Maxbialystock

Terrible throws on that rbi double by both Beni and, who else, Pablo.

This apparent loss is really a double loss because we are about to waste a great start against a lousy team we really need to beat because next stop is Houston, who will likely beat us like a drum.

They can and will just as soon as the peanut gallery recognizes when there was no stop sign.

Going back to Leon getting thrown out. Had he held at 3b, Pedey would have had the job of bringing him home, and I just saw Pedey K in three pitches, all of them sliders. Now Bogey pops to 1b. Our pitcher has the only extra base hit in 8 innings. Worse, he led off with a double and Betts, Pedey, and Bogie were unable to bring him home--our 1, 2,and 3 hitters. Where is moonslav when we need him to reassure us that specific games don't mean anything and that it's the long view that counts.

That double by Sale is just another reminder that he is the only real baseball player on the pitching staff. Did you see that slide? If Wright had hit that ball, he would have been terrified to go beyond 1b.

Hell, you send Sandoval when the hitting is this terrible. Pedroia was not, repeat not, going to drive Leon in--not against Pivetta, anyway.

The one good thing is that Pivetta has thrown 104 pitches with 1 out to go in the 6th. Make that 107 pitches in 7 innings.

moonslav is needed tonight to reassure us this is one great hitting ball club even without Ortiz.

Remy said you send the runner with 2 men out and in this case hope it's a bad throw. I think it is downright silly to blame anyone--Butterfield, Leon, Farrell, etc--for Leon being thrown out at home. Tonight is the perfect night to gamble like hell on the basepaths because the hitting has vanished. 3 singles in 6 innings: are you kidding me? Sale is pitching a helluva game and our lineup is doing their level best to help the Phillies starter with the 4.58 ERA to stay dead even with our ace. 9 strikeouts, 2 each by Bogie and Benie?

Haven't we just seen two doubleplays caused by our guys not tagging up or getting back to the base in time? Horrible.

Meh. I think he's actually pretty conservative. Besides the mistakes are mostly made before they get to 3B.

Meh. A lot of us agreed with you, including me. I did think it was OK to keep him in the Sox system, just in case, and even to give him periodic looks with the big club, but I was not hopeful. Even this year the doubts came back and my memories of repeatedly failures in 2014 and 2015 (before he got hot in August) returned. Where I most emphatically agree with you is on the point that it's so great to be wrong when you underestimate a player.

I've said it before and will say it again. To me the only sensible criterion for evaluating MLB managers is the won-lost record and whether that corresponds to what the team is reasonably capable of. I'm pretty sure that criterion was in play last year and again this year with respect to Farrell. To me "no fire" is meaningless, especially when applied to baseball. I think you can make an excellent case that fire on the field of play is a two-edged sword because baseball is such a precise game. HanRam is exhibit 1 for the prosecution. He has plenty of fire on the basepaths but runs as though he is brain dead. Repeatedly. What makes JBJ so great in CF--to me, anyway--is how he runs precise routes to where the ball is going because he really isn't that fast. Great double plays are the result of endless practice and precision in execution, not fire. Fire to me causes errors, and precision and focus prevent them. Fire to me is worthless at bat--see again exhibit 1 for the prosecution and how HanRam seems to be swinging as hard as he can instead of trying to hit with precision. Fire to me is similarly worthless when pitching because that too requires incredible precision and focus. Rearing back and throwing heater after heater is a recipe for getting hit hard. On the other hand, MLB teams habitually congratulate each on every home run, rbi, you name it. When a starter leaves the game he is usually congratulated at some point. If he was lousy, he is commiserated with. MLB players, for all they are paid, work hard at being good teammates. And they routinely go completely ape after a game-winning hit. I mean there isn't a nickel's worth of difference between on-the-field celebrations after any game-winning rbi and one that wins the World Series. The most fired-up manager I can remember was Billy Martin, and he was a raging alcoholic whom Steinbrenner fired at least 4 times.

What the heck is meant by "no fundamentals." To me the most critical fundamentals are pitching and hitting, over which the manager has only a slight effect--except, of course for how he manages the bullpen. As for fielding, I think the only real sore spot has been 3B, over which Farrell has only so much control--for now, he is forced to use Sandoval. Besides, he's used, what 4 thirdbasemen so far? Bogaerts ain't great at SS, but no question he works really hard at it and out hits most other SS's. Moreland and Pedroia are fine if not gold glovers any more. The outfield is definitely above average. Leon has a positive DWAR at catcher, and Vazquez has a negative DWAR. Baserunning, I agree, is suboptimal, but I blame some of that on Bill James and the overall Sox philosphy that bunting, stealing bases, etc are just not productive. Getting walks, however, is, so I have to ask you whether that's why you don't like the lack of fire?

Cherry-picking is fine as long as you say you are doing it, which you are. So, I agree those numbers are promising, but think they do not refute the notion that Ortiz is badly missed. What we just might be seeing is the team adapting to his absence. With him the Sox led the AL last year in runs scored--by 100 runs! I could be wrong, but my guess is the Yankees have a shot at doing that this year even though Houston is also hitting well. But I think it's apparent the Sox ain't gonna be able to do that this year, not by a long shot. But here's a weird thought. Last year's offense was not propelling the Sox into first place until about the 1st of September, which is roughly when the bullpen was transformed into a really good one and skillfully compensated for our sorry ass rotation. The point is, to win you usually need hitting and pitching. And guess what? The Sox just won three straight in large part because of a magnificent bullpen that did 17.1 innings while giving up 0 runs. And, by the by, in those 16 terrific wins you cite in the last 23 games, the opposing team scored more than 4 runs in just 3 of those 16 wins. I say again, this Sox team is unique in the John Henry era in that it really needs pitching to win.

Depends on the baserunner and the situation, but I agree it should not be attempted without a high probability of success.

Is HanRAm really playing 1B and batting 5th tonight?

I second the second. I actually go to bed before the game ends, but unfortunately bring along the ipad. Last night I did see Beni's double just seconds after he hit it. Well, 30 seconds.

Words to conjure with: "all I ask for is a manager to not lose games." Please identify for the rest of us all the MLB managers who went 162-0 last year. No, you say, I misunderstand. You mean the games you think Farrell lost because he left a starter in too long. Well, say I, that's very definitely a matter of opinion, especially early in the season. The norm for most MLB managers is to leave a starter in until he gives up 7 runs or 100 pitches or so, depending. Wright gave up more than 5 runs just once, on April 12, his second start of the year, when he gave up 8 runs--6 in the 1st inning and 2 more in .1 of the 2d inning. I would argue that Farrell's decisions about Wright in that one game fell within the normal parameters even though Wright gave up 8,not 7 runs. The price any manager pays for taking a starter out early is using up his bullpen in what amounts to a lost cause. In fact, the Sox lost that game 12-5.

Today is also the Army's birthday, the 242d. Created by the 2d Continental Congress--in a resolution--in Philadelphia. That resolution also said infantry companies being formed from PA, DE, VA, and MD, join the forces--the Army--outside Boston. That Arm, which was of course bigger than the rest of the Continental Army and had already fought the British Army at Concord and Lexington. The Declaration of Independence came more than a year later and probably wouldn't have been signed without an Army already in being with one victory--driving the British out of Boston with artillery we had captured from the British at Ticonderoga--under our belts in March 1776. The above, restated, means that Philadelphia is where you go to talk, and Boston is where you go to make things happen.

Offensive WAR, OWAR, says our seven best hitters are, in order-- Bogaerts 2.4 Betts 1.5 Moreland 1.3 JBJ 1.2 Beni 0.8 Pedey 0.6 Vazquez 0.6 Ramirez is at 0.2 and so is Young. Rutledge is 0.1. Leon, wait for it, is at -0.3 and Sandoval at -0.2. The Yankees top seven hitters--Judge, Hicks, Castro, Gardner, Holliday, Gregorious, and Sanchez--have OWAR's that range from 3.6 to 1.2. And, FWIW, our three highest DWAR's (defensive wins above replacemnt) belong to Betts (1.2), Bradley (0.9), and Leon (0.5). OUr three worst DWAR's are Sandoval (-0.7), Bogaerts (-0.5), and Young (-0.5). Beni and Moreland are both at 0.0, and Pedey is 0.2. The above stats suggest to me that: 1. The Yankees seven best hitters--heck, their whole lineup--are just about twice as good as ours. 2. We have pretty good pitching, but theirs is better--lowest ERA in the AL to our 3d best. 3. We have better fielders in the outfield, but not in the infield. We've committed 47 errors to their 33. 4. Call the baserunning a wash even though I think our guys do some boneheaded things on the basepaths. Both teams have stolen 37 bases. 5. We are just 3 games behind the Yankees, which suggests that our manager, whoever he is, is pretty good at doing more with less.

With fulsome apologies to all the Fighting Irish, some numbers on the Sox hitting-- Offensive WAR, OWAR, says our seveb best hitters are, in order-- Bogaerts 2.4 Betts 1.5 Moreland 1.3 JBJ 1.2 Beni 0.8 Pedey 0.6 Vazquez 0.6 Ramirez is at 0.2 and so is Young. Rutledge is 0.1. Leon, wait for it, is at -0.3 and Sandoval at -0.2. The Yankees top seven hitters--Judge, Hicks, Castro, Gardner, Holliday, Gregorious, and Sanchez--have OWAR's that range from 3.6 to 1.2. And, FWIW, our three highest DWAR's (defensive wins above replacemnt) belong to Betts (1.2), Bradley (0.9), and Leon (0.5). OUr three worst DWAR's are Sandoval (-0.7), Bogaerts (-0.5), and Young (-0.5). Beni and Moreland are both at 0.0, and Pedey is 0.2. The above stats suggest to me that: 1. The Yankees seven best hitters--heck, their whole lineup--are just about twice as good as ours. 2. We have pretty good pitching, but theirs is better--lowest ERA in the AL to our 3d best. 3. We have better fielders in the outfield, but not in the infield. We've committed 47 errors to their 33. 4. Call the baserunning a wash even though I think our guys do some boneheaded things on the basepaths. Both teams have stolen 37 bases. 5. We are just 3 games behind the Yankees, which suggests that our manager, whoever he is, is pretty good at doing more with less.

Funny thing is, nothing in my post about Porcello would refute your basic point--that he can and maybe will get better this season. The sooner the better.

Nah. As someone else said, the bullpen ain't the problem and wasn't last year either.

So I have to ask this. Right now Bogaerts, who seems to me to be an average fielding SS, is actually rated near the bottom with a DWAR of -0.6. Do you think that is an accurate rating based on what you see day in and day out?