Emp9

Exactly! Could be a contributing factor. At least I’d like to think so.

We’ve never faced that Rays pitcher Yonni something or other. More acurate, no MLB team has until today. The Marlins also had a SP the Sox have never faced before this past week as well.

So, arbitration is predominantly performanced-based, and then compared to the rest of the league based on that position. And let’s be honest, offensive numbers really drive the salaries up, at least from what I’ve always seen. So, if JBJ “sucks” so much (offensively), can someone remind me how he’ll supposedly “cost too much” via arbitration? Now, I suppose if JBJ wins a GG, he could see a hefty increase or starts mashing or both. Both JBJ & Betts have similar service times. And even though I believe JBJ is the better defensive OF (mostly due to his arm, he also gets to spots quicker. This is absolutely no slight on Betts), Betts has won the GG twice in RF, Jackie none yet for CF. JBJ has an AS appearance, Betts 3 AS. Betts ‘16 MVP runner up with 2 other MVP votes on radar, a SS award as well. Betts top of the lineup hitter, while JBJ dwells near the bottom typically. It’s easy to see Betts is by far the better offensive player. 2018: Betts $10M+. JBJ $6M+. If things stay the same, I don’t see a huge increase from the $6M JBJ is making this season. I’d love to hear some guess-timates. And while I’m talking about these two. Starting out as a 2B and switching to OF his first year in majors and learning OF on the fly so to speak, does anyone else think Betts has learned a ton from having to play next to JBJ? Does Betts wins those GGs without that experience? In my mind, I’ve credited both of them for Bett’s GGs to a certain extent. Whether JBJ could argue that in his next arbitration hearing is beyond me though .

Money for ... something. Chicks for free. Go HanRam! Go Red Sox!

All the randomness? The mere fact that teams have scouting reports alone dismisses this randomness run amok argument. I can’t get a scouting report on a roulette table. I think your position is about ‘Chance’, not ‘Randomness’, right?Randomness is the lack of pattern or predictability. Baseball is full of patterns and predictability and probability. There's foreknowledge and past events that are available to consider. A one-run Save situation is the smallest margin for error a Closer can have. Also means the opposing team has to score the least amount of runs possible (1), other than zero, to escape the save. I don’t always think there has to be luck or randomness involved, but if there were a time and place for luck and randomness to happen and be meaningful, a one-out save situation would be it.

Well SOMEBODY had to sit with no DH. Glad JBJ didn’t sit because he saved us run(s) with his defense. jD & Beni both look like they need the reps. HanRam in Miami, nuff said.

Agreed. I tried to reinvent the wheel once. Didn’t go well. Caused a ton of traffic. People were pissed. Got a fine. Trust me, don’t. Sooo not worth it.

Kelly, Barnes, Hembree, all three seem to be typical 6th - 7th (8th in a pinch, maybe 15% of of time) guys to me. I thought Barnes last night was going to go with the high-heat on that 3-2 count (on his first Walk) to induce a SO. I’m not sure who’s call it was to go middle-outside, because I thought he got a high strike-swinging earlier in the count. Seemed like a foreshadowing or blueprint on how to end that AB. But whatever, what do I know? Either way, our guys usually have “the stuff”, but they do lack control/location to make them elite (for lack of a better word). Ideally, the plan was Smith/Thornburg for the 8th, which eventually may happen later on in the season. Still might happen. In any event, I look to Smith to regain his form and I really hate judging him by his opening day performance. All these guys need more reps to even begin to make any serious assessment, and that’s weeks and weeks away. We haven’t even had our home opener yet.

Great night to have to go extra innings actually with no game tomorrow, just travel.

Thunderdome?

I get it. Beni didn’t really need to change a thing, in my mind.

Right, he’s 34 year old Knuckleballer. I think that makes him 29 then? Or a 34 year old with 29 year old’s arm

Ya’ll don’t like Barnes either? 2.2 IP, era 0.00, whip 0.75, hits 0, BB 2, SO 3

Pom, Wright, ERod, Thornburg... all these guys haven’t had Spring training to speak of (Pom had a few innings). What are the rules on extented ST? I suspect all of these guys won’t be ready at the exact same time. Could we have 2 Long relief BP guys (BJ & SW?). Would that even be wise?

Great post Max. I can remember defending Farrell a bit earlier in seasons just over the fact he, like any manager, needs to find out what he has to work with. At times, he needs to push the envelope and the earlier in the season the better. Another thing is that We as Sox fans, us diehards on here, not the fair weather fans on facebook for instance, know our players. We’ve seen our players more than a new manager like Cora has. Now, it’s quite possible Cora knows them better, but it’s a straight up fact we’ve seen them more (than him). I think that plays into questioning a new manager. I’m liking what I see from Cora. Theres a great chance he works out better with our youth than Farrell ever did. Fans forget, the media forget, that theres still so much youth on this team. We only have a handful of veterans that drive up our average age. Cora seems like a better choice than most for our team and I’m down for giving him some leeway (for now ).

I’ll take it. And if Moreland hits 10 more we up to 42 from that 1B spot.

Yeah that lineup looks fine with me too. Devers & XB look great at the plate right now. Devers even hitting into some bad luck on top of that fact. Vaz looks great. He was agressive last night and it paid off big time. HanRam had one of the best games on both sides of the ball. Last night is up there with one of the best games I’ve seen from Hanley in a Red Sox uni.

If Beni wasn’t in a start of season funk, I’d argue with you.

Bogey hit the s*** out of THAT one.

Great closers can certainly cut down the randomness. They’re the “Ace” of the Bullpen in a way. That’s what they get paid to do and they’re pretty good at it.

In close games, Kimbrel is King. But I do agree, typically the closer the game, the less it takes for any mundane, but game deciding play to happen and change a would be W to an L or vice-versa. Having a great Closer can help tremendously, but it’s not a lock.

That’s true. Not saying I’m right. But if I were manager, I’d have to invoke a “ first sign of trouble rule” in such a close game on principle, and apply it whenever possible. He got two very meaningful outs. That ain’t nothing. Thank you very much and I’ll see you on the bus.

I would’ve pulled Kelly last night after he got the two outs with the first sign of trouble. I felt greatful for the 2 outs. Kelly redeemed himself in a way & I was happy for him. Then the Mallex Smith single. Right then I’d have taken Kelly out. Then he gives up another single to Hachavaria. Smith advanced to 3B. I Would’ve taken him out before that. Kelly got the job done in the end and we hung on, but I hope we try to have an additional RP warmed and ready for when Kimbrel can’t pitch in a Save situation. Ideally, I’d like to use Kelly in the 6th or 7th. I realize maybe someday a healthy, effective Thornburg could help our BP out tremendously, but that’s a ways off and might not ever happen either.

Don’t discount ‘The Eck Factor’

Picture a Post-Apocalyptic World. The virus has long since fully mutated. There is no known cure or vaccine. Out of the 7.6 Billion people that populate the earth, there are only a handful of families scattered about the world that are safe. I know what you’re thinking. “Zombies?” you ask, simultaneously and flamboyantly trying to stifle a yawn... “Oh, HOW original”. Answer? Ummm... No. Smhh. Not zombies, stupid. You get bitten, you don’t turn into a flesh-eating, moaning, bloodied, partially dismembered, foot-dragging zombie. Smart-ass. If you get bitten, you do, in fact, mutate into an exact replica of present day Rose McGowan. (Why Rose McGowan you ask? Why not Susan Sarandon? Because in my story, Susan Sarandon died before the outbreak during the 30th Anniversary of Bill Durham. Crash and Nuke tried to re-enact their fight scene, but when Nuke throws his wild pitch that breaks through the door window on the 5th take, little does he know Sarandon was standing behind the glass. It’s deemed a “National Tragedy” by many (note: not all). So much so, that a film about the event was being scripted and casted. McGowan tried out for Annie Savoy and failed to seize the role. The title of the movie was going to be called ‘Dying Quail’, but that’s around the time when The Outbreak happened and consequently never went into full production.) A few details that I’ll share about The McGowan Outbreak (TMO for short) if bitten are: 1) Make-up has zero effect, it just seeps through the skin. 2) Sunlight has zero effect, it just seeps through the skin. 3) Your hair stays within buzzcut length and never grows past that for all eternity. Which, technically is a cure for baldness finally, but still ... no cure for the Buzzcut. I mean, Rose McGowan Buzzcut is only thee sliiiightest of upgrades over Male Pattern Badness. But only for so long. If you think about it. I digress. Through painstaking trial and error and a little common sense actually, the surviving families (approximately 30 different locations world-wide) are sufficiently protected having built border walls composed of continuously connecting Barnes & Nobles stores. With the front of the store buildings facing the outside of the wall per usual, and the back of the buildings facing the inside. The idea is that a McGowan will always enter the front and leave by the front and never venture through the stockroom to leave via the rear employee exit. These communities are thus rendered safe. Within one of such Barnes & Noble confines, there are two families. One family has a decent sized farm that’s been in their possession for generations and has a cow for milk. We’ll say it’s their last cow and we’ll call them Family #1. The other family does not have a cow. They trade with the “cow possessing” family #1 for milk. This is Family #2. The farm-less, cow-less, no milk making mof***in’’ Family #2. One day, the leader of Family #2 approaches Family #1 to give suggestions on how to make the milk taste better, from the ground up, the grazing practice, to less harsh homogenization, to adjusting the ph balance, blahbity blah blah, you name it, and etcetera. Now, the leader of Family #1 wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea of having the milk taste better, but they’d have to change their whole process for such a minute, hypothetical change with no way of knowing if the milk will actually taste “better” at the end of the day, so to speak. Their way, of about 150 years experience, seemed fine and got results. Besides, there were more important things to worry about. With an endless supply of Jawbreaker, those 4 seasons of Charmed co-co-co-starring Paige Mathews and The Sound dvds flooding the Barnes & Nobles every 2 weeks. I mean, SOMEBODY had to keep the community bonfire going. Anyway. The extremely anti-climatic ending to this story ends with a brutally non-Aaron Sorkin-esque exchange of dialog that probably went like this: *** Family #2 leader: “ I can make better milk”. Family #1 leader: “ Can you? ... do you have your own cow”? Family #2 leader: “ No “. Family #1 leader: “ Hmmm. Will you EVER have your OWN cow? “ Family #2 leader: “ No “. Family #1 leader: “ Meh. f***-off then”. *** The End ... ... or is it?