moonslav59

If everybody was 100% healthy, which doesn't assume they'd be in top form, does anyone have a serious argument with my position by position projected major league depth chart going into 2017? C: Leon, Vazquez, Swihart 1B: Ramirez, Shaw, Pablo, Travis (Swihart?) 2B: Pedroia, Moncada, Holt, Hernandez, Rutledge SS: Bogaerts, Hernandez, Marrero, Holt 3B: Moncada, Shaw, Hernandez, Holt, Rutledge LF: Benintendi, Young, Swihart, Holt, Castillo (Moncada?) CF: JBJ, Beninetndi, Betts, Young, Holt RF: Betts, Benintendi, Young, Holt, Castillo DH: Ramirez, Young, Pablo, Moncada SP: Price, Porcello, Wright, Pomeranz, ERod, Johnson, Kelly, Owens, Elias, Cuevas (Kopech?) RP: Kimbrel, Smith, Kelly, Barnes, Ross, Hembree, Abad, Owens/BJohn/Elias, Martin, NRam, Workman, R Scott, C Shepherd, L Ysla, W Jerez

It was another tough night for the Sox. Unfortunately, Wright had to shake off some rust and that resulted in giving up a big 1st inning. After that, he settled down and looked like himself. He looked really good after that first inning. I actually feel good about Wright being back. The major story was how the lineup from the 5th through the 8th hitters did nothing until Hanley blooped a single in the 9th. I'm not usually one to bring up strikeouts, because I think they are over-rated, but 9 Ks in 13 ABs from the 5 through 8 hitters is sick! Pedey had 4 hits and a walk, Bogaerts had 3 hits, Mookie had 5 hits and both Ortiz and Holt had one hit each. In most cases this was righty on righty so the Royals pitchers could be hit. 13 hits from the first 4 hitters and only 3 runs scored....WOW! Our middle to bottom of the lineup just doesn't look good and pinch hitters Young and Hill looked weak as well. They do now, but our bottom of the order is probably the best in MLB over the full season. What can be done? The only thing I noticed again that might be corrected is that JBJ has gone to an uppercut swing. From the Ted Williams book on hitting, he advocated swinging on the same plane of the ball as it comes into the plate by gravity. JBJ's approach means he needs to be right on the ball to get good wood on it. He is something like 1 for last 15 or so. He needs to get over it soon to give this team some punch in the bottom part of the order. He is worrying me now. Let's hope he turns it around very soon. Leon gets a bye as he has been hitting of late. Hanley still looks bad at the plate and Shaw hit one ball very hard but to straightaway center. He still might add some punch. What else can be done? I don't know other than call ups. Tomorrow, they bust out against the league leader in ERA! Book it. The good news coming out of the Sox front office is that there is no structural damage to Beni's knee and it will only require the time for the swelling to go down and a rehab period. Great for the kid and good for the club. Maybe, Young can catch fire until Beni returns.

I'm still a Packer fan from my Milwaukee days. What can I say?

I'm not a racist. It was intended to shine the light on how many here in Texas use their bibles and view immigrants. Sorry to bum you out. I'm doing my best to change this state. I volunteer 5 days a week at a very low eco-dis school teaching ESL to Hispanic students.

Good point, but I have to add one more clarification: I've lived in the north (Maine, NY and Wisconsin) and I've lived in the South (Mexico & Texas). Way more people go to church down here every Sunday, but charity and doing good deeds seems to be lacking beyond those church doors. (I hope I didn't open a can of worms. It's just my observation after living down here for 9 years plus.)

Oh My God! I just soiled myself!!!!

I don't mean to sound like I'm defending the fatso. I hated the signing and hated even more his attitude coming into camp both years here. I will say that players have declined in their late 20's and then improved again. Some even go on to have very decent late careers. Either they changed their ways, learned something important and/or just matured. 30 is not too old to have a few more plus seasons, even for a player in a long decline pattern.

I hope Moncada wins the job. I'm too skeptical of Shaw as a FT'er. Travis will need time to rise. HanRam should DH, so we need a corner IF'er when Papi retires.

We have a starting catcher, until further notification. Vaz and Swihart are both fine as back-ups without any further development. The problem is, they could both use further development, and they wouldn't really get that as a back-up to the best catcher in MLB.

It's not Pedey's fault Beni forgot what they teach in Little League. What's he running to third for on a ball hit right to the SS- right in his easy field of vision!

We'll need him to show some semblance of being a decent ball player to have any chance to recoup a fraction of his remaining contractual cost. That means he has to play, at least in spring training. We can use Shaw at 1B and HanRam at DH to create more playing time at 3B for Moncada and Pablo. I have very little hope Pablo can be productive again, but there is still a chance. If he does well, then there are a number of ways he could have a "place" on the team: 1) Injury to corner IF'er or DH. 2) Moncada needs more time to learn 3B and starts 2017 in AAA. 3) Shaw plays 1B and HanRam DHs. (Note: Shaw has the best UZR/150 at 1B over the past 2 years combined.) 4) Shaw reverts to his low .700 OPS (or worse) he had in AAA. He becomes a bench or platoon player. 5) We trade HanRam. 6) HanRam stinks like he did in 2015. 7) Pablo shows up in good shape, plays hard and does better than Shaw, Moncada and/or HanRam. (Note: he used to be a plus defender, he's only 30 and he can at least be a productive platoon player vs RHPs only- not likely, but surely possible.

You mean thumping a bible on some wetbacks head? These guys are pretenders down here.

The new photos of him are very disappointing. Not that I enjoy looking at fotos of fat f***s, we down here in Texas we don't have access to this sort of kinky porn. Please provide the link.

5 years over .900 is pretty darn impressive, but he's 33. Even a 3 years deal would entail an expected decline, but this is his big pay day. He is going to want something mega-big and mega-long. Some GM will surely offer him 5 years, and then some other GM might go 6 or 7 or even 8 years! As much as I'd love to have E.E. take Papi's spot, I can't see going that large. There's also 2 other big reasons not to sign him: 1) Our biggest weakness is pitching not hitting, even with Papi retiring. 2) We already have 3 high-cost players that are probably better suited for DH than any other position: HanRam, Pablo & Young. On top of all this, we have to make room for Moncada at some point real soon. If he sticks at 3B, we'll have a hundred guys, some payed big bucks, vying for the 1B/DH job over the next few years. Why clog it up with a DH-only type player on the wrong side of 33? T Shaw HanRam Pablo Hernandez S Travis Holt Rutledge Chris Marrero Jantzen Witte ...and eventually Devers, Longhi, Ockimey and Dubon knocking on the door before EE's deal is over. Some of these guys are long shots, granted, but the sheer numbers almost guarantee two to three will do well enough to offset the cost of EE's contract.

We have won 10 of our last 14, and three of those 4 losses were by 1 run. Yeah, we lost two to the lowly Rays. Yeah, we have only scored 7 runs in our last 3 games (all on the road). Now, we go home for six games before a west coast trip followed by 3 at Toronto. We'll know a lot more after these next 15 games. At least we have two days off (Sept 1st & Sept 8th). Once we get to September 12th, we have 10 home and 10 away games: 7 vs NYY 7 vs BAL 3 vs TBR 3 vs TOR

Hanley who comes off the books in two years still owed 44 million, played a great first base, but maybe in his mind wants to DH. Not so fast. HanRam may be here for three more years. He has a $22M vesting option for 2019, guaranteed if he has 1,050 plate appearances in 2017-18 and passes club physical after 2018 season. Then you have Panda's albatross contact on top of that... I'll say it .I would rather have Beltran on a one year and club option if I go that route. They still have Castillo and Craig on the books more dead money. I'm hoping Buchholz pitches good down the stretch and pick up his option and trade him for a good prospect ( top5) in a teams farm system. It sounds funny but no great pitchers are out there on the F/A market. The teams get desperate.. I'd trade Buch for a decent single A prospect. IMO Carson Smith remains the biggest loss. When you win nobody notices, when you lose its noticed. His loss did hurt in many ways. if Panda is back and playing where does Juan Ed fit in. They just can put the money to better use. Some people might disagree.. I think Juan E. will want 5-7 years at mega-bucks. He'll get it. No thanks

Hernandez has been doing well in AAA, so maybe he can give us a plus at 3B, until Moncada is ready or September 1st arrives.

I think you're right about Bogey needing rest. It seems we've been giving a vet the day off two out of every three games. I'm not saying they didn't need it, but I keep thinking, "Okay, this is it. Everybody is rested, and now we can go 20 games in a row with everyone in the line-up!" But, no.

Why is it necessary to discuss what's necesary to discuss?

By Steve Adams | August 25, 2016 at 10:28am CDT The Red Sox have placed left fielder Andrew Benintendi on the disabled list following last night’s knee injury, the team told reporters, including Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald (Twitter link). Benintendi, who was initially diagnosed with a left knee sprain, underwent an MRI this morning, and while the results are still being evaluated, the Sox felt it was a serious enough injury to warrant this move. Infielder Marco Hernandez is being recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket in his place. Mastrodonato tweets that Chris Young will receive the majority of the at-bats in left field with Benintendi on the shelf, with Brock Holt getting some occasional time there as well as he bounces around the diamond. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe tweets that manager John Farrell said that the Sox are hoping this isn’t a season-ending injury for their standout rookie, but Abraham adds that said sentiment seems to be “more wishful thinking than anything.” Benintendi suffered the injury while attempting to get back to second base on what ultimately went down as a ground-ball double play. Benintendi had to be helped off the field after his ankle rolled significantly and his knee bent in an awkward direction (video link), though Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald tweets that his ankle is “fine.” Benintendi hasn’t been with the Sox long, debuting on Aug. 2, but his production will nonetheless be difficult to replace. In 74 plate appearances, the 2015 No. 7 overall pick is hitting .324/.365/.485 with a homer, six doubles and a triple already to his credit.

11 players per team x 30 teams = 330 players. 330 players with 170+ PAs. Here are the Sox rankings in wRC+ 1) Leon 179 3) Ortiz 169 25) Betts 137 44) JBJ 126 80) Bogey 118 85) Pedey 117 109) Ramirez 111 192) Shaw 95 232) Holt 86

It's just a slump. We still have 8 of our top 11 PA players with an OPS over .800. 10 out of 11 are over .700. Once Young and Leon pass Vaz in PAs, we will be able to say 10 out of top 10 PA players have an OPS over .700. Just because we go a couple games without scoring much, doesn't mean our weak link is our offense.

soxprospects.com has a page where they project the rosters for upcoming years. Here's what they have as of now: Pos 2017 2018 2019 SP1 Price Price Price SP2 Porc Porc Porc SP3 Pom Pom ERod SP4 Wri ERod Kop SP5 ERod Kop Wright RP1 Kimb Kim Smith RP2 Barn Smith Barn RP3 Ross Barn Owens RP4 Abad Owen BJohn RP5 Kelly Kelly TBall RP6 Hemb Wrig Work RP7 Elias BJohn Martin (DL Smith) Work C1 Vaz Vaz Vaz C2 Leon Swi Swi 1B Ram Ram Ram 2B Ped Ped Ped SS Bogey Bog Bog 3B Shaw Mon Mon LF Beni Beni Beni CF JBJ JBJ JBJ RF Betts Bet Betts DH Pablo Pablo Devers UT Holt Holt Holt IF Hern Hern Hern OF Young Shaw Travis

MLBTR reports... Both Ben Badler of Baseball America and Kevin Thomas of the Portland Press Herald reported that Moncada made several good plays at third base in addition to his contributions at the plate.

He has 4 HRs in his last 9 games started. I wish every slumping Sox player would slump like that. I'm not denying he's in a slump, but it's not quite as bad as it looks.