moonslav59

I'm on a "high horse?" You've been pontificating ad nauseum for months. We added JD this winter and several players have or will be returning from injury. This is not the same team as 2016 & 2017. We have holes and so do the Yanks.

You've hated on just about every Sox player on the roster. You are no Sox fan.

We can't afford to add more than $2M to our budget, and our farm is toast. This is it. Get used to it. We're going all the way, with or without so-called fans like you.

What a joke! You hate all but 2-3 Sox players.

Swihart was given way more chances than he ever deserved. He ruined his own chances over and over. Why not just go to the yankee forum, since you love them more?

the answer to what question? Who do we trade to get him? Beni? Beeks, Groome, Mata and Shawaryn?

Which is still a 93 win team.

...and 27+ starts every season since he came up at age 20.

I think he rates to be a pretty decent 3rd starter. We just need Sale and Price to pitch like aces in October. ERod could step it up, if one of the big three struggle. Wright should be in the pen for the playoffs, unless someone is hurt.

So much for the bottom of the order winning this one for us. Wrong again!

I hate when people go off on someone based on one AB, 1 game, 1 week or even one month or two, but as Natick would say, I'M DONE WITH SWIHART!

Yes, assuming they pinch hit for Swihart in the 8th or 9th.

Prediction: the bottom of the order will win this game for us.

There is no guarantee your guys rebound. We shall see over the next 6 weeks if they do. You sound like you are guaranteeing none will rebound. How about the last 6 weeks? Leon's OPS was .214 on 4/24. Now it's at .641. Vaz's OPS was at .476 in late April. Now it's at .538, including 2 HRs in his last 5 games. JBJ was at .510 on May 12th. He's over .600 now. Why is the next 6 weeks more important than the last 6 weeks? we only need 1 or 2 of these guys (including the slumping Devers, Nunez, Swihart and the injured Pedey) to continue staying hot to bring 4 black holes to 2.

1) JBJ showed no evidence of snapping out of it in every season, then he did. Besides, how is an .831 OPS over the last 28 days "no evidence?" That's not "rosy glasses:" that's facts. 2) Devers may very well take more than a year to "adjust," but the kid is a natural hitter going through an expected rough patch. 3) Nunez has career numbers that do not look great, but he's been pretty good over the last 2-3 years. He does not project to be a black hole. Why would you think he does based on just 2 months? (Yes, Pedey might not ever come back.) 4) Vaz and Leon could very well go under .700 from now to October, but they should not be at .450, like they were over the first 6-7 weeks. They've both shown signs of improving their offense recently. Maybe one-by-one, none of the 4 slots look to hit .800 going forward, but to assume all 4 will hit below .710 or so for the remainder of the season is not probable at all. All we need is two of these guys to hit near their career norm, their 203 year norm or 2017 in Vaz's case: JBJ Pedey/Nunez/Holt Vaz/Leon/Swihart All 7 guys have hope, even if some are long shots. The chances that 5 or 6 out of 7 all continue to stink at the plate is just not supported by any data, except whaat they've done over just their recent one-third season. Id this really how you judge all players? Is Stanton destined to end up at .823 this year? Sanchez .735? I think not.

1st of all, I do not believe our 6-9 hitters will all be under .700 or .710 by season's end. Everyone talks about Moreland coming back to earth, but refuse to believe those under performing playerss will come back to earth (norm) as well. The fact remains, many teams have won in the last 4-5 years with several black holes. The Royals won without hitting or starting pitching. Yes, we don't have the speed or defense they had, but our pen is pretty good and our hitters and SP'ers blow them away. We can win with 3 black holes, but I firmly believe we don't have 3-4 black holes just because a 2 month sample size says so. Several of the "black holes" have an OPS over .800 the last 4 weeks. Their career numbers scream thaat they are not sub .700 hitters, but you and others feel that two month sample sizes dictate who someone is forever. With all due respect, this thinking is....Lunacy.

Certainly hitting, pitching and fielding all contribute to a team's chances at getting into the playoffs and then winning it all, but there is no clear path to winning. Teams have won with just about no hitting. The Royals went to the WS with nobody over .783 and a blah starting rotation in 2014. I do agree that pitching seems like the most needed aspect of winning in the playoffs, and our staff looks pretty good by the numbers and even better on paper, if you judge players by their last 2-3 years. Yes, we need Price and others to be healthy for the playoffs. I'm also hoping we find a way to rest Sale more often, so he can be stronger in October.

Last 28 days numbers shine a more positive light on our bottom 5: .875 Leon .780 Holt .762 JBJ .736 Vaz .668 Nunez .602 Devers .382 Swihart Last 14 days: .895 Leon .831 JBJ .686 Holt .518 Devers .408 Swihart

The 4 slot is more important than the 3 slot, according to 'studies". I like the top 4 order. The bottom 5 is frighteningly bad-looking.

Have you looked at the line-ups of recent WS winners and losers? Most have had 2-3 slots below .700. Even the 2017 Dodgers saw their 7-10 players by PAs all below .740 with one at .678. The Astros saw their 7th highest PA player bat .666. 2016: (#PA ranking that season) Cubs #5 .631 #8 .684 Guardians: #6 .693 #9 .527 #10 .591 #11 .695 #12 .579 #13 .602 (all over 150 PAs) Before 2016, we saw a lot of futility at numerous batting slots. 2015: KCR: #2 .614 (Yes, their second most PA player, Escobar, hit .614!) #6 .706 #7 .552 #9 .640 #12 .691(225 PAs) NYM: #4 .703 #5 .647 #6 .699 #7 .688 #9 .576 #11 .607 (206 PAs) If this isn't proof, look at the 2014 KCR... 2014: NOBODY hit over .783! #2 .694 #3 .692 #4 .702 #5 .632 #6 .710 #9 .632 (500 PAs) #10 .651 (290 PAs) 7 of their top 10 PA players were under .710! Imagine if the Sox had a line-up like this one! Our fans go nutty with just 2-3 guys under .710. The winning team, the SFG, saw 4 of their top 9 PA plaayers under .713 with one under .600. Teams often win with multiple "black holes", and I'm still not convinced Vaz/Leon, Devers and JBJ will be black holes all season long.

Ding, ding, DING!

What get me is that the same people who condemn on small sample sizes, disappear or find new small bad sample sizes to harp on when things start turning around to the good.

This team is not those teams. We added JD and have players returning from injury. We have addition by subtraction with players like Pablito, HRam, Rutledge, A Hill, Young, Buch, Hanigan and other.

I'm not for trading JBJ. I was just saying that JBJ's longer team control should be a factor in this sort of trade, but I was wrong about Scooter's control years. I'm firmly against trading JBJ, but I do see the point about him being replaceable-- not from inside our own current system, however. I'm not for putting JD in the OF full time. I think we're playing him out there now too much as it is. To me, I would not even think about trading JBJ this year, unless Pedey returns and looks healthy (big if) AND Nunez starts hitting and looks healthier than he does now. The idea would be to play Nunez, Holt or Swihart in LF, Beni in CF and keep JD at DH, except for NL parks. The upgrade in offense might make up for a big chunk in the loss of defense (assuming JBJ never heats up). That projected differential would then have to be weighed by the plus we get back in trade for JBJ. Again, I'm not for trading JBJ and never have been, and certainly trading him when his stock is low is not prudent.