oldtimer

The question about Swihart is whether his 250 batting average and 550 OPS at Pawtucket in 209 plate appearances is good enough to bring him up. We don't need a catcher and both Travis and lin could fill a needed position better. I really hope that Blake gets back to what he was doing but so far his minor league play hasn't impressed.

One has to wonder with really giant guys in the BP, whether they have trouble with coordination. Certainly some of our guys can't find the plate and then are forced to throw fastballs down the center.

JF seems to love Holt and he sticks with the team. we don't have the option to send him down without losing him for nothing I suppose, but we do have Lin available, who is flexible and probably a better fielder than Holt and can certainly play a better short. When he was with Boston he had a 280 avg and a 738 ops. Not great but maybe better.

What Farrell said about last night is that he went to Barnes, knowing that he has been having trouble, especially away from Fenway, to save others for future games. Its a judgement call and it is hard to criticize him not knowing what the long term alternative would be. I personally like to try to win the games when leading late and let future games be handled as they come due. Each approach has itss merits and demerits. JF will be judged based on the body of work. Its hard to know what a replacement for him would be like. Certainly not perfect.

I watch the hitting pretty closely during each game and though we only got 5 hits last night there weren't wholesale problems. Nunez has cooled off a little but he is one of our few hitters who will offer at a first pitch over the plate. His plate discipline has gotten worse as he is swinging at high fast balls out of the zone. That said, last night he hit the ball hard to the third baseman and went to right pretty hard. Just bad luck he didn't get on. Betts does tend to take first pitch strike most of the times and does tend to have more swing and miss or swing and foul off than in the past, but last night his pllate discipline was very good and he walked three times and scored 3 I think. he did a good job. Beni hits best when he goes to center or pulls the ball. When he hits to left, he often pops the ball up. He did a good job last night as well. Hanley is a low average hitter these days but he can lose a mistake and is dangerous because of it. His two run homer gave us the lead. Devers has shown the ability to shrug off a poor at bat and come back and put up a good swing. Last night he didn't but the kid can hit. Bogie is still mired in a slump. He did work a couple of walks so that was an improvement, but he takes the first strike down the middle time after time and gets in the hole. He tends to have serious issues seeing sliders down low and away. His swing mechanics are not very good either. I hope he can recover some of his mojo this year but no signs to date. They show him having discussions with the hitting coach after most AB's. Holt was in because Moreland couldn't go. Holt is an experienced hitter but really is below average for most major leaguers in contact and power. We probably have versatile players in the minors who could do as well or better. Vaz is hitting well for a catcher and is fairly hot right now. He makes contact and hits the ball hard. He doesn't have much speed but if he wasn't catching he would be a good pinch hitter. JF is hesitant to use him when Leon catches in case Leon gets injured. JBJ seems too have trouble recognizing some pitches but has certainly done enough and has hit the ball well enough to even be moved down a couple of slots. Bogie could occupy th e 9th slot. We don't have alternatives on the current roster to allow him to sit. All in all, our weak spots are Holt and Bogie. Hope Pedey will come back soon and perhaps we can bring up another versatile infielder.

We had a shot to win the game, even though we only had 5 hits but we did take some walks. From the 8th on, we made some fundamental errors which finally cost us the game. Barnes just didn't have control and he got pulled. I don't count that as an error, just lack of execution. Beni's throw from the outfield when Lindor scored was definiitely an error, which allowed both runners to move up to 2nd and 3rd. It took some excellent pitching to avoid another run from coming in that inning. The next error was when Vaz hit the ball off the fence and sort of jogged to 1st and didn't turn it on until he got to first. Maybe he thought it was going out? By then, no chance to get to second which he had a good chance of doing if he had run hard right away. The third error was Holt, who fielded the bunt and double clutched, finally making a tough throw to Devers allowing the winning run. Two were lack of fundamentals and the other just a poor play. Tough one to lose as had wwe been able to get to Kimbrel we had a good chance of winning.

Virtually no one agreed with me either when I pointed out that they sent old with one out in the ninth and Bradley up. JF risked two outs (which happened) instead of giving Bradley a chance to advance him or drive him in. We were down one. My opinion that was not good baseball and Isand by it.

Lots of accolades already for Devers but it is good to remember Judge was getting the same and more earlier in the year and has fallen back to earth. In my opinion, Devers will continue to do well, but there will be bumps along the way for him.

Kimmi, maybe it comes down to how you define a better hitter. If a hypothetical 0 for 30 stretch occurs and your hitter puts a lot of balls in play but is unlucky, then there is room for hope and reason to continue to play. On the other hand if the 0 for 30 occurs with lots of strikeouts and weakly hit pop-ups and ground balls, is this guy really your better hitter? Everyone goes through slumps and tries to make adjustments while in real time opposiing teams attempt to continue the slump. Some players have historys of beinng hot for part of a season and cold after that. How long can the team allow a hitter to be totally non-productive and what measures can be used to bring him out of it? jf has tried the rest and movement in order approach. The schedule grind ihas to wear on these guys so rest seems to make sense. One presumes that the batting coach spends time with and communicates to the player about weakness in plate approach and suggest corrective measures to be worked on in the cage. On the other hand, our backup players have that status for a reason and they are not likely to contribute in a major way when brought in. Its a complex issue to deal with but doing nothing and letting things play out doesn't seem to be a reasonable approach.

If I was JH, I would remind the FO experts to get into the pitcher development business seriously and try to avoid as many of these huge, long term contracts as we can. That the Price contract is turning out very badly seems indisputable. That the Sale contract has been excellent is also indisputable. So we win some and lose some, but a loss at this level can impact the team for years to come. We have to be in the market but please be smart.

The bottom of the order came through today. We can't expect Nunez, Beni and Devers to stay hot all the time so it was nice to see others chipping in. Bradley especially had a good day.

he did get 2 today.

So holt will start today. Don't like the idea but they must be giving Nunez a break.

I was against giving an aging pitchers a 7 year mega contract but also didn't expect a decline so early in the contract. The injury is a part of pitching, especially for those with accumulated innings and could have been anticipated and used as a reason not to sign for more than a 3 year period. If we couldn't get him then so be it.

Its hard to pinpoint Bogey's issue hitting. Every year he's played, his first half has been very good but in all but one year, his second half has seen a big drop off. This year it just looks like he isn't seeing the ball. He was injured, but that didn't impact his eyes, so it may be some sort of a negative karma that he can't find his way out of. We need him, but he only shoows up sporatically.

Good baseball is still worth discussing. The play with Holt was not good baseball.

JBJ is up with a runner on first and one out, with the top of the order to follow. JBJ gets a hit, Holt to third one out. Top of the order only needs a fly ball to score him. JBJ strikes out you can send him with two outs. JBJ hits into a double play, its over. I would not have risked getting the second out there.

Generally, Xander looked very uncomfortable handling sliders on the outside of the plate, which has been a problem for him. Don't know how he deals with that as it appears he doesn't see the ball well. Young again was not a plus as a DH. Maybe we need to try something else. The DH should at least have some hard hit balls in play. Beni went back to kind of an inside out swing in this game. When he does that, he hits a lot of weak ground balls and pop ups to the third base side. I know Sabbathia is not easy, but Beni is a lot more effective and has more power whe he can pull the ball.

How many times down one with one out in the ninth do you send a runner? I think it is rare and in my opinion dumb. Holt is not a burner, which makes the decision even more questionable.

Very tough stretch ahead with 2 more against the Yankees and 4 very tough games against Cleveland. Now Bruce is hitting for them as well, so they are kind of a monster to slay.

He is hitting great at Fenway. Leon catches Sale, so maybe Vaz can DH. Can't be worse than Hanram or Young. Last night I wondered if the BP was executing pitches put up by Vaz or they were just shaking him off? Lot of bad choices in the stretch with Barnes, Kelly and Hembre.

This is the kind of game to lift the spirits of not oly us fans but also the players. They need one like this to come out of the doldrums. Message to Hanram and Young, you guys also have to show up.

I wonder if Leon's pitch calling would have made a difference as Barnes, Kelly and Hembre all had issues.

JF favors Holt