5/4 Almost there

[Jacoby_Ellsbury]

Should've kept Carl Crawford! He's a proven player!

[User Name]

I agree they have to play him. He needs to be playing every day. But, I think he should be playing in the Minors, not the Majors. Anyone else with the BA he has, would have been sent down in a hartbeat. The only reason why he is playing in the Majors is because they put all their eggs in two unknown mystery baskets. That being a unproven rookie and a guy who hasn’t played in two years.

 

Batting average is as close to useless as a stat can be. He has a decent OBP (.337) and plays superior defense. He also has 1.023 OPS with RISP, and .873 with men on. You are complaining for the sake of complaining. JBJ has not been a world-beater, but he is not the problem.

[NativeBostonian]

Batting average is as close to useless as a stat can be. He has a decent OBP (.337) and plays superior defense. He also has 1.023 OPS with RISP, and .873 with men on. You are complaining for the sake of complaining. JBJ has not been a world-beater, but he is not the problem.

 

Who do you think are or is the problem(s)?

[User Name]

Who do you think are or is the problem(s)?

 

It's the team as a whole. As i presented before, they have a sub .700 OPS with men on base/RISP. That is abysmal. The entire team needs to improve.

[NativeBostonian]

It's the team as a whole. As i presented before, they have a sub .700 OPS with men on base/RISP. That is abysmal. The entire team needs to improve.

 

Do you think a part of the problem is, they aren't getting much production from the bench as they did last year? I mean, Mike carp is pretty much useless so far and Herrara is the most painful thing I've had to watch in a while.

[Palodios]

I agree they have to play him. He needs to be playing every day. But, I think he should be playing in the Minors, not the Majors. Anyone else with the BA he has, would have been sent down in a hartbeat. The only reason why he is playing in the Majors is because they put all their eggs in two unknown mystery baskets. That being a unproven rookie and a guy who hasn’t played in two years.

 

Jackie Bradley was leading the league in UZR/150 for a while. He's currently #10 in the league for any position. The guy has been a perfectly fine #9 hitter, but until he develops, the value he provides will be coming from his glove.

 

We'll just have to accept that for the next few months while he develops -- with the s*** we've seen from guys like Sizemore and Nava in CF, I am perfectly fine with his .700 OPS at the crucial position.

[User Name]

Do you think a part of the problem is, they aren't getting much production from the bench as they did last year? I mean, Mike carp is pretty much useless so far and Herrara is the most painful thing I've had to watch in a while.

 

Yes, that is a big part of it. Herrera needs to go, and Sizemore better stop sucking at the plate soon, since he's so bad on the field. The good thing is, that most of what ails the Sox can be fixed. They'll win a lot of games if their RISP numbers normalize and they keep getting good pitching.

[mvp 78]

The problem is 5-8, not the #9 hitter at the moment.

[mvp 78]

Also, any still pining for Capuano to start?

[Navafan29]

Bradley seems to go 0 for 5 on days when we get plenty of offense from everyone else, and 3 for 5 on days when nobody else is hitting.

[rjortiz]

Regardless, losing Ellsbury was a major loss.

 

How does it feel to go on a massive spending spree, and still be a .500 team at best? Your team sucks.

[Navafan29]

How does it feel to go on a massive spending spree, and still be a .500 team at best? Your team sucks.

 

The new Yankees mascot should be the Kool-Aid Man.

[mvp 78]

Bradley seems to go 0 for 5 on days when we get plenty of offense from everyone else, and 3 for 5 on days when nobody else is hitting.

 

If there was "plenty of offense" from the other guys, they would've won.

[Bellhorn04]

AL East Pigpile Update:

 

"The Blue Jays, while falling to last place in the division, now have the best run differential at nil."

 

"The first-place Yankees, meanwhile, have the worst differential at a putrid -16. However, our friend Jacksonianmarch has pointed out that Joe Girardi manages to 'outperform the Pythag' by doing such things as allowing blowout losses to get even worse with his bullpen moves."

[Bellhorn04]

Ellsbury is a better player than JBJ, but that's expected. He has played at a ML level longer than JBJ and has proven more than him. However, that doesn't mean every time JBJ plays bad, we need to bring up Ellsbury. This is going to be like the Papelbon situation. This place went f***ing nuts went Papelbon left, but didn't even give the Red Sox a chance without him. We ended up finding Koji, and now people wouldn't even dare mention Papelbon name now. This will be the same exact thing. JBJ is very talented, he just needs some work. Ellsbury has played one month for the Yankees. He could end up having a bad career with NY, so please stop acting like Ellsbury is the Red Sox savior. I know people tend to get butthurt over posts, but this is me addressing all of talksox. Not just directed at one poster, so save the tears.

 

Don't be so sure about that LOL

[a700hitter]

I don't know what Bradley will turn out to be. He is clearly in a developmental stage. I doubt that he will become the player that Ellsbury became. I just don't see that set of tools in the kid's bag. Clearly, our offensive problem at this stage of the season is that we have replaced our #1 hitter who was an offensive catalyst and the biggest base running threat in baseball except for Billy Hamilton with a #9 hitter. That much is as clear as the nose on your face. We can sit here and debate whether or not his contract is worth it, but that is not the point. The point is that his leaving is really having a big negative impact on our offense to this point in the season. No one has been able to step up to fill that void as of yet.

[rjortiz]

Bradley needs to cut down on his Saltalamacchian strikeout rates. However, for all the people who want to send him down, who would they replace him with?

[Bellhorn04]

Bradley and Bogaerts are getting their on-the-job training, one on offence and one on defence.

[mvp 78]

Bradley needs to cut down on his Saltalamacchian strikeout rates. However, for all the people who want to send him down, who would they replace him with?

 

Nava has 2 hr's in the past 6 games in AAA. Farrell put him in CF a few times. I think he's rangey enough to do it. He gets on base enough to be a solid lead off guy. He might not steal many bags, but he's got such a great mental awareness that he's good on the basepaths.

 

Is that a convincing enough lie for you?

[a700hitter]

Nava's awareness on the basepaths is atrocious. He has pulled more than his share of rocks on the bases.

[User Name]

I think Bradley's going to make a lot of people look silly by the end of the year. The OB skills are there, but he needs to adjust to the advanced stuff (pitching backwards, MLB-level breaking balls). He's not the first player to struggle coming out of the gate, and he won't be the last.

[reYoukilis]

I think Bradley's going to make a lot of people look silly by the end of the year. The OB skills are there, but he needs to adjust to the advanced stuff (pitching backwards, MLB-level breaking balls). He's not the first player to struggle coming out of the gate, and he won't be the last.

Im liking Bradley so far. Not a high average but hes high in extra base hits and RBI's. Combine that with the D and that hes still warming up and think hes off to a decent start.

[Palodios]

With a lot of good work losing, the Red Sox are 1.5 back on the division. Man the AL East sucks this year.

[a700hitter]

With a lot of good work losing, the Red Sox are 1.5 back on the division. Man the AL East sucks this year.

It will be a matter of whether one of the teams can catch fire and separate itself from the pack.

[Beaneater]

Why not us?

 

...or has that been used before?

[Palodios]

Why not us?

 

...or has that been used before?

 

The Red Sox have been ice-cold to start the season with a nasty case of World Series hangover.They could very easily go on a run, but it seems they are missing a bat.