kenmeister

I agree that Bogaerts is worn down. Hopefully he'll be fresh for the playoffs and rake.

How much of that was spent playing third base?

I'm not even sure Moncada starts 2017 in AAA. He might need time at AA still, finish up in AAA, continue in AAA at the start of 2018, and finally arrive for good sometime mid-2018.

I also like to look at Quality Starts and Quality Start Percentage. In both he's second to Verlander - hopefully evens up to a tie after today's game.

"Sudden surge of competence"; nice phrasing. Buch has a chance to get his record to a respectable 10-10 on the year.

Wouldn't it be something if Price ends up a 20 game winner?

Wow, I just woke up and looked at the standings all around baseball. There's only one division race left out of the six. The Guardians have a 6 game lead over the Tigers, the Rangers 8.5 over the Astros, Nationals 8 over the Mets, Cubs 16 over the Cardinals, and Dodgers 5 over the Giants. Whereas in the AL East, 4 of the 5 teams are all within 4 games of each other. We've got all the drama. And it's all about to go down over the next 3 series. This is exciting!

Last night's lineup: Pedroia Bogaerts Ortiz Betts Bradley Leon Holt Shaw Benintendi I think that's a pretty good lineup; I'd just flip Ortiz and Betts.

I don't miss Pap. By the end of his time here, nobody had confidence that he'd pitch well in a big game. For me, the "one that got away" is Jon Lester. And actually, Adrian Beltre and Victor Martinez should have been locked up too, and gosh if we'd held onto Anthony Rizzo...

Kason Gabbard and Juan Pena both had the potential to be special, but now we'll never know.

You know, when Price and Pomeranz pitch well, and Mookie and Jackie and Sandy all rake, we look good.

I didn't know that, thanks for the article. Here's hoping Swihart becomes our everyday catcher next year. Look how many home-grown players are potentially starters next year: RF Mookie Betts 2B Dustin Pedroia SS Xander Bogaerts CF Jackie Bradley Jr DH Hanley Ramirez 1B Travis Shaw 3B Yoan Moncada LF Andrew Benitendi C Blake Swihart

If this were a movie script, the wild card game would come down to ... Buchholz.

Agreed; big sigh of relief! Next I want to see E-Rod cement his post-all-star effectiveness, and then really I think the attention shifts to somehow fixing that bullpen. That Carson Smith injury had a huge impact on the season.

If the White Sox say, "That's a good package of players, you can have one of Chris Sale or Jose Quintana", who do you choose? Quintana looks like a budding star to me.

Good point. If he starts missing more games after this, then I'll worry.

I do cut Price some slack on his last start due to the wind and dust. I doubt Wright would have done any better. Buchholz is a fly ball pitcher, just the wrong game to have brought him in on.

I think Drew Pomeranz' start tonight is the most important start of the season for the Red Sox to date. If he's good, I think we can all relax a bit. Otherwise, I think DD has to make another move. If we can rely on Drew and E-Rod, then we really do have 4 capable starters, and Price becomes essentially a 5th starter. I hope that's not a big if.

Maybe it was that 5 home runs in 2 games span, but right now my must-watch-at-batter is Mookie. My ideal lineup is: Bogaerts - let the high average hitter lead off JBJ - seems to me an ideal #2 hitter; nice power/average combo Betts Ortiz After that it's not so clear. It would be awfully nice if Travis Shaw regained his April hitting form.

Now that a few days have gone by since the trade was announced, I'll tell you why I am disappointed, and it has nothing to do with the hope or promise of Drew Pomeranz. For years now, the Red Sox have failed to develop a starting pitcher they've drafted. I was hoping Espinoza would be the success the organization needs to prove they can do it.

I do remember preferring at the time that they keep Rich Hill and let Buchholz go, but it wasn't as strong a preference as hindsight now tells me. And that's because of Henry Owens. I thought if Buchholz gave us the typical half-season, that Henry Owens would be ready by then to join the starting rotation for good. So the season would end Price, Porcello, E-Rod, Kelly, Owens. Didn't work out that way now did it?

I was happy that he served his steroid suspension after his Red Sox time was over.

Makes me wonder if LF for the Red Sox is cursed. I'm sure Hanley likes to think so as well.

Hi all, First time posting today; glad to join the forums! Taking a big picture view of the last few seasons, it really feels like the franchise's number one issue is their inability to draft and develop starting pitching. We've seen so many seemingly can't miss prospects come and go! Henry Owens, Anthony Ranaudo, Brian Johnson, Felix Doubront, heck I'll go back to Brian Rose. It seems like the guys who have success at triple A all end up being labeled "4 A players" and not sticking in the majors. I'm trying to think of the pitchers they've developed in the last 20 years who became regular major league starting pitchers. Aaron Sele, Jon Lester was the most successful, Clay Buchholz, the guy who was traded along with Hanley Ramirez to the Marlins who is in Detroit now, I'm sure I'm forgetting one or two guys, but it's a really small list. To me, that's not just drafting flukiness, the sample size is large enough that it's an organizational deficiency. Which makes it even more surprising that they haven't been as aggressive as they could be in the free agent starting pitching market. I was hoping they'd sign both Price and one of Cueto/Zimmerman/Greinke last offseason.

Hi all, First-time post! I've been lurking for a while though. What are the chances that Brandon Workman will return to be of help this year? I think the return of Brock Holt will be huge, because he's the guy that keeps everybody else fresh. Eduardo Rodriguez's ineffectiveness is, to me, the single biggest reason they may not make the playoffs. Sad; I hope his issues are injury related and he has a chance to be great someday.