oldtimer

At least they extended Cobb that inning. Between Vaz and Holt, he had to throw 11 pitches. Maybe he will only last a full 6 innings. No one other than Vaz is hitting much.

wasn't there also $32 million for Allen Craig? We also got nothing for that expenditure.

Just Hanley being Hanley and having a goldilocks moment that doesn't turn out to be "just right"

Funny thing that other teams are considering Machado as a possible short stop as he has tremendous fielding ability. The point is he probably can do both.

Machado could possibly play short. Then you could Devers at 3rd, Machado at short and still have room for a good player at first, assuming Hanley is no longer with the club for the 2019 season. Means some hard decisions.

The Rangers put up a good fight but were unable to solve the Yankee pitching today. We have to help ourselves tonight.

Probably made the FO more gunshy of getting into these deals.

There will be enormous competiition to sign both Machado and Harper from the FA market to play in 2019. Machado is intriguing, since he can play 3rd base and possibly SS. That would give us some flexibility is structuring our team. Harper is another who will be greatly sought after. Either would come in a possibly replace a starter that we currently have in our lineup. To be competiitive, it would be a help to have rid ourselves of a $22.7 million salary who as you say has a negative WAR value. I would also hope the medical staff can get Price back to a sound condition so he can opt out of his $127 million that remains. Shedding over $50 million a year being paid to unproductive or underproductive players would allow us to be fully competitive in the FA market.

Baseball is a crazy game. Nothing is easy. They need to take it a game at a time. It would be great if the Sox build some momentum going into the playoffs, unlike last year.

Most likely we would keep Hanley for another year as the options don't seem that attractive. As nasty as it seems, under no circumstances should we continue to have him back in 2019. A salary offset deal seems unlikely to me. The deals that have been made for the unproductive players we signed have weighed the club down and we still have two of those hanging over our heads in Hanley (not the worst of them since at least he has produced something for the club) and Price who doesn't appear to have a ghost of a chance to stay productive going forward. A short term solution for the club, while keeping it balanced until we can shed Hanley's contract seems to be a reasonable solution, with the big acquisition having to wait one year. Alternatively, we take a huge payroll upgrade and pay the extra now.

Is it too early to talk about magic numbers? It looks like the Rangers will win tonight leaving the Sox with a Magic number of 19 with 22 games remaining for both the Sox and the Yankees. Be interesting to revisit this at the end of the TB series.

If you really want to think big, why not go after Manny Machado. At 26 years old now, he is one FA that we might get but it would break the bank. He could play third while we could consider moving Devers to ist. He is a great third baseman with the big bat we need. The amount of money would be equal to any we might sign and the contract period would be long, but he is in my view the best young 3rd baseman in the game today. That would leave Hanley as DH only with Nunez or Pedey filling in as needed.

I too am for getting a big bat and possibly also improving by getting a better player to replace someone that is good but not very good. I do think we have to maintain a balance up and down the lineup and not put all of the emphasis on one player. So who do we part company with and who do we keep as a core group? In my view, we would be well to keep our outfield together for its speed, defensive ability and still potential to improve offensively. As far as catcher is concerned, I am not wowed by either of our guys but think they do a serviceable job for us. That leaves the infield and DH as places where we could get that big bat and also probably also make an additional change to shore up our positions. We really need to do that on a value basis and we shouldn't pay any of these guys over their real value in either salary or time commitment, realizing BB is a competitive business and we still need to pay competitive amounts. I do think we should keep Devers and either play him at 3rd or move him to first depending what is best for the club. I also think we have Pedey under contract and need Nunez to come back as a super sub if we can make that happen. Beyond that I see opportunities with first base, DH and shortstop. I don't recommend giving away the store in prospects to get a better bat and anyone we sign as a free agent or trade for needs to be able to hold down a position first and be a DH second. Bogey is still a young player and has more value just due to the years left in his career. Based on his level of play, I would be satisfied if we could either trade him and work to get a significantly better player or stand pat. Moreland has been pretty good for us but is the obvious choice to be replaced by a player with a superior bat and decent defense. Good luck finding that player. I too would think trading Hanley away, even if we had to eat some of the contract, would be in our interest. We should be able to replace him and get equally good numbers at a far better value, but who would want him? Our utility players would include Nunez but we should be looking for a Young, Holt replacement. We have Lin, Hernandez, Swihart and Travis available and still others may emerge in the minors. Chavis may come along and be available next season. I look for speed, defensive ability, flexability in positions played and at least a contributor offensively. Pitching is a separate story and I won't comment on that here.

I am thinking about the hurricane these days because I have a brother in his 80's in Florida and I have a condo there as well so am hoping for the best as the storm progresses. Lucky me, being in the mountains of North Carolina until mid October. The only problem is the hurricane track now takes a dead aim at us here as well. I have lots of big trees around my house and they still have the leaves on so if the winds reach 39 to 73 mph as expected, some or a lot of the trees could be landing on us. Right now I am worried about the safety of my brother and his wife and all the other Floridians in the direct line of this monster Cat 5 hurricane. Kind of lowers the importance of whether the Sox get a power hitter or not next year at this time.

There are more games these days and there is more travel involved. Maybe all of this accumulates during the season and wears on the guys physically and on their minds as well. It helps to have positive vibes in the clubhouse. Teams like Cleveland and the Diamondbacks seem to have overcome the same number of games and the same amount of travel and are prospering. Maybe they have a better clubhouse attitude or maybe they are just more talented.

I would suspect the effects of Hurricane Irma will be felt and games for some of the teams in the runnning, including the Red Sox will get postponed such that some double headers will be scheduled later in September. Hopefully we will get some rest with days off here and there. Some of our guys really need it.

Who would have thought? Sale is tired now and could use rest but we don't have the luxury of giving him much time off, just an extra day here or there. Pomeranz has been our second best although he also probably needs rest as well. His innings are higher than he has been in the past. Porcello is fading and E-Rod, while good is still not the pitcher he may become in time. Too much nibbling and an inability to go deep in games. If the guys continue the way they have I would say Sale, Fister and Pomeranz would be a good look in the PO's. Lefty, Righty, Lefty. All with a different style and all capable of going 7 or more innings.

To carry the thought further, there are 3 FA's out there who would be of interest. Zack Cosart is 32 this year. Taking him and either trading Bogaerts away or moving him to 3rd would give us a solid defensive SS with a 4.5 WAR this year. He is a right handed bat who hit .301 with a 933 OPS and has 17 HR's. His main issue is his age. Mike Moustakas is a 29 yo left handed hitting 3rd baseman with 36 HR and batting better than .300 with an OPS of 861. I'd have to check his WAR but think it is 2.1 Eric Hosmer is a 28 yo left handed ist baseman with a 3.4WAR, 884 OPS with 23 HR and .317 avg. Any of these would cost real money in the FA market but offer a big improvement at the position when compared to who we currently have. Signing one of these along with Nunez makes sense to me.

I really don't want to see Hanley get enough PA's to qualify for 2019. With his age and injury history having to take his big salary for 2 more years would be a burden that would be hard for the club to carry. If we could be sure Hanley was only going to be with us for one more year, we could afford to take a slightly older guy with a big bat and know we would also be able to get another expensive player the following year. Keeping Nunez should be a priority although it would have to be in the supersub role. With Pedey's age he could easily find a role there or as DH to keep Hanley rested (ahem). Holt has been a good player for us but there are other and better options for us now. Hosmer is one guy to consider although not necessarily optimum. I do think we need to avoid paying big bucks to our DH in future, so we need to pick up a good defensive player with a big bat.

Now Beni is 0-18 since Sept 3rd and benefitted from a sit down for a day or two just recently. Can't blame it on nightlife as every night the Sox play late. Maybe we need to sit him again and get him back to where he was.

Beni is 0 for 17 going back to 9/3. He is going through a bad stretch after being our hottest hitter. Doesn't appear to be seeing the ball. Baseball certainly is a crazy game.

Fister could last 7 innings tonight which is what the doctor ordered after last night.

Sure was encouraging to see us put a crooked number on the board and to do it with a triple by Bogey, single by Devers and a HR by JBJ. That has to raise the Esprit de Corp of the team after such an awful long double header in one game last night. Maybe some guys will wake up a little and get the ball back rolling. Good chance tonight to pick up a half game on the Yankees with them postponed.

I come from the school of cause and effect. I see the effect, but none of us has named the causes, assuming there are more than one. I think the best thing to do is to name the potential causes and by a process of elimination seach from the most likely to the least likely by replacing the suspected ones. If that requires replacing people, it probably should be put off until next season at this point. The effect is poor hitting across the board so the cause must be something the effects hitting directly. Since other clubs don't show the symptom to the degree the Sox do, I doubt if it something general but more something club specific. I assume DD is logical and has or will arrive at the same conclusion and put in plans to do something about it.

Two of our guys took two fast balls on the plate before swinging at the changeup. Hope they switch it up next time. This pitcher can be hit, and yes, it is nice to see Mookie hitting again.