oldtimer

Hard to make changes with 25 games left. A shakeup in who goes on the field or the batter order is a good idea as maybe something can be awakened with this team. If not, I would clearly look to make some significant changes next season. That includes players coaches and the manager. Produce or vamoose.

I had hoped Pedey would be available. Cross your fingers with this lineup. Defensively we are giving up a little as well. Four question marks in the lineup.

We face a lefty tonight in Happ that has given us trouble (who hasn't). We need to get it going so I suggest as I have in the past, that we shake up the lineup. I know Kimmi has provided information that says the lineup is unimportant, so why not shake things up and send a message to the guys that they need to get it going. First of all, despite his weak showing for quite a while, we go nowhere in the playoffs unless Mookie starts to hit. I look for him to pull the ball more and be more aggressive early in the count. I would move him out of the rally killing position and put him up 1st so that if he does get on we can use his speed. I don't know if they will play Pedey two days in a row but if he can we need him against a lefty. My idea of the lineup is as follows: Betts Rf Pedey 2nd Beni LF Nunez DH Hanley 1st Devers 3rd Vaz C JBJ CF Marrero SS I hate to leaves Moreland out so hope he can get in as a PH. We would 4 good hitters in to lead off with a power hitter who needs to deliver. I want Beni to pull the ball more .Going off field or directly to center is not whereeither Beni or Betts should live. Putting Hanley back up is a gamble but no worse than having Betts in a key slot hitting the way he is. Maybe he can respond. He also has to swing with a 2 strike count and a pitch over the plate.

I am with you in this thinking and while I try to offer constructive suggestions at times, it is hard to see us changing in the ensuing 25 games. Farrell really tried to be competitive last night but the players weren't coming through. Sale looked tired, Kelly and Ross were wild, Reed was unlucky and then appeared to get flustered. Our hitting: I had mentioned my growing frustration as they took called third strikes time and again with runners in scoring position. The players should hear that it is not okay to have those kind of plate appearances but I wonder what is happpening in the locker room. Farrell may just go back to Bogaerts again soon and weaken the team in doing so. We need some things to fall into play so as not to lose our lead on the pennant but our chances in the PO's seem worse than that of our top competitors. If we don't get it done we need to look hard at the reasons why and make changes in both coaching and players. We should have some additional flexibility for that with the Luxury Tax Cap reset.

I expect a couple of additional call ups when Pawtuckets season is finally finished. Brentz can be called up but he wouldn't be eligible for the post season based on my reading of the rules.

Farrell typified our offense as wasted opportunities last night. We would get runners into scoring position and they would stall. I counted 4 times where we had runners in scoring position and our hitters took called 3rd strikes and there were others but we didn't have guys in scorring position. To me that idicates this grind them out style of hitting, guessing at what you might be thrown and trying for the walk on close pitches doesn't work very well against the kind of pitching we will face in the playoffs. I prefer a guy to take his cuts on close pitches and try to put the ball in play. Generally last night, we just weren't hitting Severino and the Yankees do have a tough BP to call upon. To me, Devers, Nunez and Pedey will get their cuts while often Hanley, Betts and Bogey will not. The others are in between. Is it coaching or is it the players? lets hope we can get it together better against the lesser clubs we face and at least break even with Baltimore. The Yankees still have some tough games ahead so may stumble a bit so a 3 1/2 game lead is a good place to be now but we are vulnerable due to our weak hitting and what looks like tired pitching. Thankfully, Fister has come on to give us some really excellent starts or we could be in more serious straights.

Sale was put into tough situations in the first couple of innings and looked like he began to tire. JF left him in a little long for my liking as he was spent and we had a rested BP. We are going to need a rested Sale as we move on and he is accumulating a lot of innings.

Two more call third strikes with runners on. Why do our guys take so many with runners in scoring position?

He missed a slider on the outside that was on the plate before that.

Totally agree that bad umpiring on two separate strikes caused what followed.

Thars three to end the inning with runners in scoring position. I get that it fooled him but still tough. The other two were fast balls.

Still three guys with a chance to do some damage kept the bat on their shoulders. Hanley, Nunez and now Beni.

Back to hitting. I am an old guy now and haven't faced live pitching in so many years it is hard to remember what a difficult thing it is to hit a ball coming in and I never faced anywhere near the velocity and movement that they face today. Our guys have a high degree of difficulty now in that you may see the starting pitcher for 6 innings and get a look no more than 3 times and then it is on to relief pitcher after relief pitcher. Curve, slider, 2 seamer, 4 seamer, cutter, splitter, changeup, 100 mph. Not only that but these guys nibble at the corners and they have endless digital takes on your weaknesses. The hitters may have good coaching and they can look digitally at what the pitchers do and they may have access to better conditioning tools but they still have a hard time. Since a lot of hitting is looking at release points and timing and being able to pitckup spin on the ball, small wonder the hitters take a pitch or two during the first AB. So they need to make adjustments on the fly. The ones that have great eyesight, reflexes and bat speed have an advantage and there is probably something to be said for the approach where a zen like calmness by the batter can be attained so they can react without having to think much. Pedey, Nunez, Beni, Betts when he is right are those kind of hitters. Hanley can be and so can Moreland, JBJ and even Vaz. Lets hope they can do it against a tough pitcher tonight. The really great hitters are unique individuals. We have some with excellent mechanics that are pretty good hitters and those guys are special indeed and we need to hold onto them as they are hard to find.

I think it is a mental error to take a call third strike with men on base in meaningful situations when the ball is clearly right on the plate. Hanley has done that many times this year. Most guys will be fooled at times but guys like Nunez will swing where hanley just stands and looks.

I tend to agree with you since I think Bogey needs to make fundamental changes, something very hard to do on the fly. On the other hand, Farrell seems to be saying he will try Bogaerts back in the lineup in a couple of days. Hard to expect any change without something happening to Bogaerts with his swing mechanics and plate approach. Hasn't happened in two months so it is hard to believe it can happen with a couple of days of sitting out. Maybe Farrell knows something that makes a difference in the equations, but our primary goal needs to be to win the pennant.

Thats a big package. E-Rod has a lot of talent. Get him to stop nibbling and speed up on the mound and we could have a solid 3rd or 4th starter. Groome is our major pitching hope coming from the minors. Chavis may well be our next solid hitter while even Travis would come along. We still would be swapping for one player who could well get injured and be a drain on our budget for many years to come. I prefer we just pass on Stanton and try to build a more balanced team.

I think Bogey is a different story than Betts, in that Bogey seems to have completely lost his confidence, where Betts is still hitting the ball hard at times. Anyone watching Bogey can see his swing mechanics are poor as well as his plate approach. He takes far too many good pitches while swinging at the bad ones and he doesn't make contact enough when he does swing. The guy is a healthy 6'2", 210 pound youngster who should hit with some power but doesn't. Either he is unwilling to take coaching, he isn't getting good coaching or he just isn't that good. I think the latter should be ruled out as he has hit well for periods every year in the past. Betts is chasing balls out of the zone and hitting mostly to center where he doesn't have the power to hit it out. His home run total hasn't moved a lot of late. What to do with Bogey? Ask for him to make fundamental changes? If we trade him will he get the coaching he needs and have an epiphany and get back to his better ways and even show some power? Big risk in trading him. Since several of our guys are in funks we should look for coaching changes. Whether it is Chili Davis, John Farrell or both I don't know but somehow our good talent has to show more or we lose.

He has a decent arm as you say. He probably isn't doing that fundamental baseball item of thinking through the what if's of what he will do, where he will throw in each circumstance. That is something he will gain with experience. He really should be there now so perhaps he isn't being told when he makes mistakes. I loved the kid though and just hope we don't break up a good thing with our outfield.

For the length of time he has played, Nunez is right up there on the bonehead plays in basse running. He is no rookie.

Will we get Otani, and if we do will he brought through the system quickly? He wants to both pitch and play in the field so he can hit. Maybe he could be the 1st baseman we need.

When compared to JBJ and Betts yes, but he has the tools and will get much better. You keep harping on the base path issue, but JF sent Devers today and he was caught short, much like Beni was before. Clearly today was a hit and run as well and Vaz made a half hearted swing. Don't hear you busting on Devers

Give the Yankee pitching some credit today. Tanaka was very tough, keeping the ball down and giving up no really easy hits. I don't think JF had much to go to that he didn't use unless Pedey could have pinch hit. We are having a little lull in the hitting at this point with Devers not contributing like he did early and today not many hit the ball hard. Be nice if we could pull a few as our hard hit balls have mainly gone to center. Not many bright spots to talk about today. We did see Lin today as Holt has a sore foot and Pedey was giving he knee a rest after playing yesterday. Lin's defense is superior to anyone but Pedey and he does have a decent plate approach. He went 1 for 3.

We don't exactly have Brooks Robinson at 3rd out there but the run was going to score anyway on the grounder off of Devers glove. I do notice that Deverss has the casual approach to getting the ball over to first. He looks at the ball and takes a couple of steps before throwing, kind of from the Bogey school of making the throw. Coaches need to talk to him about that.

We are better off keeping our young talent and avoiding the mistakes of the past in putting so much into one player in a long term contract. No argument that the guy is good, its that we need some balance on the team and by signing him the balance that we are working towards is lost again. I'm not against looking at trading players that don't fit our long term plans but would rather look at good quality younger players we can get without breaking the bank.

Better plan on Hanley as primarily DH next year and if we can sign Nunez, our supersub. With Price still in a long term contract and Wright still a possibility and with two relievers coming back to bolster that area, I think we need a field player. With Moreland in free agency, we will need either to resign him or get another quality player there. Travis haven't shown enough as yet but it might be possible to move Devers there. If we think outside the box about SS, then we can trade to fill that position. You mention Cozart. Have to decide if Bogey is a long term player here or not. We could leave Devers at 3rd, sign a SS and a 1st baseman. But lets talk about this end of season and the PO's. The AAA season will soon be over and we will probably see additional faces appear. Will Smith, Lin and Marrero be the new ones?