moonslav59

Scratch Owens from this list. The walks are killing me!

My position is that Young, when healthy, must play vs all LH'd starters. He's got the 4th best OPS vs LHPs in MLB over a two year sample size. We're paying him $12M to hit vs lefties. How it happens is up to Farrell, but sitting Beni for some of Young's starts is something that should happen for several reasons, one being we can't sit Papi for all of those games, another being we can't sit Betts or JBJ for more than maybe 1-2 games vs lefties and finally, because Beni has never played 140+ games counting playoffs in his life, let alone 110. He's at 115 now (478 PAs).

Spoken by the man who claims to be 100% correct on everything.... even at guessing how many toilet tissues are left on the roll.

Well, he did go 7.2 innings his last time out for his longest stint of the season, so maybe my statement was a bit overboard. He's gone exactly 7.0 innings in 6 other starts this year, so that makes 7 starts out of 24 with 7 or more innings. He seems to use a lot of pitches to get to 5 or 6 innings, so I guess that was my point. I still doubt he gets a complete game this year- rain delay or otherwise. He may not even complete 8 IP. I'm not trying to bash Pom. He's done well for us, and he's a big help to this team. He had near "ace" stats with SD, and his contract is very reasonable.

I really have no idea where this guy ends up. soxprospects.com has him listed as a 3Bman, but the say he his the mid 90's as a pitcher. Hard to tell. My guess is, they start him at 3B, and if he fails, they may take a second look at his pitching.

He wants to play. That's good. Complaining to the papers is rarely good.

Hopefully, with another team. Maybe $ 5M/2?

What do you mean by "optimism" concerning his option? I really don't get what you're trying to say. Are you saying that because some teams will surely offer Buch $6.5M on the FA market this winter (and I agree they will and more), we should consider giving him the $13.5M option over paying him the $500K buyout? Here's what you said... ... what if a team could pick up Buchholz for no more than $6.5M on that FA list? How many teams would be interested you think? That's where I think we may have some room for optimism concerning Buch's option.

Compared to some of my other posts, it is.

I doubt Paps makes a serious impact wherever he goes. To me, the difference makers may very well end up being Barnes, Hembree, Ross and Ziegler.

It's also nice to see Kopech, Johnson and Owens doing well of late.

Nice start by Pomeranz, but it makes me wonder what will come first: hell freezing over or a complete game by Pom.

I was for offering Buch the option, but felt trading him after taking the option was the best idea. Let someone else take the gamble. His $13M option for 1 year was the type of deal several GMs would want. Look at what similar injury-ridden pitchers sign for as FAs. Some get close to $13M for multiple years. After this rotten year, I do not think Buch is worth the $13.5M. I'd pay the $500K buyout and wish him luck elsewhere.

He is not very good vs RHPs anymore. He's not horrible, but he's not good enough to bat in the 3-5 slots. He used to be very good, but has always been much better vs LHPs. Recent splits: vs RHP/LHP 2016: .727/1.094 2015: .720/.710 2014: .801/.869 I wouldn't bench HanRam vs RHPs, but clearly JBJ deserves to bat in front of him vs righties. Speaking of getting hot, JBJ has 4 Hrs in his last 6 games. That's a huge lift too!

I still don't get your point. Either we pay Buch $13.5M next year, of he becomes a FA. At that point, he'll get what the highest bidder offers him or whatever deal he accepts. What is the $6.75M supposed to represent? If you are talking about trading him now, he's probably owed about $3M.

It's less than half of next year's $13.5M option price. It's half of this year's $13M option. I don't get the point being made.

It was a good line-up vs a lefty (although I'd have put Betts 3rd and Papi 4th) , but one of our best hitters (JBJ) wasn't even in the top 5. I feel he needs to be in the top 5 vs RHPs and maybe even vs some LHPs. Some of our top 5 hitter have some big split differentials: vs RHPs/vs LHPs Player OBP.........SLG Pedey .371/.371 .469/.360 Bogey .360/.385 .448/.443 Betts .369/.306 .572/545 Ortiz .421/.375 .686/.455 J B J .370/.336 .579/.375 HRam .328/.434 .399/.660 I bolded the concern areas. I'm sorry, but I can never agree to having hanRam in the top 5 vs RHPs. I don't even think he belongs in the top 6. I think Papi should not bat 3rd vs LHPs, although his .375 OBP makes it possible. I'd bat him 4th or 5th, and when Young returns maybe even 6th looks better on paper, but I would not do that to him. JBJ has start differentials and needs to bat higher vs RHPs. Betts has a very low OBP vs LHPs, but his power is nearly the same, so batting him 5th vs LHPs might work. His disparity was not as great last year .336 to .356 OBP, so maybe it's just a passing phase. I wanted Bogey up 2nd to start the season. I love that move. I still like this better: vs RHPs: 1) Pedey 2) Bogey 3) Ortiz 4) Betts 5) JBJ 6) (Shaw/Leon) 7) HRam I can see hitting HRam 6th and flipping Betts and Papi. vs LHPs: 1) Pedey 2) Bogey 3) HRam (or Young) 4) Betts 5) Ortiz 6) Young 7) JBJ On paper, this looks best vs lefties 1) Pedey 2) Bogey 3) Young 4) HRam 5) Ortiz 6) Betts 7) JBJ

Where are all the posters who wanted him DFA'd?

I expect adjustments periods will occur. I just hope they don't happen soon or for long periods of time.

I have never advocated a Beni-Young platoon. I see Beni as our FT LF'er too. My whole position has been about Young being our DH vs LHPs next year aand how that squeezes out the need to sign a big bat DH type and may squeeze the corner IF/DH slots open next year, if Moncada wins the 3B job.Beni has never played a long season like this, so if we want him fresh for the playoffs, I do not think sitting him 3-5 games vs the 9-10 lefties we might face down the stretch is such a bad idea. (See my post before on allocating days off when Young starts.) Also, once a righty is brought in, a switch can be made, especially in September once rosters are expanded.

Papi could use a rest here and there, and he has struggled vs LHPs for 2 seasons now. I'm certainly not calling for a platoon of Papi, but he could maybe sit 2-3 games vs lefties once Young returns. Betts and JBJ could maybe get one day off (maybe 2 depending on the race) in September, so that makes 4-6 total. Assuming we might face 9-10 lefties once Young returns, Beni would only need to sit maybe 3-6 games vs lefties. It wouldn't have to be every game, is more of the point.

Chris Young has played a lot of games vs RH'd starts, so it's more than just keeping him from cryogenically being frozen.... A brief history... We signed Cody Ross in 2012 to play primarily against LHPs, but with injuries and his doing okay (.729) vs RHPs that year, he started 84 games vs RH's starters and 42 vs LH'd starters. We signed Jonny Gomes for 2013-2014 to take Cody's original role as a platoon vs LHPs. He ended up wrestling the RH'd job away from Nava in the post season, before being traded mid-season 2014 during the great red purge. Again, things did not work out as planned. Gomes ended up starting vs a RH'd starter 22 times, which I suppose could be viewed as keeping him fresh, but I remember most were due to injuries or slumps by others. He started only 54 games vs RHPs, which seems low, but he was the FT'er by the World Series. His splits were not as wide as expected: .795 vs LHPs and .745 vs RHPs- both acceptable. However, his disparity in games started by a LHP vs a RHPs were stark: .889 vs .697. In 2014, Gomes started just 16 games vs RHPs (.639 in those games) and 37 vs LHPs (.711 in those games) before being traded. His overall splits were .831/.494- a very significant differential. Chris Young was signed for two years to provide a strong bat vs LHPs. He had started 47 games vs LHPs for the Yanks last year (.953 in those games) and 30 vs RHPs (.567). His overall splits were .972/.585- clearly a platoon player if there ever was one. With Castillo flopping and Holt getting hurt and struggling, Young ended up starting more games vs RHPs than probably planned, then he got hurt himself. His numbers this year: 21 GS'd vs RHPs (.830 OPS in those games) 12 GS'd vs LHPs (.877 OPS in those games) Splits: vs RHPs: .734 (not bad) vs LHPs: 1.042 (super great) When Young returns, I feel he needs to start vs ONLY and EVERY LH'd starter. He's been great vs lefties for many years. His career splits are: .884/.705.

Agreed, but once healthy and in stride, he has to be in the line-up every time a lefty starts, and with our OF looking pretty darn good/great, sitting an OF'er so Young can play should not happen very often. That leaves DH as his only available spot to start vs LHPs (more next year than this year, of course, since Papi is still here).

Anybody notice JBj has homered in 4 of his last 6 games? He had a day off before the six.

4 cities in 5 days/ 3 flights in 4 days and we almost won 'em all (4-1)! This team has grit.