Maxbialystock

By the same token you seem to be dead certain Beni peaked two years ago, that Dever will never improve, that Vaz and JBJ will stay mired in the mud, etc. I go by what moonslav said before this season started. Several guys under performed last year and moonslav said they would improve. They have. In addition, there can be no question JDM has not only added a very good bat, but one that helps others just as Ortiz's bat did in 2016 when the Sox led MLB in scoring. The Yankees are likely to continue leading MLB in runs scored in 2018, but the Sox shouldn't be too far behind. The key for us is the rotation living up to its promise. Early in the season, they did and more. Now, not so much.

I frankly don't think JBJ is key to anything and am fine with whatever Cora does with him--plays him or doesn't play him. To me right now it's all about the pitching and by that I mostly mean the rotation. Pom has been lousy his last two starts after a great Mar-April. ERod is up and down. Pom is up and down. Price is up and down.

Of course the pitcher doesn't control 80% of the at bats because none of them get 80% of their outs via K's. But good pitchers only have to ensure that the hitter does not hit a round ball with a round bat squarely. Good sinker ball pitchers can induce grounders which are good for the defense more often than not. And there are no pitchers anywhere that don't love to see popups. Most grounders and most popups are routine plays and not a challenge for the defense.

It absolutely is not a fact. More of an hypothesis. I do think pitching is crucial to the defense as evidence by the expenditure of huge amounts of money for that one position and the 12 guys who fill it. Our highest paid player is a pitcher. Our closer makes more than Betts or Beni or JBJ or Devers or Bogie or Nunez or Vaz or Moreland. And they have all played many, many more innings than Kimbrel has. So 80% could be wrong, but I don't think by much. Plus I have a big caveat in there when I point out that in fact JBJ has played in a lot of games this year despite the execrable OPS. Clearly Cora values his defense. But he has also "rested" JBJ because his weak bat exacerbates the weak hitting in the bottom of the order.

Just so we know what we are arguing about, here again is what I wrote earlier. I think 80% of defense is the guy on the mound. This might explain why every MLB team without exception carries 12 pitchers on their 25 man rosters. That leaves 20% for the 9 guys, including the pitcher, defending against various flies, grounders, liners, bunts, etc. Divide 20% by 9 and you get a little over 2% of the defense depends on any given defender. The offense depends on the 9 guys in the lineup--100%. Divide that by 9 and you get something over 10% for each guy in the lineup. So a lineup player contributes 10% to the offense and 2% to the defense, so his bat is 5 times as important as his glove. You can probably make a case that some fielders, especially very good ones, are contributing more than 2%. In JBJ's case, maybe it's 3%, but I doubt seriously it's more than 4% because outfielders don't have as many total chances as infielders and catchers have more than anyone else. So best case for JBJ is that his bat is 2.5 times as important as his glove. This could explain why, season to date, he has played in the second most games of anyone on the team. Cora likes him in CF (occasionally RF, but not often).

Hmmm. I thought I was the only one indulging in irony.

I only know what I see, and I certainly don't see a closeup of Vazquez on every pitch. Far from it. So you could be right.

From what I've seen, he hasn't thrown that many bad pitches, but they have hit some pretty good ones low in the zone. Vazquez gets the pitches from the bench, and there is always the possibility that the other team is reading those signs.

I always have the sound off. Unfortunately, they are also putting him on camera.

Can't disagree with that. Of course, it didn't lead to a run. Nope, the missed catch by Betts did--two of them. Fortunately for him, most people agree he's pretty good in RF.

When will Cora learn? If JBJ had been in RF, he catches that one easy.

I apologize for the bulletins, but what the heck. Gonzalez escaped with 1 run, score now tie 3-3, despite bases loaded and no outs. I am less than 20 miles from the stadium and we are getting a lot of thunder and rain.

Unbelievable. Yankees have loaded the bases in the 5th on two walks and a pop fly behind the firstbaseman. One out on grounder to 1b, throw to home.

Thanks very much for the update.

Gio Gonzalez is a lot shorter, but a lot like POM. Both have slow fastballs, 88-89-90, and big curves breaking from left to right. But Gio has a usable changeup and better command of his pitches.

Tonight he is getting more pain than he is inflicting.Yankees out in the 3d after a walk to Judge, a GIDP by Stanton (he should have struck out to help the team), and a fly out by Sanchez. Now 3-2 in the 4th: Yanks got a 2 run error double by the CF who ran all the way over to the standing still LF to forced the dropped ball--followed by a dinger on a curve up in the zone.

I'm watching Yankees at the Nats which for me is a local game. Tanaka gave up a dinger on a sinker low in the zone. Top of second, the leadoff Yankees double and single on hard hit balls, men on 2d and 3d. Next three, Tanaka (batting 8th), torres, and Hicks all K and that big curve Gio Gonzalez throws. Nats lead off bottom of 2d with double by Howie Kendricks. He scores on a grounder to the left side. 2-0 Nats. Now 3-0 in the 2d off a double by Severino (not the pitcher of course).

A must win, sort of, to me. I hate giving into the Yankees. And yes I know it's only May. But right now we have about everyone we are supposed to have except Pedey and Thornberg. Long since time for the rotation and bullpen to man up. Last night the lineup score 4 runs off the same guy who no hit us last time, but Porcello gave up 5. To me that was the ball game in a nutshell. I have nothing against starting JBJ or anyone else because to me the lineup has been doing its job. Slasher9 is just the guy to get us this win.

That lineup worked against Manaea--way, way better than a month ago when he threw the no-hitter.

Of course he is, and by a good margin. But the whole idea of WAR is to measure the whole player. That's why I went through that exercise arguing that the average lineup player's bat is five times as important as his glove. By and large Cora has shown a willingness to play JBJ despite the weak hitting, but lately not so much because the bottom third of the lineup is struggling and the Sox aren't winning as much.

I'm arguing against 20-20 hindsight. On general principles, I want a hitter to hit the ball, preferably hard, which is close to what Swihart did in the 4th after Bogie walked and Nunez--wait for it--hit a grounder that got thru for a single to RF. Swihart's problem was he hit his grounder right to the SS.

His WAR is currently -.4, 2d worst in MLB among starting centerfielders.

Yup. It's why Ortiz liked having Manny Ramirez in the lineup--in his words, so he could get "a pitch to hit."

There are I think zero managers anywhere who will tell or want a batter to strike out, even with men on first and second and less than two outs. That's why NL managers want their pitchers to learn hot to bunt--to do something useful besides K with men on base.

Hanley was very good in 2016, OPS .866 and 111 rbi's, with Ortiz in the lineup. He was 32 then, 34 now, so my thought is you are probably right. Except for the baserunning gaffe--pause to watch what turned into a double when there were 2 outs--I think he has also played with enthusiasm.