Our offense revolves around the 4 B's. We need those guys to carry the load, that's all there is to it.
[QUOTE=Wade Boggs;1057can't get as much as you think. It not about a trade clause , about 90% of MLB players wave it for a chance 2 win. It is about the return.
A bad teammate is a different story entirely.
So you want Hernandez or Holt replacing him. Plus Hernandez and Holt are about a tick above average in the field... I'm more concern about the clubhouse and leadership, as of his loss of his own skill.[/QUOTE]
I don't have much of a reference point for vertigo, but if if the results for Holt are like they were for Esasky, tjis could be it for him...
None of those B's stands for Big Bopper. We don't have one. We don't have a guy with the possible exception of Hanley who can miss the sweet spot and still drive the ball out of the park. We also don't have the guy that the opposing pitcher needs to bear down to keep in the park. That takes something out of the pitcher. Those high leverage pitches take it out of a pitcher. The issue is pretty clear. 40 HRs and 115 RBI got subtracted and nothing got added.
The Sox lead the league by scoring by a wide margin. While we all expected that margin to shrink, they did add a full season of Benintendi and also reduced the scoring against by adding Sale and (eventually) Thornburg.
And there is also the absence of Price and that impact. If some of these, say, 3-2 losses were 2-1 wins, would the offense still be the same concern?
Plus, we rid ourselves of these offense-lacking batters:
PA OPS Player
530 .726 T Shaw (Pablo has not delivered here, yet.)
137 .577 A Hill
113 .468 Hanigan
35 .500 Holaday
Plus, projected less PAs from these offensively-challenged players:
PA OPS Player
324 .705 Holt
64 .690 Brentz
The amount of double plays they are hitting into is unbelievable. Would like to see some more hit and runs and aggressiveness on the base paths. Did not mind Hanley being caught stealing last night, it took a perfect throw to get him.
These bats are going to heat up real soon. You saw how well they hit Arrieta to start the game yesterday.. There will be more to come soon. Hopefully they will be doing well enough at the deadline to make a move for a power bat though
I think it's way too early to think we need a power bat. Hanley had 2 HRs around this time last season if I remember correctly.
We had one inning last night and then couldn't produce another run, eve though we had a ton of base runners. In at least one incident, we had the bases loaded and nobody out with our top hitters up. Had we scored in another inning I would have felt more positive. I agree with those who feel we need another power hitter since the ones we were counting on don't seem to be having a good season.
i could not agree with you more and have felt this way for a ling time. Go to Portland, you see the same thing. We need players at some level who at least will make a pitcher think before throwing. i agree with everyone who says that this team will. The issue is will they produce runs. Lots of singles and lots of doubles. It is not a bad thing but we need some major punch in our system as well.