FredLynn

Does he plan to pitch with the brace on? I don't remember any pitcher ever pitching that way. Something is not right with the explanation we have been given, not that we are entitled to the truth.

Apologies for the long post here....this is the article that convinced me that Swihart's time has come. First, some excerpts, then a link to the full article: "This brings us back to Blake Swihart. Swihart was a more touted prospect than Bradley. Whereas Bradley was a consensus top-50 prospect in his final minor league season, Swihart was a consensus top-20 prospect. And after being rushed to the majors last season, Swihart adjusted well: In the second half, he was one of the best-hitting catchers in the American League. This season, he posted a .391 on-base percentage in the six games he played. He was the Opening Day starter, and he reached base safely in all six games he played. But he made a couple of defensive mistakes, and was sent to the minors to work on them. There are many problems with this. The first, as I’ve said, six games are not nearly enough to evaluate a player. Second, the team has started letting him play left field. Third, the catchers playing in his stead – Christian Vazquez and Ryan Hanigan – can’t hit. The first and second points are related, and again show Farrell’s itchy trigger finger. I’m reminded of players like Gary Sheffield, Melvin Upton Jr., Troy Tulowitzki and Xander Bogaerts. When they came up, all were plagued by calls to move to different defensive positions. All four were given chances to prove they belong at their original positions. Sheffield was allowed to make 15 errors at shortstop and 88 at third base before being moved full-time to the outfield. Upton made 34 errors at various infield positions before he was moved to the outfield. Both were given multiple seasons in the infield before moving to the outfield. Tulowitzki and Bogaerts both proved their doubters wrong and learned to play fantastic defense at shortstop, because they were given the opportunity to succeed or fail on their own." "Swihart hasn’t been given enough playing time to succeed or fail on his own. The shift to left field, robs him of realizing his full potential as a catcher, and also his trade value at that position. The only way Swihart plays in left field regularly is if an infielder gets hurt and Brock Holt moves back to the infield. Otherwise, Holt is going to be playing left field, and now that he’s an All-Star, Farrell isn’t going to bench Holt for Swihart. Swihart’s only path to normal playing time in Boston is behind the plate, except now they’ve cleared him out in favor of Vazquez and Hanigan. Which might be OK if Vazquez and Hanigan could hit. The problem is that the things that Vazquez does best – his defensive abilities – are not as important as they’ve been made out to be. This winter at FanGraphs, Jeff Sullivan showed how quickly any advantages from pitch framing are eroding. This is backed up by how little teams value defense-first catchers. All-time pitch framing king Jose Molina never made more than $2.75 million a season. Vazquez is good at pitch framing, but he needs to excel at something else. The most obvious thing to excel at is hitting, and he just plain isn’t there. For the season, he is hitting .241/.290/.379, which equates to a 75 wRC+. What that means is that he’s hit 25 percent worse than the average hitter. And as we discussed, he’s been one of the worst-hitting Red Sox catchers in the Henry/Werner era. Ryan Hanigan, meanwhile, has been much worse – .143/.234/.190, for a 14 wRC+, or 86 percent worse than the average hitter. Among the 45 catchers with at least 40 plate appearances, Hanigan’s wRC+ ranks 41st. This isn’t new. In the National League, Hanigan hit .262/.359/.343 – not great, but acceptable. Since coming to the AL in 2014 though, he’s hit .222/.318/.313, which isn’t acceptable, even for a catcher. To say the Red Sox need Swihart’s bat is a dramatic understatement. The team is scoring plenty of runs at the moment, but that won’t last forever, and there is little reason to forfeit one spot in the lineup. Farrell has made a habit out of shunting young players to the side before they’ve had a chance to prove that they do or don’t belong. He marginalized Jackie Bradley Jr. after his slow start in 2013, and he pushed Xander Bogaerts off of his natural position in 2014 so that he could play the abysmal Stephen Drew. Now he is doing the same thing to Blake Swihart, in seeming deference to keeping Ryan Hanigan on the roster and Christian Vazquez as the starter. Hanigan might be a great presence on the team, but he can be just as great of a presence if he retires and becomes a coach. It’s time for the Red Sox to dump Hanigan and stop pretending Blake Swihart is a left fielder, and let Swihart prove conclusively that either he can or cannot be a major league catcher." Here is the link to the full article: http://www.boston.com/sports/boston-red-sox/2016/05/12/john-farrells-blake-swihart

Dombrowski has been here what-six months? Of course this team is mostly assembled from players Theo and Cherington acquired; they were here much longer. Don't forget however that the 2014 and 2015 last place teams were also put together by Theo and Cherington. Dombrowski is off to as good a start as anyone could have expected. No one hits it out of the park every time, but getting Price, Kimbrel, and Smith signed were all very good moves. Hopefully he has more up his sleeve as its looking like we need more starting pitching.

It was the right move at the time, to pick up Clay's option. Too bad it didn't work out.

The issue isn't with keeping Vasquez in the lineup, its why the second catcher is Hannigan while Swihart languishes in Pawtucket. Its time to see if Swihart has what it takes to be a ML catcher. Right now Vas is playing about 60% of the games; Swihart should be playing the other 40%, at least. Management is screwing around with putting him in the outfield. This can only reduce his value as a trade chip as he can't hit or field that position well enough to make it there. There was a long article a while ago in the Globe saying the same thing: dump Hannigan (and I love the guy) and give Swihart a chance.

Smith has hardly pitched at all this year, yet as of this morning our pen is fifth in ERA in the league-top third. Thats good enough to win. Its up to the lower tier SP to start to do their jobs-and if they can't, its up to Dombrowski to get someone who can.

We needed an ace; Dombrowski got us one. Price will be fine. We needed someone to replace Koji as closer; DD got us that too. Do you really have any doubt that both Price and Kimbrel will perform this year? They are the least of our problems. The success of this team depends on three guys: Buchholz, Kelly, and Eduardo Rodriguez. If our starting pitchers do well, the whole team will follow suit.

Actually, we need to have a comfortable lead by the time Sept rolls around. Have you looked at that schedule? Its a brutal Sept schedule and it will be very difficult to make up ground that month. In regards to Rodriguez and Smith: I do not have any faith in the Red Sox medical staff to correctly diagnose and treat the players. I am pretty sure they missed something when they guessed what injuries were actually suffered. Hopefully both players will get sent out to a competent medical doctor outside the system for another opinion-before its too late.

I believe Rodriguez is starting on Wed; Kelly on Thu. From what I hear Rodriguez has not regained the velocity he had last year and is not performing well. Kelly is back at 96 and is closer to returning. Clay will make his next start, but I doubt management has a lot more patience for a SP whose ERA is over 6-if there is an alternative.

And an ERA of over 6. I am sure DD has a close eye on him. In my book, his time is up. I would guess they are looking to unload him plus prospect for a better and more reliable SP. Might not happen for a while, but management has shown a willingness to do whatever is needed this year to make the postseason.

Big "if". Sabathia's contract is known to be one of the many horrendous Yankee contracts; Price might turn into one. Meanwhile the last place Yankees had Teixeira sitting tonight with neck spasms; ARod is also out. And Tanaka, one of their only decent SP this year so far, gave up six runs in seven innings. Its going to be a very long season for the Yankees.

Clay. Price will be fine.

Seven starts; five poor starts. ERA nearly 6. At least he is consistent. He doesn't have much time left in my opinion. The Red Sox cannot afford a SP with that track record. I supported him early on; I wanted to give him a chance to hang himself. Unfortunately, that is exactly what he is doing. I would give him three more starts to see what he can do. If he cannot pitch consistently well in all of them I would DL him with an eye to trading him.

True, but Porcello did his job

I have no doubt that he is getting surgery, and most likely its on his shoulder. But there are some missing parts here: how did he injure it so severely? Did he finally come to realize that his level of obesity affects not only his baseball career but his life as well? Why couldn't he get his shoulder examined for weeks after he allegedly hurt it? There are questions......

I admit that you are almost certainly right...but somewhere in the back of my feeble mind I can see a smokescreen. Medical records are totally confidential; there is no way the media can access them unless Sandoval gives his permission for them to do so. The other thing is, exactly HOW did he injure that shoulder? I have a hard time believing he tore his labrum (which is what is being reported) by just sleeping on it wrong. His weight would not be a factor with that kind of injury unless he walks around on his hands. They could have sent him to Dr Andrews to cover up a bit. If he comes back next spring 30 pounds lighter I am going to get real suspicious. I would want to see his surgical scars.

I wonder if there is the slightest chance that Sandoval's shoulder injury is an apparition, a deflection from the real surgery he is going to have-one to reduce the size of his stomach in an effort to control his weight. Thats not something I would imagine he would like to advertise if it were the case.

Young has been useless. Its not quite time yet to pull the plug on him, but if he remains useless over the next month or so, then he should be excised. Dombrowski has shown that he is willing to do whatever is necessary to win. If that includes removing Young and giving Castillo a shot at the job, I believe he will do just that.

This year is obviously a lost cause. If Sandoval has any professional pride left whatsoever its possible that he could, after surgery, use the time until next spring to get into the best shape of his life. I am not sure he will ever be the player that Shaw is right now, assuming Shaw continues to hammer the baseball and play a solid 3B, but he might because tradeable in the future.

Is there a Sumo wrestling team we could trade him to?

They are both important in my opinion. While its certainly important to treat players with respect (eg: Valentine ) and protect them from undue criticism, in game decision that do not put the players in the best position to win, thats also important. When, for example, Farrell kept ph'ing a slumping Chris Young for Travis Shaw, who is on a tear and in fact hits LHP better than RHP, I think thats not smart. There are many other examples. Furthermore, Farrell's head scratchers are not limited to three weeks this year. He has been team manager for many years, and his style has not improved.

With Bradley out and Olynck and Crowder hurt I think they have overachieved already

Not sure I would rather have Kelly or Owens in there.

That was over two weeks ago....

Remy had a good point: why would they even give Markakis a pitch to hit in that situation? Not smart baseball.