moonslav59

I remember seeing Mays on TV, when he was old. I started watching the Milwaukee Brewers their first year. We moved to Maine in '72 and that's when I really started following baseball closely (at age 13).

Since they began UZR/150, here are the top UZR/150 seasons by Sox CF'ers: 600+ innings 25.3 Crisp 2007 17.1 JBJ 2014 16.1 Ellsbury 2011 8.1 JBJ 2016 3.5 JBJ 2017

JBJ is the best Sox defensive CF'er I've ever seen. I've seen Fred Lynn, Darren Lewis, Rick Miller, Ellis Burks, Otis Nixon, Darren Bragg, Damon Buford, Mile Cameron, Coco Crisp & Ryan Sweeney. I've seen better CF'ers on other teams over my 50 years of watching baseball.

I don't know the score most times I watch on tape delay. I avoid the news and game thread until I catch up.

The Yanks will finsih in 3rd place.

Exactly what I do. I don't think I've missed a single pitch in years. I don't think I've missed a game in decades.

We're pushing our luck. He's bound to make a meaninful boo-boo at some point. I'm fine with putting him out there in NL parks, but I'd avoid it as much as possible otherwise.

He's got a long swing. To me, it looks nice, but he never shortens it situationally. I'm not sure trying to change his swing or mechanics would help. It could hurt. I'm fine with him continuing his current approach, sluming here and there and playing stellar defense with an OPS around .700. I think he can repeat .800+, but I don't feel he needs to hit .800 to be a big plus on this team.

LOL. Nunez would not play CF. Beni would and Nunez would play in LF.

I think it might help slightly, but i agree. I think our offense wouldhave been much better had we signed Duda or Morrison, instead of JMart. The way Moreland is hitting...maybe not.

I'm not sure. I'm thinking that since RF is so big, it might be easier to get to more balls, so your rating might be higher. (Opposite of LF)

I say, "There are many great defensive CF'ers in MLB today, and although JBJ is not the best, he is one of the great ones."

Or, Hank Aaron?

I haven't seen him play defense since leaving Boston. I never liked his defense, but he is young and athletic, so I guess he could develop into a decent fielder somewhere. His defensive numbers have not been bad in his tiny sample sizes. 2B: +1.9 UZR/150 and +7 DRS (612 innings) 3B: +11.7 UZR/150 and 0 DRS in just 35 innings

I've always felt like Moncada would become a great ML hitter, even if he never solves the high K rate issue. He may end up being a career DH.

As much as I'd hate to trade JBJ: he's maybe my favorite current Sox player, there are some aspects that make the idea worth discussion. I'll take "the other side" for a moment: 1) Other GMs value JBJ as much as we do. They ask about him all the time. They'd give something good for 2.5 years of a cost-controlled comodity like JBJ. 2) If we could fill a big need area by trading JBJ, the plus we gain in that area might outweigh the negative we get in OF defense and perhaps offense (hitting & running combined). 3) JD wants to play the OF, and keeping a $25M player content and feeling like he's "in the game" might have some value. 4) If Moreland/Nunez combined are better hitters than JBJ, then trading JBJ could mean an upgrade in offense plus at whatever position we upgrade in the return we get from trading JBJ. The final equation might look like this: Con: way worse OF defense by downgrading CF (JBJ to Beni) and LF (Beni to Jmart/Nunez/Swihart) Plus: Possible improved offense by playing Moreland (1B, HRam DH, JMart LF) & Nunez instead of JBJ. Plus: upgrade a high need area with the return we get from the JBJ trade. The issue now is, what is our "high need area?" Do we even ahve one? 1) Farm (Doesn't help us in our current window) 2) Pen? (We have Thornburg and Poyner coming back from the DL and some nice arms in AAA. We also have Johnson, Velazquez & Wright moving to the pen) 3) SP? (We have perhaps the best top 3 SP'ers in MLB and a pretty awesome 4 & 5. Wright, Johnson & Velazquez look like nice starter depth right now. 4) Catcher offense? (Personally, I don't ever worry about catcher offense, if the defense is great and our pitchers are doing great with whoever we have behind the plate.)

I was joking. (I forgot the "sarcasm alert") Yes, If JBJ hits .800 the next 2 years that would put him at .800+ in 4 of 5 years. He'd get a nice extension or FA contract.

Brock is barely better on defense at 2b than Nunez. Nunez will be the 2Bman until Pedey returns. Nunez may also become our 4th OF'er once Dustin is back at 2B. That might mean less OF time for Jmart and less PAs by HRam/Moreland.

Just Mookie's defense alone is worth a lot.

I've credited Cora several times on other posts. I loved the Cora signing and defendied him after the game one criticism. I love our new approach (and mentioned that in the post- obviously due to Cora and our coaches) at the plate and often criticized JF for not doing anything about it in the past. If I tried to make every post all-encompassing, they's be 3 pages long and highly repetitive.

Since JBJ is not worth "anything more than a 4th starter", he should cost peanuts.

I second that! Then, trade him! LOL, just kiddin'!

Thanks for the info. So, nobody has a HS player picked in 2016 who is excelling at the MLB level right now. And, since groome is not excelling at the MLb level right now, DD should be criticized. Hmm....

Warning: Teenie to tiny sample sizes alert. Here are some very intersting Sox splits to ponder and perhaps disuss: 25 PAs with the bases loaded .476 5 30 (1.678 OPS) .977 RISP .982 RISP & 2 outs .905 Men on Base 1.186 High Leverage .763 Late & Close Best innings 1.047 1st 1.011 6th .964 2nd .951 9th .933 extra innings 1.341 3rd time vs SP'er .927 1st time .791 2nd time Lefty-Righty splits .894 vs RHP .703 vs LHP Curiosly, .949 RHB vs RHP and .772 LHB vs RHP .870 Home .847 Away .991 25 year old or under .899 31-35 y/o .694 26-30 (prime) .441 Catcher OPS .111 PH'er OPS (9 PAs) All other 8 positions are above .800!!!!!! 1.114 RF 1.016 SS .993 1B .889 LF .858 DH .857 CF .819 3B .813 2B Talk among yourselves.

JD has made a difference, especially with Pedey out. We'd be playing HRam (Moreland at 1B), Swihart or _____ instead at DH. I think the change of approach and more healthy hitters is a major factor as well. HRam's surgery has been a big success, so far. Mookie's injury is healed. Moreland's toe is healed. Bogey's injury looked healed before his new one.