moonslav59

I may not be posting much over the next week. I won't see any games until I get back home for recordings. I'm on my way to Mexico City by car. Go Sox!

Ding, Ding, DING!!! The winner is.... MVP78!

Day off. 7 home games: 3 vs LAA .500 4 vs MN .515 Then, 10 on the road: 3 @ TOR .486 3 @ TEX .500 4 @ TBR .514 Then home for 4 vs the Yanks (.559) and 4 vs TOR (.486). Maybe now is the time to put together a nice winning stretch.

That is certainly a factor involved in the decision. It's part of the risk/reward decision. Knowing what I know, it looks like Devers is ready, but again, I'm fine with waiting, if that's what Sox management thinks is right- for whatever reason they think tips the balance to keeping him on the farm longer. It could be to extend team control and lessen option issues as you pointed out that tips the balance. It could be they just feel he is not ready- due to maturity, issues with making adjustments or anything else. It could be they don't project an immediate positive impact and don't want to have to wait it out with him, if he struggles. It could be they like Rutledge and Marrero more than we do. It could be he already has some deals in the works that he feels projects better production than Devers with minimal return needed to obtain such player.

He has some World Series heroics to remember as he grows old. I doubt he'll become obsessed with his failures, and quite frankly, he shouldn't. Sure, he'll likely have some regrets about not keeping himself in better shape and having a longer career, but he had some big moments while being significantly overweight with SF. He may yet have some big moments in his future: I just seriously doubt it will be with us.

I've never subscribed to the theory that calling up someone "before their time" risks harming their emotional or mental character irreparably. I do think age and maturity are aspects that must be considered in the decision. There's nothing on this administrations history that hints at them not "getting it right" in these types of initial call-up decisions. Maybe my trust is misplaced, but I'm respectful of their choice to not call him up so far. I realize emergency situations arise that force the issue at times, like Bogey being rushed to play 3B after just 10 games there on the farm. I think we rushed Moncada a little last year in the midst of a championship run. Some felt Beni was rushed, but I thought Sox management did the right thing in all of these cases, except I feel they should have prepared these players for the position they would most likely be playing once called up a bit earlier than 10 games ahead of time. I'm not sure we can call this an emergency, but 3B is pretty bad off. I wouldn't argue with anyone saying the emergency is already in effect, so I'd be fine with Devers being called up tonight, but I wouldn't want him called up, if management felt he was not ready right now. There must be some sort of risk/reward equation when a player is close to the call-up readiness point that is weighed vs the level of big club needs.

The pen has been fantastic this year. It's hard for me to get too critical when they have a bad game. I think I get the theory behind the relief order of Kelly in the 7th, Barnes in the 8th and Kimbrelk in the 9th, but maybe it's time to move Kelly to the 8th. He's done a phenomenal job this year while Barnes has been more inconsistent. PAs by inning (OPS in this inning): (Not counting today's game.) 6th 34 Hembree (.928) 16 Abad (.929) 10 Ross (.650) 9 Kelly (.111) 7th 54 Kelly (.692) 40 Hembree (.450) 31 Barnes (.647) 21 Ross (1.032) 19 Boyer (.842) 15 Scott (.500) 15 Taylor (.921) 8th 72 Barnes (.631) 35 Kelly (.512) 30 Abad (.530) 30 Hembree (.670) 25 Scott (.518) 24 Boyer (1.314) 10 Kimbrel (.311) 9th 98 Kimbrel (.283) 21 Abad (.952) 18 Barnes (.866) 17 Scott (.180) 14 Kelly (.298) 11 Hembree (1.636) Extra Innings 14 Abad (.452) 12 Hembree (.917) 9 Barnes (.778) 7 Kelly (.286) Total Relief PAs and OPS against 144 Hembree .471 131 Barnes .676 120 Kelly .519 111 Kimbrel .278 (WOW!!!) 85 Abad .703 66 Taylor .920 64 Scott .462 55 Boyer .891 45 Ross .850 24 Workman .917 18 N Ramirez .752 Also, looking at our RP'er numbers, one has to think we could get even better with a healthy Smith and Ross replacing Boyer and Abad (or Scott).

Yup! A great trade! I'd do that type of trade every chance I got.

Maybe. When he was "healthy" recently, he still rode the bench way more than he played.

Thanks for the info. It's nice to see us start signing our picks. I hope we can land Scherff.

I'd love to see Devers in the line-up tomorrow night, but again, I trust Sox management to know when the time is right.

Talent and readiness. The readiness factor is hard to determine. Ability to make adjustments, ability to handle a wide variety of pitches that MLB throw, and other mental and emotional factors that not many of us know about. Here's something from soxprospects.com 6/19/17: With Red Sox third basemen still struggling, the calls for Rafael Devers to come up to the big leagues will only continue to grow. After seeing Devers for three games recently, however, it is clear he still could use seasoning in the minor leagues. Devers can get pull-happy and overly aggressive hunting fastballs. As a result, he can be susceptible to off-speed pitches and extend his zone, chasing them. Even when he briefly falls into such streaks, Devers has the mentality and ability to turn things around quickly. He has shown this ability recently—after an 8-for-48 stretch over his final 12 games of May (.167/.226/.292, 1 HR), he is hitting .364/.397/.764 with 5 home runs.

Teams usually are never as good as they look when playing well or as bad as they look when playing poorly. All teams have ups and downs. Moments of deep concern. Moments of joyful glee and optimism. The Yanks were never as good as they looked earlier this year, but their not as bad as they look now either. We were never as bad as some thought we were during our down time, but we may not be as good as we look right now either. We look like a 90-94 win team. The Yanks look like an 87-91 win team, IMO.

I'm not trying to defend the undefensable, but Pablito did miss all of last year and played sporadically this year, some due to injuries. 32 spread out games is not really what I would consider a valid sample size. That being said, I'm done with Pablo, too. The Sox appear to be as well. Time to move on. This is the 6th year in a row, we've had bad to horrible production from our 3B position.

I was joking.

It seems to me that Devers looks ready, but I trust Sox management to know when he's ready. Moncada was 21 when he was called up. He was called up in an emergency situation later in the season than now. We may see Devers in September, like we did Moncada, so this comp may be moot. Beni had played in college. He entered A ball at age 20 and was in AA and MLB by the next season. He was 22 when he was called up. He played his first game on August 2nd at age 22. Devers is just 20. He played rookie ball at age 17 and entered A ball at 18. Being in AA at age 20 is pretty fast-tracked, and he's actually at a higher or equal level at his age than Moncada and Beni were. Even if Devers is not called up by August 2nd or September, he's still younger than either Moncada or Beni were at their times of promotion to the bigs.

So, basically, once you stopped sending the positive energy, he crapped out.

Farm Updates: Michael Chavis drove in the game's only runs with a two-run double in the bottom of the first. That was enough to earn the 21-year-old righty the all star game's MVP honors in front of his home team's crowd. Rusney Castillo continued his torrid June with three more hits in Tuesday's loss, raising his average to .309. Rafael Devers saw his average dip below .300 for the first time since June 1 with a 0-for-4 performance Jay Groome ended up being charged with the loss, despite allowing just one run in his abbreviated return to the mound.

I don't think we'll rush him, so your time table looks about right.

No need to be sorry. The criticism is fair.

We won 93 games last year with Papi. I guess we're showing there are "other ways" to win games.

Win tomorrow, and who cares about 3B?

With his contract, he may not get a shot at MLB until he's post-prime. He turns 30 in July.

Well, at $142M vs $95M, CC should have been a little better. I said and still say, "maybe tied".

Crawford had enough PAs for 3 full seasons ou of a 7 year contract. That's a majority, too. More money, especially when adjusted for inflation. More years of suckiness. Last year totally written off.