Maxbialystock

Price seems determined not to waste pitches by trying to nip the edge of the strike zone. 20 of 25 pitches are strikes. He is challenging the Orioles hitters.

They have hit Price's changeup hard, thank goodness only Davis hit it fair.

Barnes might be an option later, but right now it makes no sense to back off of Kimbrel who has 21 saves and a lot of closing experience. He throws plenty hard and, more importantly, has a wicked knuckle curve, which causes real problems for every batter he's faced. I think his only issue is control and am satisfied it is not a regular problem. He had those 4 straight walks a week or so ago but has been fine since. He just had two saves in two days and you want to dump him? As for Barnes, I'll be delighted if he can just be an effective setup man in the 7th or 8th inning. A good bullpen is never just one guy. Barnes can make a real difference as a setup man.

eloquent

Righty bats contributed a lot more last night than the lefty bats. Tonight it's 6 lefty bats to the usual three (Pedey, Bogie, Betts) righty bats, so it would be nice if the lefties would contribute against a righty starter. Last night JBJ, Leon, and Shaw were hitless. Bullpen has been worked hard, so 7 or 8 good innings from Price would be appreciated. Sox have played 8 straight games with 15 more before a day off. And tomorrow they play an inexplicable day game in Detroit. What was MLB thinking? What was it the Tom Hanks character in A League of Their Own said? "The hard is what makes it great!"

I noticed that hold up too and think it was justified. Mookie Betts is a five tool player, and you don't see many of them.

Of course that's the reason. They acquired Holaday for his defense, they had a lead in a close game, so of course you leave him in the game, especially when Benintendi and Pedroia were both going to have a shot at driving in the guys on 2d and 3d. Leaving Holaday in also gave Leon a full day off and a rest he no doubt needed. Plus I thought Holaday was solid in the 9th. That lead off double to the opposite field was on a knuckle curve that was up a little. Walking Napoli was OK given he is their best power hitter this year. What I especially liked was that Kimbrel, with Holaday catching, kept his composure with men on first and second and no one out. That's why he was able to get the next three guys out.

I'm in the same boat, so I just turn the sound off with closed caption on. I do like the Orioles radio announcers who seem to focus on the game and are fairly balanced.

Well done, all of you. You've sort of started tonight's game thread without starting one so that our lucky thread-starter can do his thing. I agree this should be tough game. As for Price, I just want him to go out there focused and not anxious.

I doubt the deal will be forgotten, but I think your point is a good one. Price came here to help get us into the playoffs. None of us are paying his salary. I leave it to moonslav to calculate whether his salary will have a long-term effect on future deals to help the team. But, bottom line, if the Sox make the playoffs and Price contributes, it's a decent deal.

Agree he had a very good year in Seattle last year. But his DL time will now go into next year, after which he needs to get back to where he was in 2015. Hard to label him a good deal before he has done anything for the Sox.

Good stats. My point was/is that Beckett won 8 games in 2+ seasons, which means he basically didn't figure in their success--primarily, I grant you, because of his health, but that still figures into the equation. It's like when we had Drew in RF, almost a bonafide five tool player, but he missed too many games all 5 years he was here.

Excuse me, what has Carson Smith done? Young was fine, primarily a platoon guy for LF, but he's been on the DL for along time. When he returns, what do you to bet Benintendi stays in LF? Clay Buchholz re-sign has yet to pay dividends. He is basically our long reliever and is paid $12M to Kimbrel's $9M. Garin Chechinni is unimportant. Price has yet to deliver. Pomeranz might deliver, but we can't be sure, and he cost us a top prospect. I agree Kimbrel has worked out despite the control issues and the short time on the DL. When his knuckle curve is working along with the fast ball, he is very tough.

Becket was nothing--8-14 in his 2 plus seasons in LA--because he couldn't stay healthy. Crawford stayed unhealthy in LA and never scored more than 62 runs in a season. Those two pitchers were to me unimportant. Indeed, the 2013 pitching staff was just fine without their making a contribution.

Sample size is small, but I think most people agree that moving Betts to 3d, now clean-up, has worked well. My disagreement is that the offense was terrific in April, May, and June when Mookie was leading off and Bogaerts was hitting well in the 3 slot. I don't think the offense would have been much better--if at all-with the current lineup. Two things have happened for the current lineup to make sense: Betts is getting better and better, and Bogaerts is in a slump.

How can you say "bunk" and then agree the fire sale was a smart deal? If you want to say Cherington doesn't get all the credit, I agree. But he was the GM of record, which is why he also gets credit for not re-signing Lester (or Lackey) and for signing Sandoval and HanRam. I'm sure Lucchino also gets some credit/blame for those deals.

Let me hasten to add that I am by no means an expert on GM skills. That's why I said, "feel free to disagree" and why I have no quarrel with those who say Dombrowski helped the Tigers. On the other hand, we can all agree he was fired by the Tigers. And we can maybe at least discuss the moves he made since coming to Boston.

Are you serious? AGon absolutely was and is a plus for the Dodgers even though Boston wasn't his kind of town. But Crawford and Beckett were busts and high cost busts at that. In Crawford's last year in Tampa he scored 110 runs. He scored 65 the next year for us and has never scored more than 62 in a year for the Dodgers. He makes the Yankees insane contract for Ellsbury look almost smart because Crawford has been getting $20M/year from the Dodgers (and 2 years from us). Worse still is Beckett who was 8-14 in his 2+ seasons with the Dodgers. That deal dumped a bunch of salary and made possible the acquisitions that led to the 2013 success.

I did say, "feel free to disagree," mostly because I don't know much about Dombrowski. So I'm fine with people saying he resurrected the Tigers. Good for him. I did however, provide specific comments on his acquisitions and on people already in place and I am less sure than others he has made any especially good moves. Cherington, for example, deserves censure for acquiring Sandoval and not keeping Lester, but he also made that great deal with the Dodgers in 2012 which, combined with other deals, led to the WS in 2013.

Let's not forget that when Betts was batting leadoff he was second behind Ortiz in rbi's. He has also led the team in runs scored all season long. I think his ideal slot is 3d, but batting Ortiz 3d clearly has benefits. Against righty pitchers, which are the norm, it gets a lefty bat in there to break up the righty-righty-righty we have been using. It also puts a high OBP in front of Betts, who lately is our best rbi man. However, this also puts a slow guy in front of a very fast one, and it gives Betts a little less protection because Bradley or HanRAm batting 5th ain't as good as Ortiz batting 4th and behind Betts batting 3d. Very good observations about next year without Ortiz.

The WAR and other stats have made it clear JBJ is vastly better than Ellsbury even before a salary comparison. That said, Ellsbury, while underperforming, is still somewhat useful to the Yankees and probably better than Carl Crawford was playing for the Sox.

All good comments on Dombrowski. I was simply pointing to the fact that last year the Tigers were losers and this year they are vying for a playoff spot. My standard for good executive management would have to be the Cardinals who seem to be competitive every year while also getting a WS (or at least to the WS) every now and then. They also don't spend a king's ransom on players. ST Louis is a city like Detroit that is losing population steadily, but they love their Cardinals and go to the games in large part because of the Cardinals ability to stay competitive. I think the Sox in the John Henry era overall have done pretty well. Granted, they spend a lot on players, but they are also in the same division with the Yankees, who not only spend more on players, but are more than happy to take Sox players away with higher offers. Epstein and Cherington and the guy before Epstein brought 3 WS to Boston after the 86 year drought. Epstein might end a longer drought with the Cubs.

I looked at the Sox active roster which right now lists four outfielders--Betts, JBJ, Benintendi, and Holt. Total salary for all four is a tad over $2M--by far the most cost effective MLB outfield on a single team in a long time. Dombrowski gets credit for bringing Benintendi up, but I am less sure that he is the ace GM some say he is. The Tigers fired him and are better since he left. He didn't need to do much to fix the lineup which already was going to be very good. The best improvements were moving HanRam to 1B, which was inevitable before Dombrowski got here, and the injury to Sandoval. Sandy Leon is a nice surprise at C, but the Sox got him last March, before Dombrowski. The Sox have the best overall lineup in MLB and very little credit goes to Dombrowski. His report card should be based on fixing the pitching, and so far that is a mixed bag. Price right now is paid the 3d or 4th highest salary in the history of MLB and he sure ain't living up to it. Pomeranz just might work out, but at the cost of a highly regarded minor leaguer (I personally thought the deal made sense, which suggests it probably did not). Our two best starters are Wright and Porcello, for which Dombrowski gets no credit. ERod, estabished here before Dombrowski arrived, is finally looking like last year and could become our 3d best starter ahead of Price. Dombrowski made the decision to keep Buchholz at $12M/year, and that has not paid off. Kimbrel, despite some issues, is a plus. Abad is a firm minus. Ziegler is a mixed bag. Feel free to disagree.

Seriously? I checked. It's true. But Bundy could be tougher than Tillman.

Agree. But he did not keep the better team from winning even though his calls favored the Orioles.