moonslav59

Sounds better.

Pablito's OPS vs LHPs: .340 2017( in 21 PAs) --Not a typo! .465 2015 (155 PAs) .563 2014 (205) .686 2013 (167) .745 2012 (137) Steady decline since a barely decent 2012 season. I'm ready to give up on Pablito at any moment even vs RHPs. I gave up on Pablito vs LHPs before we even signed him. FYI Rutledge has a .713 career OPS vs LHPs.

I fixed that for you.

I don't think Pablo will ever hit lefties well enough to start. He sucked 5 years ago vs lefties, so I doubt he'll improve enough to be better than 6 years ago.

I do trust Sox management on Devers, but it sure seems like he's ready for at least AAA.

Yes, bottom of the 8th.

I'd tell Pablito, "You're going to start against all RHPs for the next few weeks. Show us what you got." I'd promote Devers to AAA and Chavis to AA.

I can imagine the chatter had Vaz got hurt playing 3B.

Apparently so.

We need to give all of our starters a significant chance at making the DL.

Maybe as a pinch runner?

I tried that idea a while ago and was schooled on the rules. Pablo would refuse his AAA assignment and once he cleared waivers, anyone could pick him up with th Sox paying his $19M and every penny counting towards the luxury tax budget. Because of his service time in MLB, he had more rights than Castillo did, when we dropped him from the 40 man roster.

Unless Pedey goes on the 10-day DL, which I doubt happens, we'd have to send down a pitcher to make room for Marrero. Now, might be Pablo's chance to shine.

I was at the games in Houston. No way were the HBPs intentional. 1) There was no reason to single out either of these two players for anything they had done earlier. 2) The Sox had not done anything to bring on a "payback". 3) The game was way too close for the Astros to put two guys on with no out. Fake news.

I can't find the Yankee thread. Gleyber Torres, the Yankees' top prospect and the No. 2 prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline, will have season-ending Tommy John surgery after sustaining a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow.

So, is it at least partially "on the manager" that players haven't performed as expected?

Hanley's injury may be the reason he has basically sucked this year.

Moreland will probably want too much money next year for us to be in hot pursuit of his services. Depending on Holt's health, and maybe even if Holt is 100% okay next year, we might prefer to sign a player who can play 3B, 1B and LF. With Young and Moreland becoming free agents and 3 top prospects (Deverss, Travis & Swihart) looking to be ML ready by opening day 2018, I doubt we bring back either of our free agnts-to-be.

"...I also think the CC injury kinda started this fiasco...." Injuries to starting pitchers has led to several teams going through tough stretches. The Astros were on fire, then...kaput! The Sox have had to deal with starter injuries all year long, and we've clawed our way to a tie for the division lead and the second best record in the AL. Based on 14 starters per 5 starters, the Sox have missed these amounts of starts from our original rotation: #1 Sale: 0 #2 Price: -9 #3 Porcello: +1 #4 ERod: -4 (and counting) #5 Wright:- 8 (and counting) Starts made by our #6 and lower starters: #6 Pomeranz: 13 #7 Kendrick: 2 #8 Johnson 4 (Now, he's hurt.) #9 Velazquez 1

EE as our FT 1Bman scares the hell out of me. He's best utilized as a DH and we already have $41M spent on DH-only types: HRam & Pablito. Same with those who said we should have signed Holliday. His only spot on this team would have been DH and 4th OF'er. Plus, he'd have made Young's role on this team a waste of money. If we were going to spend big on a bat last winter, clearly 3B was the slot to fill. Plus, had we signed EE, Beltran or Holliday instead of Moreland, we'd have less cap space to get someone this summer.

Or, play Pablo at 1B.

Timely hits too. I think we left 4 runners on base to Houston's 14! Our M.O. seems to flipping. We finally we outscored in a series and managed to win it anyways. I'm not sue how often that has happened in recent years, but I know we've lost many more series despite outscoring the opponents.

I don't think keeping Pablo around is about "being a nice guy." It's about making a long-lasting financial decision on paying a guy $19M to play elsewhere. If there is a sliver of hope he can regain some sort of value to this team, even if it is as a platoon DH and back-up corner IF'er in 2018, it might be worth keeping him around a while longer to see if some sort of revitalization occurs. I doubt it happens. I'm pretty keeping a roster spot for a platoon DH is not the best way to fill out a 25 man roster. But, $19M is a lot of money. We payed Young $6.5M and Moreland $5.5M to be platoon players. They both ended up taking on a role vs off-handed pitchers. Imagine this, we DFA Pablo, and we go with Devers, Travis and Swihart/Hernandez as replacements for Moreland, Young and Holt. We make HRam the DH, Travis the FT firstbaseman and Devers the FT 3Bman. What if any of these guys struggle or get hurt, we might end up having to sign a guy to play 3B, 1B or DH-- all positions Pablo could conceivably play-- and be paying $19M for Pablo + whatever we have to pay the next Moreland/Young type. Now, we're up to $25M combined cost. I truly think that if Sox management was 100% sure Pablo was toast, he'd be gone, and Marrero would still be on the 25 man roster giving us the added depth we need. They must still have some sliver of hope, or they don't see Marrero as an upgrade over Pablo, even if it does not seem well founded right now.

The contract affect on the luxury tax makes adding him to the 40 man roster prohibitive. I guess we could add him for just part of this year, so his contract would be pro-rated, and then DFA him again at some point, to take the luxury hit away in future years, assuming he does not earn a roster spot while up in Boston.

Henry would love to save a few million, so if we could trade him and save money, assuming the rules allow it, I think he might be traded. Even if the money is taxed, if we work out a deal where we save more money than the increased tax would be, we might do it.