oldtimer

Aaron did go past Ruth and to his credit did it without the help of steroids. That cannot be said of Bonds. If Williams had averaged 35 HR for his years missed, he still would have fallen a little short in HRs, but that doesn't diminish his greatness.

Not everyone will agree with that.

He turned 39 in 1957. Some of his stats that year were BA of 388, his OPS was 1257 and his slugging % was .731. I fillowed his career from the time I was a young boy, starting in the 1940's and he is the most remarkable hitter I ever watched. No hint of the steroids in any of his stats plus 5 of his prime years in Military service.

In his book on hitting , he recommended that the bat be swung along and upward arc that a ball would normally be dropping as it came to the plate. The idea was to maximize the possibility of making solid contact, not of hitting up on the ball to launch it. I think people are crediting Ted with something he never advocated.

Everyone but Chavis and Vaz have at least one hit tonight. Good, because hits tomorrow will be hard to come by. Either the Yankees or the Rays will lose tonight so we gain a game on one.

Its a game of adjustments. He can hit the fastball well so they give him a variety of other pitches and throw the fast ball slightly out of the zone. Give him some leeway as we could use his power over Holt or Pedey who probably not do a lot offensively.

Maybe he has been reading the talksox forum which encouraged him to pull more often to where what power he has will result in more extra base hits. I'd love to see him spread his hits and it shows he can do it.

It would help to get Price back soon.

Tony Conigliaro was off to a great start in his career but was sidelined with a fastball to the head and wound up with double vision afterwards and couldn't regain the magic after that. I foret who beaned him at this point but it was a cruel blow for Tony and the Sox.

If Chavis moves to 1st base, whats the chance of keeping Moreland as a utility 1st baseman (insurance) and part time DH? No Nunez, Holt, Pearce. Possible replacement of JBJ, possible replacement of Leon. I do think we need a second baseman but we have at least temporary candidates from within. Both Lin and Chatham are capable of playing SS, to spell Bogaerts at times and play 2nd most of the time.

I doubt if the club seriously thinks of replacing him until next season. In the mean time, less frequent starts may be the right approach. Hard to understand his looooong slumps. He is a good athlete and has at least in the past hit the ball hard and well for month long or more periods. It's probably his lack of confidence. I hope he can start to pull out of the slump but who knows if that will happen. I advocated making a change last year, even in the face of his end of season heroics. Lets hope we don't carry him forward into 2020. Too much money for too little production.

Last night we saw a case where JBJ's fielding did save a run on a catch that very few CF's would have made. A combination of athleticism and timing. Saved the game for us. Also we saw Benintendi pull a ball for a HR. Something we have encouraged him to do, especially at ball parks that have shorter distances in right field. Tough game for us to win as our main guys were unable to hit effectively. Sale had a great outing and our relief pitching held up. all good on the pitching side although Brasier may either be tipping his fastball or they are just sitting on it.

Whats this about Chavis being hinted as an outfield utility player. They want to keep him on the team and are looking at ways to do that. Could he play left in the future? Sounds like a long shot but why are they putting out that story now?

Big chance for the Sox with Nunez and Bradley, one out and runners on the corners. Nunez hit an atem ball to short and Bradley struck out. Having Bradley and Leon in the 8th and 9th slots narrows down our scoring potential.

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.