oldtimer

It looked to me like JBJ regressed last night with a lot of swing and misses. Also, Swihart seemed overmatched for most of the game. Take the good pitches and swing out of the zone. The good news is Nunez seemed to be hitting the ball but his fielding is still below par for a corner infielder.

My mistake. My brother hits righty and throws lefty which is just the reverse. Then Hernandez has possibilities at second base when he comes off the DL.

Think it is lower back

You must be old like me. My grandfather was born in 1872 and worked as an engineer in the Pennsylvania oil fields when they first came in. My dad was born in 1896 and was an avid fan of the Sox and went through a lot of disappointing seasons with them. 1949 was one where it looked like the Sox could do it but it wasn't to be.

You got your wish with our pitching staff doing just enough and by getting to their BP. Props to Vaz for finally contributing. You must have been elated when both Vaz and Beni went deep.

The prudent thing to do is to develop a long term solution to 2nd base, even if Pedey gets back this year. I don't see either Holt or Nunez as that person and the only one I can think of who might do it is Marco Hernandez if he gets back off the long term injury report list. I don't know many left handed 2nd basemen though. I suppose Chavez has a chance but to date he has only been used at 3rd.

Yes and Beni's is rising. Hey, thats the title of this thread. Beni extends the pitcher and gets a lot of walks. to me, either of them is a good choice to bat first but Cora has made his mind up so its fine with me.

Possibly DH let the outfield consist of Beni, JDM and Swihart until Betts returns. I guess Travis is available for that now.

We simply don't have a better alternative in center at this time.

A problem we have is that our only replacements for Devers at this point would be Nunez and Holt and one of them has to play 2nd with Pedey out for god knows how long. We don't have a good solution in the minors so it appears we have to live with Devers and hope that he can improve with the bat (more than hope, we need to coach him). His sense of the game and his throwing to first have also been what we should expect for a 21 year old that transitioned to the majors based more on need than readiness. Chavez will be out until too late to make a comeback this year so we have to live with the issues. As has been said, he is not the only weak area and we have been expecting a few guys to carry the team offensively. There have been a few signs of JBJ doing better and Leon so we can hope for a better June for these guys and Holt will do okay but not great. Meanwhile we really need Mookie back and we have to hope that the injury bug doesn't hit anymore of the key players.

This is a tough time for Cora as he has had to shuffle the lineup with Mookie out probably longer than anyone suspected and Pedey possibly sidelined for a while and both concurrent with facing the best pitching staff in baseball. The decision has been to play shorthanded so far. I really don't know who we have in the minors that could be any help. Chavis is ont there now and Travis is only hitting 240. I wonder if Lind is ready to fill in?

Devers is very young but has real talent with hand eye coordination and bat speed. He has had problems swinging at balls outside the strike zone but that should improve and he does have commendable raw power. He is being coached and he has Mookie and JDM that are no doubt trying to help him improve.

Didn't see the report on this. We have been getting BS for the last 5 days or so. If he is hurt why no just admit it.

We have two excellent hitters with speed and I have no problems with either swapped into the 1 & 2 hole. it hs been working as people have said, but it might even work better with Betts 2nd. I prefer bogey hitting third, JDM is a perfect cleanup hitter and Moreland is another big bat for us this year. After these the choices get more difficult. When Nunez is healthy I would bat him next as he is an experienced guy. Same could be said about Pedey instead of Nunez. Devers will tend to have occasionally have big hits but is less reliable with his contact. JBJ has made adjustments and may be moved down slightly in the order and our catcher should be last. Beni Betts Bogey JDM Moreland Nunez/Pedey Devers JBJ Leon/Vaz

Beni continues to have strong performances at the plate and is a perfect choice in the #1 or #2 hole. His BA is at 299 and his ops is now over 900. Keep it up although the Astros will throw some outstanding pitches up against our lineup and all the guys may stumble a little for the next 3 games.

Definitely a lot less motion at the plate. He has changed his approach and it is paying off. long hole to climb out of but he has time to have a decent season and the defense has always been stella.

We got an excellent performance from beni last night with 2 for 3, a walk, a stolen base and a daring run to the plate for our second run. We missed Betts and maybe he will be in for this game. Moreland and jdm had off nights last night or we might have won. Hope they all come through as the pitching will be something to see.

Totally agree. He had a sore knee last night. It doesn't mean the end and lots of players have soreness. Give it and him a break and lets see how it develops. I'm with you on this one.

Could have used Mookie tonight.

I still don't understand why they bat him second the last time. What if he had hit a home run, double and walked? Would they still have DFAed him? Wouldn't that have looked stupid?

I couldn't see a place to post my thoughts so thought at this point in the season it might be good to have a thread that covers trends which seem to be developing in either players and/or managers decisions. The couple of trends which I see as positive for the Sox are as follows: 1. JBJ is definitely doing a much better job of making contact this past week and with his defensive skills it makes him valuable and an integral part of the team again. It appears he has minimized his leg kick, keeps his head down on the ball and is using a swing that has been in the plane of the ball. He is making more consistent contact and is also hitting to left and defeating the shift. Good for him and a big help to the team. 2. Nunez is also beginning to hit like I expected him to and is contributing to the success of the team. For a while he didn't look like the guy we knew from last year, which may have been due to his knee. Having another pro level hitter in the lineup minimizes the easy outs that could hurt the team going forward. 3. Even Brock Holt is looking better at the plate and it appears that management made the right decision to keep him instead of perhaps Lin. 4. Devers on the other hand is still struggling. He has a quick bat and seems to have good hand eye coordination and we have seen him taking more pitches out of the zone and trying to go to the opposite field. All of these things have been brought to his attention by Cora and the hitting coach. He still has a very long swing so the trend for him is still down. All in all, the Sox hitting trend appears to be pointed upward and we will need it to face a great pitching staff like Houston, coming up next. We already have Betts, Beni, Bogaerts, JDM and Moreland who have been the heart and soul of the order and if they can just come close to maintaining their form we should continue to win a majority of our games. Trends in pitching are also very important but I don't feel as confident talking about that side of things. I do notice Price and E-Rod showing a lot more capability of late, and that is a good thing for the Sox

An obvious strike called a ball with the potential of turning the game around and at a minimum building up pitches on the closer. It is an argument for a computer aided strikezone. Sometimes, even with the aid of replay, the umps still get things wrong, as was the case of calling Beni out on his steal. Things don't go all that well at times.

You can't go wrong with either there. I like a good contact hitter who knows the strike zone and has speed on the bases. Both fit the bill.

Maybe wouldn't have happened have Chavis not pulled his boneheaded move. Lind has been a good ML hitter over his career and I think the signing just gives us some depth.

Beni could haqve used tonights double for the cycle last night. The kid is really getting it done.