Maxbialystock

I think it was Al Schacht (sp) who thought the same thing and came out to the mound with two bats, sat down, and started rowing.

I hope you realize I was being facetious. I want Devers out there just about every darn game. He can hit, and he's going to show he can play 3B. I like Nunez when his bat his hot, period. He's one reason why the bottom third has been so weak this season to date.

Sure is. And I don't understand why.

Nope. Just move him to 3B because I read right here on talksox that Devers is the worst thirdbaseman in the history of the Sox if not MLB. Sit Devers because he makes too many errors plus the occasional boneheaded baserunning mistake. A loser. Nunez gets you error-free infielding.

Incredible catch by JBJ!!!! No one else in the history of MLB makes a catch like that. Now we know why he is in the lineup. What a guy! Sour grapes by the Orioles announcers. They refuse to replay that magnificent catch, which is sure to be on espn tonight.

Fastball pretty close to the middle by Porcello--gone. 4-3. Oh, well.

We slasher9 need here to remind us this is still another win with JBJ in the lineup. Well, a lead, anyway. Love the dingers of course. What a change from last year. But, honestly, I will love it even more if Porcello can keep it up.

Porcello has been super, and just when needed.

It would be if bundy threw it.

Ump just took another strike from Porcello.

Soxpicked a bad night to hit poorly. Cobb gets some credit, of course.

The presumption is that JBJ saves runs with his once in a generation center fielding.

So far the ump is taking strikes from Porcello and giving them to Bundy.

Pot, meet kettle.

Slumps are by definition temporary, but JBJ’s seems intractable.

You know JBJ hits like a pitcher, I hope. He again strikes out on three straight fastballs.

All true. But what bugs me about Pom is his complete inability or unwillingness to develop a changeup to help with facing all those righty bats.

Agree. I did say playing Moreland is the right move and that Hanley is cold right now. Batting 3d in April, he looked like a new man, kind of like Hanley in 2016 with Ortiz in the lineup. Now he looks like 2017 or worse and is surrounded by good hitters. You know me. I always defend the manager. I was slower than everybody else in denouncing Valentine.

Because I think Cora is doing all he can to solve the pitching woes--and a manager can only do so much. Replacing JBJ with Moreland at 1B and Beni moving to CF--given that Moreland's OPS is currently double JBJ's and the latter's WAR is -.4--is a no-brainer. It won't fix the pitching, but can help the hitting, especially when JBJ is one of three weak hitters at the bottom of the order. If he were the only weak hitter, keeping him in CF might make sense. Non hitting defensive CF gives JBJ too much credit. Last night he struck out twice on six 92 mph fastballs right down the middle. He couldn't even foul one off. Cobb actually has a pretty decent repertoire, but his catcher correctly decided it was wasted on JBJ, who right now is hitting like a pitcher.

Agree Cora was right to replace him--he had thrown 102 pitches to get thru the 5th. But it's still not a quality start, and the bullpen had to go 4 innings and gave up 2 more runs. Fortunately, the lineup scored 6 and we won 6-4.

I can find no such statement from Cora, and I absolutely don't believe that "coaching them up" is the answer at this level when they all have multiple years of expert, professional coaching under their belts. I will cite three examples of what I am getting at. The first is Hanley Ramirez slowing up going from first to second base on a liner to RF with two men out--inexcusable, but also the definition of what Hanley sometimes does and no amount of "coaching" will fix that. He's actually better this year than last, but is still Hanley at heart. The second is Beni, the young guy and surely an ideal candidate for additional coaching. The problem is that he actually is pretty quick on the basepaths, and a manager should want to capitalize on that speed. He is second on the team in stolen bases with 7 and has not been caught stealing. He is tied for 2d in runs scored with JD, and JD has 13 dingers to Beni's 3. He also advances on the basepaths--sometimes taking risks--and gets zero credit for it, but always gets blamed for being an idiot when he makes an out. Rounding 3d and getting picked off the other night was a real mistake, but also an alert play by the third baseman. The third example is Mookie last night. He is in fact a terrific baserunner. Last night he led off with a double and got doubled off 2b by a soft liner Schoop caught going into CF and quickly threw to Machado covering 2B. The replay shows Mookie taking a lead, but not a big one, and actually heading back toward 2B before Schoop had the ball in his glove. Schoop just made a great play. And that's my point. Good baserunning can never, ever be risk free and this is exacerbated sometimes by the other team's great defensive play. Given the above three examples, my belief is that "addressing that," if Cora said it, is not as simple as you seem to want to make it. Right now, for example, the Sox rank 4th in MLB in stolen bases and 8th in SB% (79.49%).

I wasn't think of you on that part. We disagreed about Swihart because I didn't mind anyone replacing Vazquez in the lineup, even Swihart as the DH. I think naticktoNc and station13 are the two advocates for Swihart to be our regular starting catcher.

Could not agree more. What an idiotic baserunner Mookie is, the way he got doubled off 2B last night. I'm sure if he had the benefit of your coaching, he would straighten up and fly right. If only he had had you when he was at the 12U level. Same goes double for Beni, of course. Well coached base runners simply do not make mistakes--defined roughly as anything we on talksox don't approve of--not even at the MLB level where the arms are better and more accurate and things happen fast.

Meh. The problem is the rotation which is now healthy but lousy: 1 quality start in the last 5 games. You can argue that the manager should fix/manage what is fixable/manageable, but I would remind you that the Sox lineup is currently the second best in MLB whereas last year it was ranked 10th. I might add that there was outrage from some on talksox when Cora had the temerity to bench the greatest centerfielder of his generation (or whatever accolade one deems sufficient) for Moreland even though his OPS is double that of JBJ. Every time he has done that, there is a steady stream of invective directed toward Beni's inadequacies in CF and JD's in left field. From those comments I get the impression that the best way to fix these Sox is not better hitting and/or pitching but a better defensive outfield. JBJ and JBJ alone can fix our pitching problem--an exaggeration, but not by much. Then there's Swihart and the belief by some that he is the solution to our weak hitting by Leon and Vazquez. You are right about Moreland, of course. And Hanley's OPS in May is .601 to April's .903.

I guess it's just fun to talk about the lineup/hitting when it's the second best in MLB this year. Not so much fun to talk about the rotation which now has Sale, Price, Porcello, ERod, and Pom healthy with Velazquez and now Wright backing up--and they keep getting worse, not better. True, Price was terrific Thursday night, but Pom stunk again last night, Sale barely did 5 innings Wed, and ERod and Porcello stunk the two games before that. Isn't that four out of five non-quality starts? But here we are focusing on how to fix the bottom third of the order or whether Hanley Ramirez should be dropped down or, my personal favorite, is the notion of keeping JBJ in centerfield because his fielding brilliance will fix our pitching woes. Yes, I know that last is an exaggeration, but not a big one.