Dojji

Honestly most of the people who complained about this do realize why it was done. It helps that the players we acquired are mostly in their 20s. If they can bridge until the farm can regenerate then it was a good gamble, and even if not, if we win some postseason banners, it is still worth it

You're right, but consider what we'd be feeling if a rookie came into his debut against the Yankees and went 5 giving up 3. Pretty good job, right? I mean, Johnson gave up 4 and we still gave him kudos. He came into a very stressful game in his first time ever in the big leagues and didn't die. That's actually impressive. If it was a Red Sox pitching the same line against the Yankees in their big league debut, I don't have to guess, I *KNOW* we'd be singing his praises.

You're absolutely correct. It's just you.

Anything that happened once can happen again! Simple math, suckas!

Yeah, you guys knew I'd start this one. Personally I thought he looked pretty good for a guy who hasn't taken the position in awhile. His footwork is a little rusty, but he got the job done and made the plays he had to make. I was pretty happy to see Cora's staff being willing to use all the tools at their disposal.

The irony is, it's easier to rip a muscle or blow a ligament if you *are* ripped, especially if you don't follow up your workout with something that emphasizes pliability and flexibility. Muscle mass puts extra tension on your connectors. You're never more vulnerable for muscle and joint issues than when you're adjusting your workout -- this is why.

Brilliant work by Porky tonight. Just rewatched the highlights of his game and one of the things that immediately stood out to me was the number of 3 pitch strikeouts. 9 innings, 86 pitches. Phenomenal. You can't do it better than that.

Only free agency is all about the money. What you should be criticising is the players that are all about free agency. Players only get a few chances to secure their futures with a big contract. I don't blame them for wanting to make the most of it.

Anyone can pop a hammy.

It was a good bit of improv though. Relievers are often rather poor at situational defense, since it doesn't come up very often for them, and JBJ did a great job of exposing Holder by faking back to third before making for the plate. Besides, the throw to third is a pretty conventional play in this situation too, given the choice I'd rather have a third baseman attempt the kind of sprinting throws a rundown can require rather than a relief pitcher. if JBJ hadn't broken hard and fast for the plate and made one of the best slides I've seen in years, it would have worked too. Although if he's going to throw it, he really needs to throw it home rather than to third. He was trying to set up a rundown and was fooled by the fake back to third by JBJ, but he really needs to be focused above all on keeping runs off the board. If he throws home, the best case scenario for us is JBJ getting safely back to third base.

I'm not quite that pessimistic, but if we can't replace talent from the minors we're going to be overpaying for average guys to fill out the roster, so it's encouraging that of the guys on the team, we have plenty with demonstrated upside beyond their current performance level, including Benintendi, Devers and Swihart on offense, and Johnson on the pitching end. There's actually a good argument to be made for keeping our existing catching duo (Vaz and Leon), since they're never going to be that expensive and they make the pitching staff better. That cost savings will allow us to upgrade other areas of the team, especially keeping the rotation strong.

Based on these numbers, an interesting distinction. Leon seems to be your guy if you want to take a good pitcher and make him dominant. Vazquez seems to have the edge when it comes to taking fringy pitchers and getting the most possible out of them. And of course, Swihart's job is to be satisfactory defensively and try to win games with his bat if he can.

Yeah, but when a player is starting to recover from a stretch of terrible play, that's often what it looks like. It's an improvement to me that Pomeranz actually got out of those jams. Because he wasn't doing that before. If you understand what I mean

We need to make him happy. This man is in Ted Williams territory as one of the best outfielders we've ever had in team history. better than Ted in some ways, because Ted was a better hitter but terrible defensively, while Mookie is less of a pure hitter, but the real deal 5 tool complete package and already a 3 time member of the 20-20 club before he even turns 26. Pay the man!

It would be more telling if he didn't. Remember that a lot of Swihart's sample came in 2015 when he was terribly raw, and also that we're comparing him to two guys that are both well above average defenders who the pitchers have learned to trust over the years, while Swihart is relatively unknown to most of the current pitching staff (with the obvious exception of the guys who were here in 2015) Far from being surprised that there is less confidence in Swihart, it would be surprising if there wasn't. Leon and Vazqez' excellent reputation as defenders tends to create self fulfilling prophecies when it comes to pitchers putting faith in their ability to call games. Swihart doesn't have that advantage. I think also that it's encouraging that Steven Wright has had no real issues pitching to Swihart. If there's a pitcher who should be giving a bad catcher fits, it would be Wright, but Swihart's right there with everyone else. Further evidence that Swihart's issue is lack of development rather than lack of talent. Oh, and Wright should never pitch to Sandy Leon ever, ever again.

Anyone who thinks Vazquez is the starting catcher right now is not in touch with reality. Leon has been the starter since May. Vazquez is having a terrible year and is in danger of playing his way off the team. There's a reason that even a relatively mediocre performance by Swihart has been so refreshing. There IS reason to believe that Vazquez has a fight for his job on his hands as the third best catcher on the Red Sox this year. On a playoff team, it really can be all about what you've done for me lately. Matters are not helped when Vazquez is also having a down year *defensively,* while Swihart has shown significant improvement. That said, NWIH Vazquez clears waivers either, too many teams need good catching, and Vazquez is still overall a good catcher. But Vazquez has been playing so far beneath his own ability that a guy with upside who can bring some interesting utility to the position is drawing some attention to himself. This is not unusual, and is a normal part of the baseball life cycle. Sooner or later a guy has to perform to get playing time, and that goes for both Swihart and Vazquez.

One of the best midseason grabs in recent Red Sox history.

Matters are definitely helped when you have a solid rotation that can usually go 6+. All of Porcello, Price and Sale are good candidates to get you into that all-important 7th inning. If we get E-Rod and Wright back, we're going to have a very good bullpen because the rotation will help keep them alive.

Yes it has, Velazquez, Johnson and Workman have all proven themselves capable of pitching 1+ innings whenever we need it. All the better because having multiple options means we don't over tax one poor longsuffering arm like we did to Alfredo Aceves a few years back

They can when the record books are achieved by winning as many games as possible, which should be the goal anyway. I mean look at it objectively, would YOU trust Pomeranz as he is right now to pitch a critical game against NYY? I know he's been good in the past, but I'm not built to take that kind of leap of faith on a guy who has been bad all year. And while I agree that health is almost definitely a factor... it's August. He has very little time left to get healthy. He deserves a chance to show us if he's already recovered from whatever was bothering him early in the year, but if that doesn't happen we need to move on quickly and assess our other options for "his" playoff roster spot with as large a sample size as possible. He's HAD his chances this year, and he's not here next year so the only relevant question whether he can get his mojo back in this season -- and we've reached the literal last second for a guy who shows up to work every 5th day to put in some innings and prove that. He's got 4-5 possible starts between now and September and he's going to have to be lights out in all of them. We don't have TIME for more second chances.

Worth noting as well that Johnson's development trajectory is pretty similar to some other lefties we've seen in big league ball that went on to be solid contributors. His strikeout numbers are also highly encouraging, I really, really like his walk-to-strikeout ratio this year, that's often a sign of good things in the future. I don't think anyone saw him putting people away at quite the rate he was doing, his ability to miss bats was one of the things that kept him in the game last night, and that was a good lineup he was pitching against too. He's been doing a better job of not throwing ball 4 this year too. Johnson may wind up with a slightly more significant career than originally projected, given half a chance, especially if he can make an adjustment to curb the damage the home run ball is doing to him. He could wind up in a couple years being the third starter on a bad team, or as a valuable lower echelon inning burner on a good one. In short this kid's right on the cusp of exceeding expectations and it's time to discuss whether we should make room for him.

The side discussion on Pomeranz' performance is indicated in the OP and therefore relevant to the thread. After the disappearing act by Price last year, Pomeranz was the #3 starter behind Sale and Porcello. That has affected expectations this year with the way he's been fighting himself to try to pitch effectively. This is a team not just on a playoff run, but on a run for the all time record books. We can not tolerate dead weight in a starting rotation spot. Pomeranz' last start was encouraging but he has a lot of work to do to get back on form, and to see another young lefty starting to figure it out at the big league level, and hang in there against one of the better lineups in major league baseball, is encouraging enough that if Pomeranz continues to fight himself he's going to wind up sitting. We can not carry a negative producer in the rotation indefinitely.

Velazquez is too valuable right where he is. Relievers that can throw multiple quality innings in any given game are pure gold.

It comes down to a very simple set of questions 1: What is your job? 2: Did you do your job? A bit Belichickian, but it speaks to the main point. Pomeranz was supposed to be the #3 starter. Clearly, no one can dispute that he has not accomplished this. Brian Johnson was supposed to take the ball as an emergency replacement starter and not crap the bed. I think it's fair to say he's exceeded expectations. The upside difference between Pomeranz and Johnson there is no dispute, it's Pomeranz. But when Johnson is somewhere in his 80th percentile for performance, and Pomeranz is somewhere around the 15th percentile for his own, it's really easy to say that I'd rather have a guy who's not that skilled, but has his heart, head and arm all in the game, over a guy who's objectively better, but is scuffling, and probably hurt.

I started this thread mostly because there didn't seem to be a good spot to put opinions of the bullpen at the moment. What I wanted to say was, one of the things that's going to be lost in the massive strikeout count from Johnson, 3 HR's from Pearce, etc tonight, is that Brandon Workman was very impressive tonight, going 2 innings against a very powerful lineup. His contribution helped keep the game under control and prevented Cora from having to use higher leverage relievers in a blowout, so well done to him. I also wanted to add that Workman in particular is probably underrated by a lot of fans. I consider him a solid MR, he's shown good things this year and last. Since he was rotting in AAA before the deadline, we might almost consider Workman our deadline acquisition in the pen. He's as good at what he does as anyone in the bullpen not named Craig Kimbrel, and to be honest about it.