jung

There are almost more reasons for a take than there are for a swing though you would not know it the way many modern hitters go up to the plate hackin'. Teddy Baseball has got to be turning in his grave.

Not sure they are waiting for the Change as much as they are hackin' so much that they have no idea where Price is actually throwing it. If you are determined to swing you are never going to get a good look at what a pitcher is throwing. It is just not possible to go up to the plate hackin' every time and have any clue where the Pitcher is throwing the baseball. Like Zunnino swinging at a pitch a foot outside and having the laughable audacity to turn to the ump and ask him if he swung at a strike. What you see during an actual swing is almost entirely different from what you see on a take. You won't know what you actually swung at many times until you view the video and even that is not really that helpful.

At least Duffy failed to check at a pitch that at least looked like it might be a strike. So many hitters now come to plate absolutely determined to swing before they even get to the batter's box.

Another Ray hacking at everything with no idea what he is swinging at.

So typical...Garcia finally gets something he can hit and has screwed himself into the batters box so many times that he can't hit a pitch that he CAN hit.

Something Garcia didn't swing at ....geez

I think its 4 but I could be wrong.

Heck, other than a move for a starter the Yankmees have better players on the IL than they can trade for. Astros are another story and as much as we have focused on the Yankmees, I am not convinced that the AL team that makes it to the big dance comes out of the AL East this year anyway...not us, not the Yankmees and not the Rays.

Now it depends on when the Yankmees get their team back. They are really hurting now. When does LeMahuie come back and when he comes back, does he come back the way Altuve came back for the Astros last year....barely able to move at all? He's not in tonight's lineup AGAIN. When does Sanchez come back....Betances. How about Gardner, Bird. Andujar, Stanton or CC? They can play without Andujar, Bird and Stanton because they have all year. But they need another starter, DESPERATELY and they need a big infusion from the hospital beds. IMO, the Yankmees are suddenly very vulnerable. Now nobody may get past the Astros this year. Frankly I never bought the BS that the injuries that the Astros had last year were meaningless....The hell they were. They were a crippled team and they played like a crippled team. But IMO the Yankmees are coming apart at the seams this year and that has left the door open for the Sox as a WC team as long as they get there. If it were not for the ambulatory Yankmees, I would say, stand pat Sox, maybe add a lower level relief arm and let what happens happen. But the Yankmees health situation has changed the dynamics of the playoff run IMO.

Well we need somebody. I don't at all see Nate as a closer. He pitches to contact too much and too much of it is hard contact. So we still don't have a closer. The way the bullpen sets up right now we are still going to end up throwing Work and Barnes until their arms fall off and Work is simply the best guy we have to close at present. He is no closer either. I also do not think Cora will be able to rub his magic, post season starters become relievers while still being scheduled for more starts lamp successfully if we end up in a real post season series. We actually need Diaz or his equal or better, not worse than Diaz.

1. Matt Duffy ® 3B 2. Travis d'Arnaud ® 1B 3. Austin Meadows (L) LF 4. Avisail Garcia ® RF 5. Michael Brosseau ® 2B 6. Nate Lowe (L) DH 7. Willy Adames ® SS 8. Guillermo Heredia ® CF 9. Mike Zunino ® C 1. Mookie Betts ® RF 2. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 3. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 4. J.D. Martinez ® DH 5. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 6. Mitch Moreland (L) 1B 7. Christian Vazquez ® C 8. Brock Holt (L) 2B 9. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF

I think the Sox might part with a current everyday player. As much as I like JBJ's defense and his hitting when he is hot for all of a couple weeks at a time, I might be willing to part with JBJ. Sheds salary and we by God know his ceiling with specificity.

Some talking heads stating that the Sox are now looking elsewhere for a lower level alternative to Diaz.

Anyway at this point there is only lukewarm interest apparently between Sox and Mets for a deal. Apparently the nutty Mets are talking beni for diaz and that is just crazy talk. I am not averse to trading beni but I want to trade high on beni and beni/diaz is not trading high on beni. I have no idea what the mets are doing and we might just have to avoid them entirely. If they flip Stroman then Mets world is back on axis again. If they don't I remain having no clue.

I might not have been so willing on Diaz or any other Closer for that matter until the Yankees suffered another round of injuries. Adding LeMahieu, Gardner, Sanchez, CC to the already long list of Betances, Bird, Andujar Severino and Stanton has really been a killer for them. Before we get all excited about taking 3/4 who were we missing from our roster for that series....Pearce, Wright, Johnson???? Big deal! The Yanks have proven they can win without Stanton, Bird, Andujar. LeMahieu, Gardner, Sanchez, Betances are another story. Not sure how many key pieces they get back to their puzzle for the stretch run nor how long it will take to get them back into playing shape. Suddenly looks more than possible to get past them in a series with a solid Closer in our stable. Even if they get those pieces back, they need another Starter IMO.

I would give Chavis for Diaz though even that might not be enough. Chavis is not going to help the Red Sox win some future championship and Diaz might just get the Sox over the hill in a WC run to the ALCS. Dalbec or Chavis for Diaz would be fine with me.

From the mlb web site: Definition. OPS+ takes a player's on-base plus slugging percentage and normalizes the number across the entire league. It accounts for external factors like ballparks. It then adjusts so a score of 100 is league average, and 150 is 50 percent better than the league average. From Fangraphs: On-base Plus Slugging Plus (OPS+) has not gained as much widespread acceptance, but is a more informative metric than OPS. This statistic normalizes a player’s OPS — it adjusts for small variables that might affect OPS scores (e.g. park effects) and puts the statistic on an easy-to-understand scale. A 100 OPS+ is league average, and each point up or down is one percentage point above or below league average. In other words, if a player had a 90 OPS+ last season, that means their OPS was 10% below league average. Since OPS+ adjusts for league and park effects, it’s possible to use OPS+ to compare players from different years and on different teams. From baseball reference which actually posts a "formula" Compute the runs created for the league with pitchers removed (basic form) RC = (H + BB + HBP)*(TB)/(AB + BB + HBP + SF) Adjust this by the park factor RC' = RC*BPF Assume that if hits increase in a park, that BB, HBP, TB increase at the some proportion. Assume that Outs = AB - H (more or less) do not change at all as outs are finite. Compute the number of H, BB, HBP, TB needed to produce RC', involves the quadratic formula. The idea for this came from the Willie Davis player comment in the Bill James New Historical Baseball Abstract. I think some others, including Clay Davenport have done some similar things. Using these adjusted values compute what the league average player would have hit lgOBP*, lgSLG* in a park. Take OPS+ = 100 * (OBP/lgOBP* + SLG/lgSLG* - 1) Note, in my database, I don't store lgSLG, but store lgTB and similarly for lgOBP and lg(Times on Base), this makes calculation of career OPS+ much easier. Give me a break. In other words according to its own definition, OPS+ accounts for external FACTORS as in more than one weighted factor. That is the very definition of multiple weighted factoring. So again, you are already corrupting your own data because you are employing multiple weighted factors in the one stat. You will need Manfred to come clean on the rocket ship and then give you a number. The weighted factor for the baseball could be very easily defined once Manfred comes clean. I am sure the ball manufacturer knows exactly what he is manufacturing and what he was manufacturing in 2015, 2016, 1018 and now in 2019. Manfred has most particularly to come up with a number for the 2019 ball as it is so far beyond the pale that comparing season and career stats that include even the 2016 season are essentially meaningless unless your cause is to herald today's hitters as the "greatest of all time"......Ah-huh! Once you have a weighted factor for the baseball, you could develop a stat for it but just as OPS+ is not a properly built stat, you will have to weight the baseball by itself, not glom it on to an already corrupted piece of data. By the way, ERA+ is the same gibberish only applied to ERA. Again, for those that want to have fun with numbers....be my guest. Anybody using these multiple weighted factor stats to negotiate contracts, draft or trade players or sign FA's needs his head examined.

Back when I was a season ticket holder, I don't remember this much sloppy play in a week of baseball. Seems to be an almost everyday occurrence now.

Actually I think the other two talk so much because some ESPN exec convinced the production crew that they had to find some way to keep Mendoza's trap shut! All three of them need to go. Worst baseball broadcast team ever conceived or employed. They should find the guy that had this idea and put him out of his misery so that he does not inflict us with any more brain farts like this one.

I refuse to listen to them. Mute them every single game and I leave the room when the camera strays into the booth. I have a weak stomach.

That one won't look good for this year's GG campaign.

DH fits right into our BP seamlessly.

Boone probably stunned that his starter is not a steaming pile of goo by the 6th. Simply didn't know what to do with himself. Wonder how long CC is supposed to be out.

Pitchers IMO have been getting jobbed on this E/H rulings thing. It has gotten to an absurd level this year again IMO. As I often say here, there was never any love lost between me and pitchers. But I do have eyes and this just appears to be another MLB "special". The insidious and pervasive hand of Manfred ....HES EVERYWHERE!

Great pitch Chris