Maxbialystock

The Pedroia critics are wrong--even about how he handled the Machado spiking and what followed. He was the one who got spikes and apparently the only one who saw it for what it was--a hard but fair slide with no intent to injure. He's lost a step on defense and on the basepaths, but still has great instincts. And right now he is our steadiest hitter. On top of which he is the only player on the team with any capacity to lead.

Agree on taking called third strikes. Also agree with Farrell letting Pedroia swing because lately he is our best hitter and Beni is not much of a basestealer--good speed, no instincts.

You did it! Against all odds, Kimmi pulls out the win with minor assists from Johnson, Barnes, Kimbrel, Velazquez, Pedroia, Young, and the long-haired dude (Hanley Ramirez). I went to bed at 11, which was still late enough to see the Sox tie it and Kimbrel--miraculously, these days--getting through the 9th without giving up any runs at all. Do you believe that? Gotta love that double play Pedroia initiated with a man on third. Huge. What was that song from "Damn Yankees?" You Gotta Have Heart.

Actually, they did have Bogaerts at SS earlier and must have changed it very recently. Now it reads-- Betts Benintendi Pedroia HanRam 1b Young DH Bradley Leon Marrero SS Holt 3b I would far rather have Travis--who is back in AAA--at 1B tonight and HanRam at DH. Kimmi is showing a lot of guts starting this thread. Tonight we have for us a weaker lineup than usual against a pretty good lefty, Happ, while we are hoping Johnson will be adequate.

I am actually happy that you disagree and choose to defend our hitters. Someone should. But just for the sake of argument, I would still point out-- Betts this year ain't Betts last year. In particular his avg. has dropped from .316 to .274. He, by the way, is the one who is hard to strike out, not Bogaerts. I had/have no intention of writing epitaphs. In fact, I hope Kimmi's optimism about this lineup comes to fruition. So your point is well taken. In fact, I hope DD doesn't bring in someone from outside and would rather these guys just find themselves. The age 25 thing works better when you don't remember that for both Betts and Bogaerts this is their 4th season in Boston. Betts has over 1800 mlb at bats and Bogaerts over 2200. Benintendi has 428 mlb at bats and is hitting almost as well as Betts and better than Bogaerts. About the striking out. Either I miswrote or you misread, but my intent was to say that our guys are not making solid contact with the ball. In fact, it sometimes worries me when our starting pitchers accumulate a lot of K's because that usually takes more pitches. Too often what opposing pitchers seem to do well is to get out guys to hit the ball up high or down in the dirt--either way, an easy out--and to do that early in the count.

I like the stats and agree they have meaning, but I also watch the pitcher-hitter confrontations and offer the following-- Pedroia seems to be the only real student of the game who is hard to fool. He likes to take that first pitch, but will also swing at and probably hit a fat first pitch. Bogaerts, Moreland, and HanRam in particular seem to go to the plate with not a thought in their heads and by and large no ability to discriminate between a breaking ball and a fast ball. Bogaerts is sometimes saved by his remarkable hand-eye coordination, but he is still clueless at the plate. HanRam is further affected by an apparent desire to swing as hard as possible when he does swing although lately his helmet isn't falling off as frequently as it once did. Benintendi and I think JBJ do discriminate somewhat, but JBJ's swing still tends to betray him. Both benefit from hitting from the left side. Young also has a good eye for balls and strikes, but can't hit spit anyway. Betts will nail you if you throw him a fat pitch, but otherwise he is not hard to get out. Almost no one on the Sox is good at hitting a breaking balls solidly, but almost all are great at hitting them onto the ground and into double plays when the other team needs them. Most opposing pitchers will throw first pitch strikes with some assurance that our guys are sticking to Bill James's injunction to get a walk, which means to take pitches no matter what. Betts in particular tends to get into 1-2 and 0-2 counts because he thinks he is supposed to get a walk. Brock Holt is not going to be an improvement over Lin/Marrero at 3b.

I'm as down on the hitters as anyone, but have to admit that Marcus Stroman seemed to have two very good pitches--a fastball that breaks down and a slider that breaks down and well to the right. He dominated our lineup until the 7th when they got some timely hitting. Then, however, the Jays bullpen seemed to have no problem setting our guys down in order--one hit and no walks or runs in 2.1 innings.

To be honest, Hembree's terrible 8th was probably a blessing in disguise. Our hitters looked awful last night despite that great 7th inning rally.

Bullpen blew it. Again.

Is that Tulowitski at the plate who just fouled off a fast ball down the middle and missed on a fastball well inside the zone? The Sox need to trade for him right now because he will fit in well.

Anybody else notice that little kick of his left foot by ERod long after he releases the ball? That's so he can be sure to be in terrible fielding position in case the ball gets hit back near him.

Here's the funny thing. The Jays pitcher has also thrown a lot of fastballs, but gets away with them. Just now he threw two balls two HanRam, the put a one right down the middle, which to a toronto hitter would have meant one off the wall or over it, but to HanRam mean a very easy GIDP ball--not too hard and not too soft but just right. Here's something else. On espn they just showed the Yankees ERA for July--5.09. But against this Sox team they gave up 9 runs in 4 games and 1 run the the middle two games which went a total of 9 + 16 = 23 innings. This team has serious hitting issues, bad enough to think that buying someone like Frazier to play 3B is going to fix the problem because it absolutely will not when Moreland, HanRam, Bogaerts, et al continue to swing the bat so poorly. Tonight is the perfect night for ERod to work on getting back in the groove and not worry about giving up runs. That 2-run double in the 1st was enough for the Jays to win this game unless their bullpen is a disaster.

Gotta appreciate a winner who wastes no time starting the next game thread. Holt's up and Lin's down, so there's Holt batting 9th: Betts Pedroia Bogaerts Moreland Ramirez Benintendi Bradley Vazquez Holt Sox scored 6 and beat Stroman in April, but that was when we could still hit.

Right now the Sox have the best pitching staff in the AL and a mediocre lineup. If ERod pitches to his capability tonight, that makes Porcello our 4th or 5th best starter. I thought his changeup on Saturday looked pretty lousy. Funny thing is that almost all our starters and most of our relievers have one thing in common: they all love their fastballs. Even Pom, who certainly doesn't have a great fastball, uses it a lot.

Price is back from earlier this year and certainly from last year when he stunk.

Funny you should mention Curt Gowdy because he's one of the reasons I became a Sox fan--while my dad was overseas 1953-54, both summers, I listened the Curt Gowdy for just about every game and was hooked. Then we left West Springfield never to return except for short visits--and with that no more Sox games on the radio. Overall I like radio announcers more than TV because the good ones have a gift for telling you what's going on and making it interesting. One of the things I truly dislike about Sox tv announcers are the guests who have little or no interest in the game or telling us about it, but there they are. Also the clowning around that sometimes goes on in the announcers booth.

You had to be happy with last night's win for the series tie. Our hitting stinks, but our pitching, especially starters, is pretty darn good and has the lowest ERA in the AL. Average attendance for the 4 games was around 37,000--above for Friday night and Sunday afternoon, below 37,000 for Sat at 4 and Sunday night. Going forward I just don't see the value of going after a big trade because I have yet to read about any possibility that I think would make a big difference. If you go by the WAR (wins above replacement) stat, the Sox have an average team. 15 teams in the AL means that an average team would have 7 players in the top 105 as ranked by WAR and that's what we've got. To really fix the offense, we need studs at DH, 3b, and 1b. I do buy the argument that 1b/Moreland and DH/Ramirez are playing hurt, which to me means you stay with them. Plus Travis and Devers seem to me to be pretty good hedges for all 3 positions--1b, 3b, and DH. Meanwhile, that rotation is the best in the AL. Bogaerts is a defensive liability, but his overall WAR at SS is 5th best in the AL.

Lefty vs. lefty tonight. Vs. Montgomery Farrell is putting up 8 righty bats: Betts Pedroia Bogaerts Ramirez Young Bradley Travis Vazquez Marrero No Lin, no Beni, no Moreland.

I'm pretty opposed to pitcher MVP's myself. They already have the Cy Young award which position players are ineligible for. Plus they only pitch/play every 5th day. Plus, on the days they pitch, they don't have to hit or run the bases or, really, field very much. If they make an error, it even helps their ERA. But to me the biggest factor is that pitchers don't have to put up with the meat grinder that a 162 game season has become, especially with games lasting longer and longer. This is also why I don't believe in DH as MVP's. I don't mind admitting that in its purest sense "most valuable player" can apply to a pitcher or a DH. My complaint is that neither pays his dues by going out there and manning a position game after game after game. They may be talented and valuable, but they aren't real baseball players.

Typical. Sensible. I'm against going after our 13th or is it 14th thirdbaseman, but you do a good job of explaining why that might still happen. Thanks.

A good question. My view is that talking about Middlebrooks makes as much sense as talking about making a trade or whatever to bring in our 13th or is it 14th 3d baseman this year? By my count we've seen Holt, Sandoval, Rutledge, Marrero, Lin, and at least one other I've forgotten. We also have Devers hitting up a storm at AA Portland where Lin was until about a month ago. Now I would be in favor of getting Beltre or any of the other guys being mentioned provided he was cheap (salary and trade value) and we could be sure he would hit at least 30 dingers and drive in at least 75 runs over the remainder of the season. Otherwise, I frankly see no point in that excursion. To me the real problem is at DH, but I see no way to replace HanRam. Meanwhile the rest of the positions--C, 1b, 2b, SS, LF, RF, CF--look decent to very good to me. Heck, even 3B with Lin/Marrero verges on decent. It's possible we have the best pitching staff in the AL especially if ERod returns to form and no one else gets injured. They will simply have to make up for the fact that our hitting ain't that great this year.

Good for you, and I concur in wishing him well. He is a good manager and a good guy.

Sensible, as always (or almost always).

And I agree with both of you. I am fine with Lin/Marrero at 3b and absolutely do not see the value in making another dumb deal for someone another team is more than happy to unload. Enough with the fantasy baseball, already.

Maybe you need to watch the game more closely or at least have better situational awareness. I would have been fine with going with JBJ instead of Young, but let's get a few things straight on why Young wasn't such a bad choice. First and foremost, the bases were loaded, so the Sox did not need a hard hit ball to tie the game. What they needed was a smart hitter--Young, not JBJ--who just might draw that critical walk to tie the game. Even a dinky single would have won the game. Young did in fact have a pretty smart at bat, but the ump gave Colome the benefit of the doubt on that first pitch which was below the zone and also on the two pitches on the inside corner (but callable as strikes). Second, JBJ would have been coming into the game cold as a pinch hitter, a role he has been used very sparingly in. Moreland got that double on his 4th at bat. Young was also on his 4th at bat. Third, Young hits righties better than JBJ and hits Tampa pitching better than JBJ. Plus, as I've already said, I think he is a smarter hitter and more likely to draw a walk. Fourth, the Sox had a grand total of 3 hits and 27 outs in that game, so to me it's kind of silly to say, "boy, if only JBJ got to the plate, he was sure to get a hit because everyone knows, "lefties rule." Did I forget to mention that Beni and Lin were also hitless Saturday? Or that 2 of the Sox three hits in that game were by righties, Bogaerts and Betts? So, I say again, I would have been fine with JBJ hitting, but I sure as heck don't see a grievous error by Farrell for sending Young up there. To the contrary, I see excellent situational awareness and real thought.