moonslav59

You keep assuming a team will continue doing as well as the most recent short sample size. Yes, the team is not the 17-2 team, but they are not the team we've seen over the last 2-3 weeks either. You like to focus on just the negative- Vaz, leon & JBJ's defense and a few bad recent pitching performances and assume that's our team for the rest of the season. It's 162 games. We're about a quarter through. Had we started .500 and were in the midst of a 17-2 run now, you'd be singing a different tune right now. Why? Seriously, why? When do teams always congtinue repeating only their last 20-25 game stretch? The fact is they don't, or hardly ever do. This team will get hot again, and will have another bad stretch, and I suspect you'll cry the sky is falling again and again. This team matches up very well with other top teams. JD is for real. betts is over whatever was bugging him last year- same with Bogey. Beni seems to be turning things around. Pedey and Thornburg will be back soon. I still see us winning 97 to 103 wins.

1 game confirms nothing. We K'd over 10 again. It seems like every game we do that. I'm seeing Pom and ERod getting better. Porcello off to a great start. I'm not worried about him having 2 bad starts in a row. Sale has let up 7 ERs in his last 4 starts (28 IP). That's a 2.25 ERA. If that's "struggling", give me q5 struggling starters like Sale.

If the Sox continue at their current pace, they'll end up at 108-54. It's likely they'll end up somewhere inbetween. Exactly in the middle would be about 98-64.

Mid 800's seems like his ceiling, but I could see him having a .900 season here and there over his career (along with some upper .700 seasons).

You can't just decide later, after Swihart bombs and proves he can't handle the staff, to get another defensive catcher that can quickly build rapport with our pitchers in time for the playoffs. Maybe I'm wrong about how much "rapport" matters, but I'll go to my grave believing it is real and important, depite not being quantifiable.

Some pitchers drafted since the Hurst-Tudor draft and before Theo: 78 Matt Young 80 Oil Can Boyd & Al Nipper 83 Clemens 86 Schilling 91 A Sele 93 J Suppan 94 C Pavano (part of Pedro trade) 99 C Fossum (part of Schilling trade) 00 Delcarmen 02 Lester (2001 int'l signing: Anibal Sanchez- part of Beckett trade.)

It's BS stating Swihart "is just fine at Catcher," when he is not and probably won't be forever.

O'Connell drafted... '67: Fisk '68: Cooper, Oglive, Bill Lee '69: D Evans, Rick Miller '70: Burleson '71: Rice '72: D Aase, S Dillard '73: Lynn, Hobson '74 Stanley '75 Stapleton '76 Hurst, Tudor, Boggs, G Hoffman

Swihart has been injured for some of the last few years, but here are his minor league numbers since being called up to Pawtucket in 2014: .659 (71 PAs) Paw 2014 .714 (80 PAs) Paw 2015 .655 (122 PAs) Paw 2016 .539 (212 PAs) Paw 2017 .575 (38 PAs) Gulf (2017) .689 (422 PAs) MLB 2015-2018 Nothing here screams for giving him a shot based on his offense.

Yes. He is also a child molester.

Why is it so hard for a select few to recognize this Team is not Championship caliber? You're free to have your opinion, but I respectfully disagree. IMO, you can't judge a team on a 2-3 week sample size. heck, sometimes a 2-3 month sample size shows a team is no "championship caliber", but that team ends up winning it all- sometime with a sweep. The roster as constructed was not good enough the past 2 playoffs but yet the same players return and fans talk about a different result. We added JD. or did you forget. We also had players returning from injuries along with others who played through injuries last year. We have Pedey & Thornburg returning soon. There is zero pitching after Sale and zero relief before Kimbrel. Porcello is a zero? He won the Cy Young 2 years ago and is looking fine. ERod finally fixed his knee. Pom is looking like he's rounding into shape. I can't blame anyone for not having faith in Price, but there is some hope. BTW, have you seen the staffs of other teams? We have a top 6 or 7 staff at minimum. We are currently 3rd in pitching WAR and 2nd in ERA-, despite injuries and pitchers rehabbing on the fly. The Organization is Tax strapped at the moment to find any pitching help. It boggles my mind how Ownership says in 14 that signing players to big contracts at the age of 30 is not good business. Lester Lackey Miller all gone and Ramirez Sandoval Price are signed. Another tongue twister is what Cherington was thinking when he signed Ramirez. You had to know of the 2019 Free Agent Class but yet gives Ramirez a vesting option for that year? Same with DD and Price. DD didn't know of the arms in the 19 free agent class? Stupid business. Ownership needs to pull a Cashman. Dump the dead weight to reduce payroll for the 19 Free Agent Bonanza! Pomeranz Erod Kelly Porcello and do not allow Ramirez to vest. Talk Price into opting out? If you have to deal a prospect along with a Porcello type contract to get them out, so be it. Porcello would be gobbled up in a moment without any need for us giving a prospect or paying any portion of his deal. 86 win Team with this pitching With all due respect, you're high.

Hurst, Tudor & Ojeda?

So you expected Betts to hit to a 1.2 OPS? Yes, for a month or two here and there on his way to a .950 to .1050 season. I also don't expect JD to keep hitting .344. Moreland's career high in OPS was .812. He's over 200 points over that. He's gonna come down. He hasn't played enough to qualify for discussion. Hanley and Xander have both come down from their hot first couple weeks as well. Nothing shocking here. Beni is hotter than hell right now and believe it or not, is already 20 points above his 2017 OPS on the season. So what are you saying? I was supposed to expect an exact OPS every 6 weeks repeating with no variation? I expect JD to start hitting more doubles and the drop in his BA will be overcome by his rise in SLG. Mookie is not Barry Bonds on steroids circa 2002, he's going to cool off. I expect Moreland to fall down from his unsustainable season. I expect close to the same, but I expect JBJ, Vaz, Devers, Leon, Nunez and others to do better and make up for other players' declines. I think Hanley is what he is, and that's a high .700s OPS player. I think Xander can be the guy he has been. I expect Devers to improve. I do not expect major improvements from your catcher position. I expect better than .550. You should, too. I am not sure JBJ will break out. Who knows how Pedroia will be. Overall, I think your offense is playing above expectations and is probably more suited for a drop in production than a rise. So while you are saying they are reaching their expectations from last yr, I would say that's probably not true. I disagree. 9 of our top returning PA players from 2016 declined in 2017. Only Vaz improved. It was a massive under performance by just about the whole team. I expected many to bounce back, and many have. Some have started out hotter than we can expect them to maintain, but I would not be surprised at all, if our overall team OPS stays around .780-- where it is right now. BTW, it was at .736 last year and we added JD and shed many sub .600 players. I don't think .780 is out of line with 2018 expectations.

He looked okay when rushed into duty a few years back, but he really has not done anything in the minors to show he deserves another long look. Apparently, his defense does not look good to Sox management, so he really needed to show a big plus bat over the last couple years. He did not.

It's hard to know for sure, based on personal observations, since we only see other CF'ers a few times a year. I'd put Cain equal to JBJ, at least. Michael Taylor, Byron Buxton and Juan Lagares are surely equal, at worst. Add the three you mention and we're up to 7 who are equal or better. I'd have no problem with anyone calling JBJ the 8th best in MLB, and to me, that doesn't mean he's not great anymore. Here are the CF'er fangraphs has better than JBJ in UZR/150 or DRS from 2017-2018: UZR/150 CF'er DRS 11.2 Zimmer 4 10.8 J Dyson 12 10.3 Hamilton 12 7.2 Almora 3 5.6 Herrera 7 5.6 Springer 7 5.5 Margot 12 5.5 Pollock 12 4.3 JBJ 8 3.7 L Cain 10 There's 5 on this list with a better UZR/150 AND DRS. I wouldn't argue thery're any worse than JBJ. That might place JBJ tied with 8 or 14th. If one argued he was 14th, that would put him around the "mean number", but that doesn't mean he's "average" or not a great defender.

Well said. I'm not sure DD "knows" JBJ will not likely contribute offensively the rest of this year. He's slumped for long periods before and then had a hot streak(s).

Once some teams are out of it, they may throw him out there for a month or two and see what happens. Maybe some teams feel like they are out of it now, and might give an A level prospect with some hopes for a shot at finding a catcher who can hit well enough to offset his defensive woes.

I guess some expect us to play .625-.650 ball every 10 game sample size.

Many are reaching the expectations we had for them last year.

I had high hopes for Smith and Thornburg, this year.

Minor League Records: 17-18 Pawtucket (10th worst out of 16 teams) 12-23 Portland (worst of 12 teams) 17-20 Salem (7th worst out of 10)

Thanks DD!

My numbers provided are for 2017-2018 combined. If we put Pillar and Cain above or equal to JBJ, he's be 16th out of 32: That's the mean, but it doesn't have to indicate he's average. If there were 16 Paul Blairs, would it have made him average? I guess we might be arguing semantics more than baseball.

I could see 10th or 12th, but 15th is pushing it. There really are some great D center fielders today. fangraphs has JBJ ranked 14th out of 32 from 2017-2018 in URZ/150: https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=cf&stats=fld&lg=all&qual=600&type=1&season=2018&month=0&season1=2017&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=24,d I see a lot of good names above him and Pillar and Cain are below him.

The union should have pushed for a min payroll spending budget. It would help more players than trying hard to raise the luxury limit level..