jung

Poor Mercado will be in all the MLB Network highlight reels tonight. Worse its a holiday. Worse, they will back it up with video of the Canseco debacle.

Mercado pulls a modified Canseco.

Had to look to see who Tito was going to start next two games. Has Plesac scheduled to make his ML debut. Never can tell with guys the Sox have not seen before and then Bieber in the finale. I suspect Tito is trying to protect against an early exit from Plesac and saving his pen for tomorrow. Then probably hoping Bieber has a good outing.

I guess we know why Tito was trying to squeeze every last ounce out of Rodriguez.

Patience with Jackie? Talk to me in two weeks when he is back to Jackie. Realistic is what you have to be with Jackie. Enjoy this while you can.

Good shot Jackie

Pretty hysterical that the Indian Pen was doing "calisthenics" in the 4th. Tito must be in all kinds of trouble with his pitching.

Tito appears to be worse shape than Cora is for getting innings. This guy is hanging by a thread. Good play by Martin'.

And that is why Mookie stays in RF. Mookie >>>>>> Mercado

I can't believe tito is leaving him out there with one out in the inning.

Guardians can't get Rodriguez out of this game fast enough.

Can't throw it there to Chavis. 1" higher and they would have been counting the distance again.

I do not think Chavis is too short for 1st base.

At 1" shorter than Pearce, Chavis legs might be an inch longer.

He will be some year, maybe. He has the added disadvantage of swinging out of his shoelaces every swing and we of course encourage him to do so. Devers swings hard. But not out of his shoelaces.

Good job Mookie. Note to DD. Don't ever hire Mercado to play RF in Fenway.

That was a good AB by Beni.

Beni looking hopeless against a RH pitcher no less.

Conveniently we have forgotten that Chavis was already showing signs of not being able to stay off of nor make contact with MLB FB's before Verlander got ahold of him. Verlander just put an exclamation point on that one.

There are few players at any position that have been as prepared pre-pitch for every single pitch defensively nor as committed to every play defensively either. That is Pedey and in large part responsible for his success at 2nd as opposed to Kinsler for example who was/is smooth as silk at 2nd. You can't possibly drill that sort of Pedey commitment to every play into every player or even most players playing contemporary MLB. That represents over 100 different defensive preparations and mind shifts per game. It is either there or its not. So I doubt Pedey is the benchmark. Heck you can barely get a good many of the modern player to recognize that the opponent made the 3rd out and we are shifting from defense to offense now! But Pedey does know how to play the position. I suspect that would be enough of a target for Chavis. Know when to flip and when to throw and how. Know how to move his feet without tripping over them.

Boy Pedey did not look like he is resigned to this direction in that presser. Evil eyes staring from under a pulled down bill on his cap...even farther down than usual for Pedey. I suspect that this is not Pedey "crying out" for this 60 day hiatus. I suspect this is Pedey's family and friends and the Sox org HOPING that a 60 day hiatus might just finally convince Pedey that his career as a player is over. Pedey was literally chewing his cud as Cora and DD were talking, Grinding upper jaw against lower jaw.

Bradford just now: "Chavis has been doing an excellent job at 2nd base but he is not quite a 2nd baseman yet". It takes real talent to contradict yourself within a single sentence and keep a straight face. Bradfo must be considering a career in politics. No wonder the business side of the Red Sox loves these guys.

If Pedey eventually agrees, they should make him a player/coach and change his contract to reflect the coaching responsibilities they assign to him. I hate nebulous responsibilities. I hated them being assigned to me and I hate seeing anybody stuck in that limbo land. Keep his money the same because the lux tax money is spend no matter what they do. Just find a way to extract the value they can from Pedey while relieving all of the participants in this current charade including Pedey from being tied to this particular whipping post.

Nunez is an abysmal 2nd baseman. If Holt can play then I suspect he will rotate with Chavis at 2nd with Chavis rotating with Moreland at 1st with Nunez and Pearce in reduced roles until Chavis has swung through couple hundred more FB's.

Which means they are stuck with this situation and CAN't bring in another 2nd baseman. Thats all that means. From my own last post: Of course, if the Sox COULD just pay out for a hitting/fielding competent MLB 2nd baseman I assume they would They can't. They ARE caught on the luxury tax and that one is not a PA issue. The PLAYER contract is a PA issue and Lux Tax is a is a league issue. The Sox are entirely caught on the Lux Tax but not on the Player contract issue as long as Pedey is no longer pursuing a career as a player and retires. At that point his Player contract and associated Salary and other commitments only come into play again if he tries to come back as a player. That does not mean they have to be caught extracting virtually no value from Pedey because they MUST extract value from him as a player. I can't see making the case that Chavis IS the big turnaround and how big a turnaround are we really talking about. Frankly I think people are simply overly impressed with the length of his HRs. They don't pay out runs for HR's based on how far, just how many. They started turning it around when the Rotation got innings under their belt having spent ST in hammocks. I am not encouraged enough by Chavis to think that they will not need better defense from him if he is gong to stay up here and getting significant playing time at 2nd. Pitchers around the league are already figuring him out. But no matter who is doing what at the plate, this team wins and loses based on its pitching and most specifically its Rotation, more so than other teams. If we are healthy and the Astros are healthy can we match them bat for bat? NO!!! If we are healthy and the Yankees are healthy can we match them bat for bat? NO!!! You can't afford holes all over creation when your Rotation is how you win games which is why we should not play around with these catch as catch can corner OFer configurations in Fenway and why the Sox really don't have OF options that make any sense beyond Beni in LF, JBJ in CF and Betts in RF. They have spot corner OFers beyond the standard starting OF and that is it. Not to mention that when JD is out of the offense there is NOBODY including Chavis that makes up for his absence. So do we really want JD stumbling around in the Of as he was those two straight days in Fenway just based on the threat of injury if nothing else? Chavis cost them a run at 2nd base just last night if nobody noticed. He airmailed two throws into the loge seats at Fenway before that. He has played all of 6 games in the minors before coming here. So whether we like it or not, the Sox are stuck and the only guy they appear ready to toss at 2nd base for significant time is a guy that has no earthly idea how to play there on a team that wins essentially on defense and run prevention because its best asset is its Rotation.