oldtimer

Velazquez needs to think situational baseball. Three run lead, you don't want walks or hit batsmen. If you throw a strike and a guy gets a hit, tip your cap to him and realize that will only happen once in maybe three for a batted ball in play. Don't give gratuitous runners. Think and I hope he can execute.

It was reasonable to think Brock might not return well from his concussion issues and add value to the team. I was skeptical about him as well. Holt has returned and has helped in many ways. Not to denigrate Nunez, he was making his way back from knee issues and only fairly recently showed signs of being fully healthy, according to Cora. I now believe both would help the team again next season as well in utility roles. Pedey will need help during the 162 game season and Devers is by no means a top 3rd baseman and is still developing. We have a strong core back next season. Along with them, at catcher I would let one of our current guys go and try to sign a FA. Lecroy comes to mind. With that group we would need one more probably as a backup at 1st for Moreland. Let it be a contest with Swihart, Dalbac and Chavis having a shot.

I agree both in the matter of the degree that we emptied our prospect bin and also in the overpaying for some players both in prospects and in cash, strapping the team going forward. We also got unlucky with both Smith and Thornburg not really contributing even though we expected more. Like you say, if we will it all even for 1 year it would be woth it. I don't see us on any cliff like decline in 2019 and we do finally clear Panda from the books giving us some additional cash after that. It looks like we will have 4 starters back next year Price Porcello E-Rod Wright With Sale and Eovaldi hitting the FA market we will have to get competitive for a 5th starter. Would love Sale back but only for a reasonable contract in both $ and duration. So we should be active for a very good quality starter if Sale is too unrealistic. Too bad the farm doesn't have strong candidates. Other teams develop pitchers, we should too although our draft picks will be at the end of the line. I expect Pomeranz and his $8.5 Mil contract to go and probablly we can use Johnson as we did this year as a 6th starter. In the area of the BP we will need 6 in addition to the staff mentioned above. Barnes, Brasier, Workman and Poyner come to mind and we probably will not be able to resign Kimbrel at a contract that makes sense (let others go to 5 years at $18 mil a year, we shouldn't). I would think we could find a decent closer for less than he will demand. For other relievers we have Hembree, Kelly, Smith, Maddox and Thornburg. Maybe one or more of them can fill in the pen for us. Certainly some good arms there and even Cuevas has promise. I look forward to 2019 as another strong year.

I would rid myself of one of the two (Leon or Vaz) due to insufficient offense and go for Lucroy in the FA market. Most FA's are going to be in their 30's and Lucroy is 33 but he would be a noticeable improvement and shore up our catching in 2019. He wouldn't be that expensive and maybe a 2 year deal would work.

I hope the Sox players will get hot for the PO's. Right now they seem a little worn down and guys like Mookie and JDM especially need to come in rested and raring to go.

Its too bad but neither of them can get the job done and Thornburg looked bad the last time out as well. Hate to give up on kelly as he still has the velocity. Maybe he can be resserected for next years team.

Probably going to be a pattern going forward into the playoffs as Leon is on a 0 for roughly 30 run while Vaz is not much better. All the more reason to carry 14 position players.

Yes, today we saw continued good performance from our bullpen Wright, Poyner, Brasier and Kimbrel. Probably only Poyner is a bubble player. Also, Devers hit the ball and Holt proved his value once again. The game was also meaningful as we don't want to slump at the end of the season. The Yankees are essentially out of the pennant race. now the goal can be to assure HF advantage.

Hope so. The Yankees are down 8 to 7 in the bottom of the 9th with 1 out.

Generally speaking, the front office will be limited to what they have to spend. Priority one will be to resign and/or pay arbitration costs the core of our field position players. Pretty easy to see who they intend to return: 1. Moreland at 1B 2. Pedey at 2nd but will probably need a lot of help to manage 162 games. I believe his contract was one signed from the heart, not the head. 3. Bogaerts at SS 4. Devers at 3rd but will need a backup player if he again isn't really ready to contribute. 5. Beni LF 6. JBJ CF 7. Betts RF 8. JDM as DH 9. Leon or Vaz as primary catcher That leaves room for 4 utiliity players. I see Nunez as one of those as he can play 3rd and 2nd and is a professional hitter, largely over his knee problems I see Swihart as another as he can fill in at catcher and/or fill multiple slots If Michael Chavis is ready, he might well offer an inexpensive up and coming player at either 3rd or 1st. Kinsler is likely to be too expensive to resign for part time use at 2nd. He may actually be a superior player to Pedey at this point but the die is cast. Pearce will probably not be resigned although having a player that can hit lefties might be helpful Possibly we could find a more complete catcher to go with whichever we keep and do it for reasonable money. For shortstop support we might have to call up a person like Lin as needed. What to do with our pitching is more fluid at this time. We are only locked in to a few and I have made a list but am not ready to put it forth as yet. Want to see a few more auditions for guys like Eovaldi.

Yes, I left Eovaldi out and that was an oversight. I did mean Scott, who was awful. Barnes is now throwing a side session so is making progress. Lets see who Cora brings in during a meaningful game, probably like the one this afternoon.

We got to watch the auditions for the post season more tonight. The pitchers who really hurt themselves were Ross and Thornburg. Cora pulled Cuevas early but it may have been because he wanted to save him for future work. Pom got brought into a hopeless situation which speaks to how he is currently valued. Johnson was sort of in between. I had hopes for Thornburg but tonight he lacked command. So Kelly, Thornburg and Ross move to the back of the line. So we have Kimbrel, Brasier and Barnes at the front of the line and who else, Poyner, Workman, Wright and Hembree? Hope Moon doesn't site the mess represented by the weak pitching tonight against Swihart and his catcher ERA. It looked to me was that it was all on the pitchers.

So far we have been fortunate but the people near the coast are dealing with serious wind and flooding situations. It appears some of the storm wind force is dissipating before it moves very far west. We still have flooding concerns and the associated issues of mud slides and the like but I am feeling a lot better that us inlanders will be safe and relatively unaffected. Those with loved ones in coastal communities have to be on pins and needles as flooding is occuring and power is out in many places.

Kelly really has a fast ball, a knuckle curve and a changeup. He has severe command issues at this time and is more questionable after last nights outing. Workman may not throw as hard but we need guys who can throw strikes. In my opinion, he has surpassed Kelly on the PO roster list.

We won the hard way tonight. E-Rod was okay but was hit quite a bit. Vaz had a hit tonight Nunez looked good at bat while Devers ran for him (was Nunez hurt?) and ran into one for a HR. Good for him as he doesn't make a lot of contact but when he does the ball goes. Poyner was hit for a HR when he left a ball out over the plate but at least he threw strikes. Kelly came in and was totally without command. Cora was perhaps too patient. Bogaerts helped us with a double, a steal and came in on a ball in pllay by Swihart for the win. So Devers and Nunez at 3rd were a plus. Vaz got a hit, Swihart did what he had to do. On the pitching side, E-Rod still looks like a 4th starter, Poyner made one mistake but otherwise looked pretty good while Kelly was awful. No command at all. We got a win and Cora got valuable information.

Cora was more patient than I would have been

Definitely an awful showing.

Good sox inning. JBJ double, Beni moved him, Kinsler sacraficed him home and then 3 hits. NO crooked number but at least a good showing.

Why was the game delayed. I saw injury report. Who was injured?

Last night the guy handled us pretty well so you never know.

I'm sitting in NC waiting for Florence to arrive, possibly knocking out power. Probably get to see the game tonight. Looking out the window, I see broken clouds, although reall tall ones and a light breeze. Supposed to see more late tonight or early in the am hours. Hoopefully, E-Rod can keep it going.

Beni is a little smaller guy than Bogey, but we have seen some power from him but it has gone away the second half.

By playing in a pinch, I think he means an emergency. Actually, Swihart is probably decent at 3rd, since he played infield in his past. Not to say its a good idea to try that unless we find ourselves in an emergency.

Funny how Leon does seem to come up in important situations. He was hitting .067 for the week before not hitting last night. On top of that he is slow and a high DP risk as well. Batting him 8th means he might get up late in the 2nd or early in the third inning. Usually, we wouldn't want to pinch hit for him then. Next opportunity the 5th or 6th, at which time Cora should consider it. That does mean changing catchers on our starter in some cases.

Beni has had a good year and has contributed a lot to the teams success. His power did fall off in the second half as he tended to hit a majority of his balls to left and to center. Maybe next year he will pull more frequently, which would help his HR total.