moonslav59

One more step upwards.

It will be nice to not have to see him anymore. The Pablito posts will lessen. He may never be forgotten, but at least he's not hogging (pun intended) a roster spot anymore.

He's been in MLB since 2011 and never has had a better second half OPS. I'll bet that trend continues.

Bunts hardly ever increase the chances of scoring (even 1 run), and they kill the chances for crooked numbers.

The fit was better for you guys. Robertson's salary would crunch us too much this year and maybe next. I would have liked to have gotten 2 good RP'ers though. We still might.

I did mention him as an option last summer, but then I found out about hoe bad he was on defense. He might be better than Moreland over the second half, but I'd rather not get him.

I'm not sure he's for real. If he can continue as he has done this year, the deal will be much better than I originally thought, but TK had a WHIP over 1.500 for two straight years. Maybe 2017 isn't a fluke, but I wouldn't cringe, if the Yanks bring him in to face Betts in the playoffs. I'm looking through the eyes of a Sox fan, and I think this deal would not have been good for us, IMO. It might end up helping the Yanks a lot, or it could barely make a difference this year but hurt your future.

Good to see you here, Carpin. I hope you stick around. I shouldn't have called it an overpay, but I'm glad we didn't try to match or better the offer.

Yes, I understand. I could come up with a lot of stuff on why Robertson was the wrong idea, too, but he has at least shown strength in the second half of recent seasons. His K rate, BB rate and WHIP are all better than his career norms this year. Maybe it wasn't as big an "overpay" as I implied, but Robertson & Frazier would have put us over the luxury tax. Maybe they'd have taken Pablo (and cash) like they took on Clippard. I still wanted no part of Frazier. I'd wish you luck, but you know why I can't.

I left him out on purpose. I don't want to read about anyone wanting us to trade for him.

Glad you spelled his name right.

I wouldn't cut Moreland, but I do think at worst, he needs to go on the DL, and at best, he needs to be demoted to 7th in the line-up. NOW!

Pitching often trumps hitting, especially come playoff times. I've witnessed too many great hitting Sox teams fall short once we face 3 man playoff rotations. When Vegas sets the odds for each playoff game, they know what to do: they look first at who the starting pitchers are not the 9 batter line-ups. I would like to see us improve our offense, but I wouldn't overpay for the likes of Frazier.

I'm not against making an offensive upgrade, but not like such a an overpay for a guy like Frazier who always has a worse second half of the season.

Todd Frazier has been worse in the second half every single season in his career. That seems like it can not be a fluke. He's off to a bad start, career wise, so one should expect he might have his worst second half of his career this year. I'm glad the Yanks overpaid for him, not us. Frazier's 1st half/2nd half splits: Career: .825/.718 '17 .779/.321 (13 PAs) '16 .782/.749 '15 .922/.664 '14 .873/.717 '13 .730/.708 '12 .901/.775 '11 n/a/ .733 I'm glad he's on the Yanks and not here, especially at that high price.

Well, we're also 11-13 when scoring 3-4 runs. (13-37 when scoring 4 or less and 22-41 when scoring 5 or less. What's killed us is we've scored 0-2 runs 26 times this year. Not surprisingly, we are 2-24 in those games.) That's on pace for something like 4-47. Last year we were 5-33 in games scoring 0-2 runs. We were 4-13 in games scoring 3 runs last year and 6-8 in 4-run games. This year we are 3-8 in 3-run games which is a better record than last year, and we have a winning record in 4 run games (8-5), which is way better than last year. A sign that our pitching is helping us win these "tweener" games.

Clearly, the 2-3-4-5-6 slots all get more RBI opportunities than lead-off. I'm okay with Betts up first. He gets more PAs. I'm not okay with keeping Moreland 4th.

Playing HRam FT at 1B risks losing one of our power bats due to injury. I think we need to look at 1B, unless Sox management has no plans to give Devers a shot this year, then I'd try 3B first.

I get down sometimes, too, Max. I just always tell myself, it's a long season. Our pitching and defense has been very good to great. That always gives us strong chance to win on a game by game or short series basis. No doubt, our bats have been disappointing. I knew losing Papi would hurt, but I still thought we'd be a top 3 to 5 offense, in terms of runs scored. I'm not a big proponent of line-up protection, so I do not think losing Papi is a major reason just about every batter is below expectations. I still have hope for our offense, but I'm not as optimistic as I was before the season started. I feel some minor adjustments might help, but I'm not against the idea of trying to upgrade our offense (without a major impact to our future). Here are a few possible ideas: A) Put Moreland on the DL. Maybe a long rest will help, even if the toe does not heal totally. Call up Devers or Travis. (I trust Sox management to know when Devers is ML ready.) Tweak the batting order. I'd like to see Betts up 3rd or 4th, but I'm okay with the philosophy of giving him more PAs from the lead-off slot. I think he will heat up soon. So, here's my line-ups with Moreland on the DL: vs RHPs 1. Betts 2. Pedey 3. Beni 4. HRam 5. JBJ 6. Bogey (until he breaks his slump) 7. Travis 8. Holt 9. Leon vs LHP 1. Betts 2. Bogey 3. Pedey 4. HRam 5. Young 6. JBJ 7. Beni 8. Vaz 9. Holt/Marrero C) Look to trade for a rental 3B or 1Bman at a low cost. I don't like the idea of trading for a DH and planning on HRam to play 1B FT. HRam has been playing hurt, and we need his bat. D) Keep the pressure off our offense by fortifying our pen at the deadline.

Boston media... Please, stop encouraging him!!!

If we decide 1B is the best position to add a big bat at the deadline, here's a list of top wRC+ 1Bmen on teams that are out of it or near out of it: 1. Votto 159 5. Smoak 145 7. Alonso 145 9. J Bour 134 11. Mancini 131 12. Hosmer 127 13. J Abreu 124 15. B Belt 118 18. Miggy 111 21. Wil Myers 109 22. Josh Bell 107 (24. Moreland 98) 3B 8. Gyorko 122 11. Gallo 110 12. Suarez 109 13. Harrison 108 14. Castellanos 108 15. Y Escobar 108 16. R Healy 106

Reminds me of 2012 and 2014. I'd say only Pedey, JBJ and Beni are close to being at expected levels of production among are hitters.

Well said. I hope for more, too. I guess I just get to wondering why some posters pick some of our so-so or strength areas as being in need of an upgrade. I've always been one to look at the weakest 2-3 links (weakest not necessarily weak) to try and upgrade for a push to a ring. We have a weird situation. Our weakest links all have some context involved: 3B: Clearly our weakness, but also an area with a lot of hope for the near and extended future with Devers. Trading for a rental makes sense, but overpaying for 2 months of a player makes little sense. 1B: Moreland is a big reason we are in 1st place right now. He carried the team in many a game. He's hurt now and still batting 4th vs RHPs despite a 5+ week slump. We have HRam and Travis who can play 1B, but HRam has been playing hurt and Travis might not be what we hoped he'd be. C: I think Vaz and Leon are very good defenders, and catching is a key defensive position. Together they have hit well until recently, but a mid to high .600s is good enough for me with their defense. I'm not a Lucroy fan, and any big bat catcher will be very very costly. So, if we truly need a big bat, and I'm still not sure we do, then 1B seems to be the best position, and sometimes the cheapest as well at the deadline.

One game sample sizes don't do it for me. I'm actually okay with Betts up 1 or 2, if we have the right guys up 3-4-5. (We need to move Moreland down or put him on the DL.)

I have suggested HRam, JBJ or Beni. I'd choose Betts, but he seems to be JF's lead-off darling, although I'm not sure why. Maybe HRam could bat 4th vs LHPs and 5th vs LHPs and JBJ or Beni could hit 4th vs RHPs. Here are the last 28 game numbers: HRam .889 (5 HRs in last 78 ABs) Perfect clean-up numbers! Beni .884 (3 HRs in 75) Pedey .868 Betts .846 (5 HRs in 97) JBJ .774 (3 HRs in 90) Team: .729 (Last 14 days: only Pedey is above HRam's .671 OPS.)