moonslav59

Nunez will likely get some time at 2B, too. I think there will be enough ABs for everyone.

I wasn't on this site for the Iggy trade. How long did the Iggy trade thread last?

He's gotta keep Nunez feeling good about himself. I think it is much more about that than about sending Devers any message.

Great game! Being a domer, I'm with you on this one.

For argument's sake, let's say the numbers I posted are good predictors of what is to come (not true, of course), but for those who want Swihart to catch, instead of Vaz or Leon, think about this: Swihart may get up to bat 3-5 times a game. Let's assume he will out hit both of the other catchers by 200 OPS points (.800 to.600 or whatever). That's just 3-5 PAs with a ,200 better OPS. Now, think of a starting pitcher, who is usually involved in 18-24 PAs a game vs the opponents. See where I'm going with this? Is it more important to have Swihart hit 200 points better for 3-5 PAs per game or to have our pitchers hold our opponents to 50-200 points lower over 18-24 PAs? I don't think anyone needs to be a math major to figure this one out. Porcello: Nobody else has caught him. I don't want to mess with that. Leon. Sale: Swihart has not caught him all year. Sale does better 75 points better with Leon. I'd go with Leon here, but would be okay with Vaz- NOT Swihart. Leon (Vaz OK) Price: Leon does 182 points better with Leon. Swihart has not caught him this year. Leon in a landslide. ERod: He has been almost totally caught by Vaz, and while Leon did much better over just 43 PAs, I'm fine with sticking with Vaz, especially after last night's game. Certainly, I would not start using Swihart with ERod at this point in the season. Leon or Vaz So, with our best 4 starters, there's no way Swihart should ever start. Let's go further... Johnson: He has been caught pretty evenly by all catchers. He's the first one where CERA can really be used most effectively due to the sample size comps. Leon is 48 points better than Swihart and 160 points better than Vaz. Leon is the clear choice here, too. Velazquez: He has pretty even sample sizes, too. Vaz is just 23 points better than Leon, but he is 80 points better than Swihart. Vaz or Leon. Eovaldi: He has only been caught by Leon. He's struggled lately, so maybe a switch in catcher could work. Leon or anyone? Now, once the starter is removed, it looks to be okay to PH for a catcher (or two) as our RP'ers seem to be scattered on who they do better with. It makes more sense to bring Swihart in later in a game than to start him at catcher. Kimbrel is pretty even with all (Swihart sample size is too small) Barnes does better with Vaz and way better tahn Swihart. Hembree does better with Leon, then Swihart. Brasier has never been caught by Vaz. Workman does way worse with Leon. Thornburg way better with Leon. Pom does way better with Swihart. I can't help but think it would be absurd to think Swihart should be our starting catcher, and some want to boot Vaz or Leon out by next year. A 200 point gain on offense, which is certainly not a given, since his OPS is .582 this year is NOT enough to offset the expected loss we'd have with our pitchers.

.673 in 421 PAs with Vaz-- not much of a nudge with so many total PAs on the season.

12ks out of 17 outs for ERod. Better than ever! Hope he keeps it up. This wasn't an injury related to the knee that bothered him for years. Now, on to Sale and his return!

Merli is a show set in Barcelona. It has subtitles, which I usually hate. The language is Catalan, so even if you know Spanish, it's very hard to understand. Yes, it's on Netflix. It's about a high school philosophy professor, yes philosophy in high school. It's very funny, great acting and some great plots. Try it. (If you are a teacher, you'll like it even more.)

There is a massive difference between bWAR and fWAR on JBJ. I guess that further confirms my belief that fWAR is better. It certainly raises questions about why there is so much of a disparity, especially with JBJ. Obviously both use different methods to determine their WAR values, but that doesn't bother me all that much. I still respect both methodologies (fWAR more so), and will continue to use WAR as one tool in my evaluations of players I rarely see play. JBJ Career bWAR: 12.8 (dWAR 6.1/ oWAR 8.0) fWAR: 11.8 (dWAR 42.0/ oWAR -7.1) To me, the area I think is almost as wrong is fWAR's offense number for JBJ. It's close to being as wrong as bWAR's dWAR for JBJ.

I wasn't sure anyone would catch that. I shoulda known you would!

I loved the first season and am looking forward to seeing season two. I wouldn't put it on the same pedestal as Breaking Bad, but it is very good. I'm hooked on Merli, now and will watch it once I'm done. I'm also watching Better Call Saul.

After these last two wins, you are a lock for the WC and are close to locking up home field for that game.

soxprospects.com updated their rankings: http://soxprospects.com/index.html Red= up 4 or more slots Blue= down 4 or more slots Player age 1. Chavis 23 2. Mata 19 3. Houck 22 4. Groome 20 5. Casas 18 (unrated before) 6. Dalbec 23 (up 4 slots) 7. Chatham 23 (up 10 slots) 8. D Hernandez 21 9. Shawaryn 23 10. Feltman 21 (unrated before) 11. Ockimey 22 12. Decker 18 (unrated before) 13. Lakins 24 (up 6 slots) 14. Flores 17 (up 8 slots) 15. D Diaz 17 16. Scherff 20 (down 8 slots) 17. Howlett 18 (unrated before) 18. Northcut 19 (unrated before) 19. Duran 21 (unrated before) 20. Lin 23 21. Travis 25 (down 16 slots) 22. Crawford (up 37 slots) 23. Poyner 25 24. D Reyes 21 (unrated before) 25. Netzer 22 26. Thompson 23 (down 11 slots) 27. Raudes 20 (down 16 slots) 28. J Diaz 21 (up 7 slots)

I know some might consider this blasphemy, but has anybody else noticed Lester ain't the same Lester he was the first two years with the Cubs? 2015-2016 30-17 2.89 (3.19 FIP/ 1.07 WHIP) 2017-2018 27-13 4.03 (4.41 FIP/ 1.32 WHIP) I still wish we kept him, and the whole contract offer fiasco was Ben's lowest hour, but as the contract has played out, worries about long term deals seem to be carrying some weight. (Note: the Lester of 2017-2018 is still pretty damn good.)

18 Ks tonight!

I'd like to see him up 6th or 7th, but being up in front of Betts helps, too.

Yanks squeak by again. Had they lost these last two, one would seriously have to have worried about their playoff chances. Now, 2 wins in a row and injured players returning, trade pick-ups and September call-ups have you guys looking good for home field in the WC game.

While our pitching has looked suspect, having Sale, ERod & Wright out, and Pom being totally unreliable pretty much all year, we've done very well. 18-9 in August. With ERod & Sale returning and possibly Wright, too, and even Pom showing faint signs of recovering from whatever messed him up, we might see our pitching return to top 3 form. Our pen will be strengthened by an infusion of arms from the rotation and farm call-ups. I'm hopeful our staff just had a hiccup (perhaps at maybe the best time we could ask for) and will now come through when it counts.

The big difference here is that he hit .706 between those two 17 game stretches not .450. No matter how you spin it, this has been one of JBJ's longest, decent stretch of his career.

Just got caught up live. Lovin' what I see with ERod!!!! Just what the doctor ordered. If Sale can come back strong again, I'm lovin' our chances this October. Just lovin; it!

You can probably find this sort of micro picking with many players... granted, JBJ more than others.

I'm with you on JBJ. I supported him through his super rough start in MLB. I always believed in him. I've never felt he needed be all that good offensively, but I find myself continually defending his offense to the point where many feel I think he needs to be good offensively to be a plus value. I don't. I've always felt like anything over about a .600 OPS is a plus, and he's almost always ended up significantly above that mark by the time each season ends. Sure, he's streaky, but that doesn't bother me as much as it seems to bother others. I think his arb cost will not go up a whole lot, thanks to his early season slump. That's one good thing coming out of this.

The Red Sox have called up five players: first base/outfielder Sam Travis, left-handers Bobby Poyner and Robby Scott, right-hander William Cuevas and infielder Tzu-Wei Lin. When players come off rehab, our September roster might look like this... 19 Pitchers Sale Price Porcello ERod Eovaldi Johnson Wright Velazquez Kimbrel Barnes Kelly Hembree Brasier Pomeranz Workman Thornburg Poyner Scott Cuevas 16 Position Players Leon Vaz Swihart Moreland Pearce Travis Kinsler Holt Bogaerts Lin Devers Nunez Benintendi Bradley Betts Martinez Possible further call-ups Haley Shepherd Walden Renda Not on 40 man roster: Shawaryn Lakins Gorst Butler Phillips

I'm pretty sure some of the poorer teams see that even when they win, the money does not go up enough to pay more for better players needed to win. I remember when the Celtics did not even sell out in some big games. The Pirates did not sell out their WS games.

In August... Our staff ERA jumps to 4.18 after being under 3.36 in 3 of the previous 4 months. It is 3.61 on the season, which includes August. Our staff WHIP jumps to 1.305 (season: 1.229). Our staff OPS against jumps to .753 (season: .689). Yet, we still go 18-9- pretty close to our yearly winning percentage. Our bats came alive, mostly in short bursts as we are finding ways to do what we need to do to wrap up the division title and secure home field advantage. Home vs Away RPG 5.8 H 5.0 A OPS .836 H .758 A RPG Against 3.8 H 3.9 A OPS Against .689 H .690A Both our offense and our pitching/defense do better at home in all 4 major categories. Winning % .727 H .643 A