Dojji

While Devers will come around, I would like to note once again for the record that Travis Shaw once again has very impressive power numbers, is leading a first place team in HR and RBI, and has a positive dWAR in Milwaukee as the everyday third basemen. We let a good one get away, there.

I think Pomeranz might ease into a relief role. He can play that super important multiple inning relief role, he's done it before. He could be far more valuable pitching quality relief than he is stinking up the last spot in the rotation. At the moment I simply have more faith in the replacement guys like Velazquez and Johnson than in Pomeranz.

People were getting starry eyed over his potential back in 15, I honestly was willing to give him a chance but injury prevented that from ever happening. Tough luck for the kid, but the one thing we can not do is pretend it's still 2015 and those injuries never happened. We have two catchers right now that are very good at making the pitching staff look good. People who like to have offense from every position are pulling for Swihart because of that prejudice but we don't have a problem at the catching position now. Leon is an adequate starter, Vazquez is at least a competent backup. That doesn't leave any room to play Swihart at his primary position. And when they've tried to squeeze Swihart into the lineup and give him a chance to play despite not really having a position for him, he hasn't wowed them. That's on Swihart. He's gotten chances. He just hasn't managed to capitalize on them. Personally I think he's headed out of town by 7/31. We don't really need him and can't really play him, so some team that remembers 2015 is probably going to offer more than he's worth to us.

Wright looked really, really solid. The weird thing about Wright compared to most knockleballers is that he throws two different knucklers, a Dickey style harder knuckler and a Wakefield style floater, and they were both dancing last night. Anytime you get through 7 IP on less than 100 pitches you're doing something right. Very encouraging to see him back on his 2016 form in the early going. When he's on his game Wright is a very good starting pitcher with #3 ability. The team has got to find out if he's that guy this year. If he is, he's worth a lot more than if he's just a decent long reliever. If Wright can secure that spot in the rotation and produce quality outings, the rotation as a whole starts to look very sexy indeed. I think Mr. Pomeranz may have just lost his job for the time being. Anyone else agree?

In other words, you see him becoming Matt LeCroy. Bench guy with a bit of stick to him who can play catcher but probably shouldn't. There's worse ways to go. LeCroy made a decent career for himself as a roleplayer. If Swihart finishes up somewhere between Hatteberg and LeCroy, I'd call that successful.

Doubt Swihart ever reaches the level of defensive consistency of either of those two gentlmen -- but I certainly wouldn't turn up my nose at a Scott Hatteberg, if I thought we had one.

A young player struggling with consistency? Naw, say it isn't so. There is zero reason not to let Devers stay on the job and work out his issues right now. Team is doing well, and no one denies Devers' talent. This is the perfect time to absolutely not panic.

Well the alernative at the moment is probably putting Steven Wright out there every 5th day. Not sure that's a better proposition or a worse one, but he's the only guy you're going to stretch out in a hurry. Swapping Wright into the rotation and Pomeranz in the bullpen is potentially feasible, if the team thinks Wright is healthy enough.

Ton of teams just as talented as 2004 Boston that never got to the promised land, much less did it twice.

question in the title. CV and Leon both have very good track records for their defense, but Vazquez is below the Mendoza line, and Leon is just barely above it. We are getting negative oWAR from the catching position right now, and while it's not the end of the world, it's something to think about. Do you think the Red Sox make a move at some point to pick up a catcher with a bit more stick? Or is the obvious defensive skills of Vazquez and Leon and success of the rotation under their guidance enough to make up for the hole in the lineup? What are your thoughts? Personally I'm satisfied with the catching tandem we have, at least in theory. But watching either one of those men walk up to the plate with 2 outs and a RISP is not fun sometimes, and it's easy to lose perspective when an inning doesn't go your way because one of those guys came to the plate, wet paper bag in hand. I can kind of see both sides here, but I lean towards being happy with the catcher situation.

Not worried about Jackie at all. He's steaky, we all get that. If he's regressed, he's still a rock solid 4th OF and we can assemble a hell of an outfield without him. I don't see any reason to be all that alarmed. Personally I think he catches fire in June and July and carries the team for a month and a half like he does every year, and the skeptics get to spend the middle of the season eating their words before the annual September slump

Nothing wrong with Cora's performance so far. He's been solid, and put the team in a position to make the most of their ability to this point. I wasn't really concerned about Cora at the outset, although I did want a more experienced field manager at the time Cora was hired (I wanted DeMarlo Hale). I'm very satisfied with the work he's doing. No knock on Farrell, who is, I've said all along, an average manager at worst, and one who did some good work for us and had to take it hard on the chin when the FO misfired in 14 and 15 but was a good soldier about it -- but Cora does seem to be a few ticks better than average, so the team did improve itself by moving from Farrell to Cora.

Personally I'm never too upset when the 4 and 5 starters go 5+. Their job at that spot in rotation is simply not to be overmatched and give the team a chance to win, if you can get more from the 4th and 5th guy than that, it's pretty much gravy in my mind. Far as I'm concerned, Eddie did his job. He kept the scoreboard clean so that Cora could use the lower options in his bullpen to finish the game rather than taxing the key relief arms, and pushed into the 6th inning. For a mid-echelon starter, that's exactly Eddie's job description. The fact that he hung up 5 zeros is a bonus that made the game easier for the offense. I'll take it.

Yes, and little guys never seem to age all that well. Probably because they have to throw theor bodies around that much more in order to compete with the big players. I've been concerned about age catching up to Pedey for years now, you all know this if you've been here any length of time. Injury was one of the things I was worried about. Quite frankly, I can envision a scenario where Pedey can't come back and the replacements aren't cutting it, and we are in the market for a new 2B. It would hgardly be the strangest occurrence in the history of baseball. Like I said in the other post, keep an eye on Ben Zobrist. If the Cubs are either having trouble, or comfortable with their young guys, I'd expect him to be on the table. Love to bring the guy in, he's a great player to bring in and put a team over the top, he did that in KC and in CHC. With Javier Baez beasting, Zobrist is a bit of a luxury, and could be had. Would not at all be surprised if the Sox made a play for the guy.

We've had this conversation before. In fact if memory serves, we've had it every single year Brockstar was healthy. He's got a pattern. He'll come out guns blazing, then wear down or get exposed as the season wears on. Compare his first half performance to his second half performance to see what I mean. IF you try to project the season based on what Holt does in April, he's always in the MVP race, then he cools way off. I think there's little doubt that Brock Holt will NOT be the starting 2B for Boston by the end of August. In fact given how these things usually work and the amount of cross movement between the Cubs and Red Sox I wouldn't rule out being in desperate need of a MI at the deadline, and the Red Sox going out and bringing in a mercenary like Ben Zobrist. But then I've wanted that guy for years anyway.

I never got the outrage over the move. Zimmer's charging towards Pedro. Grounding him is actually one of the less violent ways he can respond to this. It's basically what any decent self defense teacher would tell you to do in that situation, as it minimizes risk of injury both to yourself and to the person attacking you. Yes given Zimmer's age there was still SOME risk, but it was still one of the gentler ways Pedro could have handled the decision, short of simply running away from Zimmer.

Probably not. The FO was right and Tito knew it. That's why he had to take a year or two off and get his health back in line before he could manage again. I mean, Tito's ego could still have gotten in the way or something, but it's really hard to make a case for an organization being insulting over something that's absolutely accurate.

Lin could probably be a starting 2B for the bottom third of the league, but he's going to fade if he gets exposed. He's a good tap hitter with some speed, and a soid middle infielder, but not a star. I like him in the Alex Cora style role, supersub and pinch runner. He can def start if he needs to. But any of Holt, Nunez or Petroia will outperform him as a starter for an extended period of time. That said he's been impressive as a fill in, and I'm def glad we have him. He's very useful a a depth option and like I said, I think he could start at an average-or-so level based on the very low bar 2B tend to have to clear offensively, especially with a little experience. Reminds me somewhat of Chris Getz or Willie Harris and they made half decent MLB careers for themselves. But if given time to really get exposed he's not going to be hitting for a .900 OPS, that's for absolutely certain. Absolute ceiling for Lin is a Chone Figgins style career. I don't see him getting there. That said a serviceable tweener utility man/long term fill in guy can make an MLB career for himself, and would be a good outcome for Lin. He's definitely worth working with, but he won't beat Pedey or Bogey once those two are healthy.

I fully recognize that this all is pure woulda-coulda-shoulda. Which is why I wish they'd kept some kind of contractural hold on Tito even while he had to take some time to get his health in order.

One thing that stands out sharply this year is JBJ's having very little success against lefthanded pitching. Being able to shape his playing time in favor of his platoon strengths is a luxury we definitely have this year.

Anyone else impressed by Tzu-Wei Lin so far? He's been a breath of fresh air in the utility role. IIRC he made a good showing for himself last year as well.

We survived Manny, we could survive JD.

I was fired from my job at the call center last year, and I've had my head down trying to find new work. No luck so far. I'm not technically unemployed since I'm volunteering for my church on a part time basis, but the money situation is... distinctly unfun. The offseason was so boring I simply had nothing to say, since we all knew the Red Sox would more or less sit pat. And April in a baseball forum is mostly a time for unserious "If this trend continues" jokes that I got tired of 10 years ago. And I agree, there's nothing wrong with JBJ. But we have 3 other elite outfielders so if his bat disappears on him, or he continues to be his usual super streaky self, Beni, Betts and Martinez could Wally Pipp him between them pretty easily.

It's going to take a lot of work to beat Tito's performance. Terry Francona is an excellent manager, and he's proven his quality by taking Cleveland into the playoffs several times after he left us. I think I was never madder at the Red Sox for any single decision they made, than I was when they fired Terry Francona. John Farrell was an adequate replacement, but he just wasn't Tito. Tito did need that sabbatical year or two he took after he was fired to get his health in order, but after that, he should have come back here, and we should have let him take his sabbatical and let DeMarlo Hale (the bench coach at the time) manage the team in his absence until he felt he could come back. Hale would have done a fine job, and then we'd still have Tito. But that's water under the bridge now.

Let's hit the nail right on the head here -- the fact is that we can spare JBJ. Either of Beni or Mookie can move to centerfield. My preference is Beni, since that disrupts the fewest positions. LF JD RF Mookie CF Beni That works. In fact that doesn't just work, it's a pretty danged elite outfield with a strong balance of offense and defense provided Beni holds up at CF, which since he came up through the system as a CF we have no reason to doubt. Now there's nothing wrong with JBJ, but if he starts to get into one of his major slumps he's going to be collecting splinters on the bench much quicker than he might have in prior seasons. JBJ is a solidly above average CF, but if he's being pushed into a 4th OF role by 3 All-Star level players (Beni, JD and Mookie), that's fair. And the fact is that consistency has been a huge issue for the guy even in years where the numbers looked strong. I don't think there's a reason to be down on JBJ. It's more like, if a team has such a good outfield that a player like JBJ who would be starting for at least 20 other teams is you #4 guy, that's a testament to the overall strength of the team.