Dojji

Bogaerts and Buchholz to me. I like holt, but his kind of super utility style is exactly what the All Star Game is not there to highlight. THe All Star Game is about the best players at their position in the league, which kind of leaves Holt out because he's a do-everything guy. Thing is what Brock does is so unique that the All Star Game just can't accomodate him. What do you do with a guy who can play regularly at SS, 3B, 2B, RF, LF, CF, and 1B and hit well enough to justify playing in any or all of those positions, when the most the All Star Game can give a position player is 2-3 innings in a game? It's just not a way to showcase Brock's style of talent. Guys like Holt are valuable to fans, but it's because of his unique versatility. He's exactly the kind of guy you have to be paying attention to appreciate and one of those rare players that can easily start in a number of positions but far more valuable off the bench where he can keep his proficiency with all of them, the exact opposite of prototypical all star. I'm very glad we have him but the ASG is just not set up to showcase a guy like that. It's the job of diehard fans to get the word out and make sure a guy like Holt gets the love he deserves. I really hope if the team is out of it by the end of the year year that they decide to let Brockstar pitch an inning and catch an inning, just for the lols.

Have we considered trying Hanley at 1B by the way? We know he can handle third base and a lot of third basemen successfully transition to first. Seems to me that if you're really concerned about the defense, why not cut out the middleman?

That would be a good thing to do if you were working with college kids. It might work with David Ortiz if the year was 2005. It's a horrible horrible idea to do things like that with a veteran in his last years on the team where the major objective is just to keep the guy in the field. One thing you cannot fault Ortiz on is his will to win. DH or no, that man has been a central cog in every world series this team has won since we've been alive, and for a few other deep playoff runs as well So him saying that 1B isn't in him isn't someone shirking a job he can do. Reacting as if he's some snot nosed college kid saying "no, don' wanna" is delusional.

Nope. Whether you have a full time DH or not is based entirely on team composition. If you have a guy who benefits from DHing full time you DH him, if you don't, you make it up as you go along, it's just that simple. Not liking full time DH's is a leftover prejudice from the Pre-DH era where that wasn't considered a position. That said playing Ortiz as 1B full time is an excellent idea if you don't mind losing him to injury in about 3 weeks. The guy's body just doesn't have that in him anymore. He's at a stage of his career where he would be DHing most nights even if he'd been a full time 1B prior. at 39 and a guy as big as that, especially where he hasn't been conditioned to do it in the years leading up, that strikes me as a spectacularly risky idea. Especially since as mediocre a year as he's been having we NEED his bat out there. Look what happened to Ryan Howard, a very similar guy physically, when he played 1B everyday. Look what happened to big guy Mo Vaughn. Both were no longer effective big league players by their mid 30's. Frank Thomas needed to switch to full time DHing before he even hit 30. Ortiz is in his late 30's. Asking him to bear the added physical burden of playing a defensive position is a bad idea.

Not only 2015, I think the next 2-3 years the team is cooked. We're locked into some seriously bad contracts that handcuff the team's flexibility for at least 2 years maybe 3. This is a bad time to be a Red Sox fan. Hopefully he youth can come through and prove me wrong but you can just never count on when or if a prospect is going to break through, and the free agents just haven't cut it either. We need to wait until we have a good young core again and then build on top of that with FA's, the front office is doing everything in the wrong order and trying to short-cut the cycle of life, you just can't do that in baseball, and we're paying the price now with an even longer valley before the next peak.. My worst case scenario involves a braindead FO auctioning off the future to try to rebuild a winner for next year. Please do not do that. Let this house of cards fall apart and build a new one. It's going to fall anyway, that way at least you get more pieces to work with.

Neither of these numbers in any way are acceptable. I'm not even sure one is clearly worse than the other. While Player A sucks slightly less at the single most important stat, Player 2 will be just barely less deficient with his horrible run production. But be sure you understand there are no GOOD numbers here.

Well anyone who was able to watch the game now knows the answer to that question.

Since he's former NYY property this is a name some of you may have seen before. Ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte has been called up by the Oakland Athletics for their series in Boston. First thought: Yep, it would be the A's wouldn't it? Resident mad scientists of the league never afraid to try something new. Second thought: How fun would it be if he was effective enough to "stick?" Unique prospects appeal to me for a number of reasons, I'd love to see Venditte prove he belongs even if he's only bullpen bottom filler, just because of his strange approach. Course it will take the manager being comfortable letting him pitch with both hands, which I can see not happening but I'd love to see this work if it can. Every now and again baseball needs to try something new. Newness keeps the game alive.

You know the ironic thing is that Kelly's peripheral stats aren't really all that bad, in fact many of them are significantly improved over the prior season. His WHIP isn't great but isn't that bad, his walk rate is average, his hit rate is high but not incredibly high, his strikeouts are not great but good leading to a healthy 2-1 k/bb rate. The big problem has been the home run ball, which is a a career high rate for him right now. if he was able to keep the ball down a bit more he'd return to his normal stats pretty fast.

Eh it's legit prospect news, just as much so as Brentz shooting himself in the foot and I think that made a thread.

Yeah I was ginna say, 4 starts? I've seen pitchers have 4 starts that bad in April and go on to have very solid years.

I'll be honest, I'd rather have a guy who's very mediocre have a rotation spot than have to go through the neverending AAAA scrub cycle because no starter worth the money to replace him wanted to meet our price. We've been there before and I don't want to go back.

We need stability in our rotation right now. If we got rid of everyone who was expendable we'de have nobody left. Just because someone is repeacable does not mean they should always be replaced at the first opportunity. There's a reason guys like Jeremy Guthrie get paid, and it's because in the absence of real quality, stability still matters There's something to be said for keeping a consistent roster for a few years while the young talent trickles up. There's little to be said for having to constantly scramble to fill 3-4 empty rotation spots every year and getting backed into bad contract after bad contract at the free agency table or having to fill your last 2 rotation spots with AAAA scrubs and replacement level talent.

Jeeze, KC, cool it. That's what, 2 brawls in a week with 2 different teams? You're quickly shaping up to be the favorites of fans who like an old school, rough, tough, defiant mindset but there's a limit.

Yeah no one wants Holt to start over established star level or star potential players. It's more a question of in a vacuum, say one of those guys goes down, do you trust Holt to be better than replacement level wherever he needs to be and the answer is heck yes. When people are saying he could start at second base they're not saying he's better than Dustin Pedroia, they're saying he's better than, say, Omar Infante.

Personally I think Craig is superfluous if I'm telling the truth. We've already got Napoli and Nava at first base, and Holt and Nava between them have every position but catcher covered. What we really need to be doing with that last bench spot is either addressing a potential defensive need or bringing in an heir apparent at some position or another. For example, replacing Craig with Castillo to let him try to steal right field from Vic, or replacing Craig with JBJ or Marrero to upgrade the defense. A COF/CIF who won't get enough at bats to keep his bat going isn't going to help the team as much as a LIDR or a guy who can compete with a struggling starting player Whatever you want to do with that 25th spot, I don't honestly think the solution is Allen Craig. At this point I'd seriously consider sending a message to Mr. Victorino by starting a Nava-Brock or Nava-Craig platoon in RF for the rest of the week, see if that helps him to focus on doing what it takes to avoid losing his job. Sort of rub his face in you're-replaceable and see if we can improve the old work ethic. Because right now I'd be very hard pressed to tell you we had a starting right fielder and Brock is a very good bet to outperform Vic in RF for the moment.

It's really important to the success of a team to have guys like that so you're not afraid to rest your regulars in the middle of a stretch run. Overloading your horses just trying to make the postseason puts you in a very bad position once you actually get there.

I didn't realize until recently quite what we had in this guy. I was appreciative of the super sub capabilities, and the good-for-a-bench-player bat but I hadn't realized quite the level of athleticism. I had him pegged for warm-body level defense that wouldn't hold up in the most difficult positions but was good enough for replacement level. Instead he's been able to play at a high level at center and put on a clinic last night at shortstop which I didn't realize he could do. He's not exactly Ben Zobrist but he's one of those golden supersubs that's pretty good at everything, the kind everyone desperately wants to stretch out a short bench or start in a pinch. Have we been underestimating this guy as a group or am I alone in being this slow to join the party?

Anyone who won't admit to needing the occasional hug is lying to themselves

Bleah, sorry. My brain substitutes words all the time, especially when I'm tired.

Meh, I think it was an overreaction myself. Two bad years in a row means I can at least see what Neely was thinking, but PC was the architect of 2011 and I hate to lose that experience at the top. I can't see CJ being done this year unless he and the new GM have a personality conflict. Personally I think several recent versions of the team were only as good as they are because of CJ and I'd be pretty reluctant to throw out a system that has allowed this team to play above itself at several points. I'd need at least one more year of convincing that that change is necessary. Fans are never going to love CJ because of the stereotypes inherent in as defensive a system as he employs. Fans will always prefer aggressive hockey, but defense wins hockey games whether fans like it or not. Whoever we bring in will be one of two kinds of people, either one, just as defensive and unpopular as CJ, or 2, less effective at putting wins up on the standings board. Tell me your option. I'm inclined to blame age and injuries in the defense corps for a large part of what happened this year. Losing Boychuk, a big tough top 4 D in his prime and a guy who's never had serious injury issues, as a cap casualty was huge. He's been one of the most underrated Bruins for years (frequently by me as well) but he won me over starting in the championship year. He's honestly one of the last guys I'd have sacrificed unless there was just no way to fit him, and keeping Seidenberg over him is just a mistake IMHO. Just MHO, but I'd take another run with the same horses and feel pretty reasonable about expecting a better outcome. Sometimes the best laid plans just don't work, especially in a cap world.

No one is saying MLB can't miss, but I do feel like he's almost a lock to crack someone's roster eventually as a bench infielder. Basically in order for marrero not to be a major leaguer at some point, he has to not make any progress at all with the stick, and even then he could be a good tryout away from getting a serious look. Plus defensive MI's don't exactly grow on trees and Marrero can add a pretty seriously good speed tool to the mix as well -- not anything anyone hasn't seen before but more than good enough to be useful. personally I think Marrero's in the minors right now mostly because the team thinks his hit tool can develop, not to an elite level, but maybe just enough that they can sell him to another team that has shortstop problems as a potential starter with a bench ceiling (low risk modest reward). To be honest I'd actually rather have Marrero backing up this year and cut one of Nava or Craig. Holt can back up the OF better than either of those two, we only need one of them to back up 1B, and Holt isn't the kind of natural SS Marrero is. Bogaerts will hit, what I'd love to have on hand is a LIDR. I think if the verdict was that Marrero had no chance of hitting that's exactly what would have happened, since he's easily skilled enough right now to be useful in a reserve role.

Well yeah. But then Yankee fans do the same thing to us. That's one of the downsides of a great rivalry. It always means there will be some immature jerks who take it too far.

Great to hear that you had a good experience. Don't hesitate to come back.

Problem is where do you put him. 2 of our 3 outfield positions are set -- Betts is our CF going forward and Hanley is our LF. Victorino's earned the right to fail in RF so they're going to give him at least a couple months to come around. If the only space we have for JBJ is from off the bench he's better off in AAA for now.