S5Dewey

The thing that bothers me about Beni is that he makes mistake after mistake that, if he were a high school player, his coach would be all over him. This guy has played in the SEC (a pretty good brand of baseball!) and three levels in the minors and he's still making mental errors. After playing that much ball wouldn't doing the right thing usually be automatic??

Then we'll disagree.

You're right. I had Castillo in mind. Both he and Swihart are in their own Catch-22 situations. My bad. I'll blame it on getting confused by names that end in O.

So are you admitting that it's partially responsible?

Yes he is.

He's somewhat stuck in no-man's land right now, somewhat like Machado but for different reasons. IMO the Sox would like nothing better than to send him down to Pawtucket to try to salvage his career but they can't because of the options thing. Of course the reason players are limited to three option years is to prevent the FO from storing quality players in AAA until they're needed but this is an example of how the options clause works against some players.

I saw two hits (a double and a single) in one game that I'm confident JBJ would have gotten to, and one of them resulted in a run being scored. I wouldn't attribute all of the increase in Runs Allowed to JBJ's not being in the OF but it's a contributing factor.

It'll be interesting to see how this shakes out. Cora's obviously not going to carry water for Carson Smith - or anyone else, I think. OTOH, one of the best strengths of both Farrell & Tito was that they covered for their players when they said something.... er... controversial.

There are some things I just plain don't understand. I honestly don't have a man-crush on Swihart - I have no vested interest in whether he plays or doesn't play - but I do think the FO is overlooking something or else there's something going on with Swihart that we're not seeing. How does a player go from being the #1 catcher (ahead of Leon) when Vaz needed TJ surgery to being expendable now? IIRC Swi's biggest problem was in blocking balls in the dirt and his biggest asset was with his bat. Has he forgotten how to hit? Isn't it worthwhile to work with a catcher who can hit (for a catcher) to help him in blocking balls in the dirt? There are some things I just plain don't understand, I guess.

Here's one I hadn't heard until this morning. http://bangordailynews.com/2018/05/16/sports/boston-red-sox/red-sox-manager-surprised-by-pitchers-injury-comment/

Oh man... what would we ever do without these fans of other clubs dropping by to point out any and all potential problems the Sox might have?

Hahahaha. Leave it to Harmony to find a cloud in Mookie's performance. The good news may be that we have three hitters at the bottom of the order who are below their career norms, so they'll regress to their norm at the same time Mookie does. I think if I were a Mariners fan I'd be more concerned about who's going to fill that 2B spot for the next 80 days (and into the playoffs if they make it that far) than I would be concerned about Mookie and the Boston Red Sox. But that's just me.

I completely agree with this. It's why I don't understand why they don't do Blake a favor and cut him loose - get whatever they can and do both of them a favor. Unless it's because of the salary thing. We ARE dangerously close to the big limit.

And your argument comes down to completely statistics and I happen to be one to believe that there's more to baseball than statistics. Even Fangraphs has a statistic for "clutch", something that's been discussed ad nauseum here, and I believe that some players perform better in clutch situations than others do - but according to some it's not statistically provable. But that doesn't stop me from believing it or Fangraphs from calculating it. I DO completely get what WAR is attempting to measure and I believe that on the whole it's fine. It's just that like any other "hard number" there are exceptions to it - extenuating circumstances, if you will - that contribute to the statistic that are unquantifiable. I've been saying for years that I wish there were some quick and easy (and understandable) way to compare one player's total worth to another, but I still don't see it happening. There are too many variables and unquantifiable things that go into human beings playing baseball. IMHO WAR is great for historical data and for predicting what a player might do over an entire season but it's essentially worthless (that may be a bit of hyperbole ) when it comes to predicting what a player will do in any AB or in any ball hit to him. Those things are the result of the makeup of the player. (Example: Jose Iglesias has all the skills in the world as a SS but I've read that his problem is focus. And in a totally unrelated thing, have you noticed how many players when interviewed seem to have some of the ADHD thing going on?

That may be exactly what he needs right now to get his game back together again. Remember, at one time he and Vaz were neck-and-neck for the starting catching position in Boston. I see it as being entirely possible that with the right tutor he could be an average catcher with a better than average bat (for a catcher). Players have made a career out of that. The thing is, he's not getting any younger and if he's going to do that he needs to be cut loose from the Sox so he can have a chance to do it. IMO the reason he's still with the team is because 1) he has no options left, and 2) he's the insurance in case Vaz or Leon gets hurt. That puts him in what someone else has called a tough spot. He wants to be traded but the FO won't trade him because they MIGHT need him.

I wouldn't. And I wouldn't want to have an argument based solely on statistics either. Which has been my point all along.

If the only criteria we can use to rate players is statistics we may as well shut this forum down because most of what we talk about is opinion-related.

I can't, except to say that I haven't seen every other RF'er this year either so maybe Mookie isn't as good out there as we think he is. That's where the eye test comes in. If we're going to say that JBJ isn't as good as I think he is because I haven't seen every other CF it also has to be said that Mookie may not be as good as I think he is because I haven't seen every other RF'er either. Nor have I did I see every other 2B during Pedey's prime nor did I see Roberto Clemente play a lot of games in his prime but I still believe these two were outstanding players. Many of us have seen enough players to recognize excellence when we see it. It's like what Potter Stewart said about pornography. I can't define it but I know it when I see it.

I have to wonder how one reconciles the fact that according to WAR JBJ is a AAAA player with the fact that he's ranked in the middle of the pack for CF'ers. Doesn't that mean that half the CF'ers in MLB are AAAA or below?

That may be the Crown Jewel of the whole discussion. Who you gonna believe, those statistics or your own lyin' eyes?

Yep. That pretty much says it. As Mookie goes so go the Sox. Of course, that may be able to be said about other players but it seems especially pertinent to Mookie. As an aside, that .816 OPS in losses is something many players would only aspire to.

That's pretty much what I posted the other day - that what's going on now isn't productive for either Swihart or the Red Sox. If I'd been in Swihart's shoes I'd have been asking to be traded before now.

Since I'm the guy who was being called out for not understanding WAR I'll respond... I strongly question how many people here actually do understand WAR and how it's calculated, and how many people take WAR on blind faith. Unless you understand each of these computations can you actually say you UNDERSTAND War? https://www.fangraphs.com/library/war/war-position-players/ https://www.fangraphs.com/library/war/calculating-war-pitchers/ Go ahead. Open the links. Read them, and tell me with a straight face that you understand each and every calculation. Unless you can understand any and each of the calculations that go into WAR you don't truly understand it - and I certainly don't claim to. You're accepting it at face value. Until one truly understand how things are calculated they don't recognize the potential flaws in it and there are several, especially as it pertains to outfielders. If a player plays half of his games in an expansive outfield he will get more credit for running balls down simply because there are more balls to be run down in a big outfield. Conversely, if a player plays half of his games in a small outfield his WAR may be lower than if he played in a larger one because WAR only calculates the distance the player has to run to get to the ball. Hence it will appear the player has less range than he really does. I have never completely discounted the value of WAR, I've only said that it needs to be used in conjunction with other methods of "scouting".

@ jad... Do you want to break the news to him about sarcasm, or should I?

He may be a genius but he's got absolutely no f***ing social skills and if he wants to be heard, believed and respected he'd better start polishing those up a bit. Of course, if he reads this he'll dismiss it out of hand because he's so arrogant he's certain that he's right and everyone else is wrong.