moonslav59

It was "silly" of us to think of Moncada as a freak a month or more before others.

Devers named player of the month by soxprospects.com: http://news.soxprospects.com/2016/08/july-players-of-month-rafael-devers-and.html Devers struggled in April, but here's what they had to say... "Despite playing in Salem, one of the hardest-hitting environments in all of the minors, Devers hit .357/.408/.670 in 125 plate appearances, with 13 doubles, four triples, and five home runs. To put his outburst in perspective, only one other member of Salem has five home runs all season." (Note: Beni and Moncada combined for 5 HRs in over 420 combined PAs at Salem earlier this year.)

The O's are losing 6-0 to Bumgarner and the Giants. If they lose, we'll be one down in the loss column to the O's and Jays.

Get these guys again tomorrow!

We seem to have one big hitter out each game. Tonight, it was JBJ. I hope these days off will pay dividends later on.

The 3 walks is what stands out to me. I thought he wasn't terrible, so that's a step up on him starting.

Yeah. You were right, still are right and always have been.

OPS Against by Month .714 APR .711 MAY .766 JUN .767 JUL .701 AUG Maybe the recent performance level is the "real" Sox staff. .

I don't think we need to replace HanRam to be highly competitive next year, but I'm not projecting him to be above #15 at 1B WAR next year. He'll probably be near #20. With Moncada getting very close at 3B, a slight chance of Pablo's pride kicking in and him returning to his form of several years ago, and Sam Travis returning from injury aall joining Shaw and Hanram in competition for 3 openings (3B, 1B and DH) maybe we'll be fine there. I certainly feel better here than with the pitching staff.

To me, more than Wright, yes, but some seemed to think Wright and all knuckle ballers suck..

,,,he won't continue to hit .370... Maybe he can hit .380 next year!

You and others claimed the protocol was not to move positions within a year of a level promotion, You and others were adamant about it. Now you admit he's a "freak", and that was my point back then. Moncada looked to be very close to MLB ready with the bat. That may cause adjustments to protocol if not blow it away. I never said change his position right away either. I merely said they should "start giving him reps at 3B soon". YUou guys called the idea "silly", "absurd" and "ridiculous". Of course my idea was based on the idea of his "readiness". I felt he was very close to ready. You guys flet he needed to wait it out at least to the end of this year. Shortly afterwards, the Sox started giving Moncada reps at 3B, and you guys still claimed I was wrong and you were right. You even accused me of "beating my chest" which was false. You may call this "desperation" like you did the Benintendi move to the bigs, but the fact is the Sox felt Moncada was ready pretty close to the same time I suggested. They and I recognized he was a "freak" and maybe tradition and protocol need to be put aside for a kid like him. I'm actually surprised Moncada started at 3B so quickly after taking reps. I think it's his likely position. I think he has an excellent chance to be our starting 3Bman by early next year- maybe even opening day, especially if he plays some winter ball at 3B. Waiting a few more months would not have helped him get any closer to where he needs to be. I've never said move every young player that is blocked. That's foolish, but with freaks like Moncada and Beni- you have to adjust the clock. I think Sox management watched the fast rise of Betts, realized they might have lucked out with his super quick adjustment to the OF at the ML level, and figure they would be more pro-active. Better to give the kids more time at a new position on the farm than at the ML level.

OK, maybe Leyland wasn't good choice. Maybe he's more of a personal favorite, I'm not into judging any manager based on one big game or series, I'm sure Tito would be on many baseball experts top 40 lists, but I was going back to 1970, when I fist started following the Sox, There's been a lot of really good managers over that time, I can see putting Tito and Dick Williams at the top of Sox managers over the past 50 years, I'm still not sure how high I would put them an MLB's top managers over the last 50 years list, I think we can all agree, it's one area we have not been all that great,

He's never really had a full chance, so never hitting above .260 may not mean much. Plus, as user name said, maybe something clicked. We'll know more by the end of the year, but even if Leon hits at a .700 OPS pace here on out, I'm not worried about our catching position at all, and certainly not more than 1B/3B/DH next year.

HanRam has always had a big L-R split. Pedey has not. Career vs RHP/LHP Pedey .797/.842 Ramirez .839/.909 Now that HanRam's numbers have declined, his numbers vs RHPs aren't close enough to his career numbers to justify being a plus at 1B vs RHPs. His fielding certainly doiesn't make up the difference either. I agree Leon is not going to continue to rake like this, but I think he'll be good enough to be a plus next year, and with Vaz and Swihart in reserve, I like our catching future better than 1B. I agree our biggest weakness now and this winter is the bull pen. Hopefully Carson Smith will be healthy and as advertised. Maybe Barnez and a converted starter (Kelly, Owens, Johnson...) can fill a key slot, but I still think we need 2 quality RP'ers. Even with the addition of Pomeranz, I'd like to see us get an ace or solid #2 type. It would help us improve each slot by attrition and make ERod and Pomeranz fight for the 5 slot (barring injury to a top 3 starter.) Here's how I rank our winter needs (weak areas): 1) 1/2 slot SP'er 2) Solid #2 Rp'er for 8th inning/back-up closer 3) Solid #4 RP'er 4) 3B/1B: I prefer 3B (Moncada?), so Shaw can play or platoon at 1B and HanRam/Pablo/Young and others can fight for the DH or 1B job. 5) 1B/DH- can probably be filled from within. 6) RP'er #6/7 (LOOGY)

I guess staying healthy makes a difference, but you are right about OPS+. His UZR/150 is his second best since 2011. He's hitting the ball harder: LD% is 23.8 (career 20.7). His hard hits are up (32.5 to 28.9%), so his 10 point higher BAbip is justifiable.

Agreed. I'm not one to knit-pick every decision a manager makes. I was about the last guy to call for Valantine's neck and other before him, so I'm not a head-hunter, but in more of a general sense, I feel Farrell has been a failure. The old saying, "You can't fire the team" has some merit, although we did just that in 2014, but I do think a change of manager often provides a spark needed to wake up some players and create a more serious mood. Who knows? Maybe this team needs less seriousness. maybe they are wound up too tightly. I think it's obvious JF is not a master in-game strategist, so you expect him to be a top motivator of player preparation type guy then, right? I don't see that either. I have trouble pointing to just one big strength he has, and it's not the accumulation of many tiny strengths either. We never seem to win games with management, and I think that was true with Tito as well. I'm sure I'll catch flack for saying that, but when if comes to naming the best managers over the past 46 years (when I became a Sox fan), I doubt you'll see one Sox name in a top 40 or 50 list. Where's our earl Weaver? Sparky Anderson? Jim Leyland?

Updated team leaders in OPS: 1.040 Leon (still is not really letting up after 130+ PAs) 1.026 Ortiz (While not his best career OPS anymore, still 3rd best) .894 Betts (If he could just learn to hit in April/May) .872 JBJ (has been solid for a full 365 days now. .846 Young (we need this guys bat vs lefties) .830 Bogey (has slipped some) .813 Pedey (having his best year in a long time) .801 HanRam (2 big games have vaulted him to here) .777 Benintendi (looking of that first HR) .770 Shaw (has been in pretty steady decline due to poor splits) .754 Hernandez (is doing very well in AAA) .733 Rutledge (too bad he got hurt) .720 Swihart (lost year) .701 Holt (once again, falling off a cliff late season) .690 Brentz (told you guys he was AAAA) .613 Hill (not what we hoped for but better vs LHPs) .583 Vazquez (not sure 176 PAs was enough time) .437 Hanigan (talk about cliffs and falling) Last 365 days: 1.041 Ortiz .939 Leon .911 Betts .890 JBJ .838 Swihart .831 Bogey .824 Pedey .785 Shaw .768 HanRam .714 Holt

We always struggle on west coast swings, so let's hope we do better on our next one. I'm not worried about our offense too much. Our pen is a different matter. I realize injuries have been a big part of the pen's poor performance, but our pen looked strong and deep to start the season. Many had our pen ranked 3rd to 5th best. Currently we have the 11th best RP'er WAR, but we're 15th in WHIP at 1.31. Our pen is 29th in GB/FB at 1.03

The O's and the Sox records should be flip flopped. If the managers were flopped, maybe the records would be too.

At $30M and with his history, I'm looking for both.

Had we lost 3-2, posters would be saying how an ace is supposed to gut out games like that. We scored early and often, so who cares, but the fact is, Price put us in a 2-0 hole before we exploded, so I'm still worried about his ever becoming our true "ace".

I think the biggest worry about putting Betts 3rd was how Pedey would do batting first. The micro sample size there has been encouraging. I think it stays as is. Since Pedey and Bogey both have similar OBPs, and Bogey is a much better base runner than Pedey, I might have tried Bogey first, Pedey 2nd and Betts 3rd.

You crack me up! The first time you've ever admitted a mistake and the thing you identify as the mistake was probably the closest thing you got right in your whole post. Too funny! Is this fine for a 1Bman in MLB? .245/.320/384/.705 or .251/.309/.404/.713 Well, those are Hanley's numbers vs RHPs in 2016 and 2015-2016 combined. That is a clear weakness on this team.Here's why: from 2015-2016, a team OPS of .713 at 1B would place you 25th out of 30 teams (down with the Phillies, Rays and A's. A .705 OPS would place you 26th- just below the Phillies. Versus just RHPs, HanRam would place 26th or 27th, and in fact the Sox are in 26th place in team OPS at 1B vs righties from 2015-2016. Although our catching OPS has been pretty bad, until Leon came along, we still are placed 20th in team catching OPS. I know you love WAR (wink-wink), so here are those rankings: 2016: C: 8th 1B: 8th Papi retires this winter. Despite exceeding expectations on defense at 1B, HanRam is still a minus fielder. Whether we move up Moncada to 3B or acquire a corner IF'er, there's a good chance HanRam is moved to DH or another team this winter. There's plenty of reason to do so. Then, next year, we can talk about how our DH is one of our weakest links.

I remember the old days where the Sox used to win 15-5 then lose 3-2 and 4-3. I've been having flashbacks with this team... Since July 21st: Outscored the Twins 31-22 (W2-L2) Scored 13 runs in 3 games vs DET, but lost 2 games when allowing 4 runs. Outscored the Angels 14-12 (W2-L2) Lost 2 out of 4 to Seattle (one by 1/one by 2)- but did win two by 1 rin as well. Outscored the Dodgers 14-11 but lost 2 out of 3 games. Lost 2 of 3 to the rebuilding Yanks, including the last game 4-3 then score 8 runs in the first two innings the next day and win 9-4. Earlier in the year, it seemed we did this to our OPS. Maybe we were lucky and luck is "catching up", but we need to start winning the close games more often.