oldtimer

So, you would rather have Leon catching? Of course you give up one of our best hitters when you do that. Perhaps Sale is just not performing as well this year.

I'll have to look at Carmago, but it sounds like he is the kind of player we should be looking at. It admittedly results in a hole in the outfield so not a slam dunk.

I had earliier suggested that Eovaldi should have gotten his arm surgery done in the off season but others said I was off base so I went back and read the available material. It appears I was incorrect, as his Dr. Ahmad cleared him in November with an examination and an MRI. No problems at that point. It wasn't until throwing 6 innings against the Yankees that he came away unable to straighten his arm and with pain. At that time, he throught 2 weeks after the surgery he could resume activities and be back in a short time. Its now been 10 weeks, presumably because he also strained an arm muscle. He is throwing again, but his game is the high velocity fastball with movement. You have to wonder whether he can remain sound for long when he returns. I hope so but fireballers often go on the IL.

If you could trade Beni for a youngish quality second baseman, I would do it.

Devers has a long swing. The difference is that he makes solid contact.

I would also move him back to 9th unless and until he regains his form. Is it confidence or something physical issue. We don't know, but he certainly is slumping badly. The kid still has a lot of potential so even though I have no idea what is wrong, I would give him more time to right the problem.

Last night the pen gave up 4 in 3 innings and that is an improvement. The problem is obvious.

It's considered a good inning when when the pen only gives up 1.

Beni on the other hand seems lost at the plate. He needs to watch out of JBJ will pass him in BA. When your a hitter who lacks power, you need to be a guy with a high on base percentage. Beni seems like he isn't seeing the ball well. Lots of strikeouts and foul tips. He is not making solid contact.

I like the lineup with Betts, Devers, Bogey and JDM. Beni just isn't getting much done and Devers is a freak hitter. Better get all the runs we can as we know how diffiicult it is to hold a lead.

So why was Shawaryn broughht up if he was not thought of as one of the better prospects. His big problem nas been with location. He may still have value. Look at Tarpley of the Yankees. He was bombed by the Sox, et he will probably be pitching in the majors and be successful. These young guys need time and the real opportnity to show what

This is a team that is largely unchanged from the 2018 with the exception of Kimbrel and Kelly and the Operation on Eovaldi. Same manager and coaches. perhaps a few more injuries but no more than other teams, including the Yankees. It is also a team that spends the most of anyone in baseball to the extent that they are up against the second tier of the competitive balance tax. Why aren't they more competitive? Care to make any guesses? 1. Some of the better teams took action to improve while we stood pat. 2. Cora's plan to prepare the team to play appears to have fallen short. a. The starters weren't ready b. The BP got overworked c. Poor decision to let Eovaldi's operation to be delayed until April. d. Lack of any action to bolster the pitching staff after the loss of Kelly and Kimbrel 3. Some players have shown significant imrpovement (Bogey, Devers, Vazquez) while others have shown significant backsliding (Betts, Beni, JBJ for a long while). 4. The Pedroia issue was not addressed until Chavis was brought up 5. Cora's policy of resting players meant that we seldom put our A team on the field together. Despite all the rest we still produced a long IL. 6. Weak execution with RISP, Base Running, Fielding. Were some reading their newspaper clippings? 7. For a long while, the bottom hitters in the lineup just didn't contribute. Whose fault was it that we structured a team with that kind of problem? I can understand players getting discouraged after so many hard losses. Is there any spirit and enthusiasm left in this group? Did winning the WS foster an attitude of arrogance in the players. Cora is taking today to brainstorm with his coaches. Why has it taken this long to admit that there are big problems?

I don't like the idea of trading away our better young talent when it is unlikely to lead to post season success. We need to be taking a hard look at out outfield for 2020 and Duran may be one that will come along. I doubt that any team would want to take Pearce and Nunez. Cora still is saying the team can win the world series. He is fanticizing.

The premise of JH opening his wallet for still more players seems to me like throwing good money after bad. I doubt if any move we can make at this point will give us a chance to really compete for the WS. Fix what we have and try to rid ourselves of players that are not helping. At my company, you were either an A a B or a C employee. C employees were regularly turned over. Time to do that with some of ours while trying some youth who may blossom like Chavis has. He is not great but given a year of development he appears to be as valuable as Pearce and Moreland.

There is no rush to decide on Betts, unless someone is calling to trade him this season. I prefer to wait and see if he can regain the form that made him an MVP last year. He is a gifted, 5 star player that has lost something this year but may well find the problem and make us believe. Is he worth a big long term cont5ract going forward. That is another question. Right now he is playing like an average ML player so that kind of contract seems more appropriate.

A player needs to consistently be one of the top players in the league to justify such a big long term contract. Mookie hasn't been nearly the player he was last year. He has time to show what he can do this season but he needs to be one of our most important players and so far he has not been that.

Almost any manager can say we can win the RS, we just have to play better. Face it, the Sox are what their record shows they are. A decent club with some nice talent, but glaring deficiencies with pitching and to some extent defense. They are not in a position to get the pieces they need to turn this season around. If they can get a WC from here it will be positive development.

Realistically, we are toast. The BP only has a couple of guys who can hold their own. Part of it is over use and part is in their heads. Our starters have also weakened and unlike you, I wouldn't say that E-Rod had an excellent start. He was gifted with a 4 run lead and immediately went on his nibbling drill. He gave up 2 that he shouldn't have. He has good stuff but he cant seem to get beyond the idea of going 3 and 2 on each batter. He was helped by Nunez defense nor was the BP helped by Chavis defense.

I have given up on them for today. There was a nice start with the offense getting it started. Then E-Rod went into his nibbling act. The guy has stuff but his head has never been right. Then a nonchalant play by Bogie and a poor response by Nunez. Nunez next makes a bad play on a grounder. Nevertheless we take a lead innto the 7th and our terrible BP blows up and we have a total misplay from Chavis. If Moreland was back we would have an option. This is a team going nowhere this year. I also would not deal away what good prospects we have but and don't think even two solid BP pitches can help us. Time to reset.

We need starting pitching but E-Rod is beyond redemption. That along with Nunez who is the worst fielder on the squad. In 2020 they should both be gone.

Good point. We haven't had many top of the line draft picks in the last 10 years and we lost further by exceeding the second tier this year. That may explain why we don't develop starting pitchers. The Yankees must have gamed the system to be sitting in the catbirds seat. They too are sitting on a couple of unproductive big contracts, but their lineup and relief pitching is very good and they still aren't ushing the spending limit. Is that better management?

He would have been a treasure. The year before, I suggested Yellich but we probably didn't have the chips to get him. The Yankees have done a much better job of picking up talent. No weak spots in their lineup.

DD for the most part stood pat with last years team sans Kimbrell and in addition the team has had a number of injuries with perhaps the most critial was Eovaldi. That might have been avoidable had the elbow problems been dealt with in Late Novermber instead of April but it is what it is. We all know financial constraints have played a part along with the minors depleted to attempt to win it all last season. The situation wasn't helped but having to carry Sandoval's contract and having Pedroias contract (with no value to the team as well) to make moves more difficult. Moon has pointed out that we got improved performance from some guys which to some degree has made up for weaken performance from Betts, Beni and even JDM. Maybe it's Cora approach or player apathy, but we are not as good a team this year while the Yankees have improved. Compare that to Cashman's activities in the off season just for field players. Urshela, LeMahieu, Encarnacion as the most prominent. The Yankees were smart and survived a streak of injuries because of their depth and they are getting back their injured resources. That doesn't even touch on pitching help that they got and probably will add beyond what they had. Maybe we still have enough to get a wild card slot provided we shore up the BP. That may be a 50 % probability at this point but does anyone see us beating the Astros, Dodgers, Yankees or perhaps other and going to the World Series? I don't so recommend going to a play B approach, which is to look to develop any young players that can make the grade (maybe none, but dont get rid of the most promising). identify a list of keepers and then trade away or otherwise get rid of those that don't appear to be competitive so as to open up some salary space to fill our pitching and position player spaces. My list of keepers are Bogie, Devers, Vaz, Betts (I expect him to bounce back), probably Beni although not surely, probably Chavis as a low cost 1st base presence, and probably JDM unless he exercises his option to leave and possibly JBJ if he shows sustained performance. That leaves us to find a permanent 2nd baseman, utility guys (Holt is fragile but is a pro), a backup catcher if we can do better than Leon,but the key is pitching. We have Sale, Price, E-Rod and Eovaldi but Porcello, while an inning eater may need to be let go as a FA. Have to ask, why can't we develop a starting pitcher as the Rays have so often done? I would blow up the pen keeping only a few of the best. This is a thread for aa realistic view of the season and that is my view of reality.

There is no getting around the fact that the pitching stunk to high heavens today. Maybe they will get a hold of themselves tomorrow. I read that Bogey left the game with a leg injury. That is a concern. Actually, the offense did pretty well and were in the game at the end despite Cora resting several key players. Vaz, Bogey, Devers, Chavis, JDM and JBJ all did well. Beni still seemed off as did Mookie. Could we rebound from this with a good pitching performance? Sure and that is what I am hoping for.

You need a sense of humor to follow baseball and the Sox in particular. I hear Bogie left the game with a leg injury. That if it is serious would be the worst thing to happen in this game. He is one of our best and is really the team leader. Hate to have it be serious.