moonslav59

Holt was not at Fenway last night due to flu symptoms. BUT I still would have played Young. Wonder if JF would have had Holt been available. It maybe that we'll get a big boost when Price returns. E Rod, Wright or Pom will go to the bullpen. And think if Carson Smith comes back strong and Thornburg returns to last year's form when he returns. Sandy Leon is a stud defensive catcher. I would hate to trade any of our catchers, including Swihart. Moreland hit .230 last year so expecting him to make more contact is wishful thinking. He hit a ball that would been a game winning home run on any other day so we have to be patient. He does hit HRs at a pretty good rate. Really encouraged by Kelly's 2 innings. We're 2-0 and get a day off. Play, sit, play, sit, waiting for spring weather to return. By the way, we now play next 30 games with 1 day off......good for Sox fans. The extra day off might give Pom a chance to be ready for his "pushed back" start: 4/7 @Det ERod 4/8 @Det Wright 4/9 @Det Porcello (+1 day rest) 4/10 @Det Sale 4/11 BAL Pomeranz

Yes, I knew I was going to eventually mix up their names!

I'm glad we stuck with Leon.

I usually use the rough standard that if you are a top 30 pitcher, you can be considered "an ace", but I can certainly see how a tighter standard can be used. Here's the top 30 SP'ers by WAR since 2014. Note: some pitcher were injured, so their IP were lower. I bolded the pitchers I think have been true "aces" by almost any standard. 1 Clayton Kershaw 2 Corey Kluber 3 Max Scherzer 4 David Price 5 Chris Sale 6 Jake Arrieta 7 Jon Lester 8 Madison Bumgarner 9 Jose Quintana 10 Johnny Cueto 11 Dallas Keuchel 12 Zack Greinke 13 Jacob deGrom 14 Stephen Strasburg 15 Chris Archer 16 Cole Hamels 17 Justin Verlander 18 Carlos Carrasco 19 Gerrit Cole 20 Rick Porcello 21 Felix Hernandez 22 Collin McHugh 23 Gio Gonzalez 24 Masahiro Tanaka 25 Jordan Zimmermann 26 Jeff Samardzija 27 Kyle Hendricks 28 John Lackey 29 Michael Pineda 30 Adam Wainwright

Walk-off wins can really boost morale. I'm glad Leon got that experience (his career first). Once again, I'm so happy we have... Chris Freakin' Sale that I'm almost giddy! Defense is looking solid. Beni seems to have learned LF quickly. JBJ is still a force and Betts is GG material as well. I think it was telling how JF used Young in RF with a righty starting, instead of Selsky or Holt. Great game! Let's go for 3!

Who was the guy who was bashing Sandy and JBJ based on their measly ST'ing numbers?

Oh well.

I predict an HR by Young.

While I think we went a bit to far emptying much of the farm, I'm happy the guys we kept the players who play positions we will probably need to fill first: 3B: (Pablo could move to 1B or DH) Hernandez Devers Dalbec Chatham Chavis 1B: (Moreland on 1 yr deal/HanRam to FT DH) Shaw Ockimey Longhi P: (Abad on 1 year/Pomeranz, Kelly & Kimbrel 2 yrs left) Groome Raudes Lakins Shawaryn Ysla, Mata, Cozart (Johnson & Owens)

Although this may look like I'm looking to next year, some roster moves may be made this year with a rule 5 player in mind to be added to the 40 man roster by November 20th. (List is from soxprospects.com) Victor Acosta, Yoan Aybar, Trey Ball, Gerson Bautista, Jalen Beeks, Danny Bethea, Jordan Betts, Ty Buttrey, Jamie Callahan, Rusney Castillo, Harrison Cooney, Jake Cosart, Enmanuel De Jesus, Rafael Devers, Jhonathan Diaz, Jake Drehoff, Willis Figueroa, Pat Goetze, Daniel Gonzalez, Taylor Grover, Juan Hernandez, Darwinzon Hernandez, Bryan Hudson, Dedgar Jimenez, Raiwinson Lameda, Tzu-Wei Lin, Nick Longhi, Isaias Lucena, Austin Maddox, Danny Mars, Algenis Martinez, Kevin McAvoy, Daniel McGrath, Ritzi Mendoza, Simon Mercedes, Mike Meyers, Mike Miller, Derek Miller, Samuel Miranda, Joseph Monge, Ben Moore, Jhon Nunez, Yankory Pimentel, Jordan Procyshen, Hildemaro Requena, Jeremy Rivera, Jake Romanski, Dioscar Romero, Chandler Shepherd, Josh Smith, Teddy Stankiewicz, Cole Sturgeon, Carlos Tovar, Sam Travis, Jantzen Witte

Maybe the 5 pitchers on the DL had a litle to do with it.

Yes, Taylor is probably the one to go.

True enough. I'm hopeful he hits .295 25 90 with some SBs and plus D.

That's pretty much how i see it. Hernandez and Rutledge would make a nice back-up IF duo. Losing Holt would hurt more in terms of extended OF depth and 1B depth, but with Shaw ML ready, I'm not afraid of a long term injury to Moreland. With Young as our 4th OF'er and Selsky looking pretty good, I think we'd be okay, if an OF'er went down for an extended period. Nobody wants to see a major injury, but if there is, I don't see much (if any) of a downgrade at any of these positions: 1B: Holt to Travis (maybe Swihart or Pablo next year once Devers is ready or Marco wins the 3B job) 2B: Holt to Hernandez SS: Holt to Hernandez 3B: Holt to Rutledge/Hernandez OF: Holt to Young (Selsky or maybe eventually Swihart) If we cannot get good value back for Holt, I'd be happy keeping him and having a deeper bench. Losing Young and Moreland next winter might free up some room for one of these guys (Marco and/or Shaw) to win a FT job.

My guess is Scott gets sent to AAA, and Pom starts,

On the other hand, I expect Sandoval and Benintendi to be pretty good plus-ups. Pedroia might go down a little, but Bogaerts should go up. I will be more than happy if Betts and Bradley are about the same as in 2016 even though both are young and could improve. Leon will still be Leon, but Vazquez should be better than he was last year at the plate. Ramirez 2017 should be on a par with Ramirez 2016. Having Young for a whole season should help too.

Maybe road runs is more accurate as it takes away some of the "home field advantage" from teams who play in a hitter's park. Road Runs Scored in 2016: 424 STL (with no DH!) 419 Cubs (ditto) 401 BOS (1st in AL) 398 SEA 398 WSH 390 HOU 380 LAA 375 LAD 374 MN 370 PIT I could see an argument could be made that the loss of Papi, even with gains from Beni and others, could knock us down to 6th or 7th in road runs this year. (Note: we also had the 3rd best road OPS at .762. We had an .858 home OPS.)

He may rest full timers a little more than other managers, but the main reason Holt and other subs have gotten a lot of playing time over the last 2 years is because we have not had a stand alone LF'er and 3B has been a mess. That may or may not change, but barring any major injuries, I don't see Holt playing the OF much at all this year, and unless Pablo fizzles, there won't be much time for the bench in the IF either this year. PAs at these two positions: LF 2016 222 Holt (+11 in RF) 190 Young (was injured) 102 Beni (was on the farm) 58 Brentz 51 Swihart 9 Others LF 2015 379 HanRam 102 Castillo 86 de Aza 51 JBJ 32 Holt (+87 in CF+RF) 21 Craig 13 others LF 2014 190 Gomes 185 Cespedes 131 Nava 91 Sizemore 32 Holt (+150 in CF+RF) 31 Carp 26 others 3B 2016 392 Shaw 119 Hill 39 Rutledge 38 Holt 27 Hernandez 18 Moncada 12 others (Pablo injured) 3B 2015 501 Pablo 105 Holt 42 Marrero 23 Shaw 13 others 3B 2014 (Pre-Pablo) 230 Middy 180 Bogey 162 Holt 31 cecchini 30 Herrera 21 Roberts 11 others Again, unless there are major injuries or several minor ones, Young will probably get the 4th OF'er PAs. He could DH and Holt might get OF PAs only when players need rest. 3B could turn into a platoon, and Holt does hit lefties slightly better than righties, so he could get significant PAs at 3B this year, but I doubt he gets the 490+ PAs he got in 2014 and 2015, and he probably won't reach the 324 he had last year without something major happening. JBJ played in 156 games last year. Betts played 158. Beni may not reach those numbers this year, but he's going to play 140+. (Pablo probably will too.)

Maybe he should start the first week of every season! 2016: 1.058 OPS after the first 7 games 2015: 1.263 OPS after first 6 games 2014: .968 after first 6 games

Yes, that does skew these numbers higher, but I still think we'll have a top 3-4 offense away.

How many teams can lose to retirement a guy with a team leading OPS of 1.021 (38 HRs and 127 RBI) and still have a line-up with these numbers? .318 31 113 (.897 OPS) .286 30 111 (.866) .267 26 87 (.835) .318 15 74 (.825) .294 21 89 (.802) Plus players with 200-350 PAs with these numbers: .276 9 24 (.850) .310 7 35 (.845) .295 2 14 (835) .255 7 34 (.705) Plus adding this to the roster via FA signing: .233 22 60 (.720) Looks like a top 3 to 4 offense to me!

Fair enough. I don't think the utility guy for the Sox will play much this year, unless there's an injury. Unlike last year, LF looks to be all set and 3B looks to be Pablo's job for at least a long look-see.

I thought Marco was ready last year, and I think his good spring has gotten others to see him as a near equal (or better) to Holt at 3B, SS and 2B. Holt's ability to play OF and 1B is something Marco cannot do, but with Shaw in the wings and back-up OF'ers costing a dime-a-dozen, I think we'd be fine, if not better, with Marco and Rutledge instead of Holt and Selsky. Of course, if 2 IF'er or 2 OF'ers get hurt then we will be sorry we traded Holt, but those are chances we might want to take for the right return. I see it this way, if many of us and Sox management value Holt so highly, there should be a desperate GM out there who also values him highly and needs a FT or near FT 2Bman, 3Bman, OF'er or a player that can maybe play 2B vs RHPs and 3B or OF vs LHPs and get 500+ PAs.

I think there were interested partners over the off season, but I guess nobody offered something good enough. If I had to bet, I'd say Marco has a better chance of being traded than Holt, but I would not do it. My idea would be to trade Holt with Hembree (who I am very high on) or Abad (who I am pretty "low" on) for a much better RP'er... like a good #2 set-up guy or an excellent #3. Hembree and Abad are out of options, so when Thornburg and Smith return, we'll have an easier choice to make on who to send down. We can actually send down the worst of the bunch rather than only a guy with options remaining.

Yes, you were, but I suggested a trade during the allstar season (until Pedey got hurt).