moonslav59

Lin for Beltre- straight up! LOL

Velazquez was already ahead of Owens.

Beni passes HRam, Moreland and Bogey in OPS with tonight's huge game.

Maybe we'll find out the Brewers knew Thornburg was damaged goods, and we can get Shaw, Pennington & Dubon back.

Price hits his stride.

Beni comes of age!

Budda Bing- Budda Bang!

But, wat abowt street smartes? Their's no boke four dat!

If the Red Sox need to open a spot on the 40 man roster, Owens could be the guy that is removed. What a sad story for Owens. We may want to add Brentz back to the 40 man roster, if an OF'er or DH goes on the DL. If we make a trade that does not involve a 40 man roster player, here is who might be on the trade or DFA bubble: Henry Owens Hector Velazquez Doug Fister Blaine Boyer Pablo Sandoval Steve Selsky (Brentz may be ahead of him now) Luis Ysla Kyle Martin Fernando Abad Roenis Elias Josh Rutledge or Robbie Ross: move to 60-day DL (retroactive)? Depending on who we want to add and what position they play, there are quite a few options to choose from the above list.

I just hate trying to improve a team by upgrading from a crappy 5 starter to an okay one. 1) An okay starter is usually unpredictable, injury prone or both. 2) The differential is minor. 3) I prefer to pay more or trade more prospects for a 1 or 2 starter. For example, getting Chris Freakin' Sale, in effect, caused this to happen.... Price became our #2 not our #1. Porcello became our #3 not our #2. ERod became our #4. Pom or Wright became our #5. The other became depth, which we really needed this year. I know we only gained one pitcher, but I think the ripple effect is real.

Thanks. I'll get the book soon. I need some good summer reading while lakeside in Maine.

Agreed. We'd get more RBIs from the 3 or 4 slot and maybe a little less from the 1 slot, but overall, we should get more in the long run (assuming the one slot keeps a constant OBP as Betts gave us.

I chose Shaw as my sleeper prospect of the year way way back. I'm not patting myself on the back, because I gave up on him afterwards. (And, I liked the Thornburg trade.)

You said it much shorter than I could. I agree 100%. I guess there can be debate over when a GM needs to make a deal or not, as well as what other options were available instead of the deal being made. Most of us are not privy to much of this sort of information.

That's why I hated the Masterson signing and disliked the Dempster one. Penny/Smoltz... I actually liked our trade for Miley at the time. We didn't give up much, and he had good road splits before coming here.

The second half Shaw was not much better than Pablo-Hernandez-Rutledge-Holt-Marrero-Lin in 2017. Shaw hit .194/.259/.360 the second half last year. His WAR was -0.1. This year's 3B mess totals .226/.278/.327, but the combined WAR is worse, thanks to pitiful defense at -0.8,

I doubt it's that high a differential. If our 1 and 2 hitters get on base at a .360 mark compared to our 8 and 9 hitters at a .260 mark, it might not come close to 25 over the rest of the season with more chances with men on base.

i had Marco ahead of Holt on the 3B depth chart on opening day.

Holt's unspectacular 3B play in 2014 was part of the reason we signed Pablo in the first place. Holt should not have been counted on as a reliable long term solution at 3B, if Pablo failed. It's one thing to blame Ben for signing Pablo, but DD saw what we all saw and put too much faith in Pablo. I can't complain though. I thought our pen was our weakest link, and I liked the Thornburg trade. I assumed he was healthy.

It does seem like prospects are traded more often, but it seems like prospect deals from long ago involved more prospects for one player. In that sense, it takes less prospects to get a valuable piece, so wouldn't that mean today's prospects have higher value than before? (assuming my hypothesis is true)

It doesn't bother me that much, especially as we keep on winning, but I agree. Betts up first makes little sense to me in light of the fact that we have so little power in the middle of our order.

I don't doubt the Sox reasoning with the decision not to call up Devers "before he is ready". I'm not sure I'd say it would be "disastrous" to do so. I might not even say it "probably" would be disastrous, but I have no issues with Sox management in this area. They have a pretty good track record at knowing when the right time is. Weighing an extreme team need vs the possible pitfalls of calling a player up "before it is time" is one tough decision to make. Not all pre-MLB games and PAs are equal, and it's not as easy as just looking at professional/college experience and age to determine ML readiness, but here are some numbers: Beni: 126 gms & 551 ABs in college/151 games & 657 PAs in the minors. TOTAL: 277 games and about 1280 PAs before call-up at age 22. Moncada:101 gsm & 367 PAs in Cuba/256 gms & 1172 PAs in the minors. TOTAL: 357 gms and about 1540 PAs before call up at age 21. Due to Moncada's MLB struggles, many feel he was "rushed" more than Beni, perhaps because of Beni's relative ML success. Many felt both were "rushed" out of "desperation". Betts: (no college)/299 gms & 1315 PAs in the minors before call up at age 21. Most felt he was not rushed, but he did not have much time to learn the OF before being placed there FT. Bogey:(no college)/378 gms & 1623 PAs in the minors before call up at age 20. Most felt he was rushed, and he only played 3B for 10 gms before being called up to play 3B in the heat of a championship run. Devers: (no college)/385 gms & 1506 PAs in the minors + 38 gms & 125 PAs with Escogido. TOTAL: 413 gms and 1623 PAs. He is 20 now. As you can see, only Bogey had more games and PAs than Devers before being called up. Like I said, all games and PAs are not equal. Not all players are "mature" at the same ages either, but Devers has had a lot of time playing professional ball. He started at age 17 not 18 like others. He got way more PAs at age 17 and 18 than Beni did in college at ages 18 to 19. He's had 2 straight seasons with 500+ PAs and has over 300 so far this year. Again, I'm not saying I know better. I trust Sox management on knowing the right time to call Devers up. Lin and Marrero are "buying more time" for Devers, and that's great, but at some point, team need or desperation may trump readiness assessments or Devers will be deemed ML ready on his own. His time and experience in the minors seems equal or more than most of the recent Sox players promoted to the bigs. although much of it was at low levels in the system, but over 400 games and 1600 PAs is quite a lot.

Sox OPS over the last 14 days: 1.108 Betts 1.087 HRam .911 Pedey .876 Beni .862 JBJ .857 Leon .824 Lin .728 Marrero .728 Moreland .725 Bogey .652 Young .563 Vaz .410 Travis Last 7 Days: 1.566 Betts 1.183 HRam 1.065 Marrero 1.052 Pedey .969 JBJ .902 Beni .898 Lin .657 Young .481 Travis .462 leon .414 Bogey .296 Moreland .205 vaz (Weird to have nobody between .657 and .898, but with 7 guys over .897, who cares?)

Winning hasn't changed my opinion.

True, but Bogey gets those extra 35 PAs and gets on base about the same amount as Betts, so there's no drop off in OBP with those extra PAs by Bogey. Yes, Betts gets 35 less chances to HR or double, but when he does HR or double, there's a significant chance more men are on base. Bogey doesn't HR much at all.