Maxbialystock

Who the hell cares about lefties? These guys can't hit righties.

Thank goodness for game threads which now allow to say that, once again, with Sale pitching a gem, this lineup is an abomination, a pestilence upon the land. I mean infuriating.

Ahem. time for the next game thread to start.

Your guys did exactly that last night after Gray left, I think with 2 on, neither of whom scored. Chapman almost blew it in the 9th, but Judge saved him.

We all agree on next season. But I honestly think there is an upside this year too. Our best DH by far is JDM, and our best 1B is Moreland. That's why I think this move--DFA early--was inevitable. I do think they were willing to give HanRam a little more rope just in case they were wrong and could still use him, but the feeling was it was time for him to go. About finances. Let's not forget that a big chunk of what they save in 2019 they have to pay out in 2018. That is, the Sox will pay Hanley this year wherever he goes, just like Pablo who is currently playing for the San Francisco. In Hanley's case, he is own his own next year, but right now he is a dead loss. This is no doubt why you and others are unhappy wit this move. Why give up a paid-for bat that can maybe help? Just maybe, however, the injured shoulder theory is true. If so, it's smart to let him go and equally smart by others not to scoop him up.

Shows how important pitching depth--especially starters--can be. Sale is probably still our ace this year, but can't hardly buy a win. I don't miss Pom one bit, but am delighted Price, Porcello ERod, and Wright are able to pick up the slack.

Since this thread includes the Yankees, an observation. I watched the Yankees at Nationals Park on TV last night and was impressed with Judge,who I honestly believe has been over-hyped. I specifically mean his fielding. Last night he made a very good sprinting grab of a foul fly that wasn't for from the right field line wall, so Judge went to his knees to slide and stop his forward momentum. But he did in a way that allowed the ball to hit his glove before his knees hit the dirt. Plus it was a long run to get there--the guys has pretty good wheels. He also got the last out of the game on a liner to deep right that he snagged on the run--a snag I doubt Mookie would have made because Judge is 6'8" to Mookie's 5'9" plus maybe 3" for more reach. Men were on 1st and 2d with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, so there was a good chance both runners would have scored to tie the game at 4 all if Judge doesn't make that grab. To me height--except in a pitcher--isn't much of an advantage in baseball.

Most of the time you make sense and back that up with good stats, but this time you have gone beyond the pale. There is no way, no how Sox management knows anywhere near as much as people on this board. That's why this thread is called "A Realistic View"--because we are the hard core people (except for me, of course) who really know this team and the players in a way that DD and Cora could not possibly know. They're both newbies. Except for that, I agree with you completely and had not thought of the 2 years angle.

The 2004 and 2007 teams did indeed have great hitting in the postseason--and needed it. The 2013 team had good hitting in the regular season which dropped off in the postseason, where great pitching--ERA of 2.59--carried the day. Plus some great clutch hits by Ortiz mostly, but others too. It's entirely possible Devers won't be "ready" for the postseason this year, but he is still I think our best option at 3b. But I just don't understand the attack on Benintendi, who played a ton last year and contributed a lot--and this year is even better. His OPS of .925 is 14th best in MLB and he got off to a slow start this year. He's also tied for 9th in MLB in rbi's and in runs scored. And he's not ready???????

Agree with Nick and Bellhorn4. Devers needs to stay in Boston and 3B is a good spot for him because we have Moreland for 1b. However, I'm not at all worried about Pom's health because I don't want him back in the rotation--at least, not until he develops a usable changeup. JBJ hitting is indeed a concern. Thornburg at this point is a big "meh" in my book. Pedey could really help--I still believe in him--but I honestly don't see him coming back this year. He missed, what, two full months after the entire offseason to recover, and could only play 2 games?

Meh. So far, June 18, the Sox have the 4th lowest ERA in MLB and, better still, the fewest unearned runs in MLB--12. That's 12 unearned runs out of 263 runs total. it's also 12 unearned runs in 73 games played. I have not yet examined whether any of those unearned runs affected a gameout come or whether any of Devers's errors affected a game outcome. So it seems to me that Devers isn't hurting the team as much as you want us to believe. This might also explain why Cora keeps playing him. Plus I personally do see improvement. Also, there are several on talksox, moonslav among them, who say errors are not the best measure for overall fielding.

Meh. The "abuse" point is especially laughable because those two, Benintendi and Devers, are thrilled to be up in the Bigs and playing every day. A dream come true. No doubt in my mind Beni loves batting 2d because it shows confidence in him even though, just as you say, he is quite young. I don't disagree with moonslav and you that this isn't the ideal situation, but by definition ideal is rare. Meanwhile, I focus on three pretty good things-- 1. The team is winning games--more than any other team in MLB--and playing well against the best teams (NYY, Mariners, Astros). 2. The lineup, woebegone as many on talksox now think, is still 2d or 3d best in MLB and a big improvement over last year. 3. The rotation right now is awfully good. Porcello is the worst of the five, and that's saying a whole lot.

I got my numbers from espn splits for the Sox, but obviously misread or misinterpreted. You usually have better stats, so my 20 PA's is off. But your PA's remaining would be, I think, between 50 and 60, so my point remains. And wow, I did not know you liked the move. Great. But you of course are thinking about 2019, which is fine.

Probably. My favorite example is Nava, who was on 2b when the next guy hit a drive to right center off the wall. Where did Nava end up? 2b of course. He took the obligatory short lead off 2b when he saw where the ball was going and that it might get caught. At the last second, no doubt under some kind of uncontrollable impulse, he decided he must return to the safe island of 2b. As the ball hit the wall, there was Nava sliding--yes, sliding--into 2B. Moreland's gaffe doesn't come within miles of that.

Against lefties, of course. Against righties it would still be Moreland at 1B, JDM at DH, and HanRam riding the pine. To date the Sox have had 145 at bats vs. lefties and 519 vs. righties. Divide that 145 by 9 hitters, and you get 20 at bats for HanRam, assuming he gets the extra at bat every now and then. Now multiply those 20 at bats by, say, 1.5 to account for the rest of this season. That gets us to 30 at bats for which the Sox will pay, what, $15M, or is it less than that now? Isn't that a tad pricey?

True. Thus my choice of "one little factor." Moreland's problem is he is just slow.

Who knew the Hanley Ramirez fan club was so darn big on talksox? I am stunned with all these endorsements for a guy who was earning maybe $2M of that $22M he was being paid this year and, if he vested, again next year. moonslav put it best when he said DD came to that conclusion last winter when he re-signed Moreland and went after JDM. And you can bet he was more than willing to deal HanRam to anyone dumb enough to do so. But he couldn't, so the instructions to Cora were probably: "play him as much as possible so we can solidify our decision or reverse it." Thus, even though the Sox had a decent 1B in Moreland and a very good DH in JDM, HanRam played all but 6 of the 44 games the Sox played before he left. I can't help but think one little factor was that time he was on 1b and I think Moreland hit a double to right center with two men out. HanRam slowed down to watch it, hoping it would go out and he could jog around the bases. Finally, he sped up and was thrown out at home. Very unprofessional. That one thing might have convinced Cora-- this guy ain't a player when it counts, or maybe he thinks he can get away with stuff with a rookie manager in the dugout.

Exactly. I'm not against tweaking, but absolutely do not buy the general gloom and doom of this thread.

True. Good win yesterday, 2-2 series at their park immediately after flying 3000 miles, Baltimore to Seattle, with no travel day. And, yes indeed all four games were winnable because we lost the middle two by 1 run each and had a 6-3 lead in game 2 against the Seattle ace. But the tenor of this game thread is borderline despondent. Why couldn't the Sox hit that guy in game 3 even though, if you watched, he pitched a great game? Indeed, why is the hitting so bad, especially against lefties, and what is DD going to do about it? No comment on the simple fact that our two lefties, Price and ERod, won games 1 and 4 and both had quality starts. Me, I expected 2-2, definitely hoped to win 3 of 4 after game 1, and was OK with the middle game losses precisely because they were winnable. I say that because at least one talksoxer said he saw a big difference in the talent of the two teams--to the advantage of Seattle. I am not saying this lineup can't be tweaked, but for me it's hard not to like this team, especially now that it's mostly healthy again and has what I think is the best or 2d best rotation in MLB. The Astros have more aces, but we have five good ones unless Porcello is about to regress to 2017 form.

Not against a trade, but would remind everyone this is already a pretty good team as defined by winning record, nose to nose series with other contenders, team pitching and hitting stats. Lowrie seems to get a lot of mention. He had a great April, a so-so May, and even worse June so far (OPS .613).

No love from me, but definitely praise for his amazing pitching, season to date. That thing is working and he also has the occasional fast ball and even that huge curve. Plus let's not forget Vazquez who is doing a splendid job catching him--a job that Varitek absolutely could not do.

Clearly we disagree on what constitutes misuse. I'm honest when I say I generally support every move Cora makes, but in this case I also think Kimbrel gets paid an awful lot of money to do less and less. I also think the Cora is experimenting a little, trying to see what each of his guys are capable of--and not.

We disagree on a lot, but I emphatically agree with you on 1-0 games which to me are very exciting. Last night their infield defense definitely helped hold that small lead. Devers error cost Wright nothing other than a few extra pitches, and he also made some good plays. Their defense cost them in game 2, but they won it anyway when our bullpen folded. Our defense definitely helped get the game 1 win.

Sometimes game threads after losses just astound me, and this is certainly one of them. Going into this series I thought most talksoxers would be happy with a split. That's still possible. But not on this thread. Tonight's game apparently confirmed that nobody on this team can hit or will ever hit again. No siree, we now have the worst lineup ever, one that suddenly needs an infusion of fresh blood or, better still, the return of the great Hanley Ramirez because he is better than Swihart, which to me is completely nonsensical. This catastrophic season--or so it seems on this thread--is because of Swihart who barely plays? The Sox currently still have the second best offense in MLB, but on this thread it is described as second worst. And last night, which is apparently erased from our racial memory, that putrid offense scored 6 runs (5 earned) off of a very good pitcher.

You said something like that on last night's game thread, and I sadly agree. Last night was a terrible loss--as you have said--because Bogie's 3 run dinger was off their putative ace and gave us a 6-3 lead.