S5Dewey

And while JBJ is a better CF'er than either of our catchers are at their position we have an entire thread dedicated to whether we should be trading JBJ. Go figure,

It's good to have Jerry back in the booth. I found Gomes to be trying too hard to be informative. I didn't watch every minute of every game on the west coast but I don't think Gomes ever told me anything I didn't already know.

Just as both can be incorrect.

That doesn't hold water. I don't think JDM is a good outfielder and yet he's on my team. I don't think Bogaerts is a good SS and he's on my team. Why would I think one player on my team is a good player and another isn't if I'm biased toward any player who's on the Red Sox? It just may be that some of us are able to tell a good player from a bad player regardless of what uniform they're wearing.

Maybe it's my paranoia kicking in, but there seems to be an attitude among the people who favor stats that their stats trump years of experience. They'll give lip service to the perspective of experience but 'when the rubber meets the road' they have much more faith in statistics than they do in those who've played and coached. IMHO stats and experience are equal - there's a good - and EQUAL - place for both. I've been following stats ever since Bill James' first Baseball Abstracts, the ones with the paper covers, and I've learned a lot about baseball from stats, but that doesn't mean that everything I know is statistically oriented. Before I retired I worked at a plant where the manufacturing process was part art and part science. We'd have people with an engineering degree straight out of college come into the plant and immediately tell the machine operators how to run their machines according to the operational statistics they'd learned in college. The thing they eventually learned is that their statistics only go so far. When both the engineers and the machine operators learned that there was room for both science and art in the manufacturing process the quality and quantity of our product improved. There was room for both there, as there is in baseball and to insist that either of them is "wrong" is foolhardy.

And I thought JDM's desire to play in the OF was the major holdup on his signing. When he finally decided that nobody was going to pay him as much as the Sox were (are) willing to pay him he decided that the money was more important to him than the opportunity to play defense. IIRC there was even some chatter here that he wanted to play in the OF to prove that he can do it so he can opt out later to a team that will let him play both ways. And ya... I don't see that working out well for him thus far. I agree that the most he should get would only to be playing in NL parks but I question whether that's what he expects. That raises the question of whether they're only playing him in the OF to keep him happy. And at the expense of having a better OF'er there? As to Nunez, he may be as good as JBJ out there but I wouldn't know. I've never seen him play even one defensive out in the outfield, which raises a parallel question of, if he's that good why isn't he out there in place of JDM? Holt seems to have the SS position locked up until XBo gets back, we've got Lin up now to play 2B, so why isn't Nunez in the OF when Cora wants to give an OF'er a day off and JDM in the DH spot?

Of course you are!!!

That's interesting. JBJ's OPS for April/May is a career .684 and for 2018 it's .689. Essentially the same number. Then it goes up to ~.800 for three of the next four months. (Don't ask me what happens in July -I have no idea). Then it falls off the table for Sept. & October. It could be that it takes him a while to 'tune up' and then he gets tired toward the end of the season. If so, getting him more rest now could pay off toward the end of the season. I just wish there were a better option than JDM in LF.

Whether they're right or not some people still put a lot of emphasis on wins. Look at any broadcast or any pregame write-up and the first thing that's mentioned about a pitcher is his W/L record. Somebody likes it.

So how do you reconcile your two most recent posts (#891 &894)? In one instance you're comparing a player's offensive contribution against his defensive contribution, but in the second one you're comparing him to everyone else in the league. It seems like a moving goalpost.

Now there's an interesting thought! Assuming that statement is true then if a player hits as many doubles as he prevents he's a "wash". In the case of JBJ it appears to my untrained eye that he prevents more hits (and doubles) than he provides, which makes him an overall plus.

Got data to back that statement up?

Trading him is such a bad idea that I have to wonder if this would even be discussed if there weren't a thread dedicated to it.

I'll say again what I said in ST. JDM doesn't look comfortable out there at all. He always makes the plays but I always hold my breath. IMO we can get by with him in LF if we have to but he should NEVER play CF or RF, especially in Fenway.

That may have been a hard sell to convince Tito of after the FO suggested that his use of pain killers affected his ability to manage.

I never understood the criticism Pedro got for that play. Zim put Pedro in an impossible situation. There is nothing Pedro could have done that would have been seen as right. "Duking it out" with Zim would have been a horrible mistake and instead Pedro ended it by pushing Zim to the ground. I keep wondering if all the Zimmer supporters are forgetting that Zim initiated the conflict with Pedro. Pedro defended himself in the best (and IMO the most respectful) way possible.

I think we can all agree that WAR can be a very valuable tool in determining the worth of each player. All except when it isn't. Even our beloved sabermatician Moon (no sarcasm intended) has said that Beni may be underrated in WAR because he plays LF in Fenway, which is extremely unlike any other ball park. Also, JBJ may also be underrated in WAR because his ability to go to 'the spot' quickly and make the catch may make it look like he has less range than he actually does.

It strikes me as being another solution in search of a problem.

Mal is my role model.

The biggest differences between Manny and JDM is that Manny was a better fielder and a better hitter. Do we really have so much confidence in our offense that we'd be willing to screw up what's one of the best overall outfields in baseball because our GG caliber DF'er is streaky?

Wow. Baltimore is 11 1/2 games back this morning and they've still got 141 games left to play. When do they throw in the towel and start shopping Machado? And when do they fire Showalter? :-)

It's got to be true though. After all, those people who rank defense for WAR purposes are "trained observers". They just haven't yet "observed" that he played RF in one game. I would never say WAR is worthless but it needs to be taken in context with other things like..... the eye test.

Does that concern anyone but me?

I hung on for another hour. When the Sox got that 8 run lead I decided to leave it in their hands and get sleep. (Honestly, I knew I was going to either sleep in the chair or in the bed and I chose the bed. )

Were you here for the "clutch" debate?