moonslav59

true, and I'm not young sprout! I watched my first MLB game at Wrigley Field in 1967. I became a Sox fan in 1970. Since 1982, I have tried to watch every pitch of every Sox game live or on TV.

After this 11 day road trip, we'll be close to parity... 16 Home 19 Away

Counting today... 4 cities in 5 days. 3 flights in 4 days. Tough way to start an 11 day road trip!

Maybe vs LHPs, but I can't see hanRam batting above 7th, if at all, vs RHPs. He's really been struggling there for aa long time. Vs RHPs vs LHPs .......Beni...... ......Bogey.... ......Betts.... JBJ...... HanRam Mon......Young ......Pedey.... Shaw....JBJ Pablo/H.R.....Mon ...... Leon........

Shaw lead MLB in 1B UZR/150 from 2015-2016 (650+ innings). He's also a much better hitter vs RHPs than hanRam. I can't see HanRam playing 1B over Shaw vs RHPs, if Moncada wins the 3B job. Maybe playing hanram at 1B vs LHPs will "keep his head in the game" enough to allow him to be a net plus. I can't see Young sitting vs LHPs, so DH vs LHPs seems to be his spot to lose. Young has the 4th best MLB OPS vs LHPs over the past 2 years combined! Sitting him would be a crime. That means maybe HanRam can DH vs RHPs and play 1B vs LHPs, but with hanRams decline vs RHPs, maybe Pablo is a better choice vs righties.

All Hernandez has to do is prove he can hit better than Holt, which isn't that hard to do. He's better defensively at SS and 3B. 2b might be close. Holt should never be needed at 1b again. Holt's value as a 5th OF'er is significant, but it will have to outweigh his defensive minus vs Hernandez at SS If Marco and Brock prove to be equal offensively, it's a close call to me. Swihart's return could allow for him being the 5th OF'er, which would take that plus away from Holt. Pablo certainly would crowd the field, but that doesn't mean he's the one that might be traded, assuming he returns to health and is 15-25 pounds lighted next spring.

Until Bogey started slumping, I thought he'd be better 1st with Pedey 2nd- Betts third, but Pedey is on fire now. Beni could create the next line-up issue. I hope it doesn't take as long as it did to move JBJ out of the 9 slot. Could we eventually see this? 1) Beni 2) Bogey 3) Betts 4) Ortiz 5) JBJ 6) Pedey 7) HanRam 8) Shaw 9) Leon or by next year... 1) Beni 2) Bogey 3) Betts 4) JBJ (start a second line-up with a line-up here) 5) Moncada (3B) 6) Pedey 7) Shaw/Hanram (1B) 8) Pablo/Young/HanRam (DH) 9) Leon

Yes, Bosoxmal was right all along. Nice call!

True, but the micro sample size batting 3rd before today was 3 for 12 (.250/.250/.417/.667)

I never expected this good either, but I was one of the few who liked the extension and defended Porcello all along. His age and experience made signing him for only prime years a good idea.

There's a lot of flex in this alignment as Shaw and Pablo can back up 3B, HanRam or Pablo can back up 1B. Young backs up the OF. Moncada could also back up 2B. That leaves a back-up catcher (Vaz/Swi) and the nead for a back-up SS. I prefer Hernandez at SS and 3B, buy keeping him on the farm and Holt on the 25 man roster gives us added flexibility and depth ad Holt can act as the 5th OF'er.

I don't think anybody wants to, but what if Moncada can't become a competent 3Bman defensively, yet his bat looks to be close to Mookie's bat? Personally, I think Moncada will become decent enough to play 3B at some point next year.

Agreed. Give him every chance to prove his defensive skills at 3B, and if that doesn't work, there's always the OF. We'd have to trade an OF'er or Pedey to create a spot for him FT, but that's is something very encouraging. Teams are drooling over JBJ and Beni right now. Another idea might be to keep everybody and rotate out the DH position among all the other slots, except catcher and maybe SS. The other 6 positions all play DH every 6 days or so. Maybe they would be rested enough to never need a day off all year.

I have great confidence Beni will be our FT LF'er going forward. He'll have some tough times here and there as all players do, but he will stick. I also have great confidence in Moncada becoming a FT'er very quickly. The time table on his defense at 3B and his bat vs LHPs might be lagging from the rest of his total body of work, but I like his chances. The time table is up for debate and speculation, but in my opinion his bat vs RHPs and his base running skills are MLB ready right now. We'll probably see him in September for those two roles. I don't want Moncada to make the 2017 opening day roster as a platoon player, if he continues struggling vs LHPs or as a DH if he is slow to competency on defense at 3B, but depending on how others are doing and off season acquisitions, he may have to begin as one and/or the other. It's not ideal for his development, but keeping top talent on the farm, when they are MLB ready in some areas may not be a luxury we can afford next April. Maybe Moncada plays winter ball as a 3Bman exclusively. That may help, but I also don't want to burn the kid out. In no way have I ever been a Pablo fan, but I'm just saying we shouldn't count him out, even without any injuries or setbacks to Beni or Moncada. It may take more than a strong spring from Pablo to get his trade value to a marketable point.

Maybe we'll add one more to the long list of huge contact disappointments.

Mookie now has his OPS over .900. He was at .565 on April 20th and .706 on May 8th. .781 May 28 .828 July 1st .849 July 20th What's the odds on him catching Papi for the team lead in OPS?

Well, 15 pounds is about the right pace to be at -45 by opening day next year. 15 pounds is significant even by itself. If ends up down 25-35 by opening day, it could make a big difference in his ability to win a spot on the team. I never wanted us to sign Pablo in the first place, but we have him now, and he's owed a boatload of money. I'd rather not piss it all away before knowing for sure if there is any redemption. I'm not buying the argument that with Moncada, we don't need any help at 3B/1B/DH. Sure, Shaw and HanRam have looked okay this year and very good in stretches, but neither is a sure bet to be a plus next year and both show strong numerical signs pointing to platoon status. 2016 splits: Player vs RHP/ vs LHPs Ortiz 1.090/ .813 Shaw .806/ .634 HRam .696/ 1.091 Young .734/ 1.042 2016 vs RHPs/vs LHPs Ortiz 1.044/ .744 Shaw .778/ .793 HRam .708/ .888 Young .635/ .988 (4th best in MLB) Pablo .733/ .465 Swihart .727/ .673 (It's clear we have to find someone to help mitigate the loss of Papi's offense vs RHPs. While Pablo is no where near a replacement for papi, he may be better vs RHPs than some of our other options- namely HanRam and Young. Papi is retiring, yes. Adding Beni and Moncada does cause a squeeze on our bench, but it's also not a certainty that Moncada will start the year on the big club, and there's still a chance Beni could struggle enough to need some time at AAA to re-adjust (doubtful, but possible). Exceptional play by Beni in LF would could essentially cause the need to play Young at DH vs LHPs. This would further squeeze the 3b/1B/DH openings. We can safely count Travis out of the picture untila t least mid season 2017, if then. I doubt Swihart has a chance to squeeze anybody out of a 25 man roster spot until May or june of 2017 at the earliest, so we are left with this: LF: Beni, Young (Swihart/Holt) 3B: Shaw, Moncada, Pablo (Hernandez/Holt) 1B: HanRam, Shaw (Pablo/Holt/Travis/Swihart?) DH: Young/Pablo/Hanram (Moncada/Swihart) We may start with Shaw at 3B, HanRam at 1B and maybe Pablo at DH vs RHPs and Young vs LHPs. If Pablo can field well, like he used to do, we could see Pablo at 3B vs RHPs/Shaw vs LHPs. We could see Shaw at 1B vs RHPs and HanRam vs LHPs and Hanram at DH vs RHPs with Young there vs lefties. Wec ould see hanRam sit vs some or many RHPs, or Shaw sit vs some or many LHPs, which could allow Moncada to squeeze into the picture or Pablo to play vs LHPs (doubtful). Let's say Moncada wins a FT role, maybe we could see this: POS vs RHP/vs LHP 3B: Moncada 1B: Shaw/Ram DH: Pablo/Young Maybe Moncada plays some DH, if he struggles in the field. Moncada also has hit RHPs 200-300 OPS points better than lefties, so maybe he plays vs righties, and Shaw plays 3B vs LHPs, so Hanram can play FT at 1B. There's lots of scenarios, but I wouldn't count Pablo out of a role vs RHPs next year, especially if it takes Moncada a while to master the 3B position.

I'm not trying to defend the MLB schedule, but Monday was supposed to be a day off. The result of having a make-up game at CLE tomorrow results in a freaky 5 day schedule for the Sox: SUN vs AZ in BOS MON @ CLE TUE @ BAL WED @ BAL THU @ DET That's 4 cities in 5 days! 3 flights in 4 days! I think giving all our FT'ers a day off was the right call. Bogey needed more, so I'm okay with that as well.

I totally disagree. There are plenty of examples of knuckleball pitchers being just as, if not more, consistent than average fastball, curveball, slider or mix-it up pitchers. All pitchers have tough stretches and "lose it" from time to time. The unpredictability of a knuckleball is not always a negative aspect. When you have a pitch that even a catcher has difficulty catching, you can imagine how hard it might be to hit it with the sweet spot of a bat a tiny fraction of the size of a glove. Wake and Wright haven't walked more than their fair share of batters, so maybe theirc ontrol is not as bad asy ou think it is.

Good to see you around, notin. Your input is always insightful. While I don't disagree here, I think Vazquez still has time to improve his hitting to a point somewhere closer the middle of Jose and Yadir.

...even if it ends up being trade value. A lot can happen before Swihart gets back into 100% health, so we should not trade him before then (unless someone does not devalue him due to his injury status), and we may end up needing him as our catcher, if Leon fizzles out or Vaz never learns how to hit MLB pitching above the .600 to .625 OPS line.

Agreed. I just threw his name in there as a possible contender, but that might not happen at all in 2017.

More on 1B next year. I think Shaw would be a much better 1Bman than HanRam, especially if he can learn to hit lefties. Maybe, if Shaw turns out to be a platoon player, Shaw could play 1B vs RHPs, HanRAm vs LHPs and then maybe HanRam DHs vs RHPs (although HanRam is looking like a platoon candidate asw ell, despite his hefty contract). Here are the 2015-2016 rankings/numbers at 1B with 36 1Bmen having 650 innings there: UZR/150 1 Shaw (+15.0) 30 HanRam -2.8 DRS 17 Shaw (+2) 26 HanRam (-4) RngR 7.4 Shaw -0.7 HanRam ErrR 1.6 Shaw -0.7 HanRam DPR 0.2 Shaw 0.0 HanRam To me, it's more about how good a fielder Moncada will be at 3B on the decision to move Shaw to 1B - not who is better at 1B: Shaw or HanRam.

I strongly disagree with your use of the words "great job overall defensively". While he's probably done better tahn anyone expected him to do, I think calling him an average fielder at 1B is an over-statement. He hasn't looked horrible, but he hasn't looked good either, to me. There are 30 1Bmen in MLB with 300 or more PAs . Here's how HanRam ranks: 38 1Bmen with 250+ innings: 21st on fangraph's value rating on defense (-2.8)/ 27th in UZR (-1.4) 24th in UZR/150 at -2.8 30th in DRS at -4 31st in Inside Edge scoring

Any word on when Wright returns? Today, Porcello tries to go 12-0 at home this year.