Originally Posted by S5Dewey
dude........ the game thread isn't mine..... it's d-moneys.......
oh forget it...... I'll do it..
Farrell's not at the game today........... peoples mind will explode if we lose this....
dude........ the game thread isn't mine..... it's d-moneys.......
oh forget it...... I'll do it..
Farrell's not at the game today........... peoples mind will explode if we lose this....
In the town where I was born
Lived a man who sailed to sea
And he told us of his life
In the land of submarines
So we sailed up to the sun
'Til we found a sea of green
And we lived beneath the waves
In our yellow submarine
We've made it to the top half in runs scored:
449 HOU
447 WSH
445 NYY
428 LAD
422 AZ
416 COL
398 SEA
397 TEX
395 TBR
394 MIL
385 CIN
385 NYM
377 BOS
We're 22 runs from 7th place.
We're 5th in OBP at .338 (just .010 from 1st)
We are 19th in SLG (.417), which is .007 from the top half of the leaague despite ranking 26th in HRs with just 80. We'd need 18 more HRs to be 15th in MLB.
Sox OPS leaders:
.860 JBJ - taking a commanding lead
.840 Betts- needs to get hot
.826 Bogey- hanging tough
.818 Moreland- might need some more rest
(.808 Travis in 33 PAs)
.782 Beni- I'd like to see him get over .800
.768 HRam- needs to get over .800
.746 Pedroia
.734 Young
.700 Vaz
.695 Leon
.622 Pablo
.558 Rutledge
.552 Marrero
(What a putrid trio of 3Bmen offensively)
20 points is not a commanding lead when it comes to OPS.
True. It could be gone in a game or two.20 points is not a commanding lead when it comes to OPS.
Bad choice of words.
I'd like to see a stat by each team, how many different run differential games are won or lost. Losing a 7-8 game gives us very rosy run production picture but we lost. On the other hand, winning 1-0 shows us as being bad offensively. So anyone out there with tons of free time? Analyze games won by run differential of 1, 2, 3 etc. Then analyze games lost by run differential of 1, 2, 3 etc. Where do good teams fall? Bad teams. Is it simply that 'good' teams have more +1, +2 run differential games than 'bad' teams?
I thought Kansas City had been outscored this year but has a winning record? I'm not sure gross runs scored means winning.
Last edited by Nick; 07-01-2017 at 05:25 PM.
We seem to be seeing an ebb and flow of hitting on by various players on the Sox and I believe it is the managers job to use the guys who are hot and who can hit lefties or righties to maximize our run production without giving up too much defense. Our pitching has been solid and may still improve, so if we can score at least a few a game we are in it.
By ebb and flow I am referring to a guy like JBJ. There were a lot of unhappy fans calling for his trade early in the year. Others advocated more patience, since he had hit before and was so good defensively. I was concerned about his long loopig swing. Now his swing looks better and he may just be the hottest hitter on the team. We will hear more about moving him up in the lineup.
Handley is another one who was being heavily criticized for attitude, overstated injuries and lack of production. Some realized he miht be our only hitter with true power potential and one whose contract dictated we should be patient. Lately there are signs of he too coming around.
Bogey has great potential as a hitter but has looked somewhat lost at the plate and it may just be physical and/or mental fatigue. He was given a day off yesterday but it may take more, erhaps the all star break to get him going. Last year he also had a bit of a swoon so it may well be just fatigue of some sort.
Moreland was our most productive hitter for a while but he too has looked tired and a little off at the plate. He also has difficulty with left handed pitching. It is probably good to sit him against lefties and give him a rest now and again. He is now in his 30's so a little rest is a good idea. Too bad Travis hasn't been producing, but he has a history of being a good minor league hitter and may come through.
I think Betts is okay although i would move him in the lineup to an RBI position. What I noticced about him was his propensity to hit the ball into the big part of center field making loud outs. He seems to be doing a better job of hitting to all fields and it may pay off in both total hits and HR's.
Beni infrequently pulls the ball these days, preferring to hit into left field. His power has disappeared since he has done that and I believe he would be better served to go with the pitch. He has the potential to be a 300 hitter and needs to continue to make adjustments at the plate to help the team.
I liked JF's idea of stacking the lineup against lefty or righty starting pitching. He gives the team an advantage by doing that and is able to rest some players who need it at the half season mark. We are fortunate to have good back up defensive players so little is lost by stacking.
Here we are in first place. That doesn't mean we should become complacent. We still need to deal with the 3rd base issue and we probably need another relief pitcher. I look forward to watching this team make progress in the second half.
Ok, I will have a conversation with myself. Take a quick look at Sox/Yankees comparison. According to Moon, Yanks have outscored us by 68 runs despite having played 2 less games. Yet we led by a full game before today's games.
Here are the records of two teams by run differentials.
Sox Evil Empire
1 11-8 9-15
2 16-15 13-18 (cumulative, +1 and +2 combined)
3 28-23 17-25 (cumulative +1, +2, +3 combined)
4 33-24 22-30 (cumulative, +1 through +4 combined)
5+ 12-11 21-5
Basically we won with pitching. We are 33-24 in games decided by 4 runs or less, Yankees are 22-30. Yankees have out hit their way to 21-5 record in games decided by 5 runs or more. Sox are only 12-11.
This makes sense as to why the Yankees have outscored us by a ton yet trail the Sox in standings. Yankees need pitching.
DD was right in trading for Sale and passing on Encarnacion during the off season. You can't fault him for trading for Thornburg either. Pitching still wins championships. Brilliant.
Last edited by Nick; 07-01-2017 at 05:22 PM.
That is a fair point.
Mookie should not be batting 3rd. The 3rd hitter comes up far too often with 2 outs and no men on. It's better that he comes up with 0 outs and no men on.
I would not have a problem moving him to clean up.
We do like to 'tinker' with the line up, despite the fact that the tinkering makes very little difference.
Run differential, in all of its simplicity, is actually a pretty good indicator of how good a team has been, and it doesn't matter really matter if a good bit of that run differential comes in a handful of games where a team scored 10+ runs.
The closer the score of the game, the more the outcome is due to luck or randomness. A team's record in one run games will tell you very little.
A team's record in blowout games (5+ runs) will give you a better indication of how good a team is, or at least how well they've been playing.
It pains me to say that the Yankees should have a better record than us, but it doesn't pain me the least bit that they don't.
No, we should not become complacent, and I don't think Dombrowski will be. OTOH, I think your post emphasizes the point that we must be patient. The team cannot make a 'panic' move every time a player or the team goes into a little slide. Ebb and flow is a reality of pretty much every player and every team throughout the long season. Patience.
I agree on not panicking.
I do think we need to make a minor trade or two, like we did with Ziegler last year.
Last edited by moonslav59; 07-01-2017 at 10:04 PM.
0 men on base, he can only drive himself in. Tragic waste of resources
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