Nick

I'm a Dalbec fan. I'm perfectly happy with him batting 9th all year. I would just leave him alone. His struggles have been magnified due to Cordero and before May, Renfroe. Dalbec hit in 2020 so I'm inclined to give him longer leash. We can always platoon him, too. He's hitting lefties just fine.

Per MasLive Sale in good spirits Cora spoke with left-hander Chris Sale (recovering from Tommy John surgery) earlier this week and said Sale was in good spirits. He continues to work out at Fenway South and threw off the mound for the first time last Tuesday. Cora didn’t disclose what the next steps are for Sale but did note he is throwing aggressive flat ground sessions in preparation for longer bullpens. “He’s feeling good about it,” Cora said. Finally pitched off the mound.

Great point on Whitlock.

Both teams now 23-16. Red Sox with +36 run differential. Athletics with -13 run differential. We're more fun to watch.

A's came into the series with-10 run differential. Unbelievable. This is typical Sox offense. It knows how to pile on.

No comparison between the two. Kim Novak was beautiful. Angie was sexy in her prime.

Not complaining but.. Can someone with pitching background explain to me how the Sox is stretching out Whitlock? He pitched 2 innings on May 7th. He's pitching into 3rd inning tonight. Do you get stretched out throwing in the pen? Two innings every 6 days does not seem to be 'stretching' in my opinion. How do you stretch out a guy? Or is everything about Whitlock being on the team simply because of Rule 5 and the team is just babying him due to his recent injury? I just think he's being under utilized.

Just woke up from a nap.....very good night Chavis with 2 hits Dalbec with a homer Richards pitching strong Whitlock coming out for his second inning Yankees getting beat life is good

It should be noted that Bloom thinks Durran has chance to be great as a center fielder. Bloom is the head of baseball operations.

good summary on Matt Barnes, 2021 version....I posted this on another thread but everyone seems to be here. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/matt-bar...-simple-trick/ Quick Discussion on throwing 1st pitch strike and swinging at 1st pitch strike. "When batters connect, they do more damage, as evidenced by the wOBAcon column (league average hovers around .370 in most years). That offsets the whiffs and fouls, such that the overall run value is slightly in the hitter’s favor. In other words, if you throw a pitch in the strike zone and the batter swings, you’re losing out on the deal. That’s only half the equation, though. When batters don’t swing, well, it’s a celebration. The loss in expected production after a first-pitch strike is massive. It works out to roughly four runs per 100 plate appearances, 10 times better for the pitcher than a first pitch swing is bad. Unless batters are swinging over 90% of the time at strikes, the zone is the place to live on first pitches. Unsurprisingly, batters aren’t swinging over 90% of the time. They’re swinging at 0-0 pitches in the zone 44% of the time so far this year, the highest mark since pitch tracking started in 2008. That development is a step in the right direction on the offensive side, because letting a first pitch strike fly by is disastrous, but hitters would need to swing a lot more before flooding the zone stopped making sense." In essence the article is saying that unless hitters swing at almost every first pitch strike, advantage goes to pitcher throwing the first pitch strike. Good read. Any thoughts from posters with pitching knowledge? How far do you go from offensive perspective? Do you chance a pitcher getting through 3 innings on 9 pitches by swinging at every first pitch strike?

Outstanding!!

I read comment attributed to E Rod how much better he felt pitching last night compared to previous start. The bottom line is he gave up 4 earned runs in six innings, despite nine strike outs and his velocity being up. I'm talking about the future of this ball club. Every half inning we go from offense to defense. On defensive inning, the pitcher controls the game. He knows how much his offense is scoring, he has to match opposition's pitcher. I don't care what E Rod said but he simply failed to keep up with other starting pitcher. Is he our ace? Is he good enough to defeat the Yankees going up against G Cole twice in a five game series? Even with Sale returning somewhat to his former self, long term, we need a better #1. Assignement for Moon who is really good at these things. Select #1 for each team in AL. Where would E Rod rank? How do they fare in close games? Getting 8 run support to me is a meaningless game.

I didn't care about Moncada but I sure hated to lose Kopech. No regrets with Sale coming over.

good summary on Matt Barnes, 2021 version https://blogs.fangraphs.com/matt-barnes-one-simple-trick/ Quick Discussion on throwing 1st pitch strike and swinging at 1st pitch strike. "When batters connect, they do more damage, as evidenced by the wOBAcon column (league average hovers around .370 in most years). That offsets the whiffs and fouls, such that the overall run value is slightly in the hitter’s favor. In other words, if you throw a pitch in the strike zone and the batter swings, you’re losing out on the deal. That’s only half the equation, though. When batters don’t swing, well, it’s a celebration. The loss in expected production after a first-pitch strike is massive. It works out to roughly four runs per 100 plate appearances, 10 times better for the pitcher than a first pitch swing is bad. Unless batters are swinging over 90% of the time at strikes, the zone is the place to live on first pitches. Unsurprisingly, batters aren’t swinging over 90% of the time. They’re swinging at 0-0 pitches in the zone 44% of the time so far this year, the highest mark since pitch tracking started in 2008. That development is a step in the right direction on the offensive side, because letting a first pitch strike fly by is disastrous, but hitters would need to swing a lot more before flooding the zone stopped making sense." In essence the article is saying that unless hitters swing at almost every first pitch strike, advantage goes to pitcher throwing the first pitch strike. Good read.

Basically, Cordero, Franchy, Dalbec and to some extent Kike has underperformed. Someone must be the first to go. To me Dalbec gets some leniency because he was projected to be our #9 hitter. You can wait on one player but not 3/4 players. Bottom line is other than Dalbec, other three do not have any history with Sox organization. May 12th is early to give up on anyone for sure, but not when at least 3 are faltering at the same time. Maybe Renfore is coming out it. Again, Cordero is first out to me. And Franchy as options.

Tuesday was the first game ever played at Polar Park in Worcester, and if it was any indication there are going to be balls hit out of that park on a regular basis. The two sides combined for six home runs, with two of them coming off the bat of Duran. The outfield prospect who is perhaps the prospect with the most fan anticipation right now has had some issues putting balls in play early on this year, already with 11 strikeouts in seven games. But it doesn’t matter when he’s hitting the all like this, and he’s at a .962 OPS on the year. It doesn’t sound like they’re in any major rush to bring him up, but he’s showing that he can make an impact at the plate whenever they’re ready. I rather watch this guy with plus, plus speed than Cordero.

I think above captures the essence of our weakness. Good energy, good bench guy, Kike, does not make a player. And we made him a leadoff hitter all on HOPE. Cora fell in love with Marwin for his ability to play multiple positions. Again, someone has already pointed out to me that the Renfore is a career .230 hitter. Cordero, just unfortunate that we put such a burden on him. I'm a big Dalbec fan but his slow start is highlighted even more because of lack of production from #7-#1 hitters. I thought we could simply hide him in the #9 spot. Problem is 1B is an offensive position. You can't have a gold glove, .180 hitter on first. (yeah I know he's probably not a gold glove guy) Last night in the game thread, someone basically told me to f*** off when I pointed out our lack of production out of 4 hitting spots. He said how can you complain when we lead the lead in many offensive categories? Well, all of us are relatively intelligent. We're fans and we want the team to succeed. Even on May 12th, we see that team needs to some tweaking. Unfortunately we have two players hurt. Quick fix is to make Kike full time outfielder. He's better than Cordero. So that's an improvement. Insert Arroyo/Chavis at 2B. Find a platoon partner for Dalbec. We don't need 4 guys that can play 7 positions. We need a guy that can play one position well. I'm with MVP on this. Again, I'm happy with Bloom. But not to make adjustments when it's needed is unacceptable.

Geez, ease up buddy. I'm worry that it's not sustainable..... WTF, Go sell tough eleswhere? Did someone run over your cat today?

other than strike out

we got a shot....need Marwin to do something

Well, Eovaldi did his job.....6 innings, 1 run.

Or Vaz...

No chance to score this inning unless Devers hits one out.

Perez was pulled after five with 74 pitches. Eovaldi at 85. You bet your sweet ass Eovaldi will return for inning 6.

Despite my complaints, Eovaldi is pitching a one hitter.