oldtimer

Been a problem for the Sox this year. Lack of hitting with RISP. We sure could use Devers and

Two of three against a division leader at their park is a very impressive series. While we did that, the Rays were getting blasted by the Yankees. We need Eovaldi back and healthy and help in the BP. Despite all of their hitting, the Yankees still have a weakness with their starting rotation. Certainly we are not in a doom and gloom situation.

Trying to inside out a ball on the inner third. Not thinking.

He has been taking fastballs on the inside part of the plate early in the count. Those are pitches he was crushing last year. He just needs to work through this period and start to raise his performance.

I will chock this series as a success provided we win tonight. We have played better of late but still need to get hitting with RISP.

We just had to go way deep into the pen last night. We jst needed more hitting with RISP. JDM went 0 for 8 as an example. Does anyone know why Price was taken out after 5?

Helps to be lucky!

1st pitch FB on the inside and he takes. Fouls off the second, higher and a little more inside, grounds into a double play on a tough slider inside and maybe not a strike. Poor AB. Two hits in the inning and no one beyond first base. Gotta show better with men on base.

Or the same or slightly more. Of course any idea of offering should be tempered by how he does for the remainder of the season.

I am hoping for a series win against the twins. Getting the first by going 2-0 was an excellent start. Win the series and they make up ground on either the Rays or the Yankees. Either would be welcome.

I agree. He keeps himself in shape to eat the innings. He is an important cog for the team but offering more than 3 years is not in keeping with the strategy of no long term contracts for older players. The offer can be slightly higher than the current contract as far as i'm concerned. If he takes that, we will have done well. Thinking about him, who would you rather have of the Yankee starters? I think it may be a ist of one.

You may be the oldest poster here. Probably someone could read the posts to you and type in your responses. Stay with us if you can.

Excellent 6 innings against a good club in their park and he only has 73 pitches.

The pen had a lot of work in the last few days and goes into the Twins series after being taxed. I hope our starters can go 6 or more in the next 3 games.

I presume your talking about the 2020 season and beyond. In that case, we need to think about who will be leaving the team for 2020. Will both Pearce and Moreland be gone or will we try to keep Moreland to have a solid lefthanded bat who can play a good first base and DH, but is a little fragile? I would guess Chavis becomes our first baseman with no plans to leave him at 2nd. Brock Holt remains our super utility guy and is needed to back up 2nd and short and in a pinch has real versatility. Can't count on him as a regular 2nd baseman though. Do we keep Nunez as a decent right handed bat with some versatility but a below average glove, or do we let him go. I think the latter is likely. That leaves Marco Hernandez. There is additional time this season to determine if he is good enough. Do we want to rely on him as the starting 2nd baseman or go into the market and find a young and solid guy for that role. It might cost us so it would be a tradeoff of where to spend the money. Yes, we need help in the BP. You could ask if some of that talent can come out of the minors. As far as a starter, so we keep Porcello or not? Will Eovaldi return to the startion rotation and hold up his end and do we keep E-Rod or work a trade using him? My point is this has to be looked at holistically and thats what I believe DD and the front office are doing.

Nothing is clear in Baseball. You would like to think he is better and maybe he is, but at the present time Mookie's game is a mess.

Once we get into playing the better teams again, we will need Mookie to perform. Thee idea of making up ground on the leaders means we have to come away from series with the better teams even or better. To do that, Mookie has to start to hit. Too many fly balls to center and right. My hope is that he will be more aggressive and stop taking FBs for called strikes early in the count. Last year he was handling the FB better than anyone else in the league.

Yes, but the very idea of long prolonged slumps should get the management to look for alternatives.

Its clear who you are talking about. When the pitchers find a hole it might take some guys longer to figure things out.

Still hoping for Mookie to show something. He is definitely in a slump and is in danger of have his BA sag into the 250's When it goes bad for a guy it can get to his head.

He'll be fine when he faces weak pitching. Lets see if he can maintain his surge against the Twins.

Top notch pitching can make anyone look bad. He just has to gain more experience seeing this is his first season. He did use ped's to gain strength, but every young player deserves a second chance, and provided he keeps his nose clean I am all for him getting a long look in the majors.

Actually they are with Sandoval. And now compounded with Pedroia. With that money we might have signed a second baseman and a closer. It is a crap shoot to hire FA's for long and expensive contracts. The guys who get it right more often than not will put their teams in a winning position.

Would you have believed Mookie would be hitting in the low 260's with 40 % of the season gone? I didn't expect another MVP season but his fall has been a serious problem for the team. Would love to see him get out of his funk and it is entirely possible that he will and soon.

For 2020, I don't want the Sox to repeat the mistakes of this year. Whether we have the money and trade resources is another story. 1. Our first mistake was not to go out and get a talented and hopefully younger second baseman when we had to know Pedroia was iffy at best. Giving Pedroia the 8 year contract was a mistake in the first place. We can keep a Holt or Lin for utility but we need a second baseman. I don't think Chavis is a long term 2nd base prospect. Is Chatham? Only way to find out is to bring him up and try him later this year if the Sox are out of it. Chatham could fill in at SS if the need arose. 2. I don't think of it as a mistake to have kept JBJ. There was talk of how he would extend his end of year hitting prowess and that his mechanics had been modified for the better. What we got is the same streaky hitter, only this time the subpar streak lasted and lasted. For 2020 we should shed his contract and fill in from the available candidate. Will Duran grow during the minor league experience. He is fast and has a decent if not powerful bat. Perhaps he can at least become our utility outfielder. 3. We took on Pearce to back up Moreland at 1st and both of them have proven fragile. Moreland is having a very decent year but can probably only be expected to play in 90 games at this point in his career. Pearce was taken on due to his excellent performance in the WS. We need to rethink 1st base for 2020. Will it be Chavis and Moreland? Can Chavis cut down on his strikeouts? He has power but it doesn't help if you can't make contact. I don't see Ockimey or Dalbec as an improvement there as both are power hitters but have similar characteristics as Chavis. Conceivably, Dalbec could backup 3rd base and thats a plus. 4. As far as starting pitching is concerned, I don't know why we waited for the season to schedule Eovaldi for an operation to remove loose bodies from his throwing elbow. I find it hard to believe they developed during the off season. Has it been done in November, he probably would have been back to his regular turn in early May. Now we may be looking at July to see him return after sustaining a bicep strain. We have Price, Sale and Eovaldi and I for one would likke to resign Porcello but if possible for a shorter term contract. He is a very solid 3rd or 4th starter who eats innings and is durable. We have let guys like him walk only to see them have long careers. The guy I would seriously let walk is E-Rod. With all his experience, he still wants to nibble and performs like a 5th starter. Maybe we have a pitcher in the minors who could fill that position in 2020. Brings to mind the old question mark. Why do the Rays seem to develop young pitchers while we can't? We don't get high draft choices? Hire the Rays pitching development coach. 5. The catching position was controversial at the beginning of 2019. Vaz has proven his merit as a starting ML catcher while Leon is a weak hitting backup. This is not a serious problem for the team so should be a lower priority for change than our larger needs. 6. At DH we did the right thing in keeping JDM. He is one of the very best DH's and can sub into the outfield from time to time. His physical problems will continue as he ages. His player coach value has also be special. Will he opt out on us and how far do we go to keep him? i admittedly haven't done to math to see how our contract $s stack up but would like him back if at all possible. 7. I saved our BP for last. We had financial considerations get in the way of resigning our closer. That became inevitable due to Kimbrel's expectations and our available resources. It hasn't worked well. Barnes has good stuff but seems to lack the composure to come in during tight games. Brasier had a great 2019 but hasn't been as effective this year. Hembree is still fairly effective but isn't closer material. The rest are so so. For 2020 we need to address the closer and at least one more bridge arm beyond what we currently have. Is Workman able to be the bridge? Don't think so but he is at least a guy we should keep. Otherwise, I am in favor of blowing the BP up and looking for talent. I am not for making Eovaldi our closer. So, I advocate making moves to improve the tea while staying under the 2nd tiers of the competitive balance tax and at the same time avoiding taking on additional high dollar, long term contracts for guys 30 and over.