oldtimer

I asked this question before, but perhaps I was not clear and will ask it again. Does the remaining amount of money owed to Hanley count against the luxury tax limit? Certainly we DFAed him as we DFAed Pablo. I don't think Pablo's contract counts against the luxury tax limit so why should the remainder of Hanley's. Obviously we still have to pay both contracts so it is money out of the Red Sox budget but I see the two as having one significant difference. If it doesn't count against the luxury tax limit, then the Red Sox would pick up another $15 million in cap space. I assume John Henry would be willing to scape more money together to help the team with a pitcher or field player with that money. Along that line, don't look now, but JBJ is hitting around 290 for the past week. Perhaps the coaching he has received is starting to sink in. I have always thought he really tries hard but just wasn't able to apply coaching in the past. great for the club if he makes solid progress and it would reduce the pressure on looking for a CF replacement.

Certainly is. Seventh HR and still in May. If he stays healthy, he could reach really nice numbers and is approaching a 300 BA. Great for the kid as we really need his bat. Mostly, fans here have agreed that he has a pretty swing and he continues to show that he is a top quality hitter.

I was under the impression that when we DFAed Rameriz his prorated salary became available to acquire a new player. Since 1/3 of the season has gone by roughly, there should be 2/3 of 22.7 million available. Am I mistaken? That is about 15 million. If we had to play the team we last had on the field agaist the Braves, we would lose a lot of games and not be on the pace to win 110 games and maybe not be able to even win the wild card. I am assuming Pedey will eventually hit and play well. We still had JBJ, a catcher, Swihart and others who are marginal if not downright poor major league hitters. I think the idea of DFAing Rameriz was to improve not only by subtraction but also by addition.

Yes a key injury would hurt any team but are you saying it wouldn't make sense for DD to make improvements where we are weakest and that we should stand pat? I am more of an activist and look for the FO to recognize weaknesses and to try and improve those areas.

In the game today we faced very good Braves pitching and they have a decent lineup as well. We had Sale going for us and that gave us a chance but our guys were not htting a lot so down we go. I can't moan about a lost as we are bound to have some along the way. The point of this loss is we had Betts out with a precautionary tightness and JDM out for a rest so were really weakened against a good foe. Beni went one for three and a walk and Moreland did his thing, but it was hardly enough as we are currently carrying weak hitters in too much of the lineup. Pedroia is just back so it is being optimistic to expect him to come right in and be sharp at the plate. We are probably going to have a fairly trying transition period until he is nack in better form. Beyond him we have Bradley, Swihart and Leon who aren't hitting their weight and both Nunez and Devers are not scarying a lot of pitching staffs. The question was asked "Do we need an offensive catcher?" I think we can see from today that yes, we could use an improvement at both catcher and center field becauswe we are only an injury to a key player from being a much weaker hitting club. I for one hope that DD will use some of the luxury tax money freed up with the DFA of Hanley to make some kind of continuous improvement acquisition in the field.

The greatest part of it is he is another piece of a strong lineup. Now with Handley gone we can plug in a better piece for him and DD can look for an improvement at our limited weak spots. The hope is Pedroia will adjust back to ML pitching quickly.

The Sox lineup as constituted with Betts, Beni, JDM, Moreland, Bogey, Nunez/Devers, Pedey, Catcher and JBJ . is pretty formidable. If one doesn't come through on a night somebody takes up the slack. Good going again today with Beni doing the heavy lifting. Now Pomeranz needs to get his act together.

The contracts given during Cherington's tenure have bitten us and limited what we have been able to do. I beliieve that DD's handling of the Price contract has the potential to be the same level of disaster to the club, even if Price givess us a good year or two.

Thats why I have to preface my comments knowing that I am a person who was born before we were in WWII and we were a fairly poor family who had to stuggle to earn a living. I went to engineering school, not a place noted for a wild and crazy lifestyle. So I view the long dyed ringlets on a man from my point a view. Couple that with a seemingly lost approach at the plate and I see a guy that it is easy to attribute a lax attitude to, fair or not. Regardless of that, the performance was not there nor has it been and the Sox got a bad deal for their money. Better to start fresh and avoid more time trying to bring a player back to useable when all evidence points in the other direction. I also still wonder if DD has another move in mind based on the luxury tax savings brought about by DFAing Hanley. clearly catching, possibly pitching and CF are places where we cold improve.

That is true and I believe he is owed $5 million in 2020.

And now the decision to release Hanley has been made, the lineup discussions have a new meaning. I was for batting Pedey back at 6th or 7th while he gets reacclimated and we see what he can do. Now it looks like JDM is the DH and Moreland is the 1st baseman. So it may be that Pedey plays every other day for a while and Nunez (who is starting to hit) subs there in the off days. I can see Bogey moving to 3rd in the lineup. At any rate here is my current expected lineup. Betts Beni Bogey JDM Moreland Pedey/Nunez Devers Leon/Vaz JBJ I think DD has more in mind for the Sox based on the money freed up by DFAing Hanley. Pitching, CF, Catcher. We shall see!

Has anyone read or heard any story about how the decision was made to release Hanley? Cora seemed to be in favor of keeping him and now he is gone. I wonder where the impetus came from. Was it DD who pushed this through? People are right to think there may be another part of this story, like an acquisition in the works. If Hanley is no longer on the roster, does a prorated amount of his contract become available for some acquisition? As a minimum, this decision says to the team that you have to perform and no player is exempt from being let go.

If they trade for him yet he doesn't get his AB's needed to vest, do they have to pick up that part of the contract. That doesn't seem right.

I saw this coming a couple of weeks ago. This guy has been a premier hitter at times in the past, but he also has a tendency to get totally lost. I for one don't think that Cora should need to make excuses for him and say that he needs to swing at pitches that are over the plate. One would hope he would know that. He looks lost and I have recommended he be given a rest, especially since Moreland is a better defender and is hitting the ball now. I know I am from a different time and culture than Hanley. Hes a guy who spends the time and effort to have his died curly locks and just doesn't seem to have his mind on hitting a baseball. I recommend the Yankee approach, cut the damn hair and be a man. Maybe it would take something major like that to bring him back to earth (Scotty, beam him up). I see nothing wrong with letting him sit for a full week whether righty or lefty and then stop the insanity of batting him in the critical 3 spot. Drop him to 9th where he belongs. He needs something to shake him back to reality. This is becoming more of a story about Cora than Hanley. Cora, take some action.

My thinking on length of deal is that for a young field player who is a star, you might have to offer a longer contract to be competitive. I'm talking about the 25 or 26 year old field player. As the player gets older the length of contract offered should be reduced. So if I would go to 8 to 10 years for a 25 year old field player I would reduce that to 5 years max for a guy approaching 30 and someone 32 it would be 3 years max. If you can't get a guy for that it is better to let them go. In the end the long contract ends badly. In the case of pitchers, I would be even more reluctant to go long. Price is an example of that. He may actually help us this year and possibly another but the long term contract we gave him is highly likely to turn out very badly for us. I can't see going beyond 5 years for any pitcher and for one with a lot of mileage, I would limited it to 3. if you can't sign a guy for that then look elsewhere.

Because of Moreland there are a lot of options. For instance Bogie leadoff and Betts third, with Moreland where bogie is now. Just put Moreland 3rd is another possibility against right handed pitching. There are many more possibilities. I like a guy with some speed in the table setting role and some power in the 3, 4 and 5 holes. I think Cora was trying to do that, except that Hanley has gone into a deep slump. Time for some different thinking.

With 30.25% of the season gone, Hanley has completed 37.6% of the plate appearances necessary to fulfill the contract requirements. I wouldn't mind if he were delivering at least some part of his part of the bargain, but if he stays mired in the current slump for too long his $22.7 million salary for this year will be ridiculously high, let alone having it vest for next year. Nothing we can do about 2018, that is a sunken cost. My solution is to give him extra rest and see if that helps pull him out of the slump and if not, the rest would act to reduce PA's and leave open a choice on the part of the Sox. I am hoping that Hanley regains his April form and that the Sox are a better team for it.

Changing the subject away from Betts and to that old saw, good pitching beats good hitting. What we are seeing today is teams that develop or stockpile a pitching staff with a number of starters who can throw at least 3 quality pitches and can go through a lineup up to three times while remainning effective. That means probably at least 6 innings and better if 7 or more. Starters now often are only achieving 5+ and have learned to nibble to avoid the great power so many hitters have these days. In addition to the starters, many BP's have multiple relievers who throw in the high 90's and these guys come in for an inning so the hitter only sees them once. Hitters are at a disadvantage for sure and when two good staffs face each other we can expect low scoring games. Now some teams can back up their pitching with outstanding defense. That causes further issues for hitters. Rare teams have it all, good pitching, good defense and solid hitting. I am thinking of the Astros here. So the Sox have been facing the Rays who are a decent team and our hitters have been held more in check, but we shouldn't be too critical of them since it is very difficult to score. We just hope to get enough batted balls in play, draw enough walks and have our own pitching staff come with good performances and to date we have. The Rays have blinked first and a pitcher had issues and the defense made critical errors. Playing a team like theirs is a game with little margin for error. Knowing that, it is imperitive for us to put our best lineups in to enhance our chance of winning. We know we have problems at the bottom of the order with the catcher and JB J not likely to produce much although last night the hitting almost all came from the bottom of the order. The number 3 hold with Rameriz has also turned cold and as a result the opportunities our table setters gave us were lost. Hanley has gone into a slump, and whether he needs a rest or it is symptoms of his slowing down is immaterial. The point is we had a solid lefty who is also a quality first baseman on the bench who offered us a good alternative where in the 3 hole or with others moved around. Cora didn't choose to go that way and it didn't work out well. No way to know if Moreland would have been better but I believe there was a high probability that Hanley would not produce last night. We were fortunate that the Rays made critical errors and that Bogie came through to avoid what could easily have been a loss. We need Hanley to return to his April form and we think he is healthy this year. He is doing a decent job defensively at 1st. The smart move still may to give him more rest and see what happens.

Heck of a game tonight with most of the hits coming from the bottom of the order. Even though no hits, our table setters did their job getting on base 5 times. Unfortunately Hanley was unable to get the job done yet again tonight and left 5 men on base. I believe the 3 hole is a critical RBI slot and Hanley is in a prolonged slump right now. Moreland is still hitting and would have been my choice, especially with a right hand starter. The Rays have a tough pitching staff and I would blame no one for having a tough night against them, but I still think we need to put our best foot forward in these situations. We can thank the Rays for giving us a 2 base error and for Bogie to come through with a double at the critical time. He is a cool guy. They the Rays pitching and defense gave us insurance runs. Meanwile the Yankees are behind giving up 12 runs at last count. Texas is pounding Yankee pitching.

Tonight Price did well and the BP was excellent with Barnes, Kelly and Kimbrel holding a decent hitting Rays team to 1 run over 9 innings. Our relievers didn't throw that many pitches so should be okay to go again tomorrow if necessary with the exception of Kimbrel who could use a rest. Lets hope we have a bigger lead tomorrow so others in the pen can be used. We needed the pen to be good tonight and it was.

I know that is how you see it and probably you can bring reams of backup to that conclusion but tonight we have a cold Hanley hitting after our table setters. What happened seemed predictable. Bases loaded with no one out, Hanley hits into a double play. We wind up with only 1 run instead of breaking the game open. I would have rested Hanley and when I returned him it would be out of the critical 3rd hole. Hope we don't lose this one due to the reluctance to sit a player. By the way, I decided to drop of the in game tread. Lots of good people there but also very vulgar and stupid posts that turned me totally off.

As Jasonbay said last night, the stupid and vulgar posts pollute the rest of the site. Lots of good posters here who know baseball and are real Sox fans. I for one will take a rest for a while and stay off the site, not wanting any association with the one or two guys who bring the site down. Hard to ignore them.

I actually agree with your thinking about JBJ. When a player has an extended streak of pathetic hitting, his value to the team is greatly diminished. I think his fielding is excellent but question whether it makes up for the hitting. Cora is more patient then I would be and my view has been that if we have a better option, it should be implemented insted of JBJ. So far, Cora gets a bye since he is a new guy and his methods need a chance to prove out. So far the team is doing well. My question is will he take action if and when it becomes necessary? My problems with Farrell was that he seemed almost inert and I likened him to Buddha, standing in the dugout and above all that was going on. I prefer an activist manager.

Why do we discuss things on this site. If Cora believes something is right then there can be no discussion? Cora is fine, but he isn't the Pope.

Tonight our top relievers were shall we say enough to cause me nightmares. Just survived that one.