oldtimer

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?

Now he's more of a rally killer.

Nice to see the Sox turn the tables on the Yankess and do it with excellent pitching, timely hitting and good defense. Having Bogaerts getting some rest was the thing to do. Nunez delivered and now tomorrow we get JBJ back so Bogey should sit out again. His problems appear to be mental rather than physical so some time off to gain perspective should help.

Pedey had a very good night defensively and while he is bound to be rusty at the plate he held his own, got a hit and fouled off a few against Chapman. Nice to see him back.

heres what is said about the rules for call up. What does Sept. 1 mean for postseason rosters? If a player is to be eligible for a team's postseason roster, he must be in its organization as of 11:59 p.m. ET on Aug. 31. Specifically, players must be on the 40-man roster, the 60-day disabled list or the bereavement/family medical emergency list at that time.

I checked the 40 man roster and Brentz is not on it. My reading is that it means he cannot be brought up.

So far the field player call ups are Swihart and Travis. I don't buy that Nunez can play SS to give Bogey are rest. I would either have Lin (preference) or Marrero there while Bogey gets some time off. In general I agree with your lineup against RHP. The problem is to get Nunez into the lineup while not accepting the liability of his field play. That really leaves him as the DH but does leave our one true power bat out of the lineup as a PH only. From what I have heard Brentz is now slumping (something like 2 for the last 20 against AAApitching). Doesn't sound good to me and so far he wasn't called up. Did you check to see if he got transferred to the 40 man roster before Sept 1st? I put Nunez in as DH and Marrero/or Lin at SS and leave Bogey out for at least a week.

Will you lay off of that one. He did try to extend to a double on one. My view is with a 3 and 2 count and Betts up he was sent and it made sense. Avoid the double play or score on a hit. What didn't make sense is that Betts took a called third strike under those circumstances. Quit trying to blame Beni, who was one of our lone bright spots last night, even hitting a tough lefty when some of our rightys could not.

Sept 1st. Time to take stock. We have a 4 1/2 game lead in the east. We have done that largely with Excellent starting pitching, very good relief pitching 4 or 5 deep, good defense and team speed. Our hitting and run scoring has been below average. Are we vulnerable at this point and if so why? I'd say we are and wouldn't use the excuse of injury, as all teams face similar issues there. Some of our key problems stem from a few key are: Hard Luxury Cap Limit Whille other teams have been able to spend to add power bats and pitching, we have clearly had a mandate to stay below the limit. DD has made some astute moves to pick up Nunez, Fister and Reed and to a lesser extent Davis, all have been with the cap limit in mind. Had that not been true, Castillo would have been brought up instead of going to Davis. Bad Luck with Acquisitions Thornburg and Smith might have helped us a great deal had we gotten their us earlier. So maybe we get something from Smith this year and Thornburgh next. Its either bad luck or lack of due diligence. Underperformance of Key Sox Players While Beni, Moreland, Hanley (now), JBJ, Devers, Pedey, Vaz and Nunez have done as well or better than expected and Leon has done probably close to what we should have expected both Bogey and Betts have not been able to hit even close to what has been hoped for. Bogey looked totally lost at the plate in the seconnd half while Betts hasn't been able to adjust to the way he is being pitched. With the outside part of the plate being targeted, he pops up or hits to center where his balls in play are being caught. Bogey's defense is average while Betts is A+. Without these two hitting we are not going to strike fear into anyone. Is our coaching deficient? Or, are the guys just not as good as we had hoped? Farrell's Moves Is Farrell so constrained by what he has available that he is unable to make moves that might help the club? His bench has proven to be very weak and the Sox have chosen to keep only three players on it with extra pitching instead. Was he instrumental in holding Devers back for as long as they did? And what about placing Bogey and Betts in the middle of the lineup and using Young. Seems to me he continues to try to do the same thing while expecting different results. Maybe there is no better solution as we are so limited with our minors. We will get Pedey and JBJ back very soon and that should help our flexibility. We will see if JF is willing to make moves with the return of those two and also whether the call ups will reflect a need to where we are currently weak.

Hembree has good stuff except between the ears. He gets himself into trouble trying to nibble and then being forced to come right over. Don't know if he can help much in the playoffs. Abad also looked weak tonight.

I don't want him anywhere near short either. Bring up Lin to play there or Marrero. With Bogaerts totally lost at the plate, what do we lose by subbing for him? We do have a problem coming up when Pedey gets back in that there will be no where for Nunez to play other than PH. Hanley is back to making hard and sometimes loud contact and Moreland should also play as he has had a hot bat. When JBJ gets back Saturday, Young and Davis will not likely see much action either, nor will Holt. Beni showed he can hit a tough lefty tonight so I wouldn't go with the lefty/righty thing either.

You bet. He had 2 hits and 3 walks and most went to waste. I donn't know what JF can do, but he has to get our hitters into the lineup that can at least make hard contact and put the ball in play.

I have advocating resting him or at the least moving him way down in the order. Right now JF has set his lineup with a rally killer in the middle and actually Betts is not doing a lot either. We really of short of hitters who are performing. Beni went 2 for 2 with 2 walks. Got to capitalize on the table setters but with a rally killer right in the middle of the lineup, that isn't happening.

Beni make a bad read trying to stretch a single to a double. Betts was to blame for the second time he was caught stealing. It was a 3 and 2 count with one out. Betts stood and let strike three be called. He has to swing and hopefully make contact. Tough to criticize Beni for that.

The idea of using Nunez as a backup shortstop and thirdbaseman should be shelved. We need to bring up Lin/Marrero for the sept call up and get Bogie some rest.

I think our lineup has hurt us tonight. Bogaerts just shouldn't be in behind Betts. Young is another weak hitter. I would have moved Mookie to bat first and move Bogaerts way down in the order. To me, Young is just so cold at the plate you would be better going with MOreland and taking your chance.