cp176

Guess i am - Thought I read that he hasn't always been considered this bad.

beauty of the internet isn't huh - you get to run your mouth whenever you want even when your bell isn't chimed. You can kiss my ass.

Some great posts on this page. Very impressive. My only addition would be that I have gone from accepting the fact that Marcus Smart would not be back with us to absolutely hoping that he will. I think that the arguement against him is basically his streaky shooting. I feel that he does so many things for this team that just do not show up in the box score. What Baynes does physically in the post, this guy does all over the court. He makes big plays both offensively and defensively when his team needs them the most. He may not look the part of a pure smooth NBA player but he does what he does as well if not better than most.

Those lefty bats were JBJ, Benintendi, and Devers. JBJ had 3 of the K's and the other two aren't exactly ripping the hide off the ball. Moreland very well could have made a difference. Maybe or maybe not but I think that it would have been worth the try.

ok Slasher here you go. Basically I am just pissed off because anyone who has suggested that maybe jD isn't as bad out there as the past metrics say he is has been talked down to by the people who spend their time studying all things quantifiable. Now we hear from one of their heroes that maybe he could actually be average out there and what do we hear - 0. if Alex Speier says it, i guess it must be right. Anybody who has watched him this year should have been able to figure that one out. I'm not suggesting that he is a good fielder or that he should be out there any more than he has been but the suggestions that he is as bad as there is are ridiculous. I think that there is a huge difference between being a player in the field and one who sits on his ass or rides a bike in the dugout between at bats. That job isn't for everyone. It takes a special kind of mental approach and if JD says that he is a better player by getting the opportunity to play in the field roughly half the time then I think that is what needs to be done. He is too good a hitter (and we sure need him) to disrupt his mental approach to the game.

Sadly I guess but if you take Hanley out of this lineup, you are taking one of our top 4 or 5 hitters out of the batting order. Who are you going to replace him with is the question I would ask. Betts, Martinez, Bogaerts, Moreland maybe and after that who am I missing. It might be different if we didn't have pretty much black holes when it comes to hitting with respect to the center field and catching positions.

Needlessly cocky? Swihart? I do agree that when you are using just about everybody else on the team and not him it kind of looks like a waste of roster space to us.

Oh and I agree with you about Embed. To be that young, that talented , and that much of a whiner - just too bad.

I really have to question whether this Sixers team has more talent than the Celtics. Don't get me wrong, many of the sixers are more talented at the specific things that they do but they are really quite one dimensional players. I absolutely believe that Boston has the better athletes to send out against them even without Irving and Heywood.

Really ? Are you sure that Speier really said this? Come on Bell, it can't be possible that after all the metrics that have been presented that he could actually be any good at all is it? Seriously, when you hit like this man hits, average (which is what he is) isn't too bad at all.

It never rains on the west coast I guess.

I would never argue that our outfield lineup defensively falls off a bit with JD out there. The issue is that his bat at least so far this season far outweighs what anybody thinks of him defensively. I have heard everybody tell me how bad Martinez is in the outfield for the most part based on prior stats. They and you as well might be right, I just haven't seen it yet. He has been adequate and if he feels that playing part time out there makes him a better hitter because he is just more mentally involved in the game then he needs to be out there at least as much as he has been. His bat is that good. We have two black holes in the lineup when JBJ hits and we have to have someone catch. The bigger picture is that we are off to a good start as are the Yankees.

I have watched them all and it was a poorly officiated game in my opinion. If talent ultimately wins this thing and I'm pretty sure that it will, Boston will advance. 76ers have quite a few one dimensional players out there. Embed is big and talented but he is a long way from being the last word in basketball. He commits an offensive foul everytime he backs in form the mid post. Never called but it is a fact. I think that they also should paint the lane the some color as the rest of the court as well because there is no such thing as a 3-4 or 5 second rule in the NBA these days. Also, Embed is a whiner and I just don't like whiners. One last thing - Simmons made a number of mistakes in game 3 the Celtics took advantage of maybe none bigger than the missed dunk that could have simply been laid in - kind of like what Brown did for the Celts on the pass from Rozier when they needed to score or lose the game- he just laid it in off the board.

you got it in you!

JD has played 16 games for us in the outfield which sounds just about right. There has been nothing so far to indicate that he is not an acceptable option out there on a somewhat limited basis. He is a professional hitter who can still play. If he feels that playing the outfield in a limited role keeps him involved mentally which he feels makes him a better hitter than I say he has to play out there some of the time. dhing him full time right now would be a huge mistake and the people calling the shots seem to know that. With respect to our catching situation, we are stuck. they are both adequate I guess behind the plate, we just need to keep hoping that one of them can hit just a little. As for JBJ, if he starts to hit great but if the current slump continues, he is going to have to start taking a seat and maybe even serving as a late game defensive substitute. I love the guy but there is no way he stays out there full-time if he can't hit .200. Moreland needs to play as long as he hits and no matter how bad Ramirez looks to some we can't just dump another guy who can hit just a little.

Do you have any quantifiable statistical evidence to support this claim?

yup - that wold work too.

Have to say that for me which one of our catchers hits just a little should be the number one . They are both good not great at their craft. Leon gets the nod right now from me.

In my time, i think so. Who else did you have in mind?

I get caught up in those old days because I loved the game more then than I do now. Maybe my memory has made some of those great players better than they were. Remember that old Giants outfield - Felipe Alou, Willie Mays, and Orlando Cepeda (before the major knee issues). When a nearly crippled Cepeda was signed by the Sox, he could still swing the bat but he had a hard time just getting to first base. Also even though I didn't care much for the Yankees, Mickey Mantle has to be mentioned as being one of the great talents of all time.

Not to worry - it was Larry - lol

Mays and Clemente - I feel sorry for the younger folk who never saw these guys play. I was lucky enough to see Williams in his last year but Mays for me is still the best that I have seen. Soup to nuts with this guy - he had it all and could do it all. We don't have any idea what the future holds for Betts but I think that he is one of the very few players that I have seen over the years who has the potential to some day be considered one of the greats as well.

I agree but even though I didn't like him much, I always thought that Earl Weaver had it about right. 3 run homers produce runs quickly.

Me too - we go back a ways (me a little further I guess - but I don't act my age) but we got a couple of guys who post here that we should be very pleased about regardless if we from time to time disagree with what they might say. These stories represent a good chunk of Red Sox history. Very important for us to read and maybe even remember. My Grandfather was an outstanding catcher in CT prior to 1920. Local teams were a way of life for the folks back in the day. Subsequently my Mom's favorite player was Sammy White. She got me hooked on the Sox at a very early age.

With all the talent he has, he also seems to be a pretty good guy. He really is a guy that we should have representing us for a long time. Also, did I hear right when I was watching that Pomeranz hit 99 on the radar gun or did I just dream that?