oldtimer

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.

Devers is on pace to lead the league in errors. Usually that honor goes to a SS. Pretty awful and this one was on a routine play. Jackie normally catches that well hit fly to center. When it rains, it pours.

I think the question has been: "Why didn't we, don't we, get a player who can hit a better to play CF for us"? We know what Jackie can do and has done. Very good defender and poor hitter for a large part of the season. Every year we hear how he has improved only to see more of the same.

Our last two games against the Tigers, our offense looked better. Perhaps the pitching was weak, while tonight we faced much better pitching and Martinez was out with back spasms. Mookie is showing signs of life and that helps but we are not that strong an offensive team and expecting to make up a lot of ground on the better teams is optimistic. Chavis is a young player and will have holes in his swing which will be discovered. Bradley is off to a horrible start and Leon is a less than 200 hitter.Vazquez is doing better than I expected but is still not an upper echelon offensive catcher. I don't see what we can do to become a .650 ball club going forward and would be happy if the team just plays good ball.

Jackie did what Jackie does. This guy is tough but it would have been a great chance for Jackie to contribute.

We need that with some lower cost guys making major contributions. Brasier certainly is and now Chavis, at least for the time being.

Sorry to hear that. Johnny Most did the "Havlicek stole the ball" call. I bumped into him one night at the Hilltop Steak house on Rte 1 north of Boston. He had is family and was seated next to us. He was so revered at that time but people wouldn't let him eat in peace. On the court, he had a high energy style and was an important part of the geat Celtics teams.

That really has value on any team and he will likely get it together for a stretch. He doesn't need to be an ace, just give us reasonble starts and last for 7 innings. I would be satisfied with that.

Moncada has come a long way but we used him to get an even better player. He now would be our second baseman had we been able to wait for him to mature.

E-Rod gave up a double and then made a bad mistake with a 4 run lead of walking the next batter. The guy can be fragile and I hope he doesn't lose it when something goes wrong.

The Sox are doing their best to get rid of the fans.

True that there is time to get a run going but our weakness has shown in the offense, to some degree with starting pitching, the BP and seeming lack of fire. we are having predictable trouble at 2nd base, center field and catching. We had these same issues last year but we had a red hot Mookie. Maybe he will emerge and things will look brighter.