jung

I would not exactly call what Vaz does raking but his swing is built to go the opposite field and he has learned to turn that into a major league career as a catcher who handles pitchers well, throws and receives the ball very well and no longer will hurt you from the plate as long as you don't expect too much. He no longer expects too much at the plate and that has helped him immensely. His hands are never and I do mean never inside the baseball swinging the bat. That will always limit what he can do at the plate. Merrero might come back because this is really now bordering on a weak infield defensively and if we can afford the hole he represents in a lineup, somebody like him might be necessary...But I doubt it. He is way better off in the NL. Really always liked him and wish him well over there.

Not sure how many people are watching today...However I am very happy to see the Sox taking some normal non-farrell era AB's this spring. Guys are swinging at good pitches early in counts and protecting late in counts...the way the game should be played. Now I do think that both Martinez and Ramirez will not be able to stay out of this lineup for long because the power drop off will be significant without them. Our guys are generally either not large enough to be real power hitters or not large enough to be real LH power hitters in a ballpark with acres and acres in RF. That said I cannot tell you how many times I nearly went right off the cliff edge last year watching guys take good pitches early in counts and then swing out of their shoelaces late in counts...the absolute opposite of what they should have been doing.

For those that don't know it, all of the MLB forums that were still active were closed down as of today...about 15 minutes ago. They are all gone include the Sox forum.

What a nine year hiatus from baseball is not long enough for you? That is about as long a banishment to the hinterlands as one might expect from which to return. When it takes nine years for people to forget who you are, were or might be, you must have really left a lasting and negative impression. I think Ben will find his way back to baseball but not in anything like a position that is an advance from where he left it unless for a really small market team. In any event IMO it will be a position with powerful governors in place be they by the nature of the size of the team or the structure of the organization. Frankly, I am surprised he has not found at least something based on the contacts he would have built up during his stay. Usually people will value somebody with contacts if only because guys are going to pick up the phone when they call.

If 5 CS and 4 SB is now a plus base runner, it just tells you the standard of measure is screwed up and/or how screwed up base running has become...probably both. Tell Ricky Henderson that and he is going to throw himself off a building.

I think Pablo will get more work than people are anticipating. I think he will get at least one game on the year's first road trip and maybe more than one. In an event I think they want to give him some opportunity to do something positive before the team comes home to a Fenway in full throat looking to tell him just what they think about things....especially since his agent did that "open mouth....insert foot" thing.

I can't remember the exact numbers but I think during Pedro's most dominant years he was posting ERA over two runs better than league average. I think it was closer to 2.5 runs better than league average at its widest...just a crazy number. I think it was the last year in the NL before coming over to the Sox or the first year with the Sox.

His stuff could be there if he gets his Sinker back again. it will likely never be a pitch Porcello can throw as often as he threw it earlier in his career but it is unfortunately for him the only pitch he has that he can pitch off of. So he does not have to go back to where he was years go throwing 35-40% Sinkers. But one good one an outing is not going to get it done either. He is helpless without being able to throw off of it. Maybe he just needs the warmer weather to roll around for him to throw it regularly. But by warm I mean around the ASB if last year is any indication.

How can it possible be a coup when you gave the guy all the money he was ever going to get in FA and them some....BEFORE FA! That is not a coup. Porcello was probably nervous waiting for the ink to dry on that one!

In what way....he is meat to any two strike breaking ball. He just does not get that chance that often because he has already hit a FB into an out before he gets there. Just did it again just now. Two strike nothing of a slider and his bat was a foot away from it.

I cannot make the case for the Pablo situation better than Dojji made it. As for Castillo, the guy cannot see breaking balls...CAN'T' He gets toasted by people complaining about his performance against FB's not really that he is swinging at any FB he sees to avoid a two strike breaking ball. He does not know how to run bases. These are not skills you learn for 1-2 months at the ML level costing your team all along the way. He in fact should not sit...he should simply go down.

"Reverse course" is a good metaphor for Pablo....much like the Titantic that was simply too big for its rudder and could not turn before crashing into an iceberg.

Pablo's agent did him no favors today. I am guessing Pablo insisted that he "go to bat" for him. Maybe should have sought the advice of a teammate before doing that. I don't think Ortiz would have recommended that he go down this road just so as to keep the fans now behind the dugout or down the 3rd base line if and when he plays from just letting him have it. Not saying i am suddenly sympathetic to his cause. But there is no sense to making this worse and I just don't remember anything he had from the fans in SF getting anywhere near where this could get to here. Just the Ferrari comment alone is going to result in fans bringing huge bloated Ferrari signs to the ballpark. Oh God this could be ugly. Also I did not know before today but Pablo's updated "official" weight is now 295. That of course means he is well north of 300 and probably well north of either my or spuds worst estimates. Probably gained 20 lbs or more just since the start of camp from the looks of it. Think there is an opportunity here for the Sox to try to get something done here that helps the team and the player without stripping the player of his money or even trying to strip him of his money. The direction his agent took is disappointing on a number of fronts.

IMO, barring several injuries the Sox have taken last place off the table for 2016. They would have to play poorly enough to pass the O's on the downside and I just don't think that possible again barring multiple injuries to the Sox and total health by the O's. I hope Buck has checked his health insurance benefits. Now that John is out of the woods hopefully, Buck is the guy most likely to blow out a gasket while watching his team play.

I don't recall anybody suggesting that you could or should field a team of all home grown talent. I certainly didn't. I didn't get within pissing distance of anything like that and I don't think anybody else did either. Maybe I missed somebody elses post. Entirely possible.

Apparently you did not fully grasp my last post.....nobody and I do mean NOBODY not writing under durress writes anything for the audience...neither do you my friend. My one caviot would be that I do appreciate those that do read regardless of length while completely tolerating and understanding those that don't. Now that you felt compelled to tell us what you do or don't do in that regard....now that is interesting.

You know there are times when it is tough to resist pointing out the obvious but for those who don't know, nobody writes for the audience....from the smallest child to professional writers the motivations for writing anything they are not forced by circumstance to write are well known and well understood. They have nothing to do with the audience. You can I guess then imagine how much I care about whether somebody scrolls past two, twenty or two hundred paragraphs but still have an appreciation for those that do read.

I can't say what Craig's role is or might be....but I don't think his BA will get him very far. He is mostly hitting seeing eye dribblers. Has not hit much solid all spring. Remy going on about "this is how Craig hit in St L is not helping his cause nor do I believe it to be the case when he was producing runs. He has hit a few opposite field "shots" on really defensive swings but you can't live off those and a steady diet of dribblers.

Well you get your wish at least till Eddie comes back. I actually think that while Eddie would be preferred, since hitters really are still struggling for timing this early in a season, tossing Wright at them for this period actually works for us. Who knows.....he might displace one of the guys pitching ahead of him. There are a few candidates that might not make it very long in our rotation. If Wright is solid enough filling in for Eddie, he might get more starts. Elias so far seems like bust city. They don't trust Owens (neither do I) and Johnson is as usual apparently not ready for prime time.

Surely, if they do send him down they would have to bring him back up to showcase him for trade purposes if nothing else. So He will come back up again if sent down. However I doubt he would come back up again until they felt like he was ready to be showcased or if injury in the 25 forced them to bring him back before that. But your right....if he goes down chances are pretty close to 100% that he would come back eventually.

The key to future success in baseball is to stop trying to fill holes through the FA market. It no longer works. MLB has steadily changed the playing field so that it does not work and if you continue to fight that you just fall into the trap that MLB has set for you. It won't work for the Yankees. it won't work for us. It won't work for anybody. You simply end up with too much garbage mixed in with players that actually might remotely be worth half of what they make and you quietly sink into the basement as a result, not exactly because of what you spent because of what you spent on. The only way to deal with FA in the market MLB has made is to keep your powder dry for those opportunities that arise that are truly prime player opportunities, not the best guy available in some year...because that is the practical side of the trap MLB has set. It not only yields too many busts but it simply lets the FO off the hook. "But according to the numbers he was the best available at the time". Right and that is apparently where your due diligence stopped. Any flyers you take on the cheap end of FA are fine. Go ahead, knock your mind out...who cares. But it is the guys that you take that are both reaches and costly that really burn you. Just about any player that fits that "best available at the time" profile fits. Price is on the wrong side of that philosophical approach but what else was DD to do under the circumstances. Pitching rules. We had NOBODY that was a staff leader and the nuts and bolts of a baseball team has not changed. If you don't have a staff leader, guys that are not capable try to fill that vacuum and you end up with a mess. Kimbrel is closer to the way you want to use the FA market now. Pen arms are IMO relative bargains for one thing depending on what all else you have going on in the roster. That said if you have done the job right in your drafting of pitchers and the way you use your higher draft picks when you have them, you should end up with more guys that can populate your pen. That is the other problem with drafting a bunch of dink and dunkers. What do you do with them if they can't start? Keep your powder dry for those really prime opportunities in the FA market. They will be rare but if you have been patient and have kept your powder dry you will have the horses to get your man. This also means you have to build a real farm system with players feeding into the ML club in a fairly steady stream including a few decent arms. You have to do whatever you have to do to at least salt away a couple of up and coming arms...not these dinkers and dunkers that we have typically been satisfied with that never pan out....looking at you Mr Owens...You are going nowhere son. No system of managing a MLB franchise will yield a winner every year. Won't even yield a competitor many years, not a real one anyway. Cards have done it best but they are downright Bellachekian for a MLB club, cutting bait at will. They have the farm system to do it. Again this is what MLB wanted and now it has it. In those years where you find yourself with high draft picks based on a poor showing you really want to try to pull in real arms...real pitching talent if you can....don't take these, best available at our spot in the draft pitchers when every good arm is gone before you can draft because we already see what they turn out to be. Should always be looking for pitching but especially in any year where you have high picks. Take the dink and dunk pitchers in the draft when you are happy you have had a "successful" draft. Another who cares....knock your mind out.

Actually Professor Ben says thank you. May he have a long and happy career in academia.

Castillo "deserved" to go to AAA but is not going. In fact the Sox would have a better shot long term of getting Castillo outta' here if they had sent him down. But that would very much hinder any effort to get him gone this year and that is why he is still here. The dif is the long shot of being able to move him out this year. Nothing else makes sense in keeping him up. He needs AB's and won't get them here.

It will boil down to what it always boils down to for every ML baseball team....do they have enough starting pitching to make the other team assets work to the tune of a WC spot. They will complete with the MFY for that honor as neither will compete with the Jays, and the Rays will not finish in the basement only because that spot is reserved for the O's who could not pitch their way out of a paper bag and don't have anybody that can get on base. You can check all you want, you won't find many teams that can win games on 1 run HR's. The MFY are as usual well designed for that stinking slum of a building of theres and that is truly their strength. Keep their LF hitting upright for a season and they are instantly competitive. So its us and them for a WC. You can see your way to what they are trying to accomplish as there is some sense to the way that team is constructed....its old.....but its what can work in that stinking park. We are a bit more helter skelter. Lots of potential. But in truth the issue is who starts after Price and gets something done for a season. Eddie really hurt in that regard and no real telling when he is coming back. Even if Eddie were pitching it really for him is can he throw all three of his pitches successfully in the same stint. Porcello seemingly can't throw more than one good Sinker per 6 innings or at least has not shown he can yet this spring. Until he does, he is highly suspect. Buch is Buch and Kelly is our new Buch until he proves otherwise. So for the moment we are Price and pray for rain unlike the O's who have to pray for rain every day. Should be enough to compete with the hated MFY and their little shoe box. The Yanks have better balance in their rotation and playing in the shoe box a logical way to get to the back end of their pen and turn it into a game wining asset in a number of games. Whereas 4 days out of 5 we might be out of more games before we can get to our back end and Smith needs to be OK. No telling how it will come out between the two teams.

It has to happen now though which his why they are handling Castillo this way. 28-29 years old is no age to be completely helpless to any breaking ball thrown anywhere at any time. My God the guy does not even know how to run bases. Anyway they want this to happen now even if it costs them more....if they can just get somebody to take him.