mvp 78

that is certainly true.

I think him being overmatched by 90mph heaters in the middle of the zone has people a little worried.

I think the pile would be a little shorter.

Not satisfied, Scully dug some more and found an even earlier example. Long before either Williams faced a defensive shift, a manager named Ferguson had moved his second baseman to the shortstop side of the bag against a right-handed hitter. "So if you're talking about shifts," Scully said, "it might go to 1877."

Here's a shift in 1969: https://twitter.com/peterhartlaub/status/954575820168749056/photo/1?tfw_site=ringer&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theringer.com%2Fmlb%2F2018%2F3%2F9%2F17099736%2Fmlb-preview-past-present-future-of-outfield-shifting-phillies

Wasn't the shift created to combat Teddy Ballgame?

If Vaz/Leon start to hit and Pedey takes over 2b full time, I think the hand-wringing about JBJ goes away.

Well, basketball has Tommy Points. Maybe the Sox need Dirt Doggers?

I think his body holds up, I don't think his numbers do.

Nah. I don't think he holds up for the rest of the year.

If he was hitting 250, we'd all be good with him.

More on the Red Sox, who’d “likely want bullpen help and/or a prospect” in a trade for center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr., Cafardo observes. Boston spurned teams’ interest in Bradley in the offseason and has since gotten off to one of the majors’ best starts, though the 28-year-old hasn’t contributed to that as much as expected. Bradley has posted an ugly .165/.267/.252 line in 146 trips to the plate, leading Alex Speier of the Boston Globe to wonder if the Red Sox could consider demoting him despite his $6.1MM salary when second baseman Dustin Pedroia comes off the disabled list soon. While it’s a long shot, Speier concedes, a Bradley-less Red Sox team would still feature the enviable outfield trio of Mookie Betts in right, Andrew Benintendi in center and J.D. Martinez in left.

The Rangers had interest in Red Sox utilityman Blake Swihart as recently as a week ago, per Cafardo, who notes “that avenue may still be available.” A catcher by trade, Swihart’s out of options and doesn’t seem to have a place on this year’s Red Sox, which led his agent to request a trade earlier this week. Still, Boston’s unsure about parting with the 26-year-old, Cafardo suggests. If the Sox do explore a deal, though, there are other fits besides Texas, as MLBTR’s Steve Adams pointed out Wednesday.

Machado looked like s*** at SS this past series. JD has played a ton of DH which impacts WAR. oWAR: Betts 28 Trout 23.8 Machado 19.9 Martinez 18.9

http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/red-sox/content/20140822-jackie-bradley-jr.-not-worried-about-addition-of-rusney-castillo.ece This is what he had to say the last time his swing was broken: Jackie Bradley, Jr. has heard the analysis about his swing. He has heard that it is broken, that it can’t succeed at the major-league level, that it needs to be shortened. He is sick of hearing all this. ″‘Shorten the swing.’ I’ve heard that so many times. The swing is short when you make contact and long when you miss it,” he said. “This whole so-called ‘shorten the swing,’ it’s just talk, I feel like.” It’s talk coming from outsiders and insiders alike. Most every Red Sox coach asked about Bradley’s swing mentions its length. “He’s floating a little, a little late being on time with the front side, creating a long swing,” assistant hitting coach Victor Rodriguez said two weeks ago, when Bradley’s struggles were deepening. “His swing at times can get a little lengthy,” manager John Farrell said then. “That’s what forces him to commit early to certain pitches.” Minor-league hitting coordinator Tim Hyers, when asked Friday what might be different about Bradley’s swing now compared to when he was tearing up Double-A two years ago, pointed to its length. “He probably has a swing maybe just a hair longer than he probably would want it to be,” said Hyers, who also spent considerable time with the major-league club this season when Greg Colbrunn was out sick. “He can come down here and shorten some things up and get back in a groove.” Bradley isn’t quite buying all the criticism. He feels like his swing is “very similar if not the same as in the past,” and thus “there’s nothing saying that it can’t work.” “I’m continuing to make adjustments and just doing it. Stop trying to make it so much more complicated than what it really is -- mechanical this, mechanical that,” Bradley said. “I’m getting back to just doing it, what I’ve always done my whole life and when I was successful. You don’t need to think. You don’t have time to think when you play this game. You just do it.” “You’re just trying to help Jackie feel comfortable in the batter’s box,” said Hyers. “We know he has talent, we know he can hit. It’s just getting to that position consistently.” Bradley said earlier this week that his confidence hasn’t flagged during this trying season and that it “will never waver as long as I’ve got breath in my body.” The line between self-confidence and stubbornness, though, can be thin. This is, after all, the first time Bradley has endured a slump of this depth. He entered the system as a polished college hitter, and he experienced almost non-stop success until reaching the major leagues. “You have to go through things,” Hyers said. “That’s the reason experience is a valuable commodity. You learn something about your swing each time you go out and compete. To me, the more he has experience, the more he plays, he’s learning about himself.” Bradley is trying not to get bogged down by outside analysis of his swing. “It’s so much easier to analyze it when it’s in slow motion. You stop, replay and pause it. I can see the same things, as well,” he said. “Outside voices or not, it’s just you as a person being able to tune it out regardless. I’m never one to blame anything or anybody or outside voices. I just focus on what I have to do in order to help the team.” For the time being, he’s also ignoring the ramifications Boston’s imminent addition of outfielder Rusney Castillo will have on his future in the organization. The team’s aggressive pursuit of Castillo and long-term commitment -- through the 2020 season -- would almost certainly not have happened had Bradley performed better offensively this year. With Castillo, Yoenis Cespedes, Allen Craig, Shane Victorino and Daniel Nava all on the roster as outfielders, there isn’t a lot of room for Bradley, who this time a season ago was one of the most prized prospects in the system. “I’m not worried about it,” he said. “I’m worried about what I’ve got to take care of. That’s it.” Has he thought at all about what the move says about his standing in the organization? “I focus on what I can control. I lay the rest elsewhere. Them signing an outfielder, it’s not affecting me,” Bradley said. “Everyone has their own paths. You’ve got to run your own race. Sometimes if the race needs to be I guess altered, it just happens. I’m just going to focus on what I can control and let the chips fall where they may.” JBJ never comes across as a guy who can take criticism well (see the Eck controversy). Interesting to note that his AAA hitting instructor in 2014 is his instructor again this year. Maybe there's tension between the two?

He's struggled with his swing mechanics for a long while. I believe the loopiness of his swing makes it harder for him to hit fastballs. Right now, he's getting killed by fastballs. https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=12984&position=OF#pitchvalues

I'm really not a fan of QS. It's fine for what it is, but I agree with a lot of the criticisms of it.

Whose years of experience?

I don't think so. Couldn't find evidence of that. From wikipedia: Criticisms High ERA An early criticism of the statistic, made by Moss Klein, writing in The Sporting News, is that a pitcher could conceivably meet the minimum requirements for a quality start and record a 4.50 ERA, seen as undesirable at the time. Bill James addressed this in his 1987 Baseball Abstract, saying the hypothetical example (a pitcher going exactly 6 innings and allowing exactly 3 runs) was extremely rare amongst starts recorded as quality starts, and that he doubted any pitchers had an ERA over 3.20 in their quality starts. This was later confirmed through computer analysis of all quality starts recorded from 1984 to 1991, which found that the average ERA in quality starts during that time period was 1.91.[4] Complete games Another criticism against the statistic is that it is not beneficial for pitchers who pitch many innings per start. If a pitcher allows three earned runs in six innings, he gets a quality start with an ERA of 4.50 for that game. But if a pitcher pitches for nine innings and allows four earned runs, he would have a 4.00 ERA, but would not get a quality start. Former pitcher Carl Erskine said "in my day, a quality start was a complete game ... you gave everybody a day's rest."[5]

Josh Bard just feinted.

Nunez just lets balls eat him up. He's a poor infielder. His glove is much better as a backup OF.

If Player A has a 5.0 WAR and Player B has a 5.3 WAR, I wouldn't necessarily say that either player is better or worse. I would say they are comparable. However, if Player C has a 3.0 WAR, I'd assume that A and B are far superior to C. WAR is just a way to compare players from different teams and different positions for the overall value they provide to a team. Is the calculation the greatest thing in the world? No, but I'm not sure there is one silver bullet stat or metric that is the end all be all. However, stats at least try to mitigate the biases that hurt the value of the "eye test."

Outside chance that Nunez hits the DL.

And that his fielding is comparable too because of scouting reports from 2014.

@peteabe #RedSox are changing their rotation a little with the day off. Sale, Price and Porcello at TB. Looks like Pomeranz is being pushed back until Saturday against Atlanta.