oldtimer

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.

I believe the option was set up with the expectation that the player performance had to meet reasonable levels to have it vest. Clearly, Hanley had not done the job and the club probably saw other signs that he was not going to improve, so they made the important decision. Those signs were not going to be talked about since the legal eagles would have some fodder to use in a suit.

What I find frustrating is that different umpires appear to have their own strikezone. Some will call a strike that is clearly outside and do it repeatedly. Some will not call a strike at the letters and they do that repeatedly. Its not that the calls are blown it is how they define the strike zone. You will get true blown calls and with humans involved it will happen, but having each umpire have a personal strike zone is bother some. Just like Watson can beat the best chess players, computers can also detect pitches in a 3d strikezone programmed to agree with the rules of baseball. Keep the umpire as there is other work for the home plate umpire to do.

Nunez was never known as a top defensive player and since he hurt his knee may have gotten worse. He is a professional hitter though and may be trying to shake off the knee issue. I like him on the team as a versatile utility player and offensive player.

If you read Terry Francona's book the Red Sox Years, and if my memory is correct, as I read the book a year or two ago, Terry implies that LL was behind the signings and pushed them because the club had gone though a low period and needed some big names to boost interest in the club. My reading is that Francona was not for the signings but was overridden. Ultimately it was one reason why he wound up cutting ties. Read the book if you get time and see what you get out of it.

I agree. Let him play. Right handers face right handed pitchers all the time. By getting at bats he will get better at hittig them. Great swing and a growing confidence.

When JBJ is going badly there are a couple of things he does which hurts his solid contact rate. The first is he pulls his head up instead of watching the ball to the bat (hitting 101), the other he tends to take a long looping swing which means less time in the contact zone. Williams used to preach to swing in the plain of the ball as it dropped to mximize the probability of solid contact. He has been getting coaching and perhaps he has realized he is on a short leash (make changes and improve or we can't keep playing you). I noticed a difference with less movement of his head and maybe a slightly flatter swing. Could be I am just seeing what I hope to see or that he has really made as couple of meaningful changes. I have never doubted that JBJ wants to do whatever it takes to get going, it just seemed like he was lost. Having him hitting better would be a godsend for the team.

Then there is the Lucchino hand in the Pablo/Hanley signings. He definitely was mentioned as the instigator in some of the Red Sox related books that I have read.

When we talk about a minimum pay utility player, you are hoping for a guy that is flexible and can play a number of positions. He fills that bill fairly well but so far his hitting is not good. His past history indicates he could bring that up somewhat and maybe enough to be acceptable for our utility needs. Can't see trading for anyone else nor do we have another utility player in the minors any better. Swiharts abiity to catch in a pinch is a valuable thing.

I was not a lawyer by profession so I have trouble understanding how one salary is covered by the competitive balance tax while another is not. In Pablo's case, I forget if we traded him and agreed to pay the difference in his salary or we outright DFAed him. He was on the roster when we guaranteed him the money but was essentially fired if we DFAed him. Hanley looks like he has been DFAed and was on the roster. He might yet get picked up by a club so there may be some cost picked up by the new club, otherwise we owe him the money even though he will not be on our roster. Rusney was on our roster for a while and was at the time we gave him the big long term contract but we took him off the 40 man so somehow his case is different and his salary doesn't count under the competitive balance tax. So, I guess I am missing the distinction between the two cases here. Both were on the roster at some point after the contracts were given and both are now off the 40 man team but two count against our competitive balance tax while one does not. A little confusing. I know it says that in the Sox payroll disclosure but I don't get the distinction.

Thanks for both of you answering. I was sketchy on that point. Would have seemed fair that if you no longer have the services you shouldn't have it apply to the salary luxury cap. So that really does hamper what we can do. I guess we have to hope that Pedey starts hitting and that JBJ makes progress, which he appears to be doing.