moonslav59

2013 was good or even pretty good not "outstanding". You cite his 112+ wRC+. That was 7th best on the team in 2013. Even Salty was better at 116. (He was barely our 3rd best OF'er in 2013 by xRC+: Nava 127, Vic 119, JE 112, Gomes 108.) Yes, a .355 OBP is pretty good. It's not great for a lead off hitter. .355 placed him 13th out of 50 among fellow OF'ers that year. Nava was .385 and Vic was close at .351. How is it "outstanding" to finish with the 39th best OF wRC+ out of 110 oF'ers with 300+ PAS in 2013? He placed 27th out of 50 OF'ers with 500+ PAs in 2013. You're choosing this as a season to justify greatness? OK-ok, granted he had the 5th best OF WAR in 2013. He's much better than OPS or wRC+ indicate, but he wasn't worth close to that money based on his overall play from 2007-2013. Of course the SBs and plus defense made him better than his wRC+ indicated, but he looked to be barely worth half of what the Yanks ended up paying him. From 2008 to 2013 (6 seasons), the Sox had 56 instances with a player getting more than 300 PAs. Here's where Jacoby's seasons ranked: #6 2011 (150) A fantastic season! #31 2013 (112) Tied with Scutaro's 2011 season #41 2009 (98) Worse than DMac's 2010 season #47 2008 (91) Below two of Salty's seasons #49 2012 (84) Worse than Lugo's 2008 season and barely better than CC's 2011 season (83) where everyone was screaming, "HORRIBLR SIGNING!". Sorry, I wasn't buying it back then, and I'm not buying it now. 2007-2013 combined (Sample size: 26 players with 500+ PAs with the Sox) 143 Ortiz 140 Beltre 138 AGon 137 Youk 134 J Bay 132 Manny 128 Napoli 127 VMArt 120 Pedey 119 Vic 116 JD Drew 114 Nava 114 C Ross 109 Lowell 109 Ellsbury (The guy barely beat our Stephen freakin' Drew and Jarrod Salt-a-la-caca! 108 S Drew 103 Salty I was almost as thrilled we didn't sign Ellsbury as I was when we traded for... Chris Freakin' Sale!

I would think adjusting to high fastballs is one of the easier pitches to adjust to. Those who have trouble with sinkers down and away always seem to have that issue come and go for longer periods of time. Even Papi went through stretches later in his career where he looked totally helpless against that pitch. Consistently being thrown high fastballs seems to be a "new thing", and perhaps that's one reason we are seeing many more HRs this year.

I'm hopeful. I'm not sure he'd have ever gotten good enough on D to satisfy me, so maybe the injury hurried along what I always thought would happen anyways.

I'm worried this is a one year wonder.

If Pedey has to DH a lot next year, and we know that this winter, then Duda would be a waste of money, assuming HRam will still be here. If Pedey DH's then HRam plays 1B. Maybe we can trade HRam and pay $7-10M of his contract. That would allow us to sign Duda and Nunez and stay under the $20M over extra penalty limit. Nunez could play 2B and Duda (or Hosmer) 1B.

Because most guys are right handed, and it would be easier to scratch our only nut with the left one removed.

I'd be happy to have him on the Sox, but I'm not convinced he is really as good as this half season sample size shows.

He had a fantastic season last year before the injury. One can imagine him continuing that this year, but nothing in baseball is for certain.

I've always been a big fan of Wright. I had very high hopes for him this year. It's hard to imagine him adding 5 wins to this... GS'd (Team Record) 6 Fister 3-3 (4 starts with team scoring 6 or more runs) 5 Johnson 5-0 (5 starts with team scoring 5+ runs/ 3 w 6+) 2 Velazquez 0-2 (No games with 4 or more run support) 2 Kendrick 0-2 (no games with 5 or more run support) 8-7 Total He'd have to have gone 13-2, assuming the same run support.

Can Viagra help Pom last longer? I'm not sure I want to mess with him in any way. Keep giving us 5-6 innings, and I'll be happy. It's Porcello and Price that need to get their act together and start giving us 7-8 innings of solid pitching.

I've been suggesting 1B or 3B for a long time, too. Maybe his bat will never reach what some of us hoped it would, but I still think he has a chance at making it at 1B. If he can also provide the ability to be a third string catcher, he'd open up a lot of PH opportunities late in games for our relatively poor hitting catching tandem.

Maybe we can find a way to sign Duda and Nunez. 1. Pedey 2B 2. Beni LF 3. Duda 1B 4. Betts RF 5. HRam DH 6. Devers 3B 7. JBJ CF v R/ Bogey SS v L 8. Bogey SS v R/ JBJ CF v L 9. Vaz C Bench: Nunez can play 3B, SS, 2B, LF, DH and probably get 450+ PAs with no significant injuries to anyone. Since he can play LF, he can play anytime we rest JBJ or Betts due to Beni's ability to slide to another OF position. When Duda needs a rest at 1B, HRam can play 1B as Nunez DHs. Essentially, Nunez can play, if any player, except catcher is rsted or injured. Leon is the back-up catcher Holt, Hernandez, Lin and marrero can fight for the utility IF position, but Holt might get the nod due to his ability to play OF and 1B. SP1 Sale SP2 Price SP3 Pom SP4 Porcello SP5 ERod SP6 Wright (long relief) RP1 Kimbrel RP2 Smith RP3 Thornburg RP4 Kelly RP5 Barnes RP6 Hembree (out of options) AAA: SP- Johnson, Beeks, Velazquez, Haley, Elias, Owens RP- Workman, R Ross, R Scott, Maddox, Taylor, Martin, Cosart, N Ramirez C- Romanski, Swihart? (D Butler re-signed?) 1B- S Travis, M Chavis, Swihart (Ockimey) 2B- Hernandez 3B- Marrero SS- Lin LF- D Mars/ Brentz? (minor league FA) CF- Castillo RF- A Tavarez DH- J Barfield, J Witte

Swihart is now playing 1B in the GCL. I wish him luck at his new position.

We now have a new OPS leader (after today): 80+ PAs .807 Beni .805 Betts .784 Pedey .780 HRam .756 JBJ .751 Young .749 Moreland .730 Bogey .700 Vaz .622 Pablo .576 Marrero .558 Rutledge .523 Holt .681 Leon ______________________ 1.179 Nunez with BOS (57 PAs before today)/ .811 Nunez (2 teams after today)) .938 Devers (61 PAs after today)

I rarely watch the games in real time. Too many commercials.

Frazier has had a worse second half in every single season he's been in the majors. Very smart.

Marrero goes 2 for 4 with an HR. He's now up to a .194 BA. Carson Smith: 1 IP 0H 0ER 0BB 2K Barfield with his 22 HR (.310 BA) Henry Owens with only 2 BBs in 5 IP! (1H and 1 ER)

I have very few complaints about how JF handles the staff and how he chooses who will catch each starter. He'd have been great as our pitching coach all along.

The biggest surprise of the year, to me. Yeah, Sale is doing off-the-charts great, but I always thought he was one of the greatest. I hope the pen continues to be the best, but I'm worried about Kelly's return, Barnes and Hembree's struggles and Reed in general.

.781 is not "outstanding". I don't think Jacoby was ever a great defender. His speed made up for slow starts, bad routes and other mistakes. The metrics showed he was pretty good on D, but I always felt like once his speed fell off a little, so would his D. He also had a noddle arm, and in Fenway Park, that's a big disadvantage. Yes, CF is an important defensive position, but it's not like SS. Other than 2011, he never had an OPS above .781. He was only over .770 twice in his 5 seasons with 300+ PAs. He was under .730 in 2 of his 5 seasons. He had over 325 PAs in only 4 of his last 6 seasons in Boston. He was about at .750 before 2011 and .750 for the two seasons after 2011 with Boston. You don't pay .750 that kind of money. Warning signs abounded.

I think we'll get Duda or Hosmer, but we'll want to go as short range as possible. I think that means Duda.

I don't like Moreland all that much. There are some other low level/mid range guys out there beside him. I think we go for a big bat, but it might have to be by trade.

For some reason, the game didn't tape for me today. I missed seeing a Sox game for the first time in years. Can anyone fill me in on how many mental blunders we made today?

Okay, I'll take you up on the offer and let some of my OCD shine... I don't think batting Bogey 3rd and Moreland 4th was to appease their comfort zones. I know Moreland did not have experience in those slots prior to this season. The "comfort" argument doesn't hold any water with Moreland. The other one, JBJ, has been jerked around batting slots more than anyone, so I doubt he feels comfortable in any slot more than another due to experience. Bogey did have experience batting 3rd before this year, and it has been his best slot over his career, but even with a higher than norm SLG batting 3rd, .457 is not what you want from your 3-6 slot hitters. Here are the numbers: Moreland Career Slot PA OPS 6th 745 .709 (676 PA before this year) 7th 729 .709 (694 before this year) 5th 576 .770 (447 before this year) 8th 413 .905 (402 before this year) 9th 347 .774 4th 265 .769 (88 before this year) 3rd 57 .490 2nd 49 .582 2017 Slot PA OPS 4th 177 .720 5th 129 .713 6th 69 .818 7th 35 .669 8th 12 1.300 Now, I am not assuming every batter would have done better than Moreland in the 4 slot. He did well for us out of the gate, and to end up with a .720 and .713 OPS from the 4 and 5 slots means he must have slumped horribly for quite some time to offset that great start. Counting Devers and Nunez, we currently have 9 players with a season OPS above those two numbers. Bogaerts also started out hot. To me, he should have started in the 1 or 2 slot due to his high OBP and low SLG. In a tiny sample size (39 PAs) Bogey has an .839 OPS batting lead-off. (.819 up 3rd) I understand his numbers batting 3rd aren’t bad at all, but his OPS is driven by his OBP NOT his SLG. JBJ has bounced around the line-up. He's not been given a chance to get comfortable anywhere. Here's a look at our players by batting slots: 2015-2017 OPS PA Player 1st .849 1459 Betts (345 OBP) .839 39 Bogey (.410 OBP) .813 403 Pedey (.372 OBP) .749 121 Holt (.347 OBP) Looks clear to me, Betts should not lead off, when we have better OBP players available, and both have worse power than Betts.) 2nd .841 71 Betts .792 980 Pedey .752 240 Beni .723 281 Holt .698 271 Bogey 3rd .988 91 Pedey .819 1114 Bogey .839 432 Papi .845 41 Beni .799 170 Betts .754 59 HRam 4th 1.049 786 PAPi .892 163 Betts (He should bat 2nd or 4thf or obvious reasons) .784 545 HRam .722 80 Beni .720 177 Moreland .649 68 T Shaw 5th .829 773 HRam (looks like his best slot) .720 55 Beni .706 62 Bogey .713 129 Moreland .660 75 Young .566 164 JBJ (Never gets a chance above the 5 s lot) 6th 1.143 39 Beni .868 132 JBJ .818 69 Moreland .740 65 Holt .758 51 HRam .694 131 Bogey .594 103 Young .581 55 Leon 7th .809 155 Young .797 234 JBJ .748 89 Swihart .704 264 Holt .669 35 Moreland .661 84 Leon .570 71 Bogey .426 48 Vaz 8th 1.096 57 Young .821 141 JBJ .762 161 Swihart .776 125 Bogey .745 295 Leon .723 65 Holt .669 223 Vaz 9th .933 92 Beni .895 371 JBJ .712 181 Leon .706 90 Hernandez .647 125 Swihart .648 95 Holt Here are out top OPS players from 2015-2017 (3500+ Pas) that are still on the team: .846 Betts .809 JBJ (Our 2nd best hitter never hits higher than 5th!) .807 Pedey .802 Young .802 Beni .799 HRam .776 Bogey .745 Moreland (This is the guy we bat 4th and 5th!) .714 Swihart .706 Leon .649 Vaz As streaky as JBJ has been, he’s still got a better 2017 OPS than Moreland & Bogey, yet he never bats 1-4, even when hot. 2017 OPS .807 Beni (Just passed Betts today!) .805 Betts .784 Pedey .780 HRam .756 JBJ .751 Young .749 Moreland .730 Bogey Okay there, I got my OCD vent out of the way for the day.

Agreed, but these two were supposed to be our 4th and 6th starters this year. They've done good to great jobs in those roles. The problem is that injuries to Price and inconsistency by Porcello have thrust these two into the 2-3 slots of our rotation. Now we do need 7 innings from both, but I'm not sure it's realistic to expect even more from these two that what they've given us. I think trading for Reed and the return of Kelly (and maybe Smith) was supposed to help us out with better 7th inning RP'ers (by attrition), but so far, that has not happened. I hate to say it, but I think this season may come down to our pen- the position I felt was our weakest- not weak- position before the season started.