jung

I want him to have an actual shot at being a ML baseball player assuming the Sox themselves think he really is something. The holes in his swing are just too big. This is not the place to learn how to close them.

He should against this guy. Pitcher is tailor made to lay one right on his bat. But I don't think that means much. Problem is, that is what Chavis needs.

Did Holt ever come back ready to play. I do believe we will have to wait for another year for the Chavis era to begin.

Grrrrrrr....Grrrrrrrrr We take the lead on another Holt hit and the thread gets closed! I figured it was you JB. Just pulling your leg.

Nope....doubt it

I may just be rationalizing but I am not convinced Chara's game is suited to the Blues style of play. They all get down below the face off circle. Sometimes nobody is higher than the face off circle. So they end up skating in short jab steps and tight circles....fast acting muscle skating. Chara ends up looking even slower than usual as they have taken four steps before Chara takes one. He goes to where the play just was and that long stick really does not come into play as much.

Nice throw JBJ. No idea what Hamilton thought he was doing. Must be frustrated.

The Blues play a risky game once they get to your end of the ice. Everybody pinches down and just keeps pinching down till all 5 of them are just outside the goal crease. Never seen anything quite like it because they all pinch. Its not like the forwards are covering for the defensemen when they pinch. They are all down there. Bruins have not really been able to punish them for that. But they should be able to do so.

It was painfully obvious that pitchers would work Chavis up with FB's and then also get him low and outside with breaking stuff. One problem at a time. He has to do something about his inability to hit FB's up that would be called strikes if he didn't swing and miss. Its not like they are climbing the ladder to get him out.

I have not looked but he HAS in recent games seemingly cut down on his pitch count. Don't know where he is tonight.

Any word on Chara?

This was in the early days of artificial surface when counties and cities building parks using Muni Bonds and responsible for the maintenance thought that astro-turf was the surface of the future. Hold a concert and get out a big vacuum to prepare for tomorrow's ballgame. Many of those parks were uni-dimensional as well which simply did not say baseball. Anyway, they did not account for how hot the stuff got in the summer exposed to the sun. How slick the surface was in the rain nor how much the cement underneath came through and was felt by the player. You felt every step on that crap all the way up to your balls. But teams that had the surface quickly turned into speed teams. The whole Walt Hriniak thing of hitting with a level swing became very popular precisely because of artificial surfaces. I was a two sport athlete but I never played baseball on the surface. But I did play football on it. Hated it. Ever time you landed you thought your teeth were going to rattle out of your mouth. Horrid stuff. Then your athletic shoes would slide and slide and slide when the surface was wet all the way till that one time when they caught and I mean CAUGHT. Knee injury....get him outta' here.

When this place was astro-turf, ground balls through 2nd base into the gap would scooter all the way to the wall.....maddening. "Ground ball past the 2nd baseman....and its a double". Hated this place then.

Well and then there is that. But we have literally seen him start to squeeze the ball too hard and have everything just straighten out on him. That Cutter was not doing much cutting. Almost like it landed where he threw it....exactly!

ERod suffers from terminal gonad retraction when he has ducks on the pond. Jock and cup size shrinks to extra petite. Its only a matter of time with him. Quite possibly the only perennial number 5 starter in baseball.

You had to ask!

So not only do we lose home games playing these stupid London games but we have to play them on artificial surface. You know what Manfred....Go f*** yourself you friggin' idiot.

1. Mookie Betts ® RF 2. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 3. J.D. Martinez ® DH 4. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 5. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 6. Brock Holt (L) 2B 7. Michael Chavis ® 1B 8. Christian Vazquez ® C 9. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF 1. Whit Merrifield ® RF 2. Nicky Lopez (L) 2B 3. Adalberto Mondesi (S) SS 4. Alex Gordon (L) LF 5. Jorge Soler ® DH 6. Cheslor Cuthbert ® 1B 7. Kelvin Gutierrez ® 3B 8. Martin Maldonado ® C 9. Billy Hamilton (S) CF

Glad to see some Forum support for Work at the back end. I don't think we have a choice folks. This team still needs its Starters to get it off to a good start. I guess that is why they are "starters". We don't fair well in these Got to make up 5 runs games....nobody does. But we don't even seem to fair well in these games where both teams are scoring run for run with each other right from the first frame. If we can carry even a small lead through 4 or 5, now you're talkin'. Heck, even not scratching and clawing after 2, we do better.

atta boy David

Not bad. Price can throw the cutter outside to the RH hitter 0-0 because his will come back to the plate and he can get a called strike on it. When he throws it inside to the RH hitter 0-0 if he does not get it in off the plate its vulnerable.

Why is Price throwing 0-0 cutters. You want the cutter to finish off the plate. Yet you want Strike 1 called if you can get it. Price is leaving it on the plate and its getting hit.

Not too "pretty" Beni

What kind of a swing was that at strike 2 Beni?

Unbelievable....ESPN finally gets around to telling us that the Vaz grounder was scored a hit and that devolves into a discussion that it should have been scored an error.