jung

Damn, need a dp here and Bard is not throwing many GB at present

Nave up keeps Byrd off the field...I don't even want to think about what Byrd would be doing on a day like this. Byrd can't find the ball in perfect conditions with a hunting dog.

Tribe started hitting a lotta' balls in the air. Would like to see Bard start to record some ground ball outs here.

Boy Nava so far has handled everything in left...tough field....tough sun....what boost he has been

Ya' but they all look like they are struggling with anything up in the air coming out of the press box. Sun must be right over the top of it right now.

Dan..Dan....Dan....didn't ya' see what just happened to Mr Masterson?

You know Masterson is screwed when Salty is picking up hits and RBI's

D-mac on the DL.....what a bad deal...what are we gonna do without d-mac

RBI's from the Pawtucket gang....gotta love it.

Cabrera throws that to shortstop. Is there a base over there that MLB has snuck in there on me? Nice break for the Sox.

I think Nava is here now because he got on a bit of a hot streak in Pawtucket. Combine that with the fact that most of our outfielders suck and walla' Nava. When he ends up cooling off, he may go down again or he may not depending on how the rest of the outfielders are playing. However the way he has played the game has provided a refreshing change from the garbage games that many of these "vets" have burped out lately. As long as he is playing like he is, I would keep him here If for no other reason than to keep some of these "losers" out of the lineup.

Hopefully Masterson will offer up the appropriate amount of suckage and the Boys from Pawtucket will again give the "vets" something to aspire to.

At least if the bull pen continues to perform reasonably there might be less focus in it as it is still not the greatest concern for this team. The performance of starters 1,2 and 3 is still the greatest concern

I happen to think that for the most part the performances they have gotten from the pen have been the real deal. In the first place, I think Miller has been a huge stabilizing factor. The number of innings he has pitched has not been a big deal as yet. However every time he has come in he has shut down the other team. All of his appearances have been the transitional appearances or maybe call them bridge appearances, in the main taking the ball from the starter, pitching for an inning and handing the ball to the guys that now look like the guys V wants to use to close out the game. These are tremendously important periods in games especially when you consider how poorly the starters have performed. If you don't have a guy that has done what Miller has done in his recent outings, the game suddenly looks a long way from being done. I think the next step for Miller and the one I was hoping he would take tonight would be pitching for two innings. Even without that so far, Miller to me has been the stabilizing influence that has been key to the recent success of the pen simply because he has taken the ball for that bridge period and gotten the job done. I would like to see if he can go for more than one inning and if V will use him for more than one inning for a couple of reasons. First it seems to me that all to often V gets into this syndrome of handing guys the ball for one inning max and getting everybody up every game. I think that is a great way to exhaust the pen quickly. Guys that have to get up every single game never get a chance to recover and I think V would be better off having a guy come in pitch two innings, maybe 2+ if needed and then put him on the shelf for a game or more instead of having everybody come into every game. Second I think the "get everybody up every game" thing eventually gets V into a bind where one of them shits the bed at some point and then V is stuck. He has already used guys in a particular game that actually did well and now he is stuck with a guy struggling. But V can't go back and get one of the guys that was doing well. However I do think the work of the pen has been very encouraging mainly because they now have options for those bridge/transitional innings. I am still concerned about Aceves in the closer's role mainly because he is getting the ball every single game and he does not have stuff that allows him to put hitters away. So before you know it he is up to 15-20 pitches plus in the 9th inning having pitched in two 9th innings on consecutive days before that. I don't think he can do that or I should say continue to do that because it ends up being to many pitches on consecutive days. I think somewhere in here V is going to have to risk having his 8th inning guy finish or bring somebody else in to close. My concern here is the same with V that I have when he is removing starters. V leaves guys in till there are runs scoring and bases are loaded and the next guy is left with no room for error. Many times there is no way to understand what V is doing cause it is clear that the pitcher that is pitching at that moment is going to have to come out. It is often clear that the guy is going to have to come out in that inning. It is only a matter of when. So if you know that why leave the guy there until runs are already being given up and the bases are chock full of base runners?

What has been most interesting is the degree to which WMB and Nava have elevated the quality of Red Sox play. To some extent some of these guys should be ashamed of themselves especially when you think about Nava being something of a Crash Davis type, a journeyman outfielder that has spent a tremendous amount of time in the minor leagues has come up and not only contributed but has enhanced the overall quality of the Sox game by an appreciable and noticeable amount. They have been more reliable in the field and on the base paths. They have had better, smarter plate appearances than many of the established vets. I don't really need some of these established vets to be embarrassed but they should be. I will be happy enough if they take notice of how much better they have played as a team, how much more cohesive their effort has looked as a team because of the addition of a rookie 3rd baseman and a journeyman outfielder.

The bullpen was always going to be the easiest of the various problems to solve. The bullpen is neither the most difficult of problems nor the most critical of elements to a teams success or failure. First and foremost is still and always has been starting pitching with the guys at the top of your rotation more critical to success or failure than the guys at the bottom of the rotation. 1,2 and 3 in the rotation performing poorly is far more of an issue than the bullpen performing poorly ever was or was ever going to be. There are no immediate cures for the problems with 1,2 and 3 in the rotation. Either they pitch better or they don't. In their case they need to pitch much better, not just a little better. The everyday players are in the main playing better baseball with big contributions in that regard coming from Nava and even to some extent Middlebrooks because you still have to look at Middlebrooks relative to the guy who would be playing there if not Middlebrooks. Youk was not taking good swings and not having good, smart at bats at the plate and was running into problems in the field. While Middlebrooks has made some mistakes he has also made some plays that Youk would simply not have made and has clearly gotten some hits that Youk would likely not have gotten and has even made a few plays with his feet. Nava coming up has also allowed the Sox to move Sweeney to CF and Ross to right a move that has stabilized CF. Sweeney is more of an improvement in Center over Byrd than Ross is a detriment in RF compared to Sweeney. The stability that Sweeney has provided in Center also tells us something about the importance of positions up the middle. Getting Byrd off the field has made a big difference...sorry to say for Byrd. Nava coming up made all the other changes in the OF possible though and the way Nava has played has been so important and such a refreshing change.

Not really because our guys are also playing in their parks and the total number of games and total at bats and total percentages and total doubles are all known. So one of the reasons that Fenway has a higher park factoring for doubles is because our guys hitting records are also part of the total records for the other AL parks and help contribute to those parks having a lower factoring for doubles than Fenway. So our guys doubles records when they are away from Fenway are also part of the total doubles records that go into the factoring for those other parks. Then factoring is also applied for the two leagues allowing the rankings to cover all parks all the time. Again the factoring is about the park. Although this would never happen, the numbers would be invalid if our guys did not travel and hit in other parks and contribute to the total numbers for other parks as well as contributing to the total numbers for Fenway. It is the total number of doubles for all players in all parks that becomes the most relevant element to park factoring. So for example, lets assume that if they were playing in Cleveland and Cleveland's Progressive Field had a lower park factoring for doubles than Fenway. The Red Sox might still hit more doubles than the Guardians but the total number of doubles hit by all players on both teams for the same number of games played by both teams only played in Cleveland instead of Boston SHOULD be lower because Progressive Stadium in Cleveland has a lower park factoring for doubles than Fenway Park.

Thanks Vincente' ya' had ta' screw my whole argument!

See now I know Miller is just getting back but did it not look like V should have at least tried him?

If you look at the way park factoring is complied it's real purpose is to remove the differences between players, whether ours or theirs, whether those players are playing home or away and only look at the impact from the park itself. At the end of it all the mean average park gets a score of a 1 and then parks either side of the mean average get scores above or below 1. Records are compiled for every kind of hit.

Wow McAllister suddenly got to be lights out.

Really interested to see if Miller comes out for a second inning. V has done so much of this one inning for you and one inning for you stuff...eventually he gets to somebody that shits the bed. Plus Miller has pitched so well I would hope he can go more than 1 inning more often.

I am so happy that Felix has done this well for a first year as a big league starter...especially happy since the Sox were out of options on Felix and I was so damned worried that we would end up seeing Felix doing this for somebody else. Miller has done so good since coming back!

Sorta funny situation for us Sox fans...was about to say "wouldn't it be nice to go into these later innings with something like an 8 run lead just to cruise for a change"...then remembered...nope that's not enough. So with that in mind...."wouldn't it be nice to go into these later innings with something like a 12 run lead just to cruise for a change".

That was pretty funny...see those guys going for that ball...all three of them were funny as heck