oldtimer

I agree that changes will come from within and there won't be many this season. I can understand why the Sox stayed with Nunez as they expected his leg issues to have been behind him and with giving Pearce another year based on his excellent end of season performance. Maybe one or the other of these guys will make a comeback this season and help the club. Next season, I hope all of the underperforming field players we have on the 2019 roster will be replaced, either from within or through free agency. I don't see many of those guys drawing a lot of interest in the trade market. My target list includes Pedroia, Holt, Nunez, Pearce, Leon and Bradley. I hate to put Moreland into that list as he still has value to us, but if we move Devers to 1st, do we need 2 left handed hitting 1st basemen?

Radatz was great for a year or two. Great fastball that went up and in and no one could hit. At his best, he was unhittable.

The great thing about Vas upturn at the plate is that he will catch the majority of the games and Leon's games played will be limited with his offensive shortcomings to be dealt with maybe once in five games.

By the way, Moreland is leading the club in RBI's despite being a bit of a platoon player. Good for him. Don't expect a high BA but power is nice to have,

JBJ seems to lose confidence and then can't do anything at the plate. He is hitting in the .140's. Maybe when he gets a little something going his cofidence comes back and its like a positive feedback for him. Trying to explain how he can be so awful at the plate for long periods and then out of the blue blossom for a month. I still think we need to consider a change there.

He'll be okay as he has a lot of talent. He could be better still if he would pull at least part of the time. Just just seems to have the opposite field swing as his #1 approach.

It's clear that you can't defend a ball driven out of the park. It's also clear that you can't win if you don't score any runs. So very good or great pitching can limit the best offense and is worth paying for. Great offenses are those that can expose so so pitching and pile up the runs. Great defense makes itself most known when teams are well matched in pitchig and offense, where a single great play can preserve the game or lack thereof can fritter it away.

There are those people on this web site who try to paint other people with concerns about underperforming players as alarmists. I for one don't like to see the main burden of the offense be carried by the same 6 guys while we do nothing to upgrade positions that are underperforming. JBJ is one of those chronic underperformers. So is Leon. Other guys are off to a bad start this year. Pearce, Holt, Mumez and Pedroia are in a funkk but at least there is a chance for improvement. There have been opportunities to replace our worst with better quality although we haven't done it.

Having Sale peak in October if we don't make the playoffs makes little sense to me and we are in danger of just that. The season is now past 20% complete and we are going through some of the easier competition and making little progress. What happens when we slug it out with the better performing teams? Some of the problem can be traced to the management decision making relative to the field players. We are asking Beni, Mookie, JDM, Bogie, Devers and now Chavis to carry the offensive load and Chavis has been a lucky afterthought. Moreland is the only other field player who has contributed, despite his .202 batting average. He has 9 HR and 19RBIs. Vaz is also doing his job as primary catcher. Our field players of Pearce, Bradley, Leon, Nunez, Holt, Lin and Pedroia have less rbi's combined than Moreland. To me that is not the hallmark of a competitive team. I've got to hope that a few of these guys heat up soon as they have been a veritable boat anchor through the first month. I for one hope that we clean house to the extent possible next year and either go with younger talent or look for help in the FA market. It hard for me to see how any of the guys mentioned in the last list have any trade value.

Sorry I haven't seen the whole thread. Where is JBJ? I can't think Pearce is an improvement in the outfield.

I can forgive a young kid makiing a stupid mistake as long as it isn't repeated. Haven't we all done something regretable in our lives? Right now Chavis is helping the team with his bat and is the only sound 2nd baseman available. In future, his lack of stature and his stockiness might preclude 1st of 2nd whereas he miight work out at 3rd. Too early to tell. and I don't expect consideration of that move this year unless Devers is injured. Next year might be a different story where optimization of the lineup may mean Chavis to 3rd and Devers to 1st.

Those stats are of interest to me since players seem to go into and out of slumping periods. How long before we identify a player as being in a slump and what causes a player to suddenly go into a weak hitting period? Certainly not hitting in a game or two is not a long enough period. A player can have a bad day at home or at the park, feel ill of just be up against really tough pitching. Maybe a player having bad day(s) hitting when many on the team are hitting well might be a better evidence of a slump. It also probably applies to a player who normally shows a solid OPS suddenly has an extended period of dropping OPS. I can't see where the term would apply to someone who generally doesn't hit well as that player is doing the expected.Leon and JBJ come to mind as those sorts of players. Looking at Beni, who is experienced now and has typical hit for a solid OPS but not with a lot of power. He hit for a batting average of .179 and an OPS of .258 over the last 7 days, while the team including Devers who is hitting well in that same period. Moreland had also gone into a swoon for a while but recently hit for power. I wonder what approaches hitting coaches use to pull guys out of their slumps. Clearly something different is happening differently and that is the hitting coaches job to bring the slumpng players back to be more productive.

y at leeast 50 shades of graey needed to do the question justice.

From someone you think of as dumb, Devers has 8 errors in April, which is very high for any position. Perhaps he would do better next season on first with the relatively short Chavis getting to make his mark at 3rd. Chavis is on the short side to play 1st.

Maybe Devers is more of a warm weather hitter who takes his time to get going. He has been hitting of late and he is very young. His problems are more related to his lack of focus on defense. He'll make a couble of difficult ones and then blow a routine play. 8 errors in April sets him on an awful pace foor the season. WM is a better fielder right now, but so are just about any other 3rd basemen in the league.

Beni mainly tries to go oppo with his inside out swing. He hits a lot of balls up and doesn't have the power to reach the wall on most of those. I wish he would try and pull a larger fraction of those, especially at places with short right fields, like Yankee Stadium. He just doesn't seem to want to make a effort to pull so this is what he has been and continues to be. A good hitter with a little power. He is young and there is time but then how long have we said that about JBJ?

Because he is an offensive liability?

My view is the current team is heavy with older and often injured guys who have not been contributing much to the team. Why not clear those guys out and bring up our younger players to cut costs and to improve performance, while leaving resources for improvements in pitching? I would drop Nunez, Holt, Pearce, Pedroia, Leon and Moreland next season and also move JBJ. We might have eat some contracts but that would allow us to move Devers to 1st, Chavis to 3rd, open 2nd for Chatam if he can handle it, open utility positions for Lin and Dalbec and give us an opportunity to sign an upgrade in CF and backup catcher. Dalbec can backup 3rd and 1st while Lin and Chatam are capable of backing up SS if needed and Lin can also sub into the outfield.

Which field players will be leaving next year to allow some of our lower cost younger guys to come up? My list would include Pearce, Holt, Nunez, Leon, Pedroiia and Moreland. I would also advocate replacing JBJ. Getting rid of the often injured guys who are not providing much to the team while lowering salary is a reasonable thing to do. It might well improve the team while allowing for more resources for pitching. Making those moves would open the opportunity to move Devers to 1st and Chavis to 3rd. Second base would be open and so would the backup catching role along with 2 utility positions. Chatam is a possibility at 2nd, Lin as utility and Dalbec as utility at 3rd and 1st with lots of flexibility for designated hitter. Might have to go to the FA market for CF and Catcher.

The obvious question is being asked. Can't we do better? No hate in that, just a realistic question for those that want the Sox to improve our team.

He did his time, now its his time to shine!

All kidding aside, maybe we have someone else that would be an improvement. Jackie is so down at this point and I feel sorry for him but something needs to be done.

Teams need continuous improvement to stay competitive. The Sox were in a financial squeeze and couldn't make a lot of moves this year but have opted to stay with some older players and so far it isn't working out. Nunez, Pedroia, Leon, Holt, Pearce fall into that category and possibly Moreland as well. Older guys can be injury plagued and can fall off the cliff more suddenly than younger players. All of the ones I mentioned could be gone without a noticeable impact on the team results this year, with the exception of Moreland who himself has now fallen into a slump. Billy Ball here we come?

We lost today 5 to 2 with 3 unearned runs. Error by Devers, misplay by JBJ and error by Chavis. it possible some repositioning might help, but it is hard to do during the season. Chavis is hitting well right now and his power lifts the back end of the lineup. Devers got a couple of hits today as well and even JBJ got a double off the wall. The Rays have good pitching so we were held down today again. Moreland has gone cold, Pearce hasn't got it going and with our other weak spots it is hard to score. Would Cora consider moving Devers to 1st and Chavis to 3rd? Sure seems like something is needed.