oldtimer

I once rented a car on the south island of New Zealand and went on a fly fishing vacation. Bridges down there at that time were sometimes narrowed to one lane. I forgot that the left side of the car extended so much father out with a right side driver's seating and came within inches of tattooing a bridge abutment.

Good job of kicking off the second half by pointing out where we have struggled and where we have improved. It appears the only moves likely to be made are for 1 or two relief pitchers. Maybe a starter could drop to us with a reliever and that would be okay. Knowing when Eovaldi will make it back would certaintly affect who we go for. (I still wonder why they waited until April to operate on the loose bodies in his arm). i usually comment that the facts are interesting, but what conclusions can be drawn from the first half results. I'll make a try. 1. Since we probably can't or won't bring in new position players, we will have to use who we have to get the best results possible. Hopefully we will get Moreland back to help us. 2. We should continue to monitor our position player performances during the second half to determine a course of action in the off season. 3. Depending on how we fare and whether we make a wild card slot (I don't kid myself to believe we will catch the Yankees), I would bring up our best young position players for a looksee. If we fall out of it I would give them enough PT to see if they can help us either in 2020 or as trade bait. 4. My current thinking on each player: a. Betts is playing well below expectations even given most expected some decline. Would try to keep him but not for the $300 Mil long term previously in the cards. b. JDM is still valuable to the team but if he exercises an option to walk, I would think his value going forward is declining c. Beni is doing well but not great. I would try to keep him and look for improvement. Otherwise, don't trade him. d. JBJ is a tough call. Do we want to keep him and pay big money or trade him for a alternative player. A lot will depend on how he goes during the second half. e. Holt is a bit fragile and is best kept in a utility role. He has proven to be worth keeping but not as a regular position player. f. Dever has become an emerging star and must be part of the team going forward. Probably remaining at 3rd but flexible. g. Moreland has been valuable when healthy but he appears to be quite fragile. I expect him to be replaced in 2020. h. Pearce is getting older and I expect him gone in 2020. Fragile and his skills appear to be dropping i. leon is an interesting case. He doesn't hit but is okay as a backup catcher. You have to ask what we could get as a backup that would be better. I'd consider looking but don't see it as a priority. j. Vazquez is one of the better catchers in the league and should not be traded under any circumstances. k. Nunez is an erratic fielding utility guy who can hit and help the team at times. I wouldn't consider him as a guy we will need on the 2020 team l. Chavis is a rookie and wasn't on the list because he didn't have stats last year. Like a lot of rookies he has problems but appears to be holding his own and may well help us in 2020 with an improving war number. Low cost players that can do what he is doing are needed on every team and I would want him back in 2020. Clearly we will need to solve our 2nd base issue next year and should have this year but for another questionable contract for Pedroia. Most of us believe Pedroia is gone for good. Does Hernandez or Chatham replace him or do we look for a FA to fill that void? We should have some money available to shore us the starting pitching and BP in 2020. As far as managment of the team is concerned, you gave fairly low marks. I tend to agree that Cora's preparation for the season and constantly weakening the lineup to rest players hasn't worked very well this year. DD has been contrained financially this year. He helped bring in the WS ring in 2018 but some of his moves have depleted our minors. I won't jump on him for this year but if our weakness persists, he has to share the blame as well as the credit for last year. Would like Moon's take on the pitching staff as well.

True. The current problem is that Cora has insufficient capability in the BP. Part of that may be becauswe of overuse but some is due to guys who can't handle high pressure situations. The job of management is to replace at least one and preferably 2 guys capable of pitching in the 8th and 9th. Be interesting to see if management can get something done.

Knuckleballers can pitch more than one inning. barnes is going through a tough period.

Both Betts and Lindor will soon be FAs. Both will get big money. Bogaerts is a good shortstop and a leader of the team but he could play 1st or 3rd if we had a star like Lindor. He is only 26. Would we pay the freight when he hits FA status?

Barnes is also having issues. Maybe Cora hasn't rested him enough? This team may be RIP for the playoffs.

There will be a lot of competition when he hits the FA market. I am thinking big as he would be a tremendous addition to our or anyone elses team.

He did get two doubles and scored the winning run last time out. I want him in the game.

I would be very reluctant to trade away any of our more solid players this year. We suffered through the worst of JBJ and now should utilize the best of him, certainly for the remainer of this year. Like Moon and most posters on the site, I would like to get a solid reliever, two if possible without going over the competitive balance tax second tier. For next season I would make some substantial moves while trying to keep our solid core. By that I mean Betts, Beni, Bogaerts, Devers, Vazquez. I think we need to clear some space with older and oft injured players like Pearce, Moreland Nunez. I'd play a wait and see attitude on JBJ. My big move, having cleared substantial cap room is to go after Francisco Lindor. I think he is a better player than even Betts. Imagine having him at short, Bogaerts at 3rd or first, same for Devers, and possibly Chavis for second or DH. Could we swing the money having cleared over $30 mil of space. I'd hope it would be a consideration. Pitching is not my forte. DD also has that struggle ahead of him.

I am begining to seriously question Cora not putting our best lineup in game after game. Always someone sitting it out. And the number of injuries is consistently high. I brought up Cal Ripkin playing in 2636 consecutive games as the record. We don't seem to have players in 20 games in a row never mind hugh numbers like Ripkin. It worked last year, but it doesn't seem to be working for us this year.

Beni has been hitting well. I hope Cora is not resting him tonight and that beni actually has a more substantial reason for not being in the lineup?

And right now its JDM who is struggling and Mookie to some extent as well. When the teams two top hitters struggle, its hard to put up crooked numbers. I think they will both come around but it may take them to the AS break to become the impact players we need.

No crooked numbers for this team. We need the big hit and of course the relieft pitching to hold up.

Whatever happened to the idea of playing every day? Cal Ripkin holds the record of 2632 straight. We have more guys either resting or on the IL then I can remember going back into the 40's. Devers, Holt, Moreland, Lin to name a few. We need to field a full team and keep it on the field. Bad backs, hamstrings, quads, stubbed toe, knees, etc. Cora has the idea of resting guys who are healthy. Does that work?

You have constantly urged we go out for at least one for the pen and if we can stay under the 2nd tier cap, two. Of course both the pen and the starters have had their issues but adding a meaningful starter looks to be beyond our resources. Of course some advocate blowing the top of the budget but I am not one of those. If we can get Eovaldi back soon and Stephen Wright can give us something, our starting issues aren't as significant anyway. We also need Hembree back ASAP as he has been better than a number of our BP. Many of us now believe we are playing for a WC, without much hope of catching the Yankees. So the moves that we could make are likkely to bring us a WC.

It's hard to ignore a horrendous loss to a so-so team. The relief pitching gave up 7 runs in 3 innings. Barnes has had his problems before as well. He has the physical capability to be effective and often is, but he also gets rattled and can completely lose it. We just don't have a reliable pen and I am all for at least one additional solid reliever. I don't see how we can get two, but two would be better.

Pretty clearly the BP gave the game away. HRs, walks , hit batsmen. A 5 run lead going into the 7th and bad performances by several relievers, including Barnes. I don't blame Cora for this, our pen just stunk it up and lost an opportunity to gain on the Rays.

A 170 hitter

The national league have far more players hitting for higer averages. The batting averages in the National league include pitchers batting every 9th time up when they don't get pinch hitters. That has to impact the overall team batting average.

I agree with your point. We already are the highest spending team in baseball. One would hope that management can avoid the unwise decisions that penalize the team. Panda's contract was an example. I felt Pedroia's and Rameriz's contracts were both unwise as well. We know these contracts all have risks and just hope we apply due diligence when taking players on. So far we have gotten great results because we made enough good moves to counter the bad and we also spent enough to counteract our miscues.

I would love to see some detail about when Eovaldi is coming back. We have a starter but just need to get him back into the rotation.

Any word on Devers? He has turned into one of our best hitters and we will miss his bat while the hamstring heals.

I know Mookie's BA is low this year, but I also notice that BA's in the American league are lower in general this year. If you look at the National League, theirs are higher. I don't know what causes the difference but it could just be the quality of the pitching. Anyone have a solid explanation?

When can Devers get back into the llineup?

He has taken a lot of inside fastballs that he would have crushed last year.