moonslav59

Yes, see my post. It may not have to "phantom," but either way, who starts, if he is pulled from the rotation?

If managers gave up on players as quickly as some of you guys do, there'd be almost nobody left to play, including Devers, JD, Verdugo and Bogey. .416 last 9 games Bogey (.377 last 7 games) .571 first 7 games Verdugo .626 first 6 games Devers .703 last 10 games JD ERod 3.82 ERA first 6 starts (team went 5-1) 8.69 ERA last 4 starts (team went 0-4) You can make the sample size his last 6 games with a 7.28 ERA, but I think ERod has earned the respect to not be judged so harshly over 4 to 6 games. I'm not saying his leash is long, at this point. Obviously, something is not right, but as of now, I'm not sure we have many other options. We could move him to the pen and start who? We could put him on the IL and start who? Houck is hurt. Seabold is hurt. Whitlock's "stretching" out has been a joke. (BTW, the opponent's OPS against has been .907 vs Whitlock in his last 7 games.) Andriese or a "pen game?" No minor league starter in on the 40 man roster, unless they are also on the IL. Would you DFA someone, so we can add... Raynel Espinal Daniel Gossett Ryan Weber Kyle Hart Stephen Gonsalvez ERod will get at least one or two more starts, before they even think about benching or demoting him. The IL may be the only thing open, but with no easy replacement, we may just leave him out there- struggling or not, as long as he feels okay, physically.

He's also been surprisingly (to me) good on defense at several positions, this year. I get being pissed off over the dumb error, but to me, it's more about the guy hitting .550 the whole year and then something like that E makes you think, "WTF!"

Exactly, and no player should be definitively judged by any 100 PA sample size, especially after a shortened 2020 season. Now, if a player had marginal numbers in the minors and exhibited very few plus skillsets before ever getting a chance in the bigs, then sometimes 100 PAs is the only chance they get, but Cordero had shown the skills earlier and had had some sporadic success in the bigs, already- in some very small sample sizes. The kid deserved a hundred PAs or more. It didn't work out, this time, but it is very likely he'll get another look.

.780 to .750 is not "much better." Yes, the 27 year old Beni is much better offensively than the 31 year old JBJ, now, but since 2015 or 2016, their offense has not been much different, overall. Both were streaky as hell. One was a great defender.

Which Beni is he? Some cherry-picked sample sizes that leave no PA unaccounted for in his Sox career: 2016 .767 in first 55 PAs .911 in last 58 PAs 2017 .717 in first 50 PAs 1.020 in next 90 PAs .350 in next 82 PAs .808 his last 436 PAs 2018 .712 in first 128 PAs .961 in his middle 365 PAs .641 his last 168 PAs 2019 .661 in first 57 PAs .826 in middle 279 PAs .745 last 279 PAs 2020 .442 in 52 PAs 2021 with KC .624 in April (90 PAs) about the same sample size as Cordero's .846 in his most recent 119 PAs

Like JBJ, Beni was a somewhat streaky hitter, unlike JBJ, his defense was not nearly as great. JBJ was a .750 hitter after his first 500 PAs in MLB. He has abysmal slumps that seemed to last forever, followed by red and white hot streaks that could last for weeks or months. Beni is a .780 hitter over a shorter career. His OPS seemed to yo-yo between .830 seasons and .775 ones, until the bottom fell out half way through 2019. Now, after 209 PAs, he's back up to .750, and people are acting like it's a sure thing the .830 Beni is back. True, he's only about to turn 27, but he's got one more year of team control, after this one, and I seriously doubt he was going to come back with the Sox after that, no matter what happened. We traded 2 years of Beni plus a little cash for 5 hopes and some salary relief that basically allowed us to sign Renfroe (or Sawamura). Beni for Renfroe, Cordero, Winckowski, Valdez and 2 more PTBNLs sounds like a pretty good deal, at worst.

Plus, he had just one more arb year after this season- a season not expected to be a serious contention one. Maybe none of these guys we get work out, but we got 5 chances. One of them, Winckowski, is already looking very promising.

Yes, people were saying we should extend him before the price tag goes up. With the long term effects of COVID largely unknown, and ERod having been hit hard with a heart condition, it was better to wait it out. My hope is he was just experiencing a bout of tiredness, which apparently can come and go without much notice. For years and years his big issue was always high pitch counts. He had finally seemed to turn the corner on that problem and then wham! COVID struck him hard. For this reason, I think fans should go easy on him. It's not a sure thing his struggles are related to COVID, but the guy has been a battler all his career, so I think he deserves the benefit of doubt.

Nice to see so much positivity around here.

The battle of struggling starters. Sox could put some more distance between this game and their recent slump. The Yanks need this game more than we do- all the more reason to stick it to them with a lop-sided loss! Maybe ERod starts to turn things around. The extra rest didn't help him last game: maybe it will tonight.

Hard to think of Taillon as an advantage, but when you look at ERod's numbers, especially of late, I guess you may have aa point. This might be an 11-8 game.

I didn't put them in any particular order... just how they came to me.

A. Barnes B. JD C. Devers D. Perez E. Bogey

Another nice game. We hit the ball hard- too many for outs, but I'm hopeful the slump is over. Nate hung tough, despite some defensive issues. Devers remains the Yankee killer. Good to see Marwin do something with the bat. Keep it going, guys. This is just the right time for a winning stretch!

MLBTR... Freddy Valdez is generally regarded as one of the Mets’ top 20 prospects, ranking 13th at The Athletic, 14th at MLB.com, 17th at Baseball America and 18th at FanGraphs. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen calls Valdez an “absolute behemoth of a corner outfield prospect” with “thunderous” power, likening him to Guardians slugger Franmil Reyes. The Athletic’s Keith Law writes that Valdez has “huge” power with above-average speed and a plus arm, though many scouting reports on Valdez raise questions about his hit tool and his defensive future. Obviously, given Valdez’s age and the fact that he’s yet to even take a single at-bat in A-ball, he’s years from factoring into the Red Sox’ big league plans. On some levels, there figure to be comparisons to another player the Red Sox received in this trade: Franchy Cordero. Valdez, by all accounts, is a physical specimen at a young age with a tantalizing set of loud tools but has a ways to go before scouts will be sold that those tools can translate at the Major League level. As far as lower-level lottery tickets go, he’s the type that comes with considerable upside but also a fair bit of risk. Valdez ought to slot into the middle tier of Boston’s farm system. He’ll join the aforementioned Cordero (acquired from the Royals) and minor league right-hander Josh Winckowski (acquired from the Mets) as the third of five players the Red Sox will eventually net from trading Benintendi.

I saw that. Thanks for the info.

It's a wonderful time for a moon dance...

BTV has him valued at 2.4. K Lee was valued over 11 when the deal was made and is now at 8.4. We also got Winckowski from the Mets, and he is rated at 3.3 but is doing very well, right now.

Beni was nothing special on defense. Just because we had some poor to average fielders in LF before Beni doesn't mean he was good. Kike & Verdugo are already better after Beni. (BTW, Franchy had a better UZR/150, too, but I wouldn't call him better.) Here are all the ones better before: Reddick Ellsbury JBJ DMac Cespedes Castillo Gomes Crawford, Bay & Nava were about the same. Who the hell cares about Beni's defense of the loss of it?

...and more pitches near the strike zone.

Yes, and it could happen to young prospects raking in AAA, too.

That's an amazing stat. We are 6-8 when allowing 5-7 runs and 2-3 when allowing 8-9 runs. The Yanks are 0-9 and 0-3 in those two subsets. They are also 5-6 when allowing 4 runs. We are 3-5.

Eovaldi has a better OPS against than any starter on our team. He's been bitten by untimely hitting and low run support, but is doing better than he has in a long time, except for maybe the tail end of 2018. Richards is doing well, but he has been walking too many hitters and falling behind on the counts. He seems to bear down and avoid untimely hits, but is that sustainable?

I know it sounds like I don't think Duran is ready, but actually I'd love for him to be on the team right now, because it would mean Bloom & Co. thinks he's ready for the bigs. I trust they know more than we do. Duran will get the call, probably before September. I think it is already past the extra year of team control cut-off, so that can not be used against him. I hope he does well when he does get the call. We need something to boost this offense.