moonslav59

Yes, especially vs LHPs. That's why they got Hill.

One more example of me never admitting a mistake.

Some of these guys have long-standing issues vs a righty or a lefty. They've been "working on it" all through the minors and playing FT through the splits to no avail. It's losing baseball to keep playing certain players vs wrong-handed pitchers. It might look neat to have a set line-up everyday, but we need to put the best players out there every day. While I agree, that it seems wrong to give a player a rest day right in the middle of a hot streak, Shaw started losing playing time when he started struggling vs LHPs. Just because Hill has failed to do what he was supposed to do- hit lefties- doesn't mean it was a bad choice made. Benching the 4th best MLB player vs lefties, just so another player doesn't get a bruised ego or lose focus, is something I can never agree with.

He's actually done okay vs righties this year (.734 OPS). When he starts against a RHP, his OPS in those games has been .830 this year. I'm not saying this small sample size means he should start vs RHPs. I'd only start him vs LHPs. Nobody needs more rest than the occasional LH'd start won't afford them.

ERA is not a good stat to use for RP'ers, especially those that may come in to get one or two outs. It's a lot harder for one of your runs to score when you come in with 2 outs. His WHIP is 1.457. He's walking almost double the amount he did in the last 3 years combined. His attitude is a wild card I do not wish to take a chance on.

$5M divided by 2, so $2.5M per year for 2 years. I think he might make more, but I'd rather have a healthy Rutledge or Hernandez than Hill, and besides, Moncada is learning to play 3B these days. We shouldn't need Hill.

I think the teams interested in Buch this year expected us to pay most of his remaining salary.

I guess Pomeranz has been betterth an I thought: Pitches per IP: ERod 17.0 Buch 16.3 Pom 16.1 Price 15.9 Wright 15.8 Porcello 15.5

Scratch Owens from this list. The walks are killing me!

My position is that Young, when healthy, must play vs all LH'd starters. He's got the 4th best OPS vs LHPs in MLB over a two year sample size. We're paying him $12M to hit vs lefties. How it happens is up to Farrell, but sitting Beni for some of Young's starts is something that should happen for several reasons, one being we can't sit Papi for all of those games, another being we can't sit Betts or JBJ for more than maybe 1-2 games vs lefties and finally, because Beni has never played 140+ games counting playoffs in his life, let alone 110. He's at 115 now (478 PAs).

Spoken by the man who claims to be 100% correct on everything.... even at guessing how many toilet tissues are left on the roll.

Well, he did go 7.2 innings his last time out for his longest stint of the season, so maybe my statement was a bit overboard. He's gone exactly 7.0 innings in 6 other starts this year, so that makes 7 starts out of 24 with 7 or more innings. He seems to use a lot of pitches to get to 5 or 6 innings, so I guess that was my point. I still doubt he gets a complete game this year- rain delay or otherwise. He may not even complete 8 IP. I'm not trying to bash Pom. He's done well for us, and he's a big help to this team. He had near "ace" stats with SD, and his contract is very reasonable.

I really have no idea where this guy ends up. soxprospects.com has him listed as a 3Bman, but the say he his the mid 90's as a pitcher. Hard to tell. My guess is, they start him at 3B, and if he fails, they may take a second look at his pitching.

He wants to play. That's good. Complaining to the papers is rarely good.

Hopefully, with another team. Maybe $ 5M/2?

What do you mean by "optimism" concerning his option? I really don't get what you're trying to say. Are you saying that because some teams will surely offer Buch $6.5M on the FA market this winter (and I agree they will and more), we should consider giving him the $13.5M option over paying him the $500K buyout? Here's what you said... ... what if a team could pick up Buchholz for no more than $6.5M on that FA list? How many teams would be interested you think? That's where I think we may have some room for optimism concerning Buch's option.

Compared to some of my other posts, it is.

I doubt Paps makes a serious impact wherever he goes. To me, the difference makers may very well end up being Barnes, Hembree, Ross and Ziegler.

It's also nice to see Kopech, Johnson and Owens doing well of late.

Nice start by Pomeranz, but it makes me wonder what will come first: hell freezing over or a complete game by Pom.

I was for offering Buch the option, but felt trading him after taking the option was the best idea. Let someone else take the gamble. His $13M option for 1 year was the type of deal several GMs would want. Look at what similar injury-ridden pitchers sign for as FAs. Some get close to $13M for multiple years. After this rotten year, I do not think Buch is worth the $13.5M. I'd pay the $500K buyout and wish him luck elsewhere.

He is not very good vs RHPs anymore. He's not horrible, but he's not good enough to bat in the 3-5 slots. He used to be very good, but has always been much better vs LHPs. Recent splits: vs RHP/LHP 2016: .727/1.094 2015: .720/.710 2014: .801/.869 I wouldn't bench HanRam vs RHPs, but clearly JBJ deserves to bat in front of him vs righties. Speaking of getting hot, JBJ has 4 Hrs in his last 6 games. That's a huge lift too!

I still don't get your point. Either we pay Buch $13.5M next year, of he becomes a FA. At that point, he'll get what the highest bidder offers him or whatever deal he accepts. What is the $6.75M supposed to represent? If you are talking about trading him now, he's probably owed about $3M.

It's less than half of next year's $13.5M option price. It's half of this year's $13M option. I don't get the point being made.

It was a good line-up vs a lefty (although I'd have put Betts 3rd and Papi 4th) , but one of our best hitters (JBJ) wasn't even in the top 5. I feel he needs to be in the top 5 vs RHPs and maybe even vs some LHPs. Some of our top 5 hitter have some big split differentials: vs RHPs/vs LHPs Player OBP.........SLG Pedey .371/.371 .469/.360 Bogey .360/.385 .448/.443 Betts .369/.306 .572/545 Ortiz .421/.375 .686/.455 J B J .370/.336 .579/.375 HRam .328/.434 .399/.660 I bolded the concern areas. I'm sorry, but I can never agree to having hanRam in the top 5 vs RHPs. I don't even think he belongs in the top 6. I think Papi should not bat 3rd vs LHPs, although his .375 OBP makes it possible. I'd bat him 4th or 5th, and when Young returns maybe even 6th looks better on paper, but I would not do that to him. JBJ has start differentials and needs to bat higher vs RHPs. Betts has a very low OBP vs LHPs, but his power is nearly the same, so batting him 5th vs LHPs might work. His disparity was not as great last year .336 to .356 OBP, so maybe it's just a passing phase. I wanted Bogey up 2nd to start the season. I love that move. I still like this better: vs RHPs: 1) Pedey 2) Bogey 3) Ortiz 4) Betts 5) JBJ 6) (Shaw/Leon) 7) HRam I can see hitting HRam 6th and flipping Betts and Papi. vs LHPs: 1) Pedey 2) Bogey 3) HRam (or Young) 4) Betts 5) Ortiz 6) Young 7) JBJ On paper, this looks best vs lefties 1) Pedey 2) Bogey 3) Young 4) HRam 5) Ortiz 6) Betts 7) JBJ