oldtimer

Nunez is a professional hitter and will do his part offensively. His mobility isn't good right now and he never has been a golden glover. Some tough decisions facing Cora and the front office.

If Vaz or Leon get injured, Swihart is the obvious replacement so I think we may keep him. He is flexible Hembree and/or Johnson could go when Thornburg comes up. Barnes is not solid but he is probably better than others we might get. Who goes when Pedey comes up around the 1st of June? Could be Holt or we could have an injury in the interim which would change that scenario. JBJ doesn't seem to have any trade value so he will probably be kept as a utility man for the time being. I can't see us handicapping ourselves with Bradley, either catcher, Holt and to some degree Devers in the lineup together. Yes we get rest but do have a greaster risk of losing winnable games.

And today, up one run in the 8th inning, Beni leads off with a walk, steals second and scores on a ground ball out. Oh and he threw a possible tieing run out at home in the 7th. He is coming through and probably get better as the season moves on.

So why does Cora put so many weak hitters in the lineup when we have better sitting on the bench?

And yet yesterday his running helped us win. Give the kid a break. I hear from the gurus that he is not a #2 hitter, but in my opinion it is an excellent place for him and Cora seems to think so as well.

That dance is appeaaling to the gods to please let JBJ get a hit soon.

Hard to teach an old dog new tricks

Hope the experiment with JBJ is over for a few days.

Today the results favored Betts and Beni in the #1 and #2 slots. Tomorrow, who knows.

Betts is an excellent hitter. Good power, good OPS, OBP and he doesn't strike out a lot. Once on he has speed and is a base stealing threat. Cora likes him leading off but he also could be an assest at the 2, 3 or 4 slot. Beni is also a player who knows the strike zone and makes contact. He hasn't been right on this year but he does get walks and he has good speed. I like him ahead of Bogaerts or JdM. Hanley on the other hand does tend to strike out a lot and tends to go into a funk at times. He has power and has had a good start but I still don't like him in the 3 hole as a guy you rely on to move the table setters. We shall see how well things go over time. Devers has talent but is not polished and chases pitches all too often. A good hitter in the 6th or 7th slot to get the ocassional big hit.

I'd alter your order by keeping Beni at #2, but moving both JDM and Bogaerts up with Hanley moving down. 1) Betts 2) Beni 3) Bogaerts 4) JDM 5) Moreland 6) Hanley 7) Devers (mainly because of power - he has a lot to learn) 8) Nunez/ Pedey (maybe june now) 9) Vaz/Leon Maybe there would be a few hurt feelings but so be it. Notice, no JBJ, Holt or Swihart. They will get into some games but if JBJ subs in and starts it will be 8th or 9th.

Beni got a hit, walked and stole a base last night. This is the kind of thing I want from a #2 hitter in the lineup. I certainly hope for more from him and agree that patience in his case is worthwhile. What I notice about him is that he is seemingly just late on many swings. If he would pull more balls his numbers would come up. He still has excellent plate discipline and knows the strike zone. Some call strikes on him last night were out of the zone. Hanley is putting up decent numbers now but sometimes is frustrating to watch as he will take a third strike that catches a lot of the plate. He struck out looking at least twice last night. The difference between he and JDM is night and day. JDM prepares himself for each pitch and has a plan. Hanley at times seem lost. All the guys were exhausted last night and didn't hit as well as they normally might, even given the fact the Jays pitching was good.

The team has been on the road and playing virtually every day and with a particularly tough series against the Yankees followed by an arrival in Toronto at 4 AM. Clearly many of the players were tired for last night's game. In particular, Hanley looked bad at bat and to some degree so did Beni. It was a shame to see such a fine effort by Sale go unrewarded. After what appeared to be a move by the Sox to prevent the Jays from stealing signs, Sale looked great and went a full 9 innings with one problem. I told my wife, that this game smells of a loss about the 5th inning. Opportunities to score were squandered and it was just a matter of time before we gave something up as we just weren't scoring. I really didn't understand why Hanley couldn't score on the long double off the top of the wall which bounced away from the outfielder. Couldn't have been running hard the whole time. I wonder why Beni is hitting so many balls foul to the left. It's like he is late on almost all his swings. It looks like he could make a minor change and hit more balls up the middle or to right field. At any rate, we are a tired team and I hope that they get decent rest before game two and that the sign stealing will be handled from out one this time and that some of our hitters get it going today.

If he doesn't throw a strike he can't give up a hit. Is that what he is thinking? Henbree and Barnes have that same lack of mentality or lack of menatality.

I too have been a fan for many years, going back into the 40's. Te 1949 team was one of my favorites ever. We have a very good offensive team, particularly if we sit JBJ and play Nunez. When Pedey gets back, we may even be stronger. Our defense is not great as we suffer from a 3rd baseman with a leaners permit and range issues in the infield. Pitching is worrisome and particularly the BP. Kelly and Kimbrel are high quality but Henbree is a liability and Barnes is only so so. Like many, I am hoping Thornburg will come in and hold his own and Poyner will also do the same. Smith is an unknown. Not great so far but maybe he can at least be useable.

Players maintain a spot on the roster by getting the job done when called upon. Anyone can have a bad day here and there, but repeated incompetence gets you off the roster as soon as someone comes along who looks better. The relief pitching corps is soon to have Thornburg to consider. My guess is Hembree is the one to lose his spot when that happens.

With JD, you get the feeling he resets himself after each pitch and is always thinking about what will come next. He is the kind of hitter that doesn't go into prolonged slumps. JBJ has the athletic ability to be a hitter but isn't. I have pointed some things out about his swing mechanics and so have others, so some of his problems are obvious. Others are probably in his head. I seriously doubt he will come around and that is too bad for him and the team.

I find some of the crude language silly, which speaks most about the people who use it. I think these are kids and then find out they have been around the block. I just ignore them now.

Assuming Thornburg comes up sometime soon, who leaves? Is it Hembree or Johnson or another candidate? We really do need to strengthen the BP as evidenced by the kind of meltdown we are having against the Yankees. Getting beat is one thing but doing it like Hembree did it is hard to forgive.

Tough to hear that Groome is now to undergo TJ surgery. He was our top pitching prospect and now another year before he can even be considered for the roster.

So many negative comments. Sure Barnes and Hembree have looked bad the last two days. That is their bugaboo. Relief pitchers generally only have a couple of good pitches they can use and those two are like that. Both seem to have difficulty in high leverage situations. Kelly is an exception in that he has at least 4 quality pitches he can make and after the first game disaster, he has been solid. Putting Kimbrel in a situation with a man on first and third and a one run lead made it hard for him to throw the Knuckle curve and he tried to paint the corner with his fast ball and that was unsuccessful. He also couldn't get ahead so he couldn't use his high fastball slightly out of the zone to get a strike. He had to come over and Garner was waiting for it. then with another man on third, he tried again to go with the fastball to get Judge. Tough to bring him into a situation he was unsuited for but who else was there? The Sox offense looked solid last night and the defense was good with the exception of Devers who continues to flounder. No time for thinking the Sox are dead meat when compared to the Yankees. I agree Thornburg might help out situation goiing forward and JBJ needs to work hard on his hitting or be a bench player. The team still is formidable and should be in it with the Yankees to the end. A win today puts them in a tie with the Yankees.

The Sox do have a BP problem. Give the Yankees a lot of credit, they are tough outs throughout the lineup and bring the worst aspect of our pen to the fore. We saw it with Hembree, who has a couple of pitches, and once under pressure, no lead is safe with him. Barnes is very similar to Henbree as neither have a lot of out pitches to fall back on, whereas Kelly has more variety. Cora was forced to use Kimbrel to get out of a jam last night. With runners at 1st and 3rd, there was no room for error when he came in. Ask yourself what are the two best pitches for Kimbrel. The knuckle curve and the fastball thrown high and just about the zone. With a man on third in a one run game, the knuckle curve was taken off the table for fear of a passed ball. Kimbrel is not immune to pressure and his first fastballs were slightly outside the zone, so he was limited to thrown a fasball over the plate and the Yankee hiitters knew it. After the triple, the game was in high jeopardy for the Sox, but Kimbrel was faced with the same situation and threw the fastball over the plate and Judge was ready. Right now, the pen is not satisfactory as we have Kelly and beyond him and Kimbrel, we don't have reliable guys to bring in. Certainly Johnson has not been a guy we can rely on and Hembree has beeen very hittable. Barnes has been better but also is not the most reliable pitcher under pressure as he loses the plate. Hope that Thornburg can help with the situation. The Sox offense did its job last night only to be let down mainly by the pen.

Back to Bradley. Cora now is saying Bradley had fundamental flaws in his plate approach and swing mechanics and has given him time off to try to work on correcting them. Many of us have been pointing this out, last year and this but it has taken Cora a while to react. He admits being a rookie manager he has to feel his way for the best way to handle a slumping player. Having Moreland in last night would have been a better approach than leaving Bradley in with his pathetic efforts at the plate. Can Cora get through to Bradley? Haven't they been trying to do this all along? It should have been no revelation that JBJ needs help, but one would think he has been getting it without results. JBJ is a special case in that he is elite defensively and has shown periods of brilliant hitting. If he could regain some of the mojo then fine, otherwise JBJ has to be kept out of the lineup.

You're being too logical. What should happen and what has happened are two different things. JBJ has obviously not learned after what must have been many sessions with the coaches. Since JBJ appears to be athletic, one has to believe his mind is where the problem is. Sorry for him but the time to produce was at the beginning of the season and he has not and has appeared to be overmatched and pathetic.

He is the backup second baseman, 3rd and short. When Pedey comes back, now about 2 weeks away, who do we send down or trade?