illinoisredsox

That unfortunately has been all too true over the past couple decades.

He came over to the Red Sox from the Giants in the Peavy trade in 2014. Yes, he spent some time at Pawtucket but he was not drafted by the Sox.

You just don't get the fact that Swihart is NOT a good catcher. If he were, he'd be playing the position. He was bad in 2015 when he caught half the season. And in the eyes of the professionals, he hasn't gotten any better. This isn't some conspiracy to keep him from playing. He's not good. And although his chances offensively have been few, he hasn't taken advantage of the opportunities he's had. When you are in his position, you have to.

I'm assuming you left the Texas Con Man off on purpose.

They were sort of down to duress. The bench players that afternoon were Bryce Brentz, Aaron Hill, Sandy Leon, David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez It all happened in the 6th: Hill hit for Brock Holt and doubled. Later in the inning, Brentz was announced for David Price. The Dodgers changed pitchers and David Ortiz hit for Brentz, drawing a walk. Betts singled Ortiz to 2nd (he was the tying run). At that point, Farrell wanted to run for Ortiz to try and tie the game up, so he used Wright with the bad result we all know. So at that point, it was leave Ortiz on, use your other catcher or send Hanley in to run and lose his bat for later (and the pitchers spot was due up one more time) The screw up was not using a pitcher for the role, but in using a guy who never runs the bases. Pomeranz, having just come over form the NL, was far more experienced in that regard, and had, as someone pointed out, pinch run a couple time earlier that year with the Padres plus run the bases as a hitter. I can't remember if Kelly was on the roster at that point, but he would have been a possible choice as well.

It was actually a Free speech related case ini 1964. Stewart never actually used "pornography" or "obscenity" in his concurrence, at least in that part of it. The whole quote was: "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." To avoid taking this into the politics realm, here's a little more about it: https://corporate.findlaw.com/litigation-disputes/movie-day-at-the-supreme-court-or-i-know-it-when-i-see-it-a.html Beyond that, your opinion is yours and this isn't the forum to discuss it one way or the other. The applicability to baseball is you don't need stats to know that Trout or Betts is a great player, you know it when you see it, (but the stats certainly back up the "see it".

Actually, it's not. The dictionary definition is easy; saying x or y is this or that isn't. What you perceive as porn or art or whatever may not match what I think those are. I have little use for modern art; I just don't get it. I would not even define it as art. But others don't see it that way. And that's fine.

Need to add that tongue in cheek emoticon :-J to the smiley choices.

And that's fWAR. Baseball Reference (bWAR) uses similar principles, but the methodology is a little different. And Baseball Prospectus' version (WARP) is a little different again. So the generic use of WAR is ambiguous.

Baseball Reference.com has almost any information you might want: Batting by Game https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=bettsmo01&t=b&year=2018 Under Splits, it also lists the info for Game Outcome for Team: In wins, he's played in 25 games, in those, he's hitting .417, OBP of .491, Slugging ..896, OPS of 1.387. 10 doubles, 12 homers In losses, he's played in 12 games. .244/.327/.489/.816, 6 doubles and 1 homer.

There still seems to be a few "oldtimers" (not all) who have issues with the "newbies", many of whom have been here 2 years now.

If he were still with the Yankees, they (Torre & Company) would have given him a $12M bonus.

Since the All-Star break last July, he's hitting .193/.272/.287/.559. 9 doubles, a triple, 7 homers and struck out 100 times in 97 games. Some of that OBP is because he's been HBP 11 times.

As I posted earlier, career-wise, JBJ is 0-6 with 3 K's against Manaea in 6 PAs. For the season, he's got a .088/.139/.237 slash line against southpaws. So yes, putting him in against a lefty who he's had no success against could work against confidence.

Maybe a GITP?

This has got to stop. If Swihart were anything resembling a decent catcher, he would have been given a shot. He caught in 83 games in 2015 (78 starts); he was not good. He was horrible at balls in the dirt. My guess is that has not improved. He has caught 1 inning this year. He is listed on the roster as an outfielder. I have no idea if he caught at all in spring training, but he's listed in those stats as an outfielder and he certainly didn't catch much if he did. He isn't going to cut it as a catcher; people need to start accepting that and stop pretending we see something that the professionals (Cora, and the rest of the staff) don't.

According to SoxProspects, he does have 1 left, and with 3 years service time, he can't turn down the assignment. But he didn't exactly light it up in AAA in 2014 when they sent him down under similar circumstances and you really have to wonder how he would take it now. As I've written, his hitting woes have crossed 2 managers and 3 hitting coaches.

Exactly. Somebody posted it over the past couple days but it bears repeating: 2004, Sox went 16-14 in May, 11-14 in June and 14-12 in July (41-40 for 3 months and half a season) 2007, Sox went 13-14 in June, 15-12 in July and 16-13 in August (44-39 for 3 months and half a season, they also went 16-11 in September) As I recall, those years both ended pretty nicely.

Definitely an art to it. There was a reason Mirabelli caught Wakefield almost exclusively. Remember the Wakefield/Varitek high wire act in extra innings in game 5 of the 2004 ALCS? Varitek had 3 passed balls which easily could have ended the game and never given Ortiz a chance to drop one in from of Williams in the 14th. And that was Varitek at his defensive peak.

I'm guessing the fact that JBJ vs. Manaea is 0-6 with 3 Ks and slashing .088/.139/.237 this year against southpaws may have factored into the decision. Not sure which would be worse, he goes 1-3 and sits or he plays and looks awful at the plate (again), which could undo whatever good thoughts he had from the day before.

Perfectly true, except that Cora somehow was supposed to know that Porcello wouldn't have his best stuff before the game started? Or, assuming he figured it out in the 1st or 2nd or even 3rd inning and decided to put Bradley in, who do you remove, Benni, Martinez or Betts?

He missed the day they taught logic in logic class. He also wants to dump Leon AND Vazquez and use Swihart behind the plate.

How was that an error on the pitcher?

Got to be for real. He has options, they could have just sent him down for the same 10-day stint. If it were Johnson or Hembree, it would be a possible phantom move.

Wright activated, Velazquez to the DL with a strained back: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23504207/dustin-pedroia-boston-red-sox-begin-rehab-assignment As well as Velazquez has pitched, maybe a few of the pen guys should strain their backs as well.