6/13 @ Camden Yards

[SoxFanForsyth]

Wilson got squeezed in the Markakis at bat, then lost by jamming Davis. Tough way to lose. Iglesias catches that pop up everyday. Not sure why Drew is starting everyday. He needs a day or two off. Not to mention Iglesias was in a really nice rythm and Drew is hitting .132 over his past 8 games.

[Palodios]

Wilson got squeezed in the Markakis at bat, then lost by jamming Davis. Tough way to lose. Iglesias catches that pop up everyday. Not sure why Drew is starting everyday. He needs a day or two off. Not to mention Iglesias was in a really nice rythm and Drew is hitting .132 over his past 8 games.

 

Drew? Middlebrooks made a crucial error, and had another bad defensive play. He's 3 for 25 in his last 6 games, and one was a broken bat, and the other was a dropped ball that wasn't called an error. He has 8 walks to 59 strikeouts this season.

 

The guy needs more time to work on his approach. It is what it is.

[a700hitter]

Middlebrooks is doing his best to play himself out of the majors.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Drew? Middlebrooks made a crucial error, and had another bad defensive play. He's 3 for 25 in his last 6 games, and one was a broken bat, and the other was a dropped ball that wasn't called an error. He has 8 walks to 59 strikeouts this season.

 

The guy needs more time to work on his approach. It is what it is.

 

Used to be that WMB had all the time he needed to get right.

 

Now that Bogaerts has reached AAA, his clock may be ticking. Not saying he's going to be replaced anytime soon, but if he's still hitting .200 in late August, and Bogaerts is crushing in AAA, the Sox may have no other option.

[a700hitter]

Used to be that WMB had all the time he needed to get right.

 

Now that Bogaerts has reached AAA, his clock may be ticking. Not saying he's going to be replaced anytime soon, but if he's still hitting .200 in late August, and Bogaerts is crushing in AAA, the Sox may have no other option.

Is his ceiling Evan Longoria or Mark Reynolds.?

[SoxFanForsyth]

Is his ceiling Evan Longoria or Mark Reynolds.?

 

Bogaerts or Middlebrooks?

 

Bogaerts has more power but less average than Longo, I would guess. Middlebrooks is never going to be Longo. He's going to be, in his prime, a .275/.320/.530 hitter IMO.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Just went back and had another look at that flare by Davis. Sox got beat by the shift it looked like. Drew was playing directly behind the 2B bag.

 

Damn. Bad break.

[a700hitter]

Just went back and had another look at that flare by Davis. Sox got beat by the shift it looked like. Drew was playing directly behind the 2B bag.

 

Damn. Bad break.

I'm not a big believer in the shift. It is the flavor of the day among major league managers who all follow each other like lemmings. If everyone had been in position, that ball is an oiut. Davis clearly was having trouble with Wilson's heat.

[SoxSport]

Wilson got squeezed in the Markakis at bat, then lost by jamming Davis. Tough way to lose. Iglesias catches that pop up everyday. Not sure why Drew is starting everyday. He needs a day or two off. Not to mention Iglesias was in a really nice rythm and Drew is hitting .132 over his past 8 games.

 

Are there more important considerations than winning? Sometimes it seems that way with this organization. They hold to certain beliefs which are hard to shake. One is to play the money.

 

Farrell could help himself if he stretched his relievers out more, so he didn't run out of them at the end of games--especially extra inning games. This is a general problem in baseball, as relievers just aren't asked to pitch more than an inning or two. You need to have more long guys out there so you don't need to use your short guys every game. I heard some talk on MLB TV the whole pitch count paradigm is beginning to be questioned. Verducci has come out against pitch counts as presently used. Make that overused.

 

You look at the performance of the Red Sox starters lately, and clearly there is need to upgrade. This division is tight, and every win counts. They need to add a starter soon by trade, or see what some of those hot prospects they are sitting on can do.

[SoxFanForsyth]

I'm not a big believer in the shift. It is the flavor of the day among major league managers who all follow each other like lemmings. If everyone had been in position, that ball is an oiut. Davis clearly was having trouble with Wilson's heat.

 

There's no question about it, the shift is a pointless maneuver. If it was effective, you would see a noticable decrease in BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play).

 

From 2010 - 2013, Ortiz has posted a .314 BABIP. From 2003 - 2006, Ortiz posted a .298 BABIP.

 

League average BABIP from 1990 - 1995: .292

League average BABIP from 2007 - 2012: .299

 

If anything, playing defenders out of position could well be one of the (likely many) factors in the increase in BABIP.

[SoxSport]

Just went back and had another look at that flare by Davis. Sox got beat by the shift it looked like. Drew was playing directly behind the 2B bag.

 

 

Drew is sure handed enough, but he lacks range and speed. You want a guy like Iglesias in the middle, who can cover a lot more ground. It can make a difference in game situations.

[SoxSport]

Bogaerts or Middlebrooks?

 

Bogaerts has more power but less average than Longo, I would guess. Middlebrooks is never going to be Longo. He's going to be, in his prime, a .275/.320/.530 hitter IMO.

 

Middlebrooks' stock is in decline, with Iggy and Bogaerts in the picture. He better get his act together soon. He isn't one of the "money" guys, and that makes him much more vulnerable in this organization. He could be trade bait at some point.

[User Name]

Are there more important considerations than winning? Sometimes it seems that way with this organization. They hold to certain beliefs which are hard to shake. One is to play the money.

 

Farrell could help himself if he stretched his relievers out more, so he didn't run out of them at the end of games--especially extra inning games. This is a general problem in baseball, as relievers just aren't asked to pitch more than an inning or two. You need to have more long guys out there so you don't need to use your short guys every game. I heard some talk on MLB TV the whole pitch count paradigm is beginning to be questioned. Verducci has come out against pitch counts as presently used. Make that overused.

 

You look at the performance of the Red Sox starters lately, and clearly there is need to upgrade. This division is tight, and every win counts. They need to add a starter soon by trade, or see what some of those hot prospects they are sitting on can do.

 

Do you ever post something that makes complete sense? Any and all points you make that may have even a hint of truth behind them are undermined by the idiocy of the conspiracy theories you come up with.

[SoxSport]

Used to be that WMB had all the time he needed to get right.

 

Now that Bogaerts has reached AAA, his clock may be ticking. Not saying he's going to be replaced anytime soon, but if he's still hitting .200 in late August, and Bogaerts is crushing in AAA, the Sox may have no other option.

 

August? In this race, the leash is a lot shorter.

[kapsis21]

am i the only one who thinks Doubront is tanking out way too early and if he is young and still cant go beyond 4 2/3, his best place would be a long reliever in the bullpen and maybe just maybe Aceves might be more likely to get starts since he has been way better than him. Doubront is perfect for relieving and giving us 3 innings out of the bullpen.

and I have to agree with Soxsport Iggy has to be playing every day even if it is late in the innings esp in OT games like the one yesterday.

[SoxFanForsyth]

August? In this race, the leash is a lot shorter.

 

And who are you going to replace Middlebrooks with? Iglesias? He's got a BABIP of over .500 right now. He's going to fall off the regression tree and hit every branch on the way down soon. The only reason I want him at SS right now is to give a clearly struggling Drew a couple days off. It wouldn't be a permanent fixture.

 

If the Sox had anyone close to being ready that even resembled a league average 3B, Middlebrooks would be in Pawtucket searching for his swing. But right now, WMB is the best option.

 

The only other option is to make a deal for a guy like Aramis Ramirez at the deadline, but I don't think they'd want to give up prospects for a guy who is under control for next year too. That would essentially be waving the white flag on Middlebrooks.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Hope to see RDLR tonight in the bullpen, and for the rest of this weekend perhaps. Sox need another arm, RDLR and Webster are the only ones left on the 40 man that they can use.

[User Name]

De La Rosa needs to keep starting since they're still stretching him out.

[SoxFanForsyth]

De La Rosa needs to keep starting since they're still stretching him out.

 

Well, they can't call up De La Torre or Aceves because they were optioned and haven't been down 10 days. Their only options on the 40 man are Webster and De La Rosa.

 

They could potentially backdate Bard to 5/15 and put him on the 60 day DL, which would open a slot.

[SoxFanForsyth]

In terms of Middlebrooks - some very interesting quotes from Farrell yesterday regarding Bogaerts:

 

Farrell said Bogaerts will play short for the first seven to 10 days with the PawSox before being exposed to second and third base. Like Jose Iglesias before him, the exposure to other infield positions will be less about a permanent move off short and more about preparing him in the event of an injury at the major-league level.

 

"If we had some unforeseen things take place here through injury and yet he's the best bat available, we want to be sure that we've at least exposed him to other positions so we wouldn't have a hesitation to move him into another spot," Farrell explained.

 

Xander Bogaerts: The 2013 Manny Machado? Minor League SS taking over for an underperforming 3B late in the season - Could well be the case.

[a700hitter]

There's no question about it, the shift is a pointless maneuver. If it was effective, you would see a noticable decrease in BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play).

 

From 2010 - 2013, Ortiz has posted a .314 BABIP. From 2003 - 2006, Ortiz posted a .298 BABIP.

 

League average BABIP from 1990 - 1995: .292

League average BABIP from 2007 - 2012: .299

 

If anything, playing defenders out of position could well be one of the (likely many) factors in the increase in BABIP.

From just watching the games (way too many games for that matter), that was my strong suspicion. Thanks for those stats. They make a strong case for playing everyone in position. Eventually, I think managers will go back to standard defensive positioning. Right now, everyone is enamored with Joe Maddon, who in my opinion is an imbecile that one time filled out a lineup card with 2 third basemen and lost his DH for the game.