Maxbialystock

The Sox know both players very well. There is no way either one would not have been brought up if they had been ready For now Gonzalez owns 2b and Lowe 1b. However, right now Gonzalez's OPS for August is .379, so Hamilton gets a shot. And I think Grissom is on the IL and his Worcester OPS is .783.

Something like that.

Boy, is it ever.

He can play defense and is a good baserunner. As for his lousy hitting, he is now a part of a very big crowd called the Boston Red Sox non-hitters. If you just watched the Sox 4th, I rest my case.

Sweet double by Yoshida to the opposite field. All at bats hereafter are RISP--the kiss of death for the Sox.

It was a horribly bad play, but cost the Sox nothing because they can't hit the dang ball. The Sox have `1 run because of throwing errors and a balk.

Good OP, as usual.

Great point. I Iook forward to a sweep against the Yankees now that the lineup has been fixed.

Sox will definitely miss Abreu's lefty bat. Hamilton an interesting choice at 2b, but that gives the Sox a good infield, a good outfield and a good defensive catcher. All that remains is for the Sox to hit the freaking ball with RISP and the Yankees to be held to less that 9 dingers.

i'm reporting you to mods for plagiarism. 😁 Does this mean we finally get to see Love at 1b?

Duran can't hit lefties, period. Abreu has the higher OPS and the same rbi's, 69, despite playing in fewer games. And anyone who claims Duran is in any way comparable to Rafaela in CF is out of his mind. He's got the wheels, but absolutely no instinct on where the ball is going.

One more time. Abreu's OPS vs lefties is .721 and Duran's is .583.

Interesting, but dead wrong on Abreu. His DWAR is 1.2 vs Duran's 0.3 primarily because he has the arm to play RF which Duran does not have, which is why he is in LF. Abreu's OPS is .811 vs Duran's .787. Duran's better against righties, .886 vs .828, but Abreu is better against lefties, .721 vs .583. Duran has the higher WAR, 3.8 to 3.3, because he's great on the basepaths and has played in more games. Both have 69 rbi's. For my money, the two best Sox outfielders by a wide margin are Anthony and Rafaela. Anthony is another Ted Williams (not really) and Rafaela is fantastic in CF. His OPS in June and July combined was .860--so maybe he can hit too. I think the reason why the Sox want to keep Duran and why other teams want him more than Abreu is that he has terrific crowd appeal--which Abreu lacks. I have argued the Sox should keep all 4 outfielders, but now I think it makes sense to trade Duran or Abreu. If Ref stays, he can be the 4th outfielder. So could Campbell if he doesn't get 1b next spring. Cora's mistake was in playing Rafaela at 2b so that Anthony, Duran, and Abreu could all play the outfield against righty starters. I understand the logic, but it absolutely did not work.

Not against lefties when his OPS descends to .583. Duran also leads the Sox in AB's vs lefties.

All good. You will recall I went completely ape last year when Sale started like a house afire and went on to get the CYA. Plus Giolito couldn't play. Plus Grissom did nothing. Plus this year he sent Devers to the Giants when he had an OPS of .905 as the Sox DH. So I cannot claim to be the first to see Breslow's value. But in fact we can all see he has made this Sox team better and the fact of his inexperience (2 years total as CBO) should only add to his future value.

Hard to say. In August he was great at Fenway against Miami and Houston, but stunk @ San Diego. But my real concern is that the Yankee bats have come alive. Last night the Rays tied the game with 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th, and the Yankees scored 3 runs in the top of the 10th with 2 dingers. Yankee Stadium is a hitters ballpark, and the Yankees lead MLB in dingers with 20 more than the 2d place Dodgers. The Yankees pitching is just so-so, but these days that's all it seems to take to shut down Red Sox anemic hitting.

Can we not recognize that Breslow got the Sox to this position by bringing in Bregman, Crochet, Chapman, and Narvaez in a single season? And he did that in just his second season ever as a CBO. All this whining about his communications skills (which stink) masks his real value to the team.

Your comments reinforce the notion that Breslow/Cora also recognize the issue with Rafaela, which is why they brought in Lowe for 1b. That keeps Gonzalez at 2b and Rafaela in CF when and if Cora actually allows Lowe to play 1b. Ref and Abreu on the sidelines only reinforces Rafaela in CF. When both are back Duran should be the drop out against lefty starters so Ref can DH. Duran's OPS vs lefties is .583. Rafaela's June OPS was .870 and July .852. IN August it's .533. Is it possible that Cora killed a pretty decent bat by moving him to 2b where Rafaela's defense is only so-so? The world wonders. ,

One more time. Name another Sox CBO since 2002 who brought in a better haul for one season than Bregman, Crochet, Chapman, Narvaez. Plus he brought in May last 3 weeks ago and May has had 2 quality starts and an ERA of 2.87. Am I the only one on Talksox who noticed that? The Sox also got better after losing Devers. Nevertheless, I'm plenty worried after those 2 losses to Baltimore and the hot Yankees coming up. I see the postseason in jeopardy.

If you're saying don't hunt for still another 1b, I agree. I also agree Casas is now a long shot. He's two serious injuries--1 from swinging a bat and the other from running to 1b, So the messages seem to be: don't swing hard and run a lot slower.

Well written. If you are serious about the team's potential going into the July 31 trade deadline, why can't you give Breslow credit for building that team? Also, I don't care what Breslow says--he's lousy at it but his actions are way more important than his words. As for a DH, Devers would have been perfect, but he had to go to the Giants. Going into the trade deadline I thought Ref/Yoshida would be a good fix for DH. No one else was saying we needed a DH, but I agree right now it's not a strength. If Abreu weren't also out, I would DH with one of the four outfielders and keep Gonzalez at 2b.

I agree he makes good points and have told him so repeatedly. That does not mean I have to agree with everything he says, especially when he goes over the top. For that matter I disagree with what you have just written. First and foremost, you have ignored that Breslow, as smart as he no doubt is, lacks experience. Thus letting Sale go (which many on Sox agreed with at the time) and picking up Giolito. This year Buehler sure hasn't earned his salary. One the other hand, when was the last time a Sox GM/CBO brought in four stalwarts as good as Bregman, Crochet, Chapman, and Narvaez in a single offseason? Answer: you don't know. Plus I like this current team even though I get really po'd as I was last night. It is beyond question better than last year's team. ERA is significantly lower and the runs scored are higher (even though that number is bloated by games when the Sox scored over 10 runs). The Sox defense is solid with Bregman at 3b, Story at SS, and some version of Anthony, Abreu, Rafaela, and Abreu in the outfield, plus Narvaez/Wong catching. Granted, not so good at 2b, but the Sox expected Campbell to excel there and he's now back in Worcester. First base was supposed to be Casas, he of the .800 lifetime OPS and so-so fielding. About now you should be firing back with how abysmal Breslow was on or before July 31. Well, guess what? He brought in May who in 3 starts has 2 quality starts and an ERA of 2.87. If you negativists weren't so insistent that the sky is falling, you would recognize that May--at least after 3 games--is a freaking brilliant acquisition. He bombed on a new first baseman, but now we have Lowe. He dumped Devers to the Giants, and the Sox got better. I think he did that because he had no choice, but it sure hasn't hurt.

I completely agree. My point is that pinning last nights' loss on him is wrong, especially when the inning before the Sox had the bases full and 3 Sox struck out. Toro at least hit the ball. If he's hit in the right place, he would have been the hero.

I looked that up too and saw that the Sox have accumulated 90 at bats with the bases loaded. And the guy with the most bases loaded at bats, 14, is Story. His OPS is 1.175. Gonzalez has 6 at bats, OPS 1.667, Ref, 2 at bats. 1.100. Toro, 5 at bats, .900, and Bregman, 9 at bats, .667, The big disappointments are Duran, 10 at bats, .314, Rafaela, 6 at bats, .000, Narvaez, 5 at bats, .000 and Roman Anthony, 4 at bats, .000, Devers had 6 at bats with 2 grand slams, 12 rbi's, and an OPS of 2.125. Casas had 1 at bat, Campbell 3, and Abreu 7. In 90 at bats, the Sox OPS with the bases loaded is .877.