6/28 Franklin Morales and King of TalkSox Mojo vs. King Felix and the Mariners

[SemperFi Sox]

Nava LF

Pedroia 2B

Ortiz DH

Saltalamacchia C

Gonzalez 1B

Middlebrooks 3B

Ross LF

Kalish CF

Aviles SS

[BornToRun]

Nava LF

Pedroia 2B

Ortiz DH

Saltalamacchia C

Gonzalez 1B

Middlebrooks 3B

Ross LF

Kalish CF

Aviles SS

 

I'd swap will and salty but I can live with it.

[Palodios]

What a great lineup tonight. If Kalish and Aviles are the 8th and 9th hitters, this team will do considerable damage.

[SemperFi Sox]

Salty is not a clean up hitter.

[Laser Show]

I really don't like Salty in the 4 spot. I'd swap him and WMD.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Salty is not a clean up hitter.

 

He's done nothing to justify that comment. In his 3 games as a #4 hitter, he's got a 1.021 OPS. Not saying that means we should hit him there every night, but when he's been in there, he's produced.

[SemperFi Sox]

He's done nothing to justify that comment. In his 3 games as a #4 hitter' date=' he's got a 1.021 OPS. Not saying that means we should hit him there every night, but when he's been in there, he's produced.[/quote']

 

3 games, at least you came with a long sample size

 

In what way is Salty a clean up hitter? Gonzo should be in that spot. Period.

[Palodios]

Having Middlebrooks and Ross in the lineup every night has done wonders for the numbers of the RHH the last week or so. There will be far more pitches for him to hit.

[jung]

It is something of a bygone era kind of lineup thing but it really was not all that unusual at one time for managers to take a guy that had a relatively low BA but was successfully swinging for the fences at a pretty good clip into the cleanup spot just for that reason. Get a guy or two on base, wipe the bases clean with a dinger....start over again with the bottom half of the order.

 

Not saying it is the end all of clean up hitter ideas but it has been done before. More recently, the kind of hitting profile Salty has might more often find its way to the 5 hole and no higher. But like I said, it is not that unusual....just not done as much recently.

[Palodios]

It is something of a bygone era kind of lineup thing but it really was not all that unusual at one time for managers to take a guy that had a relatively low BA but was successfully swinging for the fences at a pretty good clip into the cleanup spot just for that reason. Get a guy or two on base, wipe the bases clean with a dinger....start over again with the bottom half of the order.

 

Not saying it is the end all of clean up hitter ideas but it has been done before. More recently, the kind of hitting profile Salty has might more often find its way to the 5 hole and no higher. But like I said, it is not that unusual....just not done as much recently.

 

In a perfect world, Middlebrooks is the RHH between Ortiz and Agon. Valentine probably wants to keep the pressure off WMB-- replacing Youkilis is not going to be an easy task, so perhaps he's trying to give him the role gradually.

[SoxFanForsyth]

3 games, at least you came with a long sample size

 

In what way is Salty a clean up hitter? Gonzo should be in that spot. Period.

 

Like I said. He has done nothing to justify you complaining about him being there. What has he done to justify you saying that he isn't a cleanup hitter?

[jung]

Yea I don't expect that we will see anything like a steady diet of Salty in the 4 hole. V has had screwier lineups this year. I am more concerned when he drops a couple guys right smack in the middle of the lineup that are just not doing anything. It is just a big hole and before you know it, you go from 1 on with nobody out to the same 1 on in the same spot with two outs.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Am I the only one who looks forward to Morales's starts more than anyone on the staff right now? Not saying he's the best starter on the staff, just saying he's got such a high amount of potential, it's fascinating to watch him build towards it.

[Brown28]

Morales was Theo's last gift to us

[jung]

One thing that makes him fun to watch is that I think it is not hard to see what Morales looks like pitching when things are going to go well for him. If he has it he really has it.

 

This game is likely going to be a tough game for the entire team just from the perspective of travel and time zones and start time for the game itself.

[TutGadol]

I would get if Salty was hitting cleanup in some other game in this series, in Safeco he probably has the best chance to homer in this series for both sides other then Ortiz. But Salty is 4-19 against Felix, only one double and no walks.

[redsoxbeatz]

Let's go Morales!! 1er, 6ip+, 1bb, 8ks.

[a700hitter]

Morales was Theo's last gift to us

Too bad Theo only thought he was a situational lefty. What a misjudgment!

[jung]

More staggering than Theo having pegged Morales as a situational lefty, the Sox still had him there for the most part looking like they were going to try him in middle relief until injuries forced the Sox to give him a shot in the rotation. It looked to me that the Sox would have been happy to see him go from situational lefty to middle reliever (meaning he would have gotten more innings).

 

Don't you sorta' wonder what we would be seeing from Morales right now if the Sox had planned around a Morales experiment at the start of the season instead of Bard? The other neat part about this story if it works out for Morales is that the guy made no demands, just pitched when they asked him to pitch.....never making any noise about anything. He had that rough stretch in relief where he just totally lost where the ball was going but instead of that turning into a trend it really ended up being very short lived. Another kid that just keeps his mouth shut and plays....another kid that fits the recent profile of young guys coming up.

[SoxFanForsyth]

White Sox just hit a 3 run HR in the top of the 9th, now lead the Yanks, 4-3.

[BornToRun]

Anybody watching the Yankees game?

[a700hitter]

Anybody watching the Yankees game?

The 9th inning is blowing up all over them.

[ellsburyforMVP]

Really glad we didn't blow it up like 'ol jacko suggested ......

[BornToRun]

Really glad we didn't blow it up like 'ol jacko suggested ......

 

I know he's probably right sometimes but I automatically ignore everything he says to be honest.

[ellsburyforMVP]

I know he's probably right sometimes but I automatically ignore everything he says to be honest.

 

Yup... I'm going to spam him with "blow it up" every time the yanks misstep while cc and Andy are out....

[BornToRun]

Yup... I'm going to spam him with "blow it up" every time the yanks misstep while cc and Andy are out....

 

I think we can take first place before the deadline.

[TutGadol]

The despair of the yankee...

 

All the other AL Easterns are losing too, a tougher game today because of Felix and the travel but could be a nice chance to get one over the division and move into the wildcard.

[iortiz]

NY just lost

 

Great opportunity here, let's go Sox!

[SoxFanForsyth]

Lets go. Score early, score often.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Wow ump. Already with the inconsistency??