mrguit

Not sure about Moncada yet. Looks like he gets fooled by sliders and curves in the dirt and the outside corners. Still yet, he could turn into the next Jose Tartabull!!

I say he's well worth now that he's healthy. If we make the playoffs he could prove very valuable.

Agreed.

Some of that needs to fall on Kimbrall and some of it on the lack of clutch hitting by Papi, Jackie, and Hanley. Although Papi's number are very good this year, not so much in the clutch.

The best manager in baseball is Joe Maddon. Second is the Giants manager. I think these 2 would do better than Farrell. I'm not sure about anyone else. I also really like the young Dave Roberts ( ex sock), who helped get us in the World Series in '04. One characteristic of a great manager is knowing how to use your players and how to motivate them. I see this with Joe but not so much with John this year. John has so much talent on the team this year that its hard to know who to use when. Having a player like Hanley can be a challenge for any manager (so much raw talent but he is a bit of an under-achiever). He has single handedly won some games for us but also single-handedly lost us a few. It's Papi's last year, he's still a great fielder and should be playing in the NL games vs. RH pitchers. This is the kind of problem I have with Farrell. We still might get to the big show but right now I'm a little worried about John. Maybe Dombrowski's putting too much pressure on him. It's gotta be fun too. Magic=fun and The most magic I have seen this year has come from Peedie's glove, not from walk-offs, and not from brilliant managerial moves.

I'm worried if they make the playoffs this year it will be one and done. They don't win the close ones and when they do win its 10-3 or 12-6, etc. I see Joe Kelly as a potentially great closer if used correctly. Whenever Kimbrell comes in I hold my breath. He definitely has blown most of the tied games he's been in and if the Sox are behind by a run he usually makes it worse. He's a shaky closer. I'm also worried that Farrell doesn't have the 6th sense to make the right moves to win the close ones this year. They better wake up!!

He reminds me a little of Hank Aaron. He has to lay off that outside and low slider though.