Maxbialystock
-
Posts
21,179 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
6
Content Type
Profiles
Boston Red Sox Videos
2026 Boston Red Sox Top Prospects Ranking
Boston Red Sox Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits
Guides & Resources
2025 Boston Red Sox Draft Pick Tracker
News
2026 Boston Red Sox Draft Tracker: Picks & Bonuses
Forums
Blogs
Events
Store
Downloads
Gallery
Everything posted by Maxbialystock
-
Tough play on that error. Holt moved in quickly and in fact fielded the bunt headed straight toward Workman. But he either hesitated or mishandled it which gave him little chance to get that runner. Without that mistake and the resulting bad AND rushed throw, he had a good chance of getting the runner out even though a tag was required. Runner to 1b was unimportant given tie game, bottom of 9th. HanRam can play 1b, but I'm not sure he makes that play. His OPS at 1b is .611, but .804 as a DH. Since you surmise HanRam would have been flawless on that play, maybe I can surmise he would not have hit that crucial dinger if he were playing 1b. I get that you don't like Holt. I'm no fan either. All I'm saying is that replacing the injured Moreland with Holt and leaving HRam as the DH was not as irrational as you claim. Your assertion about going back to 12 pitchers makes sense, but who do you bring up and how confident are you that the extra bullpen arm is not needed?
-
No comment.
-
And they remain hitless.
-
Nunez and Betts hitless tonight.
-
Yeah. Vazquez was slow to first thinking he had hit it out.
-
On a 3-0 pitch, he threw a great 4th pitch for a called strike. Turned that whole at bat around and got the grounder on the next pitch.
-
I like that first pitch slider even when it's well inside the zone.
-
He is night and day from those first two innings (he was lucky in the 1st). I mean he is burning those corners.
-
Now let's see if ERod can stay tough. Pitched well in the 3d and 4th innings.
-
The Sox have now hit several balls pretty hard and right to Cleveland infielders.
-
Great at bat by HanRam. Waited him out for his pitch and then hammered it--it was right down the middle.
-
Tough call for the 2b ump--luckily he was wrong.
-
Oh, I agree with what you say about not touching the bag. I'm saying it never should have been that close. He was very slow off the mound. I don't know about that pitch, but sometimes he has a little extra finish on a pitch that causes him to turn or twist to the right.
-
So far, that dinger by Beni is huge. Sox are in this if they can only get some hits.
-
Now that is troubling. Add ERod to the list of Sox pitchers who are not serious about going to first on grounders hit to the right.
-
Terrible at bat by Nunez. That fourth pitch, a fastball right in the middle of the zone, was the third fastball in that at bat.
-
Last two starts, including this one, by Rodriguez suggest that he is not fully ready in the first two innings and tends to over-rely on his fastball and more importantly to throw a lot of pitches well inside the strike zone and up. Last time 4 runs in the 2d, this time 3. Then suddenly he looks pretty good in the next inning(s).
-
Yesterday the last three were all batting lefty--Moreland, Leon, and JBJ--and had all the rbi's and 4 of the runs scored. I'm no HanRam fan, not by a longshot, but I'm not sure 4th is best for Devers. As his splits currently show, he has batted 5th about 38 times with an OPS of somewhere around .940. He has batted 6th, 7th, and 9th a collective total of 40 at bats with an OPS of 1.225. That's about a 300 point difference. Those are of course small sample sizes, but so is yours (including all at bats since he joined the team).
-
That is getting to be Farrell's preferred lineup against righty starters--except that sometimes the catcher is Leon. It is just possible that this is becoming a deep lineup--that is, the bottom three are almost as good as the top and the middle of the order. We'll see.
-
Sadly, the great Brock Holt is probably not playing tonight, so we are stuck with some guy named Nunez at 2b.
-
Our lefty vs. their righty. About even in ERA's and K's, so once again it boils down to who is on and who isn't. Home field favors Clevinger. What I liked about ERod his last time out was he really settled down after the 4 run 2d inning. He looked like a pitcher. He has a good slider and changeup, but sometimes doesn't trust them.
-
So not so sparingly, granted. From Aug 1 thru yesterday, it might be worth noting, Holt started 7 games and didn't start 10. Of the 7 he started, the Sox lost 1. Of the 10 he didn't start, the Sox lost 2. The Sox record in the 16 games Holt played in July is much spottier, but even there I don't think Holt was a big detriment--any more than the rest of the lineup was. Holt was/is neither the cause of nor the solution to our hitting problems this year which have been manifest. The solution was/is obviously Nunez and Devers. I am not arguing that Holt is any better than you say he is, but I am disagreeing that you have substantive evidence that playing Holt establishes Farrell's malfeasance, ineptitude, idiocy, or whatever you want to call it. And that includes yesterday when Holt replaced Nunez at 2b and lead off. The Sox won, 5-1. Holt's made a nice play on the grounder to his left and got two hits, but he scored 0 runs because the top part of the order wasn't in the mood to drive in runs.
-
I was never a big fan of Porcello and agree he was lousy earlier this season. But, frankly, who cares? What's important is how well he is pitching right now, and his right now is pretty good. I think ERod has better stuff, but can't control it and too easily falls back on his fastball. Fister is just OK. And Price is on the DL. So right now Porcello is our #3 in my opinion. Interesting that both Sale and Porcello seem to want Leon as their catcher, so that could also be a factor in evaluating Porcello.
-
I honestly think you are missing the big picture, which is the 13 pitchers on the roster. Given that, Holt becomes a necessity even though Farrell now uses him a little more sparingly because of his weak hitting. Nunez had played in 19 straight games, so Farrell gave him the day off and put Holt in there. As it turned out the top part of the order, 1-5, yesterday were pretty unproductive, but the bottom third--Moreland, Leon, and JBJ--really came through. So did Porcello and so did the bullpen. In other words, it was a team win with several ingredients for success and none of them named Devers (or Nunez) for a change. That's good management. About the 8 relievers: I think it's the right move because right now the rotation and the bullpen are a little less reliable than not too long ago. Also, it's hard for me to think of a position player to bring up who can do what Holt can do or at least back up those three infield positions.
-
I think the Holt discussion is by now pointless. He is the crucial spare part, the only guy who can backup at 2b, SS, or 3b, but he is also now on the bench. He played today because Farrell wanted to give the suddenly cold Nunez and off day, and he probably batted leadoff because Farrell didn't want to force any one else to do. But the point is this was just one game. Farrell wants to keep his hitters in the lineup, no question.