sk7326

Indeed - is it an approach built to last? Maybe. Is it one that can reduce chances for crooked numbers? Maybe. I am not being a Grinch - just watching.

Yes, it's because he can't hit righties. Against lefties he has a career slash of .263/.362/.474 ... when you consider most of his career he played able to play at least an adequate center field. That is a borderline All-Star, if all he had to do was face lefties. Against righties .224/.292/.410 He always has looked bad to the eye test at the plate, once again because at his peak, he was Mike Napoli as a good defensive centerfielder. He walked a lot, he struck out a lot, and he hit the ball out of the yard a lot.

wRC+ splits (100 is average) 2015: 162 v LH, 58 v RH (175 PAs vs LH, 181 PAs v RH) 2014: 66 v LH, 106 v RH (93 PAs v LH, 273 PAs v RH) 2013: 98 v LH, 67 v RH (175 PAs v LH, 200 PAs v RH) 2012: 100 v LH, 78 v RH (134 PAs v LH, 229 PAs v RH) 2011: 152 v LH, 87 v RH (158 PAs v RH, 501 PAs v RH) Young has had a consistent, very significant split ... the split did not follow in 2014, but that is a clear outlier (and also the one year in the last five he had fewer than 130 plate appearances against lefties)

Major test with Buchholz on the mound is to see whether you can cook a dinner in between his pitches with men on base.

Making less quality contact with pitchers pitches - and not taking as many walks. We're not talking about flailing like Dave Kingman or Rob Deer so much as looking for mistakes to crush instead of working with pitchers pitches. I think of them not being able to generate any baserunners past the 3rd inning vs Tampa. Currently Boston is 5th in the bigs in On-Base%, but 15th in walk rate. The top 4 in On Base are in the Top 5 in walk rate. What they are doing is a softer version of what the Royals have done (last year the Royals were 11th in onbase while dead last in walk rate). They are generating baserunners without the walks, and without necessarily the power to consistently turn the baserunners into runs.

The approach is helpful - but there are some pitfalls in that while it gives a durable approach to handling stuff away and off the plate, it reduces the chances to get (and crush) mistakes. The team is tops in the AL offensively but they are doing it in a very peculiar way. 15th in walk%, 20th in K-rate. Like last year, Davis clearly has put an emphasis on contact. The power has gone down in exchange for contact. (near the bottom of the league in HRs, but lead in doubles) The opposite field approach influences this. As opposed to taking some of those pitches and making the pitcher throw something in a hot zone - you are seeing them make solid contact. It is a fair approach - but I do think it is a bit more susceptible to slumps.

2nd in strikeout percentage, but 20th worst in walk percentage. 10th in opposing batting average. Essentially, there hasn't been a lot of contact, but when there has been - it has been a big problem. Basically we make our opponents into Mike Napolis

Certainly. I mean (assuming health) I think we have 3 starters who can consistently crank out competitive outings. Now 6 IP and 3 runs is not good in a global ERA perspective - but that is a start which this team can work with. I am not sure the extraordinary teamwide strikeout rate can hold.

The high replacement level for 1B is the culprit. A .265/.284/.373 won't cut it - and with a .339 BABIP and a microscopic walk rate - there are signs that it could get worse. Now, SSS abounds and I am definitely betting on his bat to come around. But that's what is driving the replacement level (or a little below) results, regardless of which WAR flavor you use. His defense has risen to average at 1B from shockingly incompetent - he is definitely more comfortable there, but any Gold Glove talk is deeply flawed.

Yeah the league I'm in (for 6 years - I am generally not good) is a head to head standard 5x5. I really liked the one year I did a standard roto ... this year I picked 9th and 11th in the 10 team league. Somebody drafted for me with my player list (I have little kids so attending a live draft is tough - especially when guys are taking way too long in the 22nd round). My top pick was McCutchen. So far hovering around .500 - which I am not displeased with. But this week Cutch and Pedey have clearly helped!

I am skeptical of the offense. That said if there is a part of his game which could warrant some patience - it's the bat.

my fandom and my fantasy team thank you Seriously Pedroia went undrafted in my league. I know he's been hurt, but he's a top 10 second baseman until then.

The prospects are there, but not much help before 2017 at the ealiest.

Yeah, I think they moved way up for 2016 - #3 behind the Dodgers and Astros. Red Sox are #4. They're #1 in Keith Law's team ranks (Red Sox #10).

A rebuild. And one of the worst local TV deals in the country. One of the top farm systems - hope if the kids will start to be ready to arrive when the team is successfully moved to the burbs.

to be fair, Freeman is the only guy on the team that can actually hit

I think there is certainly some impact, but how much I don't know - I have my doubts that Francona and the pitching coach were constantly surprised with the calls. Varitek brought a lot to the table - but I also know Beckett had significant stretches of real awfulness, and the game plans for Matsuzaka were deeply flawed. Isolating Varitek's contributions is obviously the last part of the catching defense black box to be cracked. I know there are attempts out there - but the reliability is dicey.

When you can throw the knuckler for strikes it can do good things. Ride it while you can. You have to bet he will turn into a pumpkin at some point, but there is no reason he can't crank out consistent decent starts.

Their schedule started tough - and then got easier. So we're going to end up with a fairly representative sample for the first month. Seriously, I don't think Farrell elevates the team's parts tacitically. But he largely does not actively harm them. And I think it's obvious the guys are playing hard for him. He is on a short leash because DD did not hire him - but it's hard to get too fired up about his performance one way or the other. I whine about certain decisions - but that's managing for you.

Some contrasting histories there as well. To me, the Red Sox "curse" was sort of a backhanded compliment. I mean, basically since 1967 - the team has almost always been good, or at least good for a while. The World Series losses were all 7-gamers. The Cubs have their own curse - but ruined far fewer summers than the Red Sox, simply because they have largely been too bad a team to get to the point of raising hope. Old timers now like Shaughnessy have a very long history of the Red Sox largely being pretty good and it not working out. The Patriots as the pinkhat aged fans know them, are really just 20 years old. Aside from that their history aside from a couple of patches was big league incompetence. I tell people that if you had cryogenically frozen a Patriots fan in 1990 (like Dr Evil) and then revived them in 2016 and told them the Patriots are the New York Yankees of the NFL .. I think you would have had an easier time telling selling them on Bangladesh joining the G7. The Patriots org, basically since Parcells - has been so good, and in such a stunning contrast to how laughable they were - I think old fans are just grateful for them not being Victor Kiam.

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I was talking about the game calling voodoo - on the actual defense he was excellent. The base stealing - well that was an organizational choice.

That would be a workable pen for sure. Way pitching staffs are conducted these days, add Barnes (for a 12 man staff which is the norm these days)

Hopefully he is not hurt too bad. Hopefully he never starts.

I don't think he has always matched the right hitter with the situation. Young has hit a bit too much against righties given his dossier. But I do agree with you that he has not - for the most part - actively and significantly hurt the team with the chess moves. He hasn't optimized them either.