illinoisredsox

No, it's been around since at least 2004. Now, there are a few "veterans" here who would just as soon see all the BDC expatriates go away, but that's a different story.

We know that Hanley handle first base (so long as he's healthy and so long as he doesn't have to throw the ball anywhere). We have no idea if Martinez can play the position , or if he's even willing to try.

There's also a huge difference between an 84 loss season (which will rarely net you last place) and stringing 3 consecutive seasons of 106, 107 and 111 losses.

Meh. Pass on Davis. People here complained about Pedroia's .760 OPS last year, Davis managed a .732 and that's with hitting 26 homers. Heck, Hanley put up a .750. Davis also has a contract that runs through 2022 at an average value of $23Mper ($161M for 7 years) and he's trended down offensively the last couple years. This one will end very ugly. The Sox can do better.

Cora has begun naming his coaches: • Ron Roenicke has been named bench coach. • Tom Goodwin will serve as the club's first-base coach and outfield instructor. He will also coordinate baserunning instruction. • Carlos Febles has been named the club's third-base coach and infield instructor. • Dana LeVangie will return to the Major League staff as bullpen coach. He will also continue to serve as the club's catching coordinator and assist in advance scouting. Hitting and Pitching Coaches yet to come. http://m.redsox.mlb.com/news/article/260459976/red-sox-announce-additions-to-coaching-staff/

I saw several of their players here in the Quad Cities when they were in A ball. Correa, McCullers and Davenski were all here in 2013 while Bregman, Musgrove and Fisher passed through in 2015. There were a couple others who played a few games with the Astros this season; they could have been late season call-ups though.

A mode that would never be tolerated in Boston.

1. Terry Francona (no question) 2. Joe Morgan (2 divisions with not a lot of talent, who can forget "these guys aren't as good as they think they are" after he was let go) 3. Jimy Williams (went back and forth between him and JF, in the end, the 2 last place finishes knocked Farrell down) 4. John Farrell (1 title is a big plus) 5. John McNamara (2 mediocre seasons sandwiched around what should have been the year) 6. Darrell Johnson (1 pennant and lost to the Big Red Machine, but he never should have pinch hit for Willoughby in Game 7) 7. Kevin Kennedy (1 unexpected division title) 8. Don Zimmer (would have been higher had the wild card existed, who knows what could have happened) 9. Grady Little (blew the 2003 pennant) 10. Ralph Houk (defined mediocrity) 11. Butch Hobson (ranks above the other 2 only because of the talent he had, see Joe Morgans comment above) 12. Bobby Valentine (disaster with a very good team on paper) 13. Joe Kerrigan (the fact that he only lasted about 40 games says a lot) I limited my list to guys I actually could judge (I remember Dick Williams and Eddie Kasko, but I really have no basis on which to judge them, Williams caught lightning in a bottle in 67 but did little else, Kasko = Ralph Houk as near as I can tell). Guys like Pesky and Eddie Popowski, who managed but a handful of games, don't count.

It may work out(it probably will) but this is overmanaging by Roberts.

Excellent point about his avatars. Kimmi and other female posters could certainly claim they show a hostile posting environment. And our recently fired manager was about as white as wonder bread; articulate is not an adjective that comes to mind when describing John Farrell.

These pens suck. Talk about choke (both ways).

This is why you don’t take your starters out too early. If I’m Hinch for game 6, Verlander goes until his arm falls off (and Vetlander is liable to refuse to come out if Hinch tries to take him out).

I want to say it was 1970 but it may have been 1971, the Orioles had 4 20 game winners. Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally and Pat Dobson.

There were several hard hits on balls well outside the strike zone as well. Like I said, the Yankee pitchers have been good but there have been mistakes that the Astros have just flat out missed. They weren’t missing them against the Sox.

Too bad these Astros didn’t show up in the Red Sox series. Yeah the Yankee pitchers have been good but they are missing hittable pitches as well. Against the Sox, they were squaring up everything, in and out of the strike zone. Their defense has sucked this series as well.

Without Sale, the Sox are not even sniffing the postseason. There would have been no need to acquire a Darvish/Verlander at the deadline. Darvish was not doing all that great this year in Texas. He's pitched much better with the Dodgers, but when he left the Rangers, there was no indication that he would do so. He is also a free agent after this year, which, along with his season performance at that point, was one reason he came relatively cheap. If he signs in the NL, let's see what happens when the National League has seen him a time or two. Verlander had no desire to leave Detroit; as a 10-5 guy he had complete veto power. He had to be talked into going to the Astros; basically they sold him on a shot at a title. Again, without Sale, the Sox are not in a position to have a shot. He is signed for roughly $22M per through 2019; that would have been a huge luxury tax hit in a year when they were trying to reset it. His was a salary dump on the part of the Tigers.

Nice move of the goalposts. You cited THIS year's after 0-1 OPS, so I cited THIS year's first pitch OPS. If you want to post the numbers for his career, go ahead. We get it, you dislike Pedroia intensely. Really, we get it. I think everyone here acknowledges he's not the player he once was and never will be again. But right now, he's still the best all-around 2nd baseman on the roster, and he's not going anywhere in 2018 unless he chooses to retire. Good day.

His OPS when putting the first pitch into play was .550. Acknowledging that neither is good, which would you rather have, his OPS on 0-0 or the one on 0-1?

Actually, using your stats, Bogaerts was slightly less likely to "swing" at the first pitch (Bogies was at 4.6%, Pedroia 4.75%). I put swing in quotes because those stats only reflect how often an outcome results from the first pitch (how often the ball is put into play, excluding HBP). They do not reflect if a batter swung and missed on the first pitch or fouled it off. Anecdotally, those probably didn't alter the numbers very much. No hard data to back that up, and I'm not going in and review every play-by-play to find out. The overall point remains, they are not doing themselves any big favors by taking virtually every first pitch. I don't think anyone is calling for a major overhaul, just a tweak in the thought process. If you get a particular pitch in a particular spot on the first one, hammer it. Otherwise, let it go. Make the pitcher adjust and try for that perfect strike (the kind you don;t want to swing at unless you have 2 strikes). That and learn to foul off tough 2 strike pitches.

May I assume you will disparage Mr. Betts (OPS of .670 after an 0-1 count this season) and Señor Ramirez (.666) with equal vigor?

I’m not saying that your 9 month scenario isn’t possible but one thing we have to remember: pro athletes are physical freaks who have access to world class facilities, therapists and trainers that us mere mortals can only dream of. They also have the time to train and rehab as much as needed to possibly accelerate recovery.

Ump missed a called strike 2 on Judge that changed that whole AB as well.

Yeah, certainly nothing like they played against the Sox. They get Headly like they should have and this inning is a lot different.

Yankees didn’t show much the first two games of this series either. Funny what good pitching can do.

No. But they do have to adjust to what pitchers are doing. No one is saying swing at a knee high fastball on the outside corner on the first pitch. But we all know that waaaay too often, that first pitch has become a get me over fastball right down the middle. That's the pitch they should be looking to hit hard. Make the pitcher have to paint the corner with that first pitch. Make the pitcher adjust. Bogaerts has taken this to new levels. I think I saw in Baseball Reference that the most likely count he saw this past season was 1-2, and it sure seemed like a lot of those were taken strikes. I amazed he hit as well as he did, but it also explains a lot of his weak contact. And if you still want to dive up pitch count, learn to foul off tough pitches. The Astros did this very well this season.