sk7326

Well Benintendi and Brentz are the platoon until Young gets back ... which seems reasonable. Platoons at LF/3B best way forward for now until we know more about the Hanley thing.

I think it is somewhat moot. He will almost certainly be a September callup. And because of their guys on the DL (Sandoval, Smith, Rutledge) Moncada can be added to playoff roster without worrying about the August 31 deadline. Sox can take their time there.

He signed Espinoza - a 17 year old who has been compared without laughter to Pedro Martinez. Oh well.

Cherington and Anthopoulus would be good choices. Anthopolous got a raw deal in Toronto. Cherington had his flaws - but for building an org culture he is a good choice. A lot of really good baseball people in Boston stayed and turned down opportunities elsewhere to work for him. Surprised Jason McLeod not on early list, but you expect he will get added. He has been deserving a ride of his own for a long long time.

There is a reason that second basemen look more like Dustin Pedroia and less like Dez Bryant. Even when they signed him, there was very little chance he was going to stay in the middle infield. He was big and jacked as a 19 year old. His likely outcome was always going to be at a corner. The Sox (smartly) kept him in the middle because that is where you start any good athlete while you figure out their true level.

One more win and this 11 game trip ends up "okay". As of right now, the team's season will not end at Game 162. I also think the moves and stuff have left the Sox with a rotation which while not amazing, should give them a competitive start most nights out. The offense issues on this trip don't worry me that much - we are going through 3 historically pitching friendly parks.

I am not sure if the number is right. But I do agree with her in general that the majority of a manager's impact is the stuff we don't see. The marginal impact of the various levers he can pull during a game are fairly small. The largest parts are filling up the lineup card and managing the bullpen. Some of Farrell's moves in other areas bother me. I had some issues with whether his staff was doing its job with the players last year. But the "off the diamond stuff" part of it seems pretty solid.

As it turned out nobody - since Victorino got hurt. Here is what I saw then - the org let Ellsbury walk because they thought Bradley was ready for a full time ride. Sizemore, a former MVP candidate whose body had been falling apart limb by limb was available for a test drive. He had a really good spring and suddenly he was the starting CF. Bradley had a pretty rough one. There was a lot of irrational exuberance over Sizemore. Organizationally, they did not necessarily display the strong hands you need while kids figure out their thing. Guys like Bradley and Bogaerts weren't going to learn anything more at AAA - the adjustments needed had to take place in the Show.

Pedey needs to contact whomever is in charge of "hulking up"

The guys he was blocking needed reps - and they gave him the job due to his performance in spring, which is basically nuts

Sizemore's body was being held together by duct tape. He was the best player in the American league - in 2007. Bringing him as an extra guy made sense - to be an everyday CF in any form was not.

Well they hurt you if your team can't score. Porcello was very good last night - 3 bad pitches knocked down an excellent performance to just good. Bullpen can't complain about workload this week so far.

An itty bitty sample size caused them to demote their alleged catcher of the future - now if this is a smokescreen for "maybe he is not good" that is one thing - but if that is the actual logic, it is pretty darn silly. It is hard to give them a ton of credit for not selling low on Bradley - and then his second half of 2015 made that obvious. Dustin Pedroia's 31 games in 2006 showed no indicator he could actually play baseball for a living - he was really really bad at most aspects of the game. A lot of the emergency of Bogaerts and Bradley have just been a function of playing and getting reps, things which were monkeyed with unnecessarily in 2014. The post-Epstein management has been more inclined to make decisions with small sample sizes (note that Sizemore beat out Bradley for the CF job in spring 2014, which made no sense on any level ... and Middlebrooks being anointed the future on a small BABIP Spiked sample) - an urge for microwave prospects who fulfill John Sickels predictions instantly, instead of trusting their evaluations and doing the hard PR job of taking the slings and arrows from the press.

I don't think it's that cut and dried ... but he has been an AL MVP level performer this season. He and Bogaerts have had that level of season - Ortiz has been that level offensively, and Pedroia has been really damn good.

I stand corrected - I keep forgetting Hill is alive. But I do not doubt the possibility of Moncada getting a whirl - and I do expect some roster machinations late in the month to get him playoff eligible

Since we were 4th time through the lineup - I think erring to a quick hook made sense there. I'd have gone after the first baserunner after the homer. But again, Farrell got the matchups he wanted - Cano just made the play.

Reminded me of Bob Melvin not moving a muscle as Jon Lester was letting the Wild Card lead slip away against Kansas City. That said the game went from very easy to very complicated quite quickly. He waited a batter too long maybe. That said, Farrell did get the matchups he wanted - Cano is good.

If this is any sort of long term - could see Moncada coming. Obviously short term is Holt to 3B, Shaw to 1B

service time is based purely on days on the roster ... so that he was this late season a callup might not be a big deal. I don't think his service time would have counted if he came as a september call up, so it is an indicator of what they think of him

Naw. Young is there as a lefty masher. I think this is what it is - a chance to see what he has. The team is not leaning on his production - this is a pressure packed spot in that it's a pennant race. But he is working with a net here. I am looking for quality at-bats.

Yes - that is 100% true ... neither should impact an orgs faith in its internal assessments (which should be done with more care than looking at small sample sizes).

Benintendi playing LF is not an issue for me - at least on the road. At Fenway - well a new guy there is always a question (playing the wall is a discipline different from actual outfielding). There is no real way to prepare for that. Butterfield is a reknowned fieliding instructor. This sort of transition is not uncommon. That Hanley dealt with it so poorly is rare. I will dismiss Bogaerts struggles the next season a little bit - the team did not give him a chance to get comfortable doing anything.

My guess is they have been impressed with his ability to figure stuff out and deal with a lot of stuff being thrown at him quickly. It's a bet on the kid. Moncada they have been slower on - but when you combine the cultural adjustment with how little baseball he had played before 2015 that is understandable.

Maybe Moncada ... and there is still waiver trades. For instance, if they wanted an innings eater like James Shields - they could probably get him for a sack of potatoes without anybody putting a claim on him.

Bradley played more than Sizemore because they cut Sizemore - because he can't play anymore. Different deal. They let three weeks of spring baseball determine who was starting.