moonslav59

Silly was calling us wrong,even after the move was made. Silly was just now noticing Moncada is a "freak" and might warrant tweaking protocol.. I've admitted I was wrong more times than anyone else probably many combined both here and on BDC. I don't feel I was beating my chest or patting myself on the back. I even said I was surprised Moncada started at 3B so quickly after starting reps at 3B. I stand corrected on your position on "protocol". I must have confused you with someone else. Sorry.

We traded potential talent for developed talent in a year when we had every chance to make the playoffs and teams do that ALL the frigging time. I get why they did it. Telling me why they did it doesn't help me to like the deal anymore than I did. Espinosa is not THAT special. He may be. He may not. He was "special" enough to be rated higher than any other Sox pitcher his age has been for as long as I can remember. I realize the value was highly speculative. I don't need to be preached on how many fail. I, personally, think he was THAT SPECIAL, but I like the way you have already set up your covering up that it was still a good deal, even if Espi turns into the next Pedro. I'm not projecting Pedro greatness for Espi, but his ceiling was and still is pretty damn high. I know Pom Pom is much more of a known commodity and less speculative, despite the fact that his sample size of goodness was only based on about 16 starts. I'm not projecting failure for Pomeranz. I think he will help our staff for 3 playoff cycles. I'm glad we didn't get a rental 5th starter type. I'm glad is salary is low. That will help us rebuild this winter when we try to make up for the loss of Papi, Uehara and Tazawa. Again, it's not about Pomeranz to me; it's about Espinoza. I'm a patient kind of guy. I would have loved to have waited for 3-9 years to see who he becomes. Note: the Sox talent evaluators and developers have changed over time, so assuming no quality Sox pitching prospect can ever turn into a great pitcher may be based on faulty assumptions.

I'll be happy to admit I was wrong, but if Espi becomes the next Pedro...

One bright spot- Owens pitched his first game with 1 BB this year. Maybe he's turned the corner.

It's still going to hurt, but if you look at how we're doing now as Papi has been in a little funk, hopefully we can recover from the loss.

Tied for the first wild card, but your point is well-taken. I thought this team was a top AL contender on paper last winter- not so much out of how good we looked, but how many holes other AL teams had compared to ours. Just 5-6 days ago, some here were ready to write this team off, saying things like, "This is not a playoff team!" Now, we look like the best team in the AL. (just kidding)

It has been pretty sick out there. Too bad Young got hurt. He was OK. Here are our LF UZR/150 rankings over recent sampler sizes: 2016: 24th (-6.6) 15-16: 22nd (4.5- would have been much worse had HanRam stayed healthy) 14-16: 20th (-2.2) 13-16: 22nd (-4.3)

...insisting on getting Shaw extensive practice at 3B in the Spring rather than coddling Sandoval... It was a good choice, and HanRam made it easier by looking pretty ngood at 1B pretty much right out of the gate.

The Red Sox are hopeful they caught the injury early enough that it won't be an issue going forward. "I think we got this early," said Red Sox manager John Farrell. "He felt a little bit of hamstring tightness come on towards the last hitter of the fourth inning. We checked him in between innings. There was no reduction of strength or range of motion, but it was clear the first two pitches he threw to start the fifth [that] he was not right. "He was definitely favoring it, so we got him out of the game at the time. He feels a little bit looser postgame. We'll have a better read on this tomorrow." It was tough for Rodriguez to come out at a time he felt his stuff might have been the best of his young career. "From last year to this year, that was the first time I felt like that," Rodriguez said. "Every pitch was right where I wanted -- the fastball, changeup, slider, two-seam. Everything was right where I wanted." Rodriguez spent the first two months of the season on the disabled list due to a right knee injury he suffered early in Spring Training. After struggling mightily and then being optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket, Rodriguez has thrived since his recall after the All-Star break, posting a 2.51 ERA. "He's thrown the ball like he has the last few starts," said Farrell. "He's relaxed, he's free. He had such good life to that swing and miss fastball through the zone. He elevated at the appropriate times. He threw enough secondary pitches to keep guys off stride. He had a very good fastball tonight." Rodriguez hopes the hamstring injury doesn't derail his recent momentum. "I felt it on one pitch before the strikeout to [Mark] Trumbo," said Rodriguez. "When I threw the pitch, I felt something get tight in there. When I came out for the fifth, I was feeling like it was getting worse, so I didn't want to do something to something inside of there. I feel like we made the right decision before it got worse." -Ian Browne

On ERod's injury... The Red Sox are hopeful they caught the injury early enough that it won't be an issue going forward. "I think we got this early," said Red Sox manager John Farrell. "He felt a little bit of hamstring tightness come on towards the last hitter of the fourth inning. We checked him in between innings. There was no reduction of strength or range of motion, but it was clear the first two pitches he threw to start the fifth [that] he was not right. "He was definitely favoring it, so we got him out of the game at the time. He feels a little bit looser postgame. We'll have a better read on this tomorrow." It was tough for Rodriguez to come out at a time he felt his stuff might have been the best of his young career. "From last year to this year, that was the first time I felt like that," Rodriguez said. "Every pitch was right where I wanted -- the fastball, changeup, slider, two-seam. Everything was right where I wanted." Rodriguez spent the first two months of the season on the disabled list due to a right knee injury he suffered early in Spring Training. After struggling mightily and then being optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket, Rodriguez has thrived since his recall after the All-Star break, posting a 2.51 ERA. "He's thrown the ball like he has the last few starts," said Farrell. "He's relaxed, he's free. He had such good life to that swing and miss fastball through the zone. He elevated at the appropriate times. He threw enough secondary pitches to keep guys off stride. He had a very good fastball tonight." Rodriguez hopes the hamstring injury doesn't derail his recent momentum. "I felt it on one pitch before the strikeout to [Mark] Trumbo," said Rodriguez. "When I threw the pitch, I felt something get tight in there. When I came out for the fifth, I was feeling like it was getting worse, so I didn't want to do something to something inside of there. I feel like we made the right decision before it got worse." -Ian Browne

There are 177 players in the AL with 140+ PAs. The Sox have 3 of the top 9 OPS leaders: 1) Leon 1.054 2) Papi 1.028 9) Betts .926 (JBJ is 18th at .874.) We have 6 of the top 36 and 7 of the top 48 AL OPS guys. Toronto has 1 in the top 9, 2 in top 18, 3 in 36 and 4 in 48. Baltimore has 0 in top 9, 2 in 18, 5 in 36 and 48. Cleveland has 1 in top 9, 2/18, 3/36 and 5/48

After tonight's game, Betts' OPS went up 12 points. He's getting close to coming within 100 points of Big Papi, despite Papi getting on base 3 of 4 times tonight. Some nice things going on with out offense: Pedey, Bogey, Papi, Betts, Leon and Beni are all batting over .300. If you fill out the rest of the line-up with JBJ, HanRam and Shaw, the lowest OPS would be .762 (T Shaw). 8 of 9 players would have an OBP of .347 or higher (Shaw at .318).

Nice to see Young is finally in rehab. Owens had his first one or less walk performance of the year yesterday.

I heard a 100 Republicans signed a petition to have Trump removed from the ticket and Betts added on.

Unless, it is just a minor discomfort.

Several also thought as you do that he is better suited for batting third as he would have a better chance to drive in runs. JF made the move to cleanup earlier then I had suggested and to date, Mookie is looking great in that slot with more RBIs and HR's coming in bunches. I think tonight was just the second time Betts was in the 4 slot this year. He has the 3 Hr game from the 3 slot. Either way, he's looking great in the middle of the order.

This staff looks to be showing signs of gelling at the right time. Kimbrel rounding into form. ERod looked great today (cross your fingers) Pom Pom looked good his last start. Price should be over his "adjustment" phase. Porcello is a Cy Young candidate. Wright needs to get right. Ziegler is doing fine.

Mookie for President!

...and what if ERod can pitch like the top quality pitcher he could be from here on out as well?!?!

To me, it was more about losing the extremely high ceiling of Espi and not the half season sample size of very good pitching by PomPom before the trade. I pointed out how Pomeranz and his low cost for the 2.4 years of team control could save enough money on our luxury budget to allow us to make strong plays for some great pen help, a big hitter and/or a big (ex[expensive) SP'er (via trade). He's certainly an asset on the current team. I never meant to imply he was another Dempster- type. He's better than that - or at least projects to be so. My position has always been to build up the rotation from the 1-2 slot not the 4-5 slot. Building at the 3 has some merit when you look at the cost for a 1-2 these days. Who knows, Pom Pom may end up pitching like a number 2, and I don't mean the doo doo kind.

Imagine how this board would react to the Sox having these numbers from our 3-4-5-6 starters (based on most games started after Tillman and Gausman): 5-9 6.72 (Jimenez) 4-4 5.17 (Gallardo) 4-6 5.67 (T Wilson 3-4 6.22 (M Wright) (numbers as starters only)

There were some major changes made by Tito though that were questionable: David Ross squeezed out Salty. Jonny Gomes squeezed out Nava, even against RHPs Both appeared to work out well. It kind of reminded me of how they used VTek to catch Lester just about all year long in 2009, then went to VMart in the playoffs. That one appeared to not work so well.

just saw yours!

Steve Adams reports.... The Red Sox certainly appear to have fairly strong interest [in Jonathan Papelbon], as manager John Farrell told reporters today that he has spoken with the former Boston standout. Though it isn’t immediately clear whether the club has an offer on the table, that level of dialogue suggests there could be a match.

Nothing against Edgar. He was a great one. I think he deserves the HOF too. I'm sure you can pull up some big numbers for him. Here are some on Papi: For perspective, Papi has a .930 career OPS (.955 with Boston). 141 OPS+ career 1) .962 playoff OPS in 357 PAs (While not all playoff PAs are big ones, most are.) 2) 1.372 World Series OPS in 59 PAs. 3) . 937 High Leverage in 1955 PAs (.901 low). 4) .869 Late & Close (1424 PAs) 5) .996 at Fenway, 1.025 at NYY, .943 at TOR, .951 at TBR and .865 at BAL. 6) .924 1st half / .936 2nd half Edgar .933 career OPS (147 OPS+)- both top Papi. 1) .873 playoff OPS in 148 PAs. 2) No World Series PAs. 3) .942 High Leverage (.919 low) 4) .920 Late & Close 5) .977 at Kingdome/ .879 at SAFECO 6) .942 1st half /' .923 2nd half These two are amazingly close in numbers.