseason. The 28-game stretch will make or break the Red Sox season.
Fever – Spot on.
20 series left and only the COL in COL, CWS in BOS and the 8 games vs TOR (5 at home) appear to be easy.
The rest of the schedule is tough but they have surprised many of the remaining teams.but that usually doesn’t happen after August 1.
Cora makes the difference in many losses. He has since April 2018 and nothing that happened in the LAD series is different from his bad choices in the past. What will tomorrow’s mistake be?
Today was an example of the clutch players on the team. 3 guys got 2 hits. O’Neill, Duran and Rafaela. Devers had an 0 for 4 with a walk. Rafaela is hovering right now at .250. As they start playing better teams it will be fun to see where the averages move, up or down?
Wong is down to .304 and since he’s hit .235 or below in 153 of his 230 MLB games, I think reality might be setting in.
Westbrook, Gonzales, D Smith and Hamilton are also over due for a bad fall off. Refsnyder not so much. Yoshida is 29 points behind last year’s average after 50 games compared to his 140 in 2023. He should have the stamina to not fall off as we get into AUG and SEP.
It’s going to come down to the core guys and whether they stay healthy and don’t fall off against good pitching and pressure situations in AUG and SEP.
Duran, Devers, O’Neill, Rafaela and Abreu need to produce a lot of runs in the next two months. A better batting order would be a big help. More speed at the top would help.
Casas being healthy would help.
The pitchers staying consistently good would help.
The WC spots are a crap shoot. Houston looks like a lock with Baltimore and Cleveland. Assuming the NYY gets the WC1, the other two spots could come from 7 different teams including Boston. Personally, I like the way KC is playing for the WC2. Then it comes down to MInnesota, Seattle and Boston for WC3. Texas and TB are long, long shots..
With Martin and Slaten on the shelf, the Red Sox are down to two front-line relieves — Jansen and Kelly. You can see the impact of that lack of depth when a lower-tier reliever like Weissert gets thrust into key situations.
Jansen is the one who blew the save last night, though. Hard to fault anybody for that.
Agreed that they need a deeper lineup, in particular another good RHH bat. When an average catcher is your third best RHH there is something badly Wong.
Tff – Why did Cora refuse to use Anderson and Horn? It’s a massive waste of two valuable roster spots. I don’t think anybody would have had an issue with bringing in Horn.
Jansen blew the 9th, but many other poor moves contributed to the loss.
Anderson is not a good pitcher. His numbers are deceptive because he pitches in slop time.
Horn? I’m amazed that he is finding success in the majors at all, given his long history of serious control issues.
I’m generally not one to criticize a manager for specific pitching moves. Ultimately everybody in their pen will get a chance, and the team will win or lose based on how they perform.
tff – I appreciate you acknowledging you won’t ever second-guess Cora, but it’s very difficult for diehard fans like me to sit and watch Cora torpedo the team’s efforts when every game is so crucial.
Until tonight Horn hadn’t pitched in 16 days and Anderson hadn’t pitched in 10 days., so they obviously haven’t been getting their chance.
I agree Anderson isn’t very good, but then why waste a roster spot on him? And how is Horn supposed to continue his development if he’s not allowed to pitch even after two consecutive brilliant outings? If Cora doesn’t have faith in either, which was evident last night, then they shouldn’t be on the team.
A lot of people believe Cora is doing to Breslow the exact same thing he did to Bloom … refusing to play certain pitchers because he’s trying to force Breslow to improve the bullpen. This is what Cora does, and it’s why so many dislike him.
TFF17 – I can’t understand how you can evaluate the performance of Anderson and boldly state he is not a good pitcher but you don’t second guess Cora the worst manager in baseball. That makes no sense.
If you watch Anderson and his performance is substandard and you say it, it’s a legitimate opinion. You watch daily screw-ups by Cora in making the line-up, sitting star players to get extra undeserved playing time for bench guys and him completely mishandling the pitching staff yet you say you won’t second guess him? Why not? He didn’t earn his job it was nepotism that took a lowly bench coach in Houston to Boston to run a fabled franchise from the dugout. He had three skills:
1 – Mumbling to the press and keeping them calm with lies
2 – Coddling immature players like Devers and others who did not like Farrell’s no nonsense approach to baseball
3 – Cheating to win games that weren’t deserved
What did he lack besides actual baseball skills as his stats suggest? He lacked integrity, he lack knowledge of pitching and running a pitching staff including the selection of pitching coaches, he lacked knowledge of how to set a line-up, he lacked an understanding of star players because he was a bench jockey, he lacked knowledge of resting key players and how to determine when to rest them, he lacked how to determine when to pull a pitcher and who to substitute for them. That’s just the incredibly obvious shortcomings of this guy who never worked hard at baseball and always took shortcuts because he was a lazy ball player. His shortcuts led to cheating in both HOU and BOS. Nobody knows what he has on ownership to keep his job after he was sentenced to baseball jail for affecting the outcome of up to 90 games in 2017.
If you can conclude Anderson is not a good pitcher, there is no excuse for you not concluding Cora is a horrible manager and human being. There is no mistaking his lack of integrity since he did it twice that we know of.
Listen to what Fever says. Cora has the same self centered attitude that Devers has with regard to the team. He went behind DD’s back to set up the cheating and keep ownership informed. He went behind Bloom’s back when he didn’t get his way. And now he’s still got “something” over the ownership that he feels he can weasel his way into the front office in the future.
You’ve seen how great Breslow’s pitching and hitting coaches have performed. Can you imagine if he got to pick the manager how much better this team would be right now? Two huge albatrosses exist in the Red Sox organization. Cora as manager or anything else and Devers’ contract and attitude of being above the law when it comes to doing what’s best for the team.
These are not good people. They are incredibly selfish.
Didn’t say I will never second-guess a move, just that I have a pretty high bar. I’ve also come to the understanding that the weak links on the staff WILL pitch, and unless you can find low leverage situations for them then they will pitch in key spots.
I definitely wouldn’t object to seeing Horn pitch more, I’d just be nervous to see him thrown out there to protect a one run lead. Didn’t work so well with Campbell, for example.
Anderson is on the team to eat innings in slop time, taking the load off the rest of the pen. (Note that he is one of the top pitchers in the majors for relief innings.) He could pitch in the third game of the series, when they were down three late, but he hasn’t been used with a small lead the entire season. Pitching under pressure is very different.
If Breslow isn’t on board with what Cora is doing, then Cora will be managing elsewhere next year. Unlikely that he stays anyways unless the Red Sox make him the most highly paid manager in the game, and I doubt that is happening. I would love to see Varitek get a chance.
Don’t think that Cora can be blamed for Bloom’s failures…
Looks like my earlier reply evaporated?
I’m not a huge Cora fan. Some of his public comments have undercut the front office, and that’s simply unprofessional. He has done a decent job of keeping the clubhouse positive this year, playing hard all season, but in past years he has allowed things to deteriorate in the second half. Managing the clubhouse has to be the biggest part of the job.
The in-game moves have less impact than the talent on the roster. I don’t believe Cora is especially good at this, but I also don’t think it costs as many games as people imagine. Silly to look at this team and suggest that they SHOULD have another half dozen wins, as that would imply that their talent is on par with the Orioles and Yankees. Was that what you were expecting from this team in March? I freely admit that they have exceeded my pre-season expectations…
Similarly, there’s no question that Devers is one of the weakest defensive 3B in the majors. I agree that his fielding percentage is not a fair representation of his defensive ability (since there are a lot of balls he doesn’t get to that another defender would). But that isn’t the difference between the Red Sox and the Orioles. Might be the difference between the Red Sox and the Royals.
Cora and Devers take enough heat here that I’m not going to pile on to either one. Like most of us, they both have strengths and weaknesses, the latter of which generally get overblown.
Not that I’m one to criticize Cora, but his bullpen management in that last game was pretty bad. End result, he lost the game AND burned his only decent arm for the next couple games.
Just a four game slide, but the Royals have switched places with the Red Sox in the playoff hunt. At this point the Red Sox should probably start looking forward to next year – see what Breslow can do trading second tier prospects and expiring contracts.
Would you try to keep O’Neill or Pivetta?
Teel went to Mahwah High School. Who knew? My two favorite towns, Mahwah and Hohokus. (I lived in Bergen County as a youngster).
It makes zero sense y the Red Sox’s wouldn’t go after him they say they’re building for the future well this kid is only 25 and isn’t a unrestricted free agent till 2027 also ow they have absolutely no pitching in the pipeline
Rafela what an idiot thrown out at third with 2 outs nothing to gain moron
Mi Casas – NINETY feet is what he gains and the opportunity to score on a passed ball. He’s extremely fast and he made an aggressive choice in a tight game hoping to set up 1st and 3rd with the two fastest guys. The double steal becomes a possibility unless Duran also moves up a base with Rafaela..
The disagreement with his choice is you voicing your very conservative opinion on how baseball should be played. You ignored many of the facts that led him to try taking 3rd in that situation:
1 – Hernandez was in front of the left center warning track and has the 93rd strongest arm in the OF across the MLB
2 – Rafaela is one of the fastest players on the team
3 – The 3B coach never put his hands up to stop him
Other things you neglected to mention. The throw was perfect and that’s not something that happens with Hernandez very often based on his fielding stats.
Taking the aggressiveness out a young player is a bad player development move. He should always go when it will take a perfect throw to get him. The throw goes to the left of the base and runners are on 2nd and 3rd. Granted, Devers popped up in his next at bat after striking out his previous at bat, the chance of a past ball tying the game would have been created without the perfect throw. Tip your hat to Hernandez for coming up big, don’t blame the statistically valid risk of advancing a base by two base runners.
Again, its just F’ing disgusting, and an embarrassment, to what ‘the Chairman’ has done to the White Sox. That fossil should be admonished by the league for such a miserable (or is it miser-able) job he has done over 40 years of owning the club. Never mind he wants another sweet deal for a new stadium to be paid for by the State of Illinois for his mediocrity.
If I was the Gov, Id tell him the only way the Sox get a new stadium is if that fossil sells the team to someone that wants to win and not just count the money coming in while his team flounders.
I don’t even blame Getz whatsoever. I’m sure he wanted to extend Crochet but maybe ownership stopped him.
If the RS are gonna get in on the WS fire sale. I’d go for Fedde over Crotchet. Yeah. We could use a southpaw. But I think Fedde is the better bet for the remainder of this year and we get another year of control at 7.5. I expect the prospect capital from the RS would be less as well.
Fedde should be able to at least eat innings and be a solid, not spectacular, starter, but you’ll need to pry him from the White Sox GM ( Getz). Should be easy enough though. Do the Red Sox have any ex Royal players that cannot hit or pitch anymore?
Lets see if Cora can go for three in a row of misuse of the bull pen and blow another game. Why Kelly would come out for a second inning on Friday night after throwing 20+ high pressure pitches was a massive mistake….. rinse and repeat with Weissert on Saturday….. SMH
Also, after Rafaela leads off the 9th last night with a Single why not sacrifice him to scoring position to get the extra run for Jansen especially with Ohtahni coming up in the 9th.
Cooper – If Crawford continues to pitch like he has been, he can give at least 7 innings. He’s been incredibly good of late.