Dojji

At second base. Scutaro is having a good year at second base. He is no solution at all to any problem we might have had at short. None. He wasn't adequate in year one and only declined since. At least Aviles is cost controlled. That said -- if we were starting a middle infielder with a .327 OBP, you'd still be complaining. Especially if OBP is supposed to be the thing the guy did well. I don't even have to guarantee that BTW -- it's a straight up concrete fact.

Ahh, the annual Hanley thread. A tradition literally every deadline and every offseason since 2006. Actually it's a little overdue this year, I thought to see it before now TBH. Hanley is water under the bridge. Deal with it. If it was going to happen, it would have happened by now.

Just because you're vicious enough to hold that kind of grudge doesn't mean everyone is. Sure I like Salty, but I think having a catcher whose bat could put him in the All Star Game is fodder for conversation in the main board regardless of what happens from now on. Or is commenting on good news as it happens suddenly automatically nefarious in your mind? Are you that desperate to insulate yourself from any suspicion that you might need to admit to being wrong that you'll lash out blindly for multiple pages in a thread created to notice and draw response to good news about your own team? It's people like you overreacting, fishing for reasons to suspect others of ulterior motives and creating grudge matches where none need exist that keep the main board so sparse of actual interesting threads. You are a generous handful of genuinely intelligent comments away from trollhood.

He'd have to slump extensively for multiple months to get that bad. That's what it took for him to wind up with his numbers last year.

I sure do. But you knew that. This is 100% about people's perception that Bard should have been in the pen and closing all along. If it had anything to do with the actual qualifications to do the job, the most you could justify is a certain guarded pessimism. This is a panic move. Matusz' meltdown against us the other day was nearly as bad as Bard's. I would put money down Matusz will be out there in his next appointed turn, with some pointers in his throw day to correct the problem. That's what you do with a project starter who is struggling a bit and has a terrible outing. You don't throw up your hands, grab the guy by the collar and hurl him bodily into the bullpen the first time he fails to go 5+. That is nonsense however you want to spin it.

The problem is that if we're talking trades, what we need right now are solid middle infielders, which are as rare as hen's teeth on this market, and starting pitchers, which are well beyond any trade pull a guy like Nava would have. You'd basically be trading him for future options, and that's a waste of assets a lot of the time.

The reason I wrote Kalish off out of hand is that I figured with his injuries, he's missed a lot of time and he's going to need to get his timing back, and you can do that more easily as the starting RF of the Pawsox. A better argument is simply not having a 5th OF. If Carl Crawford has decided to join us here in Red Sox nation for the first time ever, he, Ellsbury, Ross and Sweeney can probably be a well above average outfield on both sides of the ball. And we could really use another middle infielder at the moment. If Nava has options that's probably how it's going to go down eventually -- and I hate it. He deserves better.

Podsednik is a good OBP guy? His OBP is his best attribute, but at .340, you're really stress testing the word "good." He's moderately above average -- or so. A lot like Sweeney in that respect. And that's an average that obviously includes his prime -- which is a level he's not going to reach again. Besides, if you have both Ellsbury and Crawford in the lineup why the heck do you need speed on the bench? Again, this idea that we need players who can run simply because being fast helps isn't quite wrong, but we're talking about ah OBP difference of 110 points, and Podsednik isn't the guy who stole 70 bases 8 years ago anymore. I don't see any particular reason why we should just blindly return Crawford's job to him. How about some healthy competition? And if Crawford can't deal with that, call that what it is -- an overpaid player being a baby on a team already filled and overfilled with overpaid babies? I just think that Crawford automatically being gift-wrapped LF is an example of exactly what the Red Sox, the FO and the fans all just don't get, don't understand and don't want to understand about baseball. You don't just give people things in this sport. Make them fight to earn it, and make them fight to keep it. Don't let people get comfortable.

He's been remarkably crash free to this point. His minor league numbers roughly match what he's doing in the bigs so far. There's little reason to bail on Nava just because he's playing well. That said if you can get a good trade for him, maybe pick up some solid help in the middle infield where we need it badly, I can't complain too much about that. This idea that Crawford is a lock to be better than Nava flies in the face of the last 2 years of observable reality though. Crawford's a top or bottom of the order hitter, and for what we need in those roles, Nava has been a FAR better fit. Speed just doesn't matter that much when you have the kind of power the Sox can throw into a lineup.

The way I see it we're going to have 6 valid options for 3 starting OF positions within the month -- Crawford, Ellsbury, Kalish, Ross, Sweeney, and Nava. And the easiest guy to cut has been the most effective in the field. When we get Ross and Ellsbury back, I think we're going to shed Podsednik and McD, and see Ross starting in right. Sweeney's numbers have slipped and he's a tolerable 4th OF and LIDR. On the whole, that looks pretty stable to me. Crawford is the real fly in the ointment. When we get him back, that's when some things are going to happen that offend me. He's our starting left fielder. That's Plan A, and while Nava has made as good a bid as a player of his type and status on a team like the Red Sox can possibly make to Wally Piipp him, I don't think it'll stick. The team has too much committed into making Crawford a success. This is compounded by the fact that Crawford, a chronic underacheiver for the Sox, is the one in direct competition for the position currently being played by Mr. Overachiever. And has a ridiculous contract that you want to get some value out of. So does that mean you just sit Nava? The man's generating some buzz and has been more than getting the job done at the top of our lineup. Crawford has all the tools Nava doesn't have, but Nava has had all the consistency Crawford pretty much never had, and which is really the more important attribute on a team like the Boston Red Sox. If I had to bat one of those two first or second right now, with the kind of power bats we have further down in the lineup, I'd give a lot of thought to the guy with the .455 OBP over the guy with a sub-.300 Boston OBP and a sub .340 OBP for his career. Nava so far is a better fit for a traditionally station to station, power driven team, and that is what the Red Sox are. With that said, money does talk, and the team is going to try to recoup their investment in Crawford. They're going to highlight Crawford's speed and D as good reasons to tolerate benching one of the team's better stories. I hate that it's going to be this way, but Crawford's 8 figure salary guarantees him a starting spot for now once he's healthy, and Valentine isn't going to want the clubhouse crapstorm that benching Crawford in favor of Nava would generate. Personally I wish CC a nice, long recovery. But all indications are that Crawford's return is fairly imminent. That leaves Nava, Ross and Sweeney competing for playing time in right field. Which pretty much means Ross and Sweeney, since Nava isn't going to get playing time in right field in this configuration, which is why the permanent 8 figure coronation of Crawford in left sucks from my POV. I honestly want to see if Nava can keep this going, and I honestly think I'm not gonna get that chance. At this point we're lucky if he's still the 5th OF, which SUCKS. He has earned better than that -- his surge correlating with our return to winning baseball is not a coincidence.

I think they need to let him work on his mechanics then come back out and start another few games. The fact is that while it was ugly at times, he was still getting the job done as often as not before that one big implosion. Let him get back on the horse and see what he can learn from this. If you just scrap the experiment now, you're missing a pretty nice opportunity.

I think he has the right to be disappointed. He got embarrassed his last start sure, but it followed 2 starts which were relatively solid -- 5.1 IP, 2 ER is acceptable for any developing starter. And 3 of his prior 4 starts had been 2 ER or less affairs This looks for all the world like a knee-jerk to me. I'm really not surprised it looked like that to him.

Ballsy move to bring Buck out for the 9th, great that it worked. Fitting that nava recorded the final out. He was one of the lifters tonight.

I really want him to get this shutout.

One more. COME ON CLAY!

2 to go.

Hhhhhere's Clay.

No one warming. Clay's coming out for bot 9.

Personally I think Jerry wouldn't work as well without Don as his straight man.

2 for 3 with 2 walks and *another* double. This guy isn't going to make the roster decisions easy for this team.

That was taken out of context. Guy was talking about the significance of OBP. In which OBP a walk *is* as good as a HR.

110 pitches through 8. I wanted him to finish but that really should be it for him.

3 to go.

4 to go.

5 to go. Pulling for Buck to go the distance. He just got to 90 pitches -- he has a shot.