moonslav59

If we had not signed Moreland, we'd have over $10M to spend in this "candy store" instead of about $4M. Swihart could get some reps at 1B to help keep HRam from vesting. When JD plays DH, we could use Swihart in LF whenever an OF'er needed a rest or got hurt. We could also PH for our catchers with impunity, since Swihart could act as our 3rd catcher. (He might also be the one PH'ing for aour starting catcher that game.) Swihart could easily get 300-400+ PAs, assuming he does well. Now, with Moreland on the bench, Swihart is squeezed out of any meaningful non-injury-related chance to get many PAs. I do think, even with the deck stacked aginst him, if Swihart hits well, we'll find him a way to get meaningful PAs, or we'll trade him.

We could "what if" all day long. Players under perform andover perform all the time, and GMs and coaches get the creditor blame all to often. I will say this, if HRam had hit like 2016 in 2015, if Porcello had pitched like 2016 in 2015 and had Pablo hit 60-70% of his career normin 2015, Ben might still be here. I guess it's Ben's fault these players played much better once DD took over. Of course, Ben has to shoulder much of the balme for the staff building (or lack of). The Masterson signing was a joke. I am pretty sure, Ben was going to address the rotation in 2015. He never got a chance.

2012-2017 Sox catcher numbers ISO .124 Leon (.129 in 2017) .113 Swihart .094 Vazquez (.114 in 2017) SLG .383 Swihart .375 Leon (.354 in 2017) .355 Vazquez (.404 in 2017)

Every single person with knowledge of catcher defense and the Red Sox would say Swihart is worse on defense and game calling than Leon & Vaz. I'm sure of this. Now, you are back to saying Swihart has more "pop" and "slugging", when there is no evidence to support your claim... even ST'ing numbers show Leon is at least equal. Again, I'm all for trying to find ABs for Swihart. That's one reason I hated the Moreland signing (not the major one). I want Swihart to make the 25 man roster, and he'll get a chance to earn more and more playing time by showing he can one, hit better than others and two field any position he is asked to field at a decent level. I do think he should hit better than Leon this year and probably better than Vaz as well, but I think you vastly under estimate the value of catcher defense, and or you vastly over rate Swiharts catcher defense. Yes, he can throw guys out well enough. To me, and many others, that's just a small fraction of the value of catcher defense. Swihart is already old enough to have shown significant growth in this area. Can he get better? Of course, he can. VTek wasn't really a great defensive catcher until his early 30's. We are not going to hand Swihart a big chunk of starting duties in hopes he learns as he goes. We're already doing that at 3B and have serious defensive issues at 2B and SS (and 1B with HRam). Swihart's best chaance at getting ABs is at 1B or through injury. He can PH a lot, and show he can hit, and then he may get more and more ABs. Even then (assuming an .850 OPS), I doubt they make him the 1 or 2 catcher.

Marrero, if he makes the roster. That would mean Holt starts in AAA.

Updated scouting reports on.... Devers http://soxprospects.com/players/devers-rafael.htm Groome http://soxprospects.com/players/groome-jay.htm Chavis http://soxprospects.com/players/chavis-michael.htm Mata http://soxprospects.com/players/mata-bryan.htm Houck http://soxprospects.com/players/houck-tanner.htm

Now, it's not about "pop" or power. It's about hitting with men on and BA. (BTW, Leon hit .865 with RISP last year while Vaz was at a respectable .792. Leon was .759 high leverage.) Catching defense means nothing.

Moon he's not a power bat ok ??? But he's a talented hitter 280s maybe higher right ? I mean the kids a career 270 but that's wrapped up in some extremely handicapped comeback attempts is it not .... It was you that went out of your way to say we need "pop" from our catchers and cited their low HR totals last year. Look, I know Swihart rates to be a better than Vaz and especially Leon, but he's no sure bet, and he really sucked on defense when he had his chance. Our offense is not in such great need that we should sacrifice our pitching and defense to get a marginal upgrade at the catcher position on offense. I'm a big Swihart supporter, but not as our 1 or 2 catcher. He may end up winning the #2 slot, but he'll have to hit .850+ to make up for the loss on defense. We need Blake to figure it out behind the plate Defensivly but he's not a train wreck back there come onnn.He can hit for high average to all fields he can play third ,short ,second 1st left and Right fields .... Trust our scouts and management. We are not going to place our fragile pitching staff in teh hands of a catcher that "needs to learb" how to catch. He's been catching for many years, andhasn't proven squat behind the plate. He'd be great as a 3rd catcher as we can PH for our catchers when needed. He can get some PAs at 1B and LF. He may even play 2B or 3B, but I'm not throwing him at any position FT to start the year. You often speak of Devers and other Sox players very highly, but then you act like we are in desperate need of offense from a position not known for great offense. Vaz and Leon have established a relationship with our pitchers. I don't want to mess it up, and neither should you. The kid was a shortstop ....the kid pitched in the upper 90s ....99 his sophomore year to be exact ...don't tell me he can't catch that's horse crap ...we need that bat behind the plate spelling Vaz ...I'm not ever saying Blake hits 22 HR he's never done it !!! I am saying he hits 290 and rakes with men on ....I am saying he needs to be given the opportunity right now ....it's time .I am extremely frustrated with his development as a catcher ....the kid could be an All star caliber catcher offensively why not go all in what are we really risking here ? We're risking messing up a staff that already has enough injury issues to deal with. Swihart likely sucks with pitchers. Can we find out some as the season goes on? Sure! But "now" is certainly not that time. Sandy is not pudge Moon he's Sandy Leon a very mediocre catcher bottom third ....Blake Swihart could be much much more .let Sandy be Sales caddy If that's what Sale wants ...and Wright ? The rest ahould go to Vaz and Blake ....you can't take away this kids bat speed ...it's there .I know you see it .my diatribe is over taken its course I've said what I see in the player ...ultimately sometimes it's fate ...I hope he takes this season and blows all the doors and roofs off everyone's low expectations ....but he won't shock me . Leon is much better than you give him credit for being.

He's got a long way to go on defense. A long way.

What's not to get? Is defense worth anything? Is the catcher a very important defensive position? Is there more to catching than hitting and throwing out would be base stealers? Could the fact that our pitching staff over performed last year with Price, Wright, Smith and Thornburg out all or most of the year have anything to do with catchers not named Swihart?

If you are basing this on Swihart's 5 HRs in 390 career ML PAs, I'm not getting it. If you're basing it on Spring Training numbers, well... Leon now has a better ST'ing OPS than Swihart.

To me, Leon can hit .650 OPS and be a significant plus. He'd have to be at about .550 for me to even think about playing Swihart as our exclusive #1 or #2 catcher.

I doubt Salty could play LF, 1B or another position like Swi can do, although he did play some 1B a few seasons here and there..

With Blake and his 390 and 5? Huh?

We signed JD for pop. Catcher is a defense first position. Our .693 catcher OPS was .693 last year. That placed 20th in MLB and just .024 from the mean .717. I'll take the great D and slightly below O everyday of the week. If we give Vaz more PAs this year,maybe we'll get our offense to average. Our weakest link is 1B. HRam and Moreland have to do better than 2017. They probably won't. 1B is a position that most other teams get HRs and OPS. 25 HRs and a .749 OPS with a measly 80 RBIs was pathetic.

LOOGY's are over-rated, and besides, many of our RH'd RP'ers do very well vs LH'd batters.

Let's say Pom starts on the DL with Wright and ERod, here's what we might see... 3/29 @TB Sale 3/30 @TB Price 3/31 @TB Porcello 4/1 @TB Johnson 4/2 @MIA Velazquez 4/3 @MIA Sale off 4/5 TB Price +1 off 4/7 TB Porcello +2 4/8 TB Sale off 4/10 NYY Price 4/11 NYY Pomeranz 4/12 NYY Porcello 4/13 Bal Sale 4/14 Bal Johnson or Wright? In our first 13 games, I see Johnson and Velazquez starting one game each. If Wright is not better by the 14th, Johnson (or Velazquez-not both) might get 2 or 3 starts.

Also, I have criticized WAR for giving too much credit for IP, as with Porcello.

I usually use ERA- and WHIP to judge pitchers. I do value WAR, but not as much as harmony and others. Here's the WAR numbers from 2014-2017: 12.0 Lester 12.0 Price 8.8 Porcello 7.2 Lackey ERA- 77 Sale 77 Price 80 Lester 81 Pom 84 Lackey 96 Porcello WHIP 1.03 Sale 1.15 Lester 1.16 Price 1.18 Lackey 1.24 Porcello Again, I'm not saying Lester has been bad. Lackey's ERA- and WHIP numbers look good, too. I wish Ben had kept Lester. I understand why we traded Lackey. It would have been nice to trade Lester and end up with Porcello, but to have also re-signed Lester and Miller, instead of HRam & Pablo.Better yet, we could have signed Scherzer & Miller.

Also, I think people are glamorizing what Lackey did after leaving Boston. While he was clealy better than Masterson, Webster and others, here's his post Sox numbers: With STL and his remaining contract signed with Boston: 16-13 3.10 (The Cards went 23-20 in his starts over 1.3 years with STL. With the Cubs (post contract): 23-20 3.94 (The Cubs went 36 -23 in his starts- very nice) In his 7 playoff starts with both clubes, he averaged just under 5 IP. He was 2-1 with 20 ER in 41 IP (4.39 ERA) in the playoffs with both teams combined. Those are good numbers but not great. Lester had a great 2016 (19-5 2.44), but he wasn't really all that great the other two years. 2015: 11-12 3.34 (17-15 in his GS'd) 2017: 13-8 4.33 (19-13) Total: team went 36-28 in his starts in these two years. His record was 24-20. I'm not trying to say I didn't want Lester back. I did. Porcello has done pretty well- not as good as Lester, but he's been cheaper and has a great year under his bealt as well. Kelly has been a let down, and Craig imploded.

I'm saying the trading away of the rotation was not bad. It was the failure to resign them or replace them in kind that was awaful. Yes, that's on Ben. HRam, Pablo and Masterson were horrific signings. The Lester low-ball was, too. I had hoped the trades we made were for younger, more cost-controlled players, but they were not the bad part of Ben's moves. My point about what those players not re-signed did after their contracts ran out was meant for judging the trades only.

I totally agree on the catcher point. Swihart hit pretty well, when he started for us. He wasn't replaced for no reason. He will probably never be a plus defensive catcher. I'd like to see Swi make the team as a 4/5th OF'er, 2/3rd 1Bman and 3rd catcher. Our pitching staff outpitched projections last year, especially the pen. That was not a fluke. Our catchers do a great job calling games, framing pitches and other intangible things. I'm not for messing with a good thing. I'd like to see Vaz play more than last year, but I still see Leon as the number 2.

Lackey may or may not have played here for the min. I thought he would have, but the risk was there. I wasn't crazy about the trade, even though I had hopes for Kelly as a starter, but it was clear we had to clean house at that point in the season. We could have re-signed Lester, or Lackey, or Miller, and so what those guys did after their new contracts should not be held against Ben. Ideally, he'd have re-signed Lester and Miller and never talked to Pablo or HRam, but it wasn't really the trades that were awful.

Devers just seems to hit, and hit and hit, no matter where he is playing. I hope his defense improves quickly, but his bat will more than make-up for any defensive short-comings. Some speak of Price, Porcello, Bogey, JBJ or Pedey as being "the key" to a great season, but Devers just might carry this team on his young shoulders for long stretches this year. He's a pure hitter, and his approach differs from other Sox players, which is something we need to keep opposing pitchers off guard.

I think our catchers do a lot of things not measured by stats or new metrics. I do not view our catching tandem as a weakness, despite the lower than average offense. To me, our biggest weakness is 1B, and that's why I hated the Moreland signing.Fangraphs positional projected rankings: The Sox... 1st RF 5.7 1st DH 2.8 4th 2B 2.9 5th CF 3.6 5th LF 3.2 8th SS 3.5 14th 3B 2.8 20th C 2.0 22nd 1B 1.3 8th SP 15.9 11th RP 3.9 2nd Batting 27.9 8th Pitching 19.8 6th overall 47.7 1. Astros 55.2 2. LAD 50.6 3. NYY 50.0 4. Cubs 49.8 5. CLE 48.7 Our next weakest link might be 6th and 7th starter, but I don't see other teams with much better than we have. IF defense is another weak area. I think our pen will be fine with Smith joining in and maybe Thornburg, too.