moonslav59

I've seen U2 4 times, but I missed the original Joshua Tree tour. It was my wife's first U2 show. We both loved it. There's an amazing super large high definition screen behind the band, but I won't give anything else away. Enjoy!

Well said. Of course Henry has enough money to buy every top FA on the market every year. If the budget was "limitless", we'd probably be doing close to that, and we haven't. I think Henry wants to make money with the Red Sox, but is probably willing to break even and treat it as a cost-free hobby. He might not even mind losing a little money here and there, but I doubt he's willing to be George Stienbrenner plus.

Great show. I saw then in Houston a few weeks ago.

At the start of the season many felt losing Papi and not replacing him with a big hitter was a huge mistake. They did not think that acquisition of Sale, Thornburg and Moreland would be enough. We only have a .750 team OPS as we near the halfway point. Those of us who felt we would still be a top 3 or 5 run-scoring team appear to have overestimated our projections on offense. There is another area that was of great concern to some at the start of the season: un unbalanced offense with 2-3 "black holes" in the line-up. On this point, I will say that as of now, we only have just one black hole, and it's a big one: 3B. We are actually one of just a very few contending teams that only has two position with an OPS below .708. One is a surprising 2B! After JBJ's slow start, some felt CF would be a black hole. Now, CF is our highest OPS position on the team! Many felt that since Leon's 2016 season was a fluke, our 2017 catcher OPS would be worse. I argued that losing Hanigan and Holaday's putrid offense would balance out the projected decline in Leon's offense. I also projected a better year for Vaz. While catchers have our third worst OPS, the OPS is significantly better than 2016. Here are our positional OPS: .558 3B (Totally unacceptable) .666 2B (This is a big surprise. Pedey is at .720 though.) .708 C (When compared to other teams, this is good.) .732 LF .753 DH (One expects better from this position.) .807 RF (I expected near .900 here.) .827 1B (Mostly coming from Moreland.) .838 SS (Bogey has pulled his weight and then some on expectations.) .879 CF (I'll say it again--MOVE JBJ UP IN THE LINE-UP! He's now got our best OPS.) How about balance by batting slot? We only have 1 slot below .725 and that is the 9 slot at .553- a black hole if ever there was one. What's shocking to me is that our second worst slot has been the 5 slot. Again, moving JBJ might solve this. (Top PA players listed) .553 9th slot (Marrero 94, Marco 48, Vaz 45, Leon 42) .725 5th (Moreland 118, HRam 83, Beni 44, Young 33) .730 7th (JBJ 110, Rutledge 54, Pablo 48, Young 30, Leon 30, Vaz 24) .742 6th (JBJ 69, Moreland 64, Bogey 40, Young 40, HRam 31, Pedey 20) .760 8th (Leon 74, Vaz 67, Pablo 46, JBJ 35, Rut 31, Young 22) .779 1st (Betts 218, Pedey 78, Bogey 39) .791 4th (HRam 141, Moreland 101, Beni 80) .810 2nd (Pedey 158, Beni 156) .830 3rd (Bogey 212, Betts 111) Some other offense observations. We have a .750 OPS as a team, and... .727 the last 28 days .709 the last 14 days .745 vs RHP (but .754 when a righty starts) .775 vs LHP (but surprisingly .734 when a lefty starts) Not surprising: .764 at home and .738 away, although the gap is lower than recent years. By age group: .803 25 and under (This is encouraging) .676 26-30 (This from the prime years of a career?) .763 31+ .794 RISP (Something many have been crying about in recent years, buy is now better than our overall OPS!) It's .798 with RISP and 2 outs. .717 Late & Close (disappointing) .752 High Leverage .429 vs NYY .592 vs HOU .650 vs TOR .651 vs SEA .673 vs STL 1.102 vs MN .896 vs TEX .877 vs MIL .870 vs PHI .869 vs CWS .838 Cubs (The rest are between .693 and .803) .780 Day .736 Night If you subscribe to the philosophy (as I do) that one of the best ways to improve a team is by upgrading the weakest link, then one big fix is needed: FIX the 3B Problem!

We could also just trade Ockimey and mid level pitcher for a decent but not big upgrade at 3B. Devers could be called up in September (not losing an option year) and help out at 3B and DH/PH.

We've always stayed near the luxury tax, so I do not think our budget is even close to limitless. I also think Henry would not mind paying the tax but not going so far over that other non-monetary penalties are obtained, IF we didn't also have to pay Castillo and Craig "off the books". Paying Castill, Craig AND a luxury tax is probably just too much for even a multi-billionaire. Also, billionaires got to be billionaires by pinching pennies and dollars, so certainly over $10 million is not something Henry just shrugs away.

Do other AL contendingteams have a black hole in their line-ups? Hell yes! Top 9 batters by PAs (plus others with 100+ PAs in parenthesis) HOU ( 7 players with an .826+ OPS and 129+ PAs!) LF Aoki .656 (They only have 12 players with 22+ PAs.) NYY 3B Headley .714 1B Carter .669 (DFA'd) (IF Torreyes .683 in 135) (C Romine .571 in 127 CLE C Gomes .666 (C Perez .477 in 106 PAs) 2B Kipnis .691 (RF Almonte .660 in 100 PAs most of any RF'er on the team) MN (11 of top 12 PA players are under .790) CF Buxton .572 SS Polanco .659 C Castro .697 (UT Vargas .694 in 145) Boston Red Sox (No top 10 batter by PAs below .705, but clearly 3B is a big black hole.) C Leon .706 (IF Rutledge .558 in 118) (3B Pablo .622 in 108) (3b Marrero .488 in 104)

Third base has sucked for the Sox since Mike Lowell retired. You forgot Beltre and Youk. Our last good year at 3B was Youk in 2011 (+3.5 WAR). .833 OPS and -3.8 UZR/150 (his best fielding year at 3B from 2009-2013) Beltre's 2010 season has been the best since 2003. Best WAR seasons by a Sox 3Bman since 2003: 6.4 Beltre 2010 (.918 OPS) 5.9 Youk 2009 (.961 OPS but played more 1B than 3B) 4.7 Mueller 2003 4.5 Lowell 2007 3.5 Mueller 2005 3.5 Youk 2011 2.5 Lowell 2006

I suggested we move Kelly to the 8th and Barnes to the 7th about a week ago. Barnes did pitch the 8th tonight and got 3 Ks, so maybe Kelly hasn't "won the job" yet.

Possible teams in fire sale mode at the deadline (or before): 24-50 Philly -20.5 (-21 WC) 27-51 SFG -24.5 (-20 WC) 31-45 SDP -19.5 (-15 WC) 34-41 NYM -11.0 (-11.5 WC) 34-40 MIA -10.5 (-11 WC) 35-41 PIT -5.0 (-11 WC) 32-42 CWS -7.5 (-7.0 WC) 33-43 DET -7.0 (-6.5 WC) 34-42 OAK -17.5 (-6 WC) Bubble: 36-39 ATL -9.0 (-9.5 WC) 36-39 TOR -5.0 (-3.5 WC) Maybe: BAL, KCR, SEA, LAA Amazing how the 5 or 6 teams the most out of it are all in the NL.

Hey, did I ever mention I'm so glad we got... Chris Freakin' Sale!

Harris, right? I forget his first name.

True, but maybe they have some sort of plan to give him one more shot before cutting him loose.

I've said before, it appears Devers is ready now, to me, but I am trusting Sox management to know the right time to bring him up. Maybe my trust is misplaced, but I think they know more than we do.

I don't think Rafael's defense is what is keeping him from being "ML ready" or called up even if he is ML ready by Sox management standards. While the offensive stats of Devers have looked great, there is talk he has issues dealing and adjusting to breaking balls. Maybe they think he needs more time.

Maybe there's more to it than think Devers MIGHT provide more than Lin/Marrero at this point. They might be thinking Pablo will get one more shot after his DL stint, so why call up Devers now? They may think Devers is not ready to face ML pitching, or he needs to work on one major issue before being "ready". They may be factoring in his years of service and trying to maximize control of his prime years by age. It may be a combination of several factors that is keeping him from being thought of as "ML ready" by Sox management. There's even a small chance they think he is ML ready, but want to wait a while longer anyways.

Thanks for this insightful and encouraging post.

Sad.

I have always liked Price the pitcher. He has not done very well in Boston compared to his first 8 years in MLB. I thought we overpaid for Price, but at least we didn't lose prospects or draft picks doing so. I thought Price was the best available SP'er in several years, except for maybe Scherzer (in foresight only). I was fine with the signing. I expected a little better production, so far, but I still think he can bounce back to pre-Boston performance levels. I hope the media spat hasn't poisoned his attitude to the point that it affects his productivity.

I didn't mean to imply you were assuming Smith will be back. I just think our pen will need Kelly next year. Smith and Thornburg are question marks- even after they get healthy.

I think we're grasping at straws with Peralta, but I guess the more straws- the better chance you have at finding someone at least at replacement player level.

True, but isn't saying we should call Devers up now or should have already done so saying you think the Sox FO is wrong on this one decision?

I don't see him as blocked. I don't want him traded. I'm not sure, if he can ever play 3B well enough to stick, but some here think not ever. If Devers works out, then we won't need him at 3B anyways. If DD is thinking this way, maybe he makes Chavis available to try and get a larger upgrade at 3B than I think is needed.

All Price has to do is pitch a couple gems and the media will shut up (at least until his next bad start).

Yes, and I seriously doubt the Sox top brass thinks Devers is ML ready but are holding him back to gain a year of service. Too much is riding on the success of this year's team. The window is short- perhaps 2-3 more years after this one. If Devers was ready, he'd be here now, IMO.