Dojji

He's a good candidate for rapid decline, not great defensively, and he only has one really above average offensive tool. Pass on Figgins.

He can play it but he's not exactly great there. Figgins is a hugely overrated defender. UZR/150 lists 3B as his only really competent defensive position.

The only one we haven't seen before is Lowell at first.

Lowell at first, Martinez behind the plate, Lowrie at third.

So the language barrier was a bigger issue than I thought it should be. I apologize for being a jerk about it then. You had a reason to be confused that I wasn't seeing.

He'd be a fine backup catcher. He's hamstrung by the fact that he still has an option year left though. I think our backup next year is most likely Kottaras, and that the Sox believe that Kottaras has a nonzero chance of turning his power and patience into something at the big league level.

In baseball terms, then, strategy is planning and executing a big-picture plan to ensure that everyone has enough rest and enough work and is being used right so that the team makes the playoffs and is healthy enough to make noise once they get there. Tactics is in game moves designed to pull off an individual game or series win. And there's probably some things stuck in the middle, like bullpen and bench management, that have both strategic and tactical elements. Tito is an excellent long term strategist who has proven himself very willing to forego short term gain for long term benefit. He manages the tactical aspects of the bench and bullpen reasonably. Most of the areas you can fault him fall under not going for the best chance to win any individual game. His strategic strength and his tactical weakness are the same thing.

On the other hand, as a middle infielder with a .900 or so OPS he would have beaten competition that was a fair bit stiffer than he actually faced.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/strategy Synonyms: 1. In military usage, a distinction is made between strategy and tactics. Strategy is the utilization, during both peace and war, of all of a nation's forces, through large-scale, long-range planning and development, to ensure security or victory. Tactics deals with the use and deployment of troops in actual combat. If it applies to probably the two most powerful influences on national culture (business and the military) the distinction can probably be said to exist.

Agreed.

I take it you didn't actually read the links LMGTFY provided? The third one would have answered you quite nicely.

Brown gets on base decently and does have an excellent arm, but he's not the best in the world at keeping the pitch in front of him.

Change that to "in game tactics" and I'm on board.

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=strategy+tactics

Synonyms don't always mean exactly the same thing. Usually the thesaurus follows a "rule of close enough" when establishing what is a synonym of what. It's that way with "strategy" and "tactics." For people who know the two words well, "Strategy" implies something grander and more big-picture, while "Tactics" is immediate, close range decision making. Tito's strategic thinking is as solid as they come. His tactics leave some room for argument -- but so doesn't everyone else's.

Synonyms don't ALWAYS mean EXACTLY the same thing. It's one of those titchy, quaint little rules of English. In military terms, a tactical weapon is something that could take out a heavily armored bunker. A strategic weapon is something that takes out the bunker, and the entire city around it. In WWII, Tactical bombings targeted enemy troops, command posts and facilities to destroy armies, strategic bombings attacked cities and economies to destroy the enemy's ability to replace their armies. Tactics are quite often how you accomplish a strategy. In baseball your strategy is how you attack the entire season, managing the roster, lineup, rotation and bullpen so that you get to October not just as a playoff bound team, but in shape to do something about it. That's partly on Theo but Tito definitely plays his role. It was Grady Little's utter inability to do this well that cost him his job here. As a big picture strategist Tito is superb. Tactics are in-game stuff. Bunts, pinch hitters, pinch runners, defensive replacements, that kind of thing. I think we're too close to Tito to really give him an honest rating of his tactics, since our judgement and the emotions of whether something worked or not will weigh far too heavily into the decision. Also because even the best tactics don't work sometimes and when they don't they can leave the manager looking pretty silly.

It's simple. Strategy is your general policy on how to attack a problem. Tactics are the minute adjustments you make based on the real situation. for example: Strategy is the decision to keep your starter to a 110-count pitch limit or so in this game and plan the lineup and defense, and which relievers you plan on going to in the course of the game. Tactics is taking a look at the situation and making the call on when to take him out early or maybe push him for one more out, and the use of pinch hitters, pinch runners or defensive replacements. Tito's strategies are usually both good and intuitive. Tactics are always a crapshoot. Yes, even with a guy like LaRussa, the pinch hitter fails to lay down the bunt far more often than he succeeds..

Strategy is not the same thing as tactics. Tito's strategy (general policy on how to run a season) is excellent and generally leaves us in great shape for the postseason. The only thing you can even criticize is his tactics, which are average.

http://www.3simplerules.com/images/digging.jpg Keep digging.

Roque earned the Soxprospects.com All Star award for second basemen in the Sox organization. In fairness, the competiton was not precisely stiff.

If it was serious, I don't think even Trey Hillman would have left him out there to qualify for the win.

I can't be accused of putting words in your mouth when in an attempt to refute those words you wind up saying the exact same thing.

To be more specific, there were 7 pitches clearly within the objective strike zone that were called balls. 3 Boston pitches and 4 Anaheim pitches. Pretty equal all told.