oldtimer

Kimbrel in the 9th almost gave it away. I wondered if the baseball gods had something against us winning.

Theeeeeeee Yankees lose

He would do well to read Talksox if only to get opinions that are not within the organization. Stringing together the hard contact hitters can't hurt. Moving Hanley might wake him out of his bad performance. I don't know how many recommended Vaz as a spark to the lineup but he certainly has been tonight and has done well in the month of August. I often wondered why he didn't get to pinch hit more, but JF has to be prepared for an injury to Leon when he is in.

He has given a big spark to the team. We need him in the lineup more often. Now we need to solve the utility player problem. Maybe sept 1 will do that.

Holt takes his 186 average in and grounds into a double play to screw up another inning.

Still think Nunez hitting 3rd would be better with Betts up first

Interesting to see Farrell has shaken the lineup pretty much along the lines I and others had talked about by trying to group our hard contact hitters together. He kept Nunez 1st and Betts 3rd but has Moreland 4th and Hanley 7th. Maybe just that change will reawaken some of the hitters and we will get enough to win. We shall see. Hanley doubled his first trip and now Nunez has homered. Keep it up guys.

Young has been good defensively but his hitting has not been consistent of late. Brentz as a replacement hasn't been that good defensively but his minor league power numbers might translate into some much needed hitting help in the lineup.

It is safe to say we all are hoping that things will dry out a little for you and the worst has past. This really is an epic storm for you and yours. Florida in the Venice area where I live in the winter is also flooding, but to a lesser degree. Water levels are eerily close to intruding into homes. Very flat in Florida as well.

I have seen the same thing. He is still a young guy and nearly a rookie in experience. Lets hope that he will continue to improve as he learns from his mistakes.

The Sox brass should look at results and the performance of players and coaches. The hitting has not been good so look to replace the hitting coach or coaches. Certain players haven't so replace the ones that we can and try to bolster what is left with new talent. The question is out on overall leadership with JF.

Devers is a raw rookie with not enough AB's to conclude that he belongs in the bottom of the lineup. No evidence to date is overwhelming about where he should bat. He batted down in the order when he first came and killed it. Pitchers are learning how to get him out and he is trying to make adjustments. This situation happened when he was lowered in the order so may be just an artifact of being a rookie in the league. He is one of our few power hitters so I think we need to give him more time in a power slot.

We currently have Holt, Young and Davis available to fill in for injured players. Young and Davis were used today while Moreland and Holt sat out until later in the game. Young killed every rally he was involved in and Davis also wasn't much of an asset. We have a major handicap at this time with JBJ and Pedey out. My opinion lis that we should put a lineup in of our hotest hitters in positions to support one another in scoring runs. It appears the Sox are unwilling to bring up any minor league players to help us before Sept 1st, so we have to use what we currently have. Other than injured players it only appears that Brentz might help us plate a few more runs, but that is only conjecture. While we have little in the way of standout hitters, other than Moreland who has gotten hot of late, we do have guys who make hard contact and do get on base. In my view, those guys are Nunez, Beni and Devers. Betts and Bogey have talent, but their weaknesses have been exposed to the extend that they are somewhat less threatening than the others. I would configure the lineup for the next 4 days at least with the following batting order: 1. Betts (leadoff he can get on base but not as likely a rally killer) 2. Beni 3. Nunez 4. Moreland (Currently our hottest hitter) 5. Devers 6. Bogey 7. Hanley 8. Catcher 9. Holt or Davis Maybe getting pushed back in the order wakes Hanley up or maybe he just has slipped but lets get him out of the middle of the order. I don't see JF making hard decisions like I propose, rather being more comfortable with the status quo, even when it isn't working.

Farrell said we needed a good pitching performance and we got one. Two runs, 6 hits and 2 walks is good. With our 8 hits and 8 walks we couldn't come up with more than 1. Hard to hang this one on Hanley as he had a 1 for 3 day with 2 walks. Be interesting to hear from JF after this one. Devers even had two doubles in this one. Time to rethink who plays and possibly time to shake things up. I don't see a lot we could get by bringing up mnor leaguers with the possible exxception of Brentz. By the Sox do need to do something to change the trajectory.

Now 16 base runners in 8 innings and one run. Thats an average of two on base per inning. At least the last two balls were hard hit, but nothing to show again.

Okay, you gave us the stats, now give us your thoughts about the causes.

13 base runners but only one run. That in 6 innings. We are not getting the hits when we need them the most.

For the second half split hanley is doing a whopping 644.

I was on the road so didn't see the las two games. From the box score last night it appears that only Moreland and Betts got two hits each and the rest (7 guys) took the collar. Our hitters seem to fall into cold spells for periods this season and that isn't unusual, but it is unusual that so many are underperforming their norms. Is it the hitting coach sharing the blame or is it all on the hitters? In my view, JF tends to stay too long with players who are underpeforming. Hanley is one of those and a shakeup may be needed to get players out of their malaise.

If your saying that a team that goes into a playoff pitching poorly, hitting poorly and defending poorly is as likely to win playoff series, then I disagree. Last year that happened to us and the result is we didn't compete. Now we are on a terrible 3 game funk and show signs of losinng our hard fought for advantage. Getting Pedey and jbj back would help but we also need to confront problems and be willing to make changes which improve our chances.

This feels similar to last years collapse at the end of the season. The team is flat and missing Pedey and JBJ is hurting. We need to have some decisions made to get this team out of the doldrums. Hitting is very poor .

It's possible as he has shown some signs these last few games.

It appears that we need and should get a new hitting coach next year as part of the change package. Right now we look like a tired team and I hope we don't go into a tailspin.

While we hope Hanley will perform, the team is handicapped by having a middle of the order bat which is largely disfunctional. Things are more confused by having both Pedey and JBJ sidelined at the present time. If those two make it back then the picture is clarified. Nunez, who is hitting would need a position. Clearly he would be a better option at this point as DH. If we took the $22.7 million dollar contract out of the picture and just went on recent performance, it would be a no brainer. I hate to see him struggle like this but Hanley just isn't getting it done. If we are serious about winning the pennant, hard decisions need to be made. At least Hanley had a good year to justify some of his contract. We ate Craig, Castillo, Sandoval contracts and have a major underperformance from Hanley and the verdict is out on Price. As the song goes, "When will they ever learn".

Bauer threw a ball that looked a lot like Maddox used to throw. Comes into a lefty and then breaks back to the inside corner. Several players, including righties didn't deal with that pitch, taking it for a strike. Very effective pitch against our guys.