Maxbialystock

And 5 behind the Rays.

Pretty nice grab last night—a game saver.

Big hit. Big.

Sure it does. I even commented on it last night. But in the great majority of games this year it hasn’t made much of a difference. And at least twice this season JBJ didn’t make plays which definitely hurt. He’s still playing because is the best option, but his very weak hitting ain’t helping.

This team is pathetic. Seriously. To waste a great start by Sale by not being able to score more than a run. Against the Orioles.

At my age, I like to test my memory, which means I like to memorize the 25 man roster, including changes. Position players have been easy, but the pitching staff impossible. I am inclined to think the position players will not change a lot from what we have now, but the pitching will change weekly if not daily.

Absolutely, DD must dump that worthless Moreland character. I looked at the stats--and he is only 4th on the team in total bases, leader in dingers, leader in rbi's, etc. He should be declared an embarassment to Red Sox baseball and sent packing. I agree with whoever says Moreland tends to regress in the 2d half of the season, but that hasn't actually happened yet this year. As for next year, it sure looks as those Devers or Chavis is a better fit at 1b--provided someone else can do as well (hitting and fielding) at 3b/2b.

Back to JBJ. He was useless at the plate last night, but I thought he had a good game because he made a couple of nice grabs in CF. And Mookie got one too. As much as I complain about JBJ, I have no problems with how Cora is using him, which is just about every day. It definitely helps that on most days the other 8 hitters--Beni, Betts, JDM, Bogie, Moreland, Devers, Chavis, Vazquez--are all hitting pretty well. Moreover, the three guys usually on the bench--Leon, Nunez, Pearce--ain't hitting too well either.

A contrarian view. I happen to think the 25 man roster has worked remarkably well so far. Cora loaded up on pitchers with 13 from the get go--season began with a lot of games without a break--and has stayed there. Thus, despite having just three benchers, we have seen Chavis blossom and assorted others--Nunez Pearce, Lin, etc--get a shot. More to the point, the usual lineup has 8 pretty good hitters right now--everyone except JBJ.

Last night Means was tough to hit and went 7 innings. tonight Hess isn't quite so tough. But Velazquez is still a question. Cora going with 4 lefty bats and what is very likely his best lineup these days-- Beni LF Betts RF JDM DH Moreland 1B Bogie SS Devers 3B Chavis 2B Bradley CF Vazquez C I have ranted mightily against JBJ, but still agree with Cora using him. 81 degrees right now in DC and mostly sunny.

I don't understand those numbers/percentages.

Of course the mental aspect of the game is important, but it's also hard to measure. I'm always astounded that MLB players can stay focused for 162 games, playing 6 games a week for six months, each game lasting over 3 hours, much of which are consumed by bs mannerisms by pitchers and hitters.

I'm fine with pitching being 40% and defense being 10%, but disagree emphatically that idea that defense can have that transformational effect on the pitching.

Following up on the .980 fielding percentage. A batting average of .300 approaches nirvana and pretty much guarantees a hefty salary for that hitter. Thus, if you field 98%, you're only doing what's expected, and if you hit 30%, you are made for life to borrow of mafia movie experession. I am not against great fielding because it is the poetry of the game which consists mostly of the prose of batter facing pitcher, which can sometimes get tiresome. What I am saying is that great fielding in my opinion only makes a difference at the margins and that what wins games is good pitching and good hitting, just as losing games is the result of bad pitching and bad hitting. I might add that I think the way WAR is computed reflects the above reality.

Let's understand something. A fielder with a .980 fielding percentage is normal, routine. Moreover, a slug like JDM who is routinely excoriated on talksox for his incredibly poor defense, actually makes some good plays now and then and usually makes the routine plays. And the worst third baseman, Devers, in the entire history of MLB, who leads the known universe in errors right now with I think 10, has a fielding % of .917. And we are furious he is so lacking in skill. But we sure like his hitting when he is right. Last night was a textbook in how a pitcher can shut down an opposing batting orders--in this case, the Sox, who recently have been on a tear but last night were putty, hitting meek ground balls and easy fly balls. Davis did make a nice flip to the pitcher on that grounder to the right, but the best defensive play of the game was probably JDM who got credit for the out when the Orioles fan interfered. The point is, routine defense is pretty effective with very good pitching and almost everyone in MLB can play routine defense. Meanwhile, great pitching is hard to come by and comes at a price. Meanwhile, any Sox fan with half a brain knows that we got off to a slow start this year because of lousy pitching, primarily the rotation, which even a world class defense with gold gloves at every position could not have prevented.

Wrong!! Orioles have as good a home record as the Sox have on the road. So you cannot assume an easy game. On top that the Orioles pitcher is pitching great and mowing down our best hitters while Cora was forced to start a journeyman.

I honestly don't think the bottom of the lineup is as big a problem as the Orioles pitcher, who has good stuff and is really hitting his spots. Thus no hits by the top 5 in the order and 2 hits by the bottom 4. Plus I don't think any Sox player has hit the ball hard yet.

I didn't think Smith was all that bad. Yes, he loaded the bases, but then he struck out two. The dinger came on a curve low in the zone. As for pitching depth, the Sox started with five pretty good ones--Sale, Price, ERod, Eovaldi, and Porcello--in the rotation, and you can't ask for much more than that. The problem was they weren't ready, not that there was no depth.

I have a simple theory that somewhere between 75% and 90% of a team's defense is embedded in its pitching, exclusive of the quality of the infielders and outfielders. How else explain that 12 or 13 of the 25 man rosters on every MLB team are pitchers and that pitchers routinely command the top salaries in MLB? I would therefore argue that lineup players hitting is on average at least three times as important as their fielding. But I'm more than willing to debate and/or talked out of either notiong.

Well done, moonslav! I count 7 righties tonight against lefty Means, who is 3-3 with an ERA of 2.81 and a mean changeup which he throws 33% of the time. Devers at DH and JBJ are the only two lefty bats. No Beni and no Moreland. First start for Josh Smith. Weather down here (N. Virginia, 35 miles from Camden Yards as the crow flies) is 75 degrees and partly sunny. Ditto tomorrow. Mostly cloudy Wed and possible rain, but likely playable. Orioles so far are 8-11 at home, Sox 9-11 on the road.

Somebody start today's game thread already.

A fair response. But my rejoinder is that I root like crazy for the team as a whole and thus don't mind criticizing the guys who aren't helping. Last year I went after Pomeranz with a vengeance. Ditto Kimbrel after the postseason. So right now I'm a lot less willing to "be patient" with JBJ when I've seen this good team struggle and JBJ being one of the reasons for the struggle. Speaking of which, I agree with everyone that our biggest problem by far has been with the rotation which now seems to be improving. But there again I finger JBJ because the great majority of "good field, no hit" advocates say that JBJ is so good he makes the pitchers better, to which I say, "show me some evidence of that in 2019." Someone else put up the W-L records for the Sox for the past 10 years, and they showed that the Sox had just one season when they finished with a winning record after having a losing record in their first 33 or so games. In other words, I'm saying, "please don't tell me how great JBJ was last year or in 2017 or 2016, because the need is now and urgent." I am certain that JBJ had bad spells last year, but who cared when the Sox got off to that great start and never looked back?

I used to root like crazy for JBJ because he replaced--after a trial run that didn't go well in 2014--Ellsbury and for a lot less money. I remember commenting around 1 August 2015 that I was fine with bringing him back up for another shot because it was still possible he would turn things around. Which he did and with a vengeance that lasted thru all of 2016, easily his best season. My heartburn this year centers around the state of the team, which has struggled, and JBJ, who demonstrably hasn't helped bring the Sox out of their slump--other guys did that. Thus I get a little nasty when the Sox are struggling and all the JBJ fans insist he is still the man and his struggles at bat are temporary. We should be patient. I am also told--relentlessly--that he is still the greatest in CF and frankly I'm not seeing it. Moreover, I have formed serious doubts that his defense really affects game outcomes as often as people claim.

Ahem. All your uses of the verb "should" suggest you think Cora is a dummy for playing Chavis at 2B. Far from it. He is trying to get the best hitters in the lineup, and right now it's really hard to argue with an infield of Devers, Bogaerts, Chavis, and Moreland. I would further argue I think Chavis is already better at 2b than Nunez, who has a bad glove and is terrible on popups or flies to short RF, where Chavis is pretty darn good. Chavis definitely needs work on turning the DP when he makes the throw to 1b. Devers has made a ton of errors, some of them costly, at 3b, but he's still there because of that bat and the hope he will improve his defense.

Meh. Agree Ellsbury's 2011 was a false high which he never came close to repeating, especially the 32 dingers. And no question JBJ is the better centerfielder. Thus it was a smart move by the Sox not to try to keep Ellsbury and to gamble on JBJ in 2014 even though he bombed. The problem is that JBJ is hugely inconsistent at the plate except for that one great season, 2016. In the three seasons since then, his overall WAR's have gone steadily down--5.5 in 2016, 3.0 in 2017, 2.1 in 2018, and -1.3 so far in 2019. My other point is that I think his defense is not nearly as important as his bat. He has had very few remarkable grabs this year and fewer still--perhaps none-- that made a difference in a game. But he has had many opportunities to contribute at the plate. That said, I trust Cora to use JBJ intelligently and realize that with just 12 position players on the roster he probably should use JBJ most of the time.