illinoisredsox

Got to wonder if somthing is wrong with Brentz.

That's what I'm wondering. Brentz in left; Holt has done a decent job in right in previous years.

Then enlighten us on what you would have done differently (and of course, you can guarantee perfect results, right).

Are you actually watching the game? He gave up one legit hit, a hard hit fly ball to right that should have been caught for the 3rd out and a bloop to left that could have been caught for the 3rd out. The Sox make either play and he gave up no runs. He's been awful overall this year but this was hardly a bad outing. Layne gave up a ground ball single and an infield hit. Let's not pretend either was giving up rockets all over the yard. Tell us what you would have done instead (with the results guaranteed).

How many perfectly placed balls can the Twins have this inning? That's at least 3.

He should have been in the dugout with no runs scored. Defense this inning is horrible.

No, his psyche is such that he can't handle adversity. Innings snowball on him because of it.

On a ball that should have been caught and a bloop that could have been. The expectations by some of you are stupid. Andf I have no issue releasing/trading Buchholz.

Looked safe on my intial look (no replay)

Plus is it was the second straight decent outing by ERod. I'll take my chances in any game when the starter gives up 2 runs in 6 innings.

Ah, who hit into the DP? Ortiz hits the same ball Ramirez did and it might have tied hit up.

If we are lucky, we will see the Twins closer in the 9th. They might have a better shot at him.

Folks I posted it weeks ago and I'll post it again: Any pitcher at the major league level has the ability to shut down any team at any time. The difference between the bad ones and the great ones are how often they can do it.

You do realize this is 4 game set, right? The worst teams in modern MLB history (I'm talking 62 Mets bad) win 1 out of 4.

Agree. I'm not going to use numbers, I'm going with the eye test. As an old first sacker, I've noticed 2 fairly big weaknesses in Hanley Hanley stretches way too early. He appears to stretch and then find the ball when you really need to do the opposite. That means when throws are not exactly on the money, he is forced to make the play look more difficult than it would look if a more experienced first baseman were there. He's athletic enough to pull it off, but he shouldn't have to. Hanley's other major weakness is throws, especially to 2nd. I don't get to see every game, but I don't recall the Sox turning any 3-6-3 or 3-6-1 DPs this year, and the reason is ususally HanRam's weak throws to 2nd. He fears hitting the runner and thus aims the ball instead of gunning it (in stark contrast that to the throw he made home against the Giants the other night on the 3-2 tag DP). Now it's understandable because as an infielder on the left side, he never had to make a throw around or past a runner going to the base he was throwing to. As an old catcher, Napoli made that throw often to first on dropped 3rd strikes so not a big change for him.

Since your mind is made up anyway, I doubt there's anything anyone could say that , in your opinion, would refute anything you said on this subject.

Not to mention that Junichi has warmed up multiple times and not come in to pitch in the game. I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but seldom if at all has Koji done this.

Not sure I agree at 1B. I think people forget how good Napoli was that year. Hanram has a higher BA, but Napoli's OPS was 45 points higher than Hanley's is right now and the other night not withstanding, 2013 Napoli is the better defensive player. Napoli also is/was the better baserunner (I'm not talking about speed, but he was a smart baserunner and never had the brain farts out there that Hanley seems to have all too often). I call it a wash at best, and IMO a slight edge to Naps. Pedroia 2013 and 2016 are also a wash pretty much a was, but I'll go with the 2013 version if only defensively, because 28 yo Pedey had slightly better range than his 31 yo counterpart. Catcher is a really tough call. Leon >> Salty on defense, but offensively, Salty struck out a ton; he also had 40 doubles that year. Leon isn't going to keep this up (nobody ever has in the history of the game) and when he crashes back to Earth it isn't going to be pretty. The 2013 team was a veteran team that seemingly was better than the sum of its parts. This year's team has more raw talent, but the operative word there is raw.

Actually, you hit on the answer. You just have to leave the starter in for 6 innings minimum every game, no matter what. Of course, that leads to other issues, but it does allow one to ration bullpen innings.

I think it helped that the homer was the type of hit it was (liner that was not guaranteed to go out); it made Hanley have bust it out of the box right away. There may have been a staredown had it been a moonshot.

Especially in the AL. In the NL during an inning that long, the pitcher at least gets to break up the monotony by going to the on-deck circle and the batters box for a couple minutes. He wasn't that sharp before the 4th. It just caught up to him that inning. I think the fact that he hadn't pitched since July 7th played a big factor (although he won't say it did). That's a long time off for any pitcher to go without live action. The guy posted an ERA under 2.5 and made the NL All-Star team; I doubt he forgot what he was doing on his cross-country flight.

Agreed. Deleted the one I added because it does not belong in this forum and I have no wish take the thread off course. Now back to trade talk.

To be fair, that inning was weird. If I remember right, yeah, there were the home run bombs, but Green's hit was either a grounder or a bloop(?) and the last 2 combined may have reached 3rd base. I'll chalk it up to being a little amped up and not having pitched in nearly 2 weeks.

Always remember the requirements for any new member of the Red Sox. You must start out like Ted Cox and then morph into Fred Lynn. Anything less than that is unacceptable.

Baylor for Easler prior to the 1986 season was the last one that involved impact players directly, and there have been a total of 3 deals since. http://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/trade-partners.cgi?franch_ID_1=BOS&franch_ID_2=NYY