S5Dewey

OK. So from now on every time a hitter gets HBP the catcher has to run out and stand between the hitter and the pitcher. Let's keep track and see how often that actually happens.

I do have to say that this doesn't bode well for October baseball.

Excellent point. I hadn't thought of it that way. It's all about the culture and what they've learned.

come over here and say that!!

He could have, but it would have been unusual for a catcher to do that. Ordinarily the hitter goes to 1B and the game goes on. I don't fault Vaz for what happened. Vaz tried to tackle him from behind but missed.

That's much kinder than what I was going to say.

Suggestions?

. It could be anything. I have no expectations either way. The thing I've learned is that the fact that our medical team says something doesn't mean it's true. It doesn't mean it's not true either. It just means they said it.

I can't improve on the first two posts in this thread. I agree completely. I still and will always believe that "It's not me, it's them" led to the fracture in the clubhouse that Bogarts alluded to during the preseason.

I'm a Vazquez fan and always have been so I may not be as objective as you are. It looked to me like Vaz started walking behind Austin until Austin started to run, and then Vaz wasn't fast enough to catch him. I recognize the fact that Vaz runs like a catcher. LOL IMO Kelly plunked him on purpose and I like it. After what happened between Machado and Pedey it's important that other teams don't think it's open season on our infielders.

Well, the good news is that JBJ is still in CF so only one position has been weakened, unlike the day JBJ had a rest and Beni was moved to CF to accommodate JDM.

10 degrees warmer and it's out.

My bad. We're on our way to 150-12 and we should be very excited about that. Sometimes it's hard to tell the jerkfaces from the good guys.

Or maybe having JDM in the order provides protection for them.

One of my all time favorite movies.

Look, I like this team but let's not lose sight of the fact that we've played two of the supposedly weakest teams in baseball to get 8 of those wins. I know I probably have posted this before because it's one of my personal favorites, but.... "Let's not start sucking each other's dicks quite yet". There's still a long season ahead.

Pedey makes that play.

But that's the problem. We don't know how the season ends until it ends. I say that if Hanley is crushing and we're solidly in the race I don't care how many AB's (or PA's, whatever it is) Hanley gets as long as we make the playoffs. You only get a few chances at that ring and if you have a legitimate shot I say you go for it!

This goes back to the fact that some posters here don't think that having an elite closer is important, which also may go back to the old argument of "clutch". If you don't think players are clutch then you don't think you need an elite closer to get them out late in the game. You can just throw any old guy out there (Kelly, Barnes, Ross) in the 9th to get the hitters out. We'll know these pitchers will be successful because the stats tell us that over the run of a season the hitters they'll be facing get a hit fewer then one time in three. Statistically one of the three hitters due up will reach base and three of the first four will make outs. Problem solved - statistically. Frankly, it's beyond me why anyone could look at what the Sox did with Papelbon, Folk and Koji, the Yankees did with Rivera, what Kimbrel did last year and even what the Guardians did with Andrew Miller - who wasn't really a closer but more of a Fireman, a guy with closer ability to put out the fire and get the game to their real closer Cody Allen - and think that their team has as good a chance of winning the WS without an elite closer as they do with one. We're paying David Price $30M a year because we recognize the value of an elite starter, JD Martinez almost $24M a year because we recognize the value of power in our lineup, and yet we fail to recognize the value of having an elite closer. Having an elite closer isn't the only way to win but if you don't have one of those you'd better have what you do need and I don't see the Sox having the pitching, the hitting, or the defense to dominate without that closer. Some things are worth having and to get them you have to pay for them.

What that's doing is taking a previously shaky infield and making it shakier But it's not like we have any other good options. As they said in Argo, "It's the best bad idea we've got". Ugh

I dunnno.. it just seems like the FO has a habit of painting a very best case scenario for every injury, going way back to Buchholz and his "sleeping with the baby wrong". Buch started out as being listed day-to-day and then it turned into week-to-week and then to month-to-month. Then I think about Holt, Price, Wright... Does anyone on this team come back earlier than expected? Now when I hear the FO's estimates of how long a player will be out I just think.."Yeah. Maybe. That means nothing. He'll be back when he's back."

I just think the 10-14 days is more of the FO blowing their smoke. It does seem like they've often been wrong with their estimations, maybe so they don't show their hand to other teams. Or maybe to pacify the fans. Naw... they wouldn't do that!!

Every day.

That's too much to do that doesn't have to be done. Just let Lin & Nunez fight it out for the SS position and leave everything else intact. I'd like to get Swihart some meaningful time too but not at the expense of playing musical chairs with our fielders and disrupting one of the best outfields in baseball. you were asking for thoughts, right?

From NESN - a cracked bone in his ankle. 10 day DL. Lin has been called up. https://nesn.com/2018/04/xander-bogaerts-injury-red-sox-shortstop-placed-on-10-day-disable-list/ It's not as good as it could have been. I was hoping for a bruise or maybe he scraped the skin off the ankle bone. OTOH, it's not as bad as it could have been either. Some were talking about his Achilles. Alas, probably this means Iggy won't be coming home. (That was for you, MVP. )