Dojji

Since he did such a fantastic job of following up on it, I have to say yes.

Indeed, besides which it doesn't take Billy Beane to notice that our most glaring infield weakness is at the corners. Moving to 3B puts Moncada in position to potentially inherit either of Boston's 2 most transient infield positions right now. I still think it's distinctly possible that Moncada is destined to be our everyday First Basemen for an extended period of his career. He's got the bat for it, and while relatively immobile players can play 1B it is a position that rewards a high level of athleticism as well. It depends on whether Shaw or Moncada is the better defender at third, and combining Shaw's above average performance defensively with the fact that Moncada is fairly inexperienced and has some problems focusing on his defense from all accounts, I can see Shaw winning that.

Even ignoring that nonsense, nobody is "right" yet. In fact it's impossible to know who's "right" until the END of NEXT YEAR at the earliest. If he has a massive regression at any time over the next year plus, people are going to blame the fact that he was "rushed." Just like they did with JBJ and for the same reason. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who recognizes just how short the attention span of the average baseball fan is. It's like you guys haven't spent years and decades seeing all this before. And the irony is I'm probably one of the younger fans on the site. Benintendi is enjoying a surge of success against pitchers who haven't figured him out yet. Good that he can do this to big leaguers, but it means nothing else. Not yet.

I feel like it's important to play down Leon's offensive successes because of the mirage factor. I mean we're talking about a guy who has never hit well over a full season in his life. It's almost literally unprecedented for a guy like that to turn his career around out of nowhere. It's still far more probable that he'll collapse into a smoking ruin again than that he won't. I'm pulling hard for him, but the facts are the facts, this is far more likely to be a fluke than that this is the new real Sandy Leon.

Then the problem is the run differential. Next question: You have an all-world offense and a mediocre pitching staff. Which area is the best one to try to "improve" to increase run differential? Where are you likely to be able to manage real improvements with the greatest efficienty (hint: it isn't the offense)

Dead on, MVP. Nail on head. Benintendi is a sideshow to the real issues facing the team right now. And we have no bloody idea whether calling him up this early is a good idea. Probably won't have one until the middle of next year in fact. Don't throw a shoulder patting yourselves on the back guys. The sample we've seen from Beni is literally nothing. No meaningful evidence can be drawn from Beni's performance until pitchers start seeing him a second and third time. How many guys is it now where we get all exuberant about the first handful of performances and then less than a month later, it's a full 100% consensus that the guy "****ing sucks." Hint: it's quite a few.

This is largely a new staff compared to April 2016, really very little of the rotation this year turned out as expected.

THen I misinterpreted you, but considering the context of what I originally responded to, I do feel you should be clearer that you feel that Shaw is a potential long term option. I like the depth of having a guy like Moncada in the wings for the next 2 years. I don't think there's any rush on calling him up.

That actually happens to be the leadoff position, where a highly efficient hitter gets the most PA's. We have other good cleanup hitters, especially Big Papi. Not every power hitter needs to be 3-4-5

If Vazquez's problem is consistency, camping out on the bench is not going to help him. You call him up to sit on the bench if and only if you've given up on him as a starting catcher.

Slow stretches in the offense are normal. You kind of have to hope that some people heat up as others cool down.

I have a hunch that Sandy Leon won't forget entirely how to hit. I dunno if I see an OPS of .900 in his future but I do see a guy who could avoid being a complete black hole.

Good analysis, but you forgot that we have a starting 3B. It's not smart to write Shaw off like that. He's been quite a nice find, well above league average 3B for pennies on the dollar is more than we could have hoped for when we realized the embarrassing state Pablo was in. Travis Shaw is right exactly at the level I *hoped* he'd perform at, I was hoping for between .750 and .800 OPS with tolerable defense, and he's met or exceeded that, I think both his offense and his defense are solidly above average. I do not like the idea of rushing a prospect into the majors when we have a guy getting the job done in that position, even if there is potentially room for some improvement. Catcher and LF are more fluid, since we don't have bona fide starters in either position at the moment, but I think we need to see what we have from Travis Shaw -- given a couple more seasons at this performance level, Shaw would become an asset that's worth real value in trade. I feel very strongly that Moncada will find a way into the lineup no matter what, but that patience with Travis Shaw will be well rewarded.

I agree with this, in theory, but there's no reason it can't go the other way. Holt is capable of going on a run. With his extreme inexperience I doubt that that is the most likely outcome. Because of all the vast amount of games Benintendi has spent in LF? Benintendi has spent 8 games in left field in his frigging life and only started there 6 times. It's a good way to lay the odds since he's athletic enough to be effective in centerfield, but calling that "known" is pure poppycock. Now I'm not saying he sucks there, in fact I have no doubt that Benintendi can easily learn to play LF, as a CF in the minors it should be well within his capabilities, but to say he's already good there is just wrong. It's much like the whole Shaw being the everyday 3B thing, no reason he can't do it but until he demonstrates there, a little restraint in judgment is in order. As gifted as Benintendi is, there is some learning he will have to do in order to fully adjust to playing corner OF when he's used to center. It's similar to Betts learning RF which took him some time and cost him some very bad routes on a few balls, and for very much the same reason. Learning any new position is a process, and the outfield positions, while more fluid than most infield transitions, are not an exception to this.

I have my doubts that any PR disaster would stick on the Sox FO if they compalined. "We wuz tricked" is pretty compelling if they were handed damaged goods for a high value asset. If the Sox aren't complaining, it's probably because they're still comfortable with the return they got.

Since returning from his concussion Holt has a slash line of .284/.354/.446/.800 -- perfectly adequate. I'm not in a hurry to play Benintendi at the expense of Holt right now, the chance that he'll improve on a .800 OPS line at this stage in his career is substantially less than the chance of Holt continuing to play adequately.

Yes, good job. That's why I used the word "Besides." It's a great word, and it means "in addition to" or "aside from," in no way connoting a connection to the original comment.

Jacko's right. Besides, the trade is in no way imbalanced. Both teams took large risks and got a return that could just as easily be awesome, or blow up in their faces.

I don't want to change the Pomeranz deal. I still think that the deal will do more good than harm to us. Unless TJ surgery or some other very longterm injury/surgery is in the immediate future and the Padres knew it, I'd still rather have Pomeranz than Espinosa when we're trying to win now. One thing is certain, I'm not judging Pomeranz over that piddling handful of starts he's made for us.

Not to mention starting his "clock" when you didn't need to. If I had to guess, I'd say the only reason to do that would be if you were 200% confident that it didn't matter because Beni would be with the team permanently by the middle of next year anyway.

Esp is gone, let him go. It does us no good to fixate on a Padres prospect. Judge Pomeranz based on Pomeranz.

We already knew we might need to treat Pomeranz with kid gloves. Unless it's an elbow or a risk of TJ, i'm not too concerned.

Hangan to the DL with an ankle injury, says half of Twitter.

I still am not comfortable counting on Leon to stay this hot.

Yeah, it's either Hanigan or it's Leon. Or we carry 3 catchers, which I VERY much doubt. Reasonably certain Leon is out of minor league options.