jung

Never thought Rafi was hurt. Somebody convinced him to stop trying to muscle up on his swing and the power would eventually come. Results obvious.

JD's plate coverage is ridiculous. Balls on the inner half are going out. Balls on the outer half are base hits to RF. There is no place to throw to this guy right now.

Vaz looks like a pink throw pillow.

Geez my mom was not a baseball fan. But I don't think she would have thought much of all this pink horse bleep.

I have a thought on this that is not even fleshed through enough for me to make it an opinion. The two rotation arms we have that depend the most on throwing a variety of pitches well in any given stint IMO are Porcello and ERod. While they all throw a variety of pitches, in most instances Porcello and Erod are the most unsure what is going to work for them in any given stint. Its actually more of an issue for Porcello than Erod. In Erod's case he either can throw his Change or he can't. If he can't it will take quite a bit of effort for him to get RH hitters out and a fair amount of assistance from the Catcher. Porcello for his part actually has to pare down the pitches he is capable of throwing to the pitches he can throw successfully that day. Vaz actually seems better at helping the Starter get through early decisions about what the Starter can throw successfully on a given day and might actually be a better choice for Rick and ERod. Whereas Sandy might well be better suited to Sale, and Nat for example. If I were Cora I might try Vaz with Rick once Nat is back so Sandy has two guys he catches regularly. Vaz just seems to work through the early decision phase better for Starters who are often stuck dealing with a different set of realities regarding their own pitch types every outing. The world totally chances for Rick and Erod stint to stint. That is not quite the way it is for Chris and for Nat. Price is somewhere in the middle. Price is not often going to head out to the mound these days with neither his Change nor his Cutter. He might not have one of them. But he will not often have neither to rely upon and work off his FB.

Well I guess the King is dead.

Chavis a master at anything at 2nd base to this point??....hyperbole alert. As for his footwork around the bag, he has made the exact same goofy footed mistake twice throwing the ball wildly in the process and getting run over both times.

Swing of the year so far for Mitch. Better than his other HR swings or any other swing he has made so far this year.

Well I missed the top of the 1st so whatever comment I make on Erod is ignorant of that inning. But his pitch count is not terrible and he hasn't given anything up yet. Hard to complain at this point I think.

Funny how some things in baseball never change. Starter Swanson to Chavis: "Yea we know you must be able to hit FB's or you would not even be here at all. Lets see if you can hit my FB" Probably would have had Chavis taking a Bugs Bunny swing at anything but a FB with 2 strikes....but no! Some things never change.

Because JD is a worse choice for RF in Fenway than Beni is as a CFer there. You really don't want to see JD in Fenway RF. So you put JD in LF, move Beni to CF and keep Mookie in RF. Too much ground to cover and the optical illusion created by the wall bowing out in RF. It both creates all that acreage out there and the RFer expects that the distance from Home Plate is increasing as he moves from RF to RCer field when in fact just the opposite is happening. That is why so many RFer's in Fenway bash into the wall with their shoulders or can sometimes go ass over tea kettle out of the park entirely ala' Torii Hunter. Plus plays moving toward RF foul ground in Fenway are hideous for the RFer. They have disaster written all over them unless the fielder is extremely agile. LF in Fenway is dangerous as well. But it is by far the most manageable of the three OF positions though none of them are actually easy and all of them are physically dangerous as hell. Mookie has played CF for the Sox and has done some this year. He is best used there away from Fenway though he does have a tendency to play too deep in CF.

Depends on who else in in the lineup. JBJ, Vaz and Moreland are OK in the same lineup. JBJ, Sandy and Pearce together are downright embarrassing or JBJ, Lin, Sandy and Pearce which would be downright pathetic. Even JBJ, Sandy, Pearce and Holt together might be downright pathetic. As for Pedey, if he ever plays as many as 8 games in two weeks this year I will be very surprised. If he does I would expect to see him back on the shelf AGAIN. Don't think this is working out for Pedey.

Beni is a lousy CFer. So I doubt that is the plan. We would have a novice LFer and and a lousy CFer at the same time. I do think the Sox are going to try to find multiple ways to get Chavis bat in the lineup including an occasional stint in the OF which I would not recommend, at least not in Fenway. Fenway is still the most physically dangerous OF in baseball. We don't need more Bump Bailey (The Natural) events in our OF. Had enough already thank you. Chavis occasionally at DH makes more sense.

Vaz and his hitting has earned JBJ some relief of the pressure to hit if he needs it. I don't even think the Sox are trying to replace JBJ at the moment as what they would want given their dependence on pitching is a CFer with the same or better defensive skills and a more consistent bat. They are out there. but I don't think we have the means to secure them. So IMO he is here for the remainder of this year unless we fall apart and are no longer contending this year. Beyond this year, he is up for arb next year and a FA in 2021. Depending on the state of the Rotation and if the window is closing on this Rotation and the team's dependence on it that might tell us about JBJ and 2020. I don't see the Sox even making an effort to sign him as a FA in 2021 unless he is willing to take a major pay cut or at the very least tread water to stay here.

Have said it since I first saw Chavis at 2nd. He looks like a 1st baseman to me and I am opposed to seeing the Sox play Russian Roulette with him at 2nd. He is an error and worse an injury waiting to happen at 2nd. That said, none of us really know how solid his bat is until the league catches up to him. We can already see where the holes are in that swing. Those holes are bigger when you are swinging out of your shoelaces every swing. But if the Sox who at this point know more about him than we do, like the kid, I would keep him away from 2nd base as much as I could. Getting tired of seeing Sox players injured playing out of position, especially the young ones. See Blake Swihart for a young guy. See Ramirez who was always just looking for a payday when he convinced Cherry's that he would play LF. Ramirez completely gave up that notion after bashing into the same LF foul area wall that took Swihart out. So to me, Chavis at 2nd boils down to whether the Sox think he is cannon fodder or a real hitter with real potential. If the latter, play him at 1st if you are going to keep him up here with occasional stints at 2nd and DH and even 3rd if you need to get him AB's and Devers needs a blow. If the Sox absolutely want him at 2nd, then send him back down and let him learn a position that he clearly knows little about at this point. Even from Shortstop it took X, a Shortstop with experience and much more agility, a year and a half to stop goofy footing 2nd base and at Shortstop you are facing most of the plays coming at you. At 2nd you are facing away from most of the plays coming at you until they are right on top of you. Chavis does not appear to be covering much ground at 2nd either. Devers is my 3rd baseman. As much as I point out his lapses and failings in game threads he has really cut down his mistakes at 3rd by type to a very specific category....call it stupid in the field if you want. He will cure that IMO or at least cure enough of it to join the ranks of professional MLB 3rd basemen. As for Moreland/Pearce, paying $12M per for 1st base the way DD is paying it this year only made sense within the context of DD trying to make the most out of his rotation and young stars before the window closes. Enter Chavis again as a better long term option at 1st IMO.

Thank God we won this game. JBJ with his best contribution of the season so far. Go Bruins!

My God how did he miss that pitch

You have to hit in this park to win. Leaving games up to the baseball gods as the visiting team is not a great plan here.

Ya' got me. JBJ has usually swung three times on his way from the on deck circle to the batter's box

If I never see Kyrie again it will be too soon.

Givens has been a genuine pain in the ass

This park scares me to be in this kind of game.

I think he left the 6th at 104. So he must be done. He was throwing like he knew it was his last inning.

Seen all of this guy I want to see tonight. Hopefully he his off to the showers.

Guy's FB is sneaky fast. The ball seems to be on the hitters before they know it. Mitch late, X late.