moonslav59

You think this looks close to "great"? Wow! I said our managers have not been "all that great".

I think Moncada comes up to PR and PH, and maybe gets a little time at DH or 2B, but I doubt he plays 3B until next year. Yes, the sample sizes vs LHPs are tiny.

I know this is the Beni thread, but some of the same factors are involved in the Moncada decision. This from soxprospects.com --The most prominent news of the week on the farm came in Portland, when Yoan Moncada (pictured, right) made his debut at third base. Many have speculated that Moncada could follow Andrew Benintendi to the majors before 2016 ends, and third base is where it would happen. --For what it's worth, Travis Shaw has struggled lately at the plate, and Aaron Hill has just a .589 OPS with Boston so far. --Another possibility is that Moncada could go to the Arizona Fall League to get more experience playing third, according to Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. From my own research: Moncada's OPS vs... Yr/level RHP/LHP 16 AA .992/.660 16 A+ .971/.797 15 A .753/.951 Is there reason for concern here? Is the concern big enough to prevent his promotion?

I do not think we could trade HanRam for a 2 bats and 5 baseballs, unless we pay part of his salary. How much of his $22M x 2 years left is the question. That doesn't mean he has no value to us or an opponent through trade. I see his value vs RHPs on a serious decline, and since there are much more righty SP'ers than lefties, I don't see his overall value as being that high. His fielding at 1B is subpar. Shaw is one of baseballs best fielding 1Bman from 2015-2016, and hits RHPs better than HanRam. So now I see HanRam as a DH, and a DH who is weak vs RHPs is not a plus value to me. I guess he could play 1B vs LHPs, if Shaw keeps struggling vs LHPs. HanRam would pout, if we platooned him by sitting him half or more of the time, so before we'd even mention a platoon, we might try to trade him by paying close to half his salary.. If we don't sign anybody and Moncada does not start on the 25 man roster, then HanRam may be a better option vs RHPs than anybody else (Holt, Pablo, Hernandez, Young). We won't cut HanRam like we might cut Pablo. I'm not writing HanRam off next year, even vs RHPs. The real squeeze happens if any of these three things happen: 1) We sign a DH or corner IF'er who is better than HanRam overall or significantly better vs RHPs. 2) Moncada makes the 25 man roster and starts at 3B (or even if just at 3B vs RHPs). 3) Pablo gets in shape and makes the 25 man roster. (He has been better than HanRam vs RHPs recently, even as a jiggling blob!) Again, these are the givens: Bogey at SS. Betts in RF. JBJ is CF. Pedey at 2B (maybe Moncada can give him some rest at 2B here and there-- Pedey DH some?) Leon/Vaz/Swihart at catcher Young plays vs LHPs at DH or maybe LF some asall OF'ers are rested Shaw plays vs RHPs HanRam plays vs LHPs Highly probable: Beni in LF full time Probable: Moncada makes the 25 man roster at some point before May 31st (3B?) Holt stays the super sub Possible: Sandoval makes the 25 man roster early in 2017. Swihart makes the 25 man roster as catcher2, LF'er 3 or corner IF'er/DH? Unknown: Hernandez, Rutledge, Travis With Papi gone, I see 3B, 1B and DH as the positions in question with a lot of options. I start with Young at DH vs LHPs and HanRam at 1B vs LHPs. Now, it gets tricky: If I had to guess right now, based on what we know, I think we see this: .....v RHP/ v LHP DH Ram**/ Young 1B Shaw/Ram 3B Monc/ Shaw-Monc **DH vs RHPs could be Pablo, if HanRam continues to struggle vs RHPs and Pablo looks sharp in spring. Note: Moncada has a 200-300 point split disparity in the minors this year. He's much better vs RHPs, so maybe Shaw plays 3B vs some or most leftie.) There's a lot that can happen between then and now.

Expanding the sample size splits to 2014-2016: vs RHPs: .980 Ortiz .858 Betts .778 Pedey .776 Shaw .759 Leon .783 Sandoval (multiple teams) .747 Ramirez (Multiple teams) .734 Bradley .734 Young .727 Swihart .724 Bogey .715 Ramirez .705 Holt .650 Rutledge .633 Castillo .590 Vazquez .566 Hannigan vs LHPs 1.042 Young .882 Ramirez .847 Betts .831 Bogey .806 Leon .804 Ortiz .793 Shaw .783 Castillo .758 Pedroia .738 Holt .736 JBJ .673 Swihart .647 Hanigan .643 Vazquez .521 Sandoval (worst in MLB) The longer sample size may not correctly reflect the abilities of younger players as they have grown and adjusted. Sometimes they are more accurate for mid to older ranged players than the shorter recent sample sizes. No matter what size recent sample size you use, Young looks awesome vs LHPs and HanRam looks pretty bad vs RHPs.

Yanks are playing very well. Thanks for beating Toronto, but don't get too out of hand!

Can we talk about something else? I'm just glad it wasn't Papi going on the DL with a bum shoulder. This horse has been beaten to death several times over. Here's some subjects: twalk among you selves.... Good to see PomPom almost go a full 8. Looks like JBJ benefited from the day off a couple days back. Today was HanRam's turn for a day off. Tito really blew that game, huh? .

So, if he'd barely scored on a base hit, you'd be hear complaining about it still?

I prefer Mookie leading off as well due to the fact that we have plenty of decent 2-5 hitters on the team. If we were truly lacking good 3/4 slot hitters, then I can see the merit. I'm okay with him 3rd, but I'd like to see him get the extra 20-25 PAs he'd get by leading off. It's also nice, late in close games, to wish for a guy in the bottom of the order to get on, so Betts can poke an HR to tie the game. Our bottom of the order is much better than most teams, so it happens often.

Exactly. We're not going to trade HanRam & Pablo for anything good. You have to give to get. I doubt we trade Shaw, unless it's part of a bigger package that nets us a quality SP'er or a better corner IF'er.

A lot depends on whether we sign a big bat or not. If not, I doubt we trade any corner IF'ers until we see what we have in Moncada, Pablo and maybe the rest of the year might help us determine how much we can count on HanRam vs righties and Shaw vs lefties. Moncada has also seen some massive split disparities on the farm. I'd hate to start him off as a platoon, but we may have to do that.

Gotta think that if we had won on a base hit with Wright barely beating the throw, the narrative would be different now. Actually, there's be no narrative. It would be a tiny footnote in history.

Hanley is in decline. Take away his two big games and he's looking pretty bad when compared to most 1Bmen. He's much, much, much worse vs RHPs. Batting him 4th or 5th vs RHPs is losing baseball. Tell me all you want about bruising player's egos and how players yearn for consistency in their line-up slot, but the fact is HanRam is close to stink, stank, stunk vs righties. At least you have to move him from 4th vs LHPs down to 5th or 6th vs RHPs, but I think he belons 7th, 8th or on the bench, depending on how Moncada looks. Young has to play vs LHPs. He's got the 4th best OPS vs LHPs over the past two years combined. He's not taking Benintendi's place, so he's the DH vs lefties. That leaves 3B and 1B vs LHPs for HanRam, Shaw, Moncada ,ablo & Hernandez. I'll go with HanRam as the best, so he plays 1B, and Shaw should keep/win the 3B job over Sandy, but Moncada is the wildcard at 3B vs LHPs. Versus RHPs, it's more complicated, but at least there's 3 slots for Shaw, HanRam, Moncada, and Pablo. If it's up to me, if Pablo is not in shape, hanRam plays. If Pablo looks good, all bets are off on HR vs RHPs. Moncada nd Shaw are clearly better vs righties.

Hanley is 15th in WAR at 1B this year. His fielding is near the bottom. He may be better utilized as a DH next year as Shaw (the best UZR/150 1Bman in MLB from 2015-2016) moves yto 1B to make room for Moncada (in theory anyway).

We'll know when we see the fotos or by next spring. Hopefully, Sox management will know before that. We're not going to piss $19M x 3 years away without first making sure he's useless. At worst, he'll end up like Craig and Castillo or traded as we pay near full value of the contract (or swap for an equally bad contract). This isn't really a big issue. I'm pretty sure Sox management is not counting on him to play a meaningful role on next year's 25 man roster, but that doesn't mean it's impossible for him to play his way onto the roster, even if as a Platoon vs RHPs at DH or 1B or possibly 3B, if he loses 35+ pounds. I'm not saying he will lose weight. I'm not saying I think he will lose the weight, but there is a chance he does.

I haven't seen many other teams blow out bad pitching by Greinke in a long time.

He should have batted 5th or 6th 20+ times.

Not yet. He just got a day off and cranked an HR the first day back. He deserves a couple more weeks before thinking about that. Leon is looking like he's ready for a move up though.

Again, I'm not projecting greatness or even that he makes the team. I'm just saying he is going to get a look and possibly a chance. Unless we sign a big bat corner IF'er or DH, there is a spot for Pablo, if he wants it and earns it.

Counting today... 4 cities in 5 days. 3 flights in 4 days. Tough way to start an 11 game road trip! I think Farrell was right to give almost everyone a day off before this crucial stretch against fellow contenders.

He might hit .450!

That's because JBj should have been moved from 9 to 5 (or at least 6th) in May.

I was born in '59, lived in Milwaukee until 1970 (just blocks from County Stadium). My favorite player was Tommy Harper, and the Brewers traded him to Boston about the same time my family moved to Portland, ME. I switched to being a Sox fan then.

Steven Wright was just placed on the 15 day DL. HanRam is on the 3 day bereavement list. All in time for our 5 cities in 5 nights and 3 flights in 4 days start to our 11 game road stretch.