moonslav59

I got the sense from watching HRam's body language and facial expressions, he was sending a message like, "You are a God, Chapman. There's no possible way anybody in the world can hit you!" I actually thought about how his behavior might make poor Devers feel coming up to face the HRam- anointed God. Nope, the kid in his "happy bubble" swung wildly once, then he calmly cranked a long HR off a 103 mph fastball. This kid is really making a big difference. He single-handedly (Okay, he had help from Sale) turned the joyful Yankee dugout into a funeral procession, and all he did was tie the game!

Probably every team could show a similar dispariity, but what are the numbers of these two groups of Sox players? Sale, Pom, Kimbrel & Kelly vs The rest

Sale, Pom and a hodge-podge pen that somehow has done a great job.

I'm usually against large and long contracts. The vast majority are failures or near failures, but extending Betts 7 years beyond the 3 he already has, at his age, is a good gamble. Almost all his years would fall within prime or very near prime. That's what's different about extending vs signing a 30 year old FA to 6-7 years.

Are you saying sloths can't get injured? LOL

I'm not convinced HRam has sucked due to his attitude, but the fact is, he sucks right now.

That could very well be the truth. What a tremendous hit for the kid right after HRam looked totally embarrassed by Chapman. Did you see the look on HRam's face after he K'd? I thought it was verging on aiding and abetting the enemy. It sure didn't affect Devers!

None taken. I'm thinking "fire and desire" trumps "ho-humness".

Fine, but it depends on the match-ups and the next game situation. Is anybody really feeling confident about Barnes right now? He looked like a deer in headlights last night.

Agreed, and it's not like Price was lighting up the world before going on the DL.

"Defense" in terms of throwing out would be base stealers and blocking balls in the dirt, but I never had much confidence in the other areas not easily measured by stats: Handling a staff Pitch Framing Pitch Calling

Now, that's a fair argument, but I still disagree. Devers seems unaffected by pressure. It's like he's in a happy bubble.

I'll be more worried than if Kimbrel was coming in, but I also have little faith in Barnes, Hembree and the returning Kelly (for now as well.

Of course. My point was that even those of us who have gone out of our way to be supportive of HRam are losing faith or have lost it already. Only JF and DD's opinions really matter though.

I think he has already earned free agency due to his years in the system- no matter what we do this year short of re-signing him.

Pedroia: technically, you are correct. We signed Pedey to a 6 year $40.5M contract in December of 2008 at age 25, but this was already after he won ROY in 2007 and MVP in 2008. I'm not sure I'd compare that to the Rays' signings. Longoria signed a 6 year deal in April of his first season in MLB. They signed Chris Archer in early April of 2014 after he'd only pitched 160 innings in the bigs. Matt Moore signed for 5 years/$14M in DEC '11 after just 9 IP that year and in his ML career. Kiermaier is more like the Pedey deal. He signed it after he'd already won 2 GGs and 1300+ PAs in the bigs. Lester signed a $30M/5 deal in March of 2009- also at age 25. He'd just gone 16-6 3.21 in 2008 with 210 IP. I'm not sure this is comparable to the rays' signings also.

Talk about injuries to pitchers. The Astros have been clobbered.

Even if we add him to the 40 man roster and call him up, I believe he'll still be a FA after this year- not even rule 5. His situation does kind of beg the question: why not give him one last chance? A September call-up might be too little-too late. (We can extend him before he becomes a FA, but why would he do it on a team with 2 lock-ed up OF'ers?)

Matt Moore. How many have the Sox done? True "pre-prime"?

Yes, It's one of the rare things I go against the studies. I know a hot hand can stop at any moment, but some players have long histories of extended hot streaks and slumps (like JBJ), but JF waits too long to move JBJ up when he's hot. By the time he moves him up, it's too late. (One coudl argue moving him up caused his, but I disagree.)

Talk about tiny sample sizes. The guy was a closer. He knows pressure. He comes to a new team, a new role and he fails out of the gate. He deserves a chance in high leverage again soon.

I've been critical of Holt over the years, but he is one of our best heads-up base-runners.

Good response. I realize I have been tougher on Ellsbury than most Sox fans. It wasn't always the case. Early on, I was one of his strongest supporters on "that other site". I just saw two good to great seasons out of 6 as being what not to expect. Add to that, two seasons with significant injuries plus missing games here and there for little things ate away at my confidence in him going forward. That 2013 was his second best of his career (age 29-30). I just didn't buy it. His 2009 season (.770 OPS and 70 SBs) was also good, so I guess you could say 3 out of 6 were good and 2 others were negatively impacted by injuries if you were trying to be optimistic, but I was not surprised by JE's quick decline with NY. If you look at his worst OPS year since 2008, you'll see many were not with NY: .485 BOS 2010 (injury/84 PAs) .663 NYY 2015 (501 PAs) .678 NYY 2017 (Not finished) .682 BOS 2012 (injury/323 PAs) .703 NYY 2016 (626 PAs) .729 BOS 2008 (609 PAs) That's 6 of 10 seasons below .730. He has had 7 of 10 below .748. His bad years in NY have barely eclipsed his bad years in Boston. Could it be, he just never was as good as 2011 promised us he could be? One more note: he had a pretty good OBP with the Sox, but his leadoff OBP was not as good as his overall BOS OBP. It's .336 career BOS & NYY. .340 overall.

Plus, how can anybody be tired after all the days off we've had recently? THU July 27th WED Aug 2nd MON Aug 7th THU Aug 10th (4 days off in 15 days) It was clearly JF's love affair with Holt and his sub .600 OPS & lack of ability to play any position very well defensively. How about starting to show some loyalty to the guys who are actually saving your freakin' job!!!!!!