moonslav59

Fine, but when you criticize someone for making a suggestion without providing your opinion on what is better, it kind of rings hollow.

It's not surprising to me that Price stumbled pretty much right out of the gate. I wouldn't have predicted it, but a lot of the biggest signings over the last 20 years have been busts since day one or shortly thereafter. The majority fail to reach expectations. I'm against the philosophy of these massive contracts, but we really, really, really needed an ace (or two), and I felt like Price was about as good a gamble as one could ever hope for. Yeah, others have worked out better, but did Scherzer really look better than Price when he was signed? I just hope we can get some value out of him going forward. It's looking more and more like his 2017 season is toast... maybe 2018 too.

...and it's not like Devers needed a rest. We've had more days off recently that I have ever seen this time of year: Aug 2, 7, 10 and 17

Can't even attempt a "drawing board?"

Yippee. Start the .499 OPS guy! This will be his 6th start since August 5th. 6 out of 13 games! I realize Pedey's been hurt, but this is nothing short of sick.

Small sample size. He's a .700 to .750 hitter. I guess we could bench HRam, but he's actually been very consistently around .750 all year (unlike Moreland). Who do you bench so Moreland can play (assuming just against RHPs)?

I think his defense has taken a step backwards for 2 years in a row after seemingly improving in 2015. UZR/150 -3.7 2014 +0.9 2015 -2.8 2016 -2.2 2017 -1.2 Career DRS -9 -1 -10 -13- so far this year -31 career fangraphs has is WAR at 1.9 this year after seeing 4.3 and 4.7 the two years prior. He has a career 11.4 WAR in 586 games- that's about 4 seasons of 145 games each or an average WAR of about 3.0 for 155 games or so. Hopefully, 2017 is just a blip, but he might not even reach half the WAR he had in 2016 or 2015. He's not alone: WAR 2017/2016 1.9/4.8 JBJ (might barely reach 50% of 2016) -0.1/2.6 HRam 1.9/ 5.2 Pedey 4.5/7.8 Betts (looks like he will reach over 60% of 2016) 0.2/2.5 Leon -0.3/1.1 Young -0.5/0.2 Holt (was over 2.0 in 2014 & 2015)

Until Devers arrived on the scene, we really didn't have many options for clean-up and 5 slot hitters. 4 slot: .765 .778 HRam (259 PAs) .721 Moreland (181) .722 Beni (80) 1.567 Young (only 18 PAs) 5 slot: .702 (a horrible number for this important slot) .771 HRam (136) .740 Moreland (136) .480 JBJ (68) .569 Young (60) .735 Beni (54) 1.018 Devers (37) .450 Bogey (16) 1.038 Travis (13) Total PAs 4 & 5: 1076 HRam + Moreland= 812 (over 75%) With Betts, Pedey, Beni & Bogey and more recently Nunez batting mostly in the 1-3 slots, other options for the 4 or 5 slots were limited. I wish we had kept Betts up 4th all year, but that argument has been beaten to death already. If we look at overall OPS, there's really not much difference between HRam/Moreland and other 4/5 slot options. .798 Beni (has sucked vs LHPs) .792 Betts (should bat 4th) .784 Pedey (lowest SLG/highest OBP) .767 HRam .758 Moreland .756 JBJ .736 Bogey .732 Young .725 Vaz .661 Leon .499 Holt Maybe when Pedey comes back healthy, we can see this: 1. Nunez v R/Bogey v L 2. Pedey 3. Beni v R/ Young v L 4. Betts 5. Devers 6. HRam 7. JBJ 8. Bogey v R/ Beni v L 9. Vaz Basically, Nunez & Young platoon at DH and Bogey and beni flip positions vs RHPs or LHPs. Moreland rides the bench.

He is a good base runner, yes, but being able to play 7 positions all below average defensively is not as valuable as some think it is. The sub .500 OPS cancels out his "flexibility".

Young again was not a plus as a DH. Maybe we need to try something else. The DH should at least have some hard hit balls in play. Young had a .611 SLG% in August before tonight's game (.975 OPS). Let's find someone else to pick on. Note: the killer Bs are all under .600 over the last 28 days!

Tough loss. Nunez appears to be returning to earth. Devers is a Yankee killer. Pen looked good, as did Sale, except for two pitches. JBJ might be showing signs of snapping out of it.

Jalen Beeks 7 IP 2 ER 7 Hits 1 BB 5 Ks ERA now down to 3.00. Lin hit his first HR

They're talking about having AGon on the bench after getting Granderson.

I'm talking stupid plays like forgetting how many outs there are, trying to take 3B with no outs, not watching the runner in front of you hold up on the base you're heading towards, and so on... Being aggressive is not stupid. Being way over aggressive often is.

I said I wasn't the 3B coach, and if he'd been thrown out by 30 feet, then the play could be called "stupid". In that situation, you have to send the guy, unless you are pretty sure he'd be thrown out.

I'm not a big Moreland fan, and I do not want him back. I think we can and should do better than Moreland, Granderson and Bautista next year. Plus, I want a 1Bman not another DH. I don't trust HRam at 1B longterm anymore. I barely trust him at DH. I'm not happy with the Duda, Hosmer, Alonso, Santana and Morrison FA 1Bmen choices this winter, but I think I'd rather have any of these guys on a short 1-2 year deal over the three above. Maybe we'll make a trade. Maybe the declining, injury-prone, one-year-left-on-his-contract, Adrian Gonzalez could be gotten for cheap. The Dodgers might even pay part of his remaining contract. (I'm not sure I want him either, but he is a possible winter option.)

Of course. And, I'm sure Henry realizes DD knows more about baseball than he does.

Reed "bailed us out" as well. I think that trade might turn out to be huge.

Agreed, but a 500 point differential with both sample sizes being over 100 is shocking! His career Home-Away splits, greatly affected by this year, show this: Home: .773 (311 PAs) Away: .535 (324 PAs) That's basically just one season's worth of a sample size spread over 3 seasons sandwiched around a season lost to injury. You're right, we shouldn't read too much into these numbers, but they do bear watching closely.

I agree. We'll never know if Pedro was a whiner, because he never did poorly in this town. The one time he did poorly in the playoffs, we ran the manager out of town for leaving him in too long. Remember when Big Papi was struggling for a year and a half or so? Many suggested he be platooned (me) while others called for him to be demoted (rehab) or moved down to 7th or 8th in the line-up. Fans and the media began to question him, his leadership skills, and his "leading by example" for not running out some grounders. Papi started biting back. He complained about losing Manny's protection and his unfair treatment. One could have called him a whiner. Look what happened to Yaz when he declined in productivity. (He was always somewhat of a bitter man, but he got worse as his poor treatment increased. It's not easy for players used to experiencing greatness for a long time to suddenly face adversity. Many do not handle it well. It's understandable. I'm not condoning asinine behavior, but Price is not alone.

It's so much fun destroying a conceited man's ego, isn't it?. Who cares, if it makes our team lose some games while we are enjoying ourselves. Who cares, if future over-confident players won't want to come here anymore. These uppity players need to be shown their place! (Not meant to have any racial connotations here.) Look, I agree that some of these guys' heads are so swollen they can't get their act together, but we are all human- even those making $31M a year and not producing. I'm still cutting the guy a little more slack. Maybe he can learn from this awakening experience. Maybe it will take time for us to recognize a change. I realize people don't change very often, and when they do, it takes time and effort. Just my opinion.

I'm glad the gave Reed a high leverage situation. I think some went too far in criticizing him based on just a tiny and initial sample size. I agree on BM. I feel Workman should pass Barnes and Hembree on the high leverage usage chart. Kimbrel Reed Kelly Workman Barnes Hembree and others

Young has a .975 OPS this month (4th best on the team). I'm not sure what more we can expect from a 4th OF'er who doesn't play everyday. HRam seems to get singled out more often than many, but he's been about in the middle of the pack among all Sox hitters all year. Granted, that's not good for a clean-up hitters, but to me that's more on Farrell for leaving him there when others are hitting better. Here are our numbers by R-L splits vs RHPs (18+ PAs) 1.080 Devers 1.042 Nunez .846 Beni .810 Young (surprise) .788 Betts .777 Moreland .756 Pedey .755 HRam .746 Bogey .710 JBJ .705 Vaz .657 Leon .467 Holt .412 Marrero vs LHPs 1.216 Devers 1.003 Travis .949 Marrero .932 Pedey .889 JBJ (surprising) .830 Vaz .818 HRam .806 Betts .762 Nunez .714 Leon .708 Bogey .641 Moreland .636 Young (shocking) .618 Holt .615 Beni Looking at these numbers, I see a few things that jump out at me: 1) A Marrero-Lin platoon should replace Holt in September as the second SS, 3B, 2B sub off the bench behind Nunez. 2) Sam Travis might be a nice platoon with HRam/Moreland at 1B vs LHPs. 3) HRam is fine at clean-up vs LHPs, but he should be moved down vs RHPs. 4) Why does Holt get to play so much? It's not his D, and it certainly is not his O! 5) I would not expect the big reverse splits by JBJ and Young to continue- just my opinion. 6) As hot as Beni has been, his splits vs LHPs are very worrisome.

That's how I view it as well. I do think Vaz is very close on D with Leon. I do not think Vaz is this good offensively. He's likely to "come down to earth" at some point. They both are strong defensively and are .650 to .700 type hitters.

Vaz's home-away splits are massive. I'm not sure I've ever seen splits so wide: .984 Home (Best on the Sox -out of anyone with 65+ PAs) .482 Away (Worst on the Sox -out of anyone with 10+ PAs) A 502 point split differential might be nearing a record among players with 100+ PAs home and away.