oldtimer

The team lacks hitting even against average pitching. When we face stellar pitching, if its possible, we look worse. We can hope for improvement but are likely to see our first place slip away because we do lack balance as a team. Too much to exect from Devers that he can lift the team significantly. Perhaps the management needs to look at itself to understand some of the reasons for underperforming expectations. Remember, at the end of the last season we fell into a funk as well, going from the best offensive team in the league to a pasty. Changes seem to be needed, but it unlikely that a lot can be done with players, since we have financial and tradeable asset limitations. Management can be changed more easily, however it is inadvisable to do that during the season. Like a lot of the older long term fans, we have seen things like this before and just hope for the collective wisdom in the organization to move things in a positive direction.

The decision was made by the FO as the best option available to the Sox to improve the team hitting at the 3rd base position. I think I remember that both you and I were satisfied with leaving Red Sox management to make the decision and would support that going forward. Clearly any young player coming into the MLs will need to learn and adjust to the pitching as well as the scrutiny they will face. He will probably be given more scutiny than most as he is being brought up at a critical time for the Sox. What we need in addition to Devers making the grade is our current players to come out of their slumps and contribute. The only guys who have been doing the job recently are Pedey and Hanley. Lets not let go of the lead by starting to play some determined ball.

The killer bees have lost their sting. The question is why is this the case? Are they just not that talented bunch of hitters? Is there a malaise in the clubhouse? Is our hitting approach inferior? Is the basic premise that they have lost their sting wrong? Something has to change and i can't believe that Devers will be enough to bring them out of the doldrums. Pedey and Hanley have been doing their jobs of late, while Moreland and the killer Bees have not. We already are weak at the catcher position and at 3rd, so what to do? Seriously, do we try to maintain this young group of talent or move on to some degree?

I looked up Bogeys past performances and in only one year did he have a good second half. He generally has been hitting 250 in the second half after very good first halfs. I haven't been able to watch the last couple of games but did notice he wags the bat right up until the pitch is delivered. Since other guys don't do that I would expect that approach is hurting his BA. We need Bogaerts to hit well along with are other experienced young players, but they are not meeting expectations. The addition of another solid bat will help, but the others have to perform as well.

How many well pitched games have we squandered with our anemic offense without making moves to help the situation. With the situation growing acute, the FO is now changing their tune and deciding we should bring him up now. The old saying is better late than never. So who goes down, Marerro?

Another 6 hit day. Bad hitting day wasted a good pitching performance. Past time for DD to do something.

Another BB article dealing with the sacrifice bunt. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/47102766/anthony-castrovince-debate-over-sacrifice-bunts-continues/

8 days left and counting. DD is in a tough position with salary cosiderations he inherited and a limited set of trade prospects in the minors, which he himself depleted. Still, the target should include one good bat, preferably who can play third and one relief pitcher who can fill in the current need for an 8th inning bridege to Kimbrel or even close should Kimbrel become overused. He will not want to lose Devers nor Groome and I would also include Lin in that list of untouchables. Can the Sox make improvements within their own organization? it is debatable but Devers is one possible key, Smth in relief might be an answer soon and Lin in my view could be an improvement in the utility area over Marerro and even Holt. Still, a big bat from outside would be welcomed.

Reading our box score we got all our hits off their starter who lasted 4 innings. Five runs came in the first. No HRs. Our pitching needs to stay great to win games.

I still play a lot of softball and run into quite a few ex-minor leaguers now reduced to old mens slow pitch softball. One of my team mates played in 1962 and 1963 for the Waterloo Hawks and ran into Rico Petrocelli who played for Winston Salem at that time. Rico made it up and back to the Sox a couple of times and then stuck for a long career around 1964. Waterloo and Winston Salem were both A ball in 1963 so they touched base there so to speak. Kind of fun to get perspective on how things were in the minors back then. One guy playing in NC where I spend the summers played for the Phillies so its hard to take the ball playing away from the boys.

That is a good reason for him to lay center in Pawtucket?

When we are in a tight game in the 8th, I certainly hope we have a quality reliever (person) to put in the game.

Lin should be compared to Marerro and Holt. It appears he can play infield or outfield as they talk about him playing center at Pawtucket. He is an excellent fielder with better range than either Holt or Marerro. As far as hitting, he has good swing mechanics and is a tougher out than Marerro. He will never have great power but there is room for a super utiliity guy on the team that is a pesky hitter. I predict he will find his way back to the Sox and soon.

When statistics are given they cover the league as a whole. In the case of the Sox, we are a team with good defense, good starting pitching and decent to good relief pitching. What we haven't done well is hit for power or in many cases hit for average. One run to the Sox can be very meaningful as opposed to the Dodgers or Astros for instance. What we have been doing is not advancing the runner but often hitting into double plays. To me, that is the worst rally killer there is. Instead of one out and a man on second, we wind up with 2 outs and the bases empty. What seems to apply for some teams may not apply to the Sox.

In Pawtucket Devers wet 0 for 3 I think and LIn had 3 hits and one was a double. I hope we keep Lin and Devers both and the sooner Lin gets back up the better i would like it.

With the sox on the west coast, maybe some trade with Oakland will be announced.

We have a lot less now for DD to use in any trades plus we have salary cap issues. I don't expect a major trade this year but we still may be able to improvel

Due to the wear and tear on our BP, JF has had to bring up a few of the minor league arms and they have looked pretty good. Workman is back and has his velocity back up. One good set up man and getting Kelly back will do a world of good.

Interesting if somewhat frustrating game today with some good and some bad and some head scratchers. With 5 starters now, JF decided to go with Fister against Liriano, a guy who we should have been able to score against. JF presumably wanted to set up the rotation for the west coast but took a risk on giving up a lot of runs with Fister. We did get to Liriano with some good grind them out at bats (Holt 11 pitches, Betts 8 pitches, Pedroia 8 pitches. We got him out early with the lead but Fister didn't have good command and got unlucky when Holt misplayed a ball in the sun. Fister didn't last so we wound up using a lot of our BP anyway and they did quite well expect for Abad who had control issues. The good was how well Pedroia is hitting and Betts seems also to be getting back. While Bogey got one double he still seems off. I wonder why he doesn't keep the bat still just before the pitch is delivered. Hitting 101 advises to have no unecessary motion before the ball is delivered. Beni has been off for a while now and has had difficulty pulling anything. Most of his contacts have fouled to left or flied to left, where his power is limited. The last time up he actually pulled the ball to Smoak, which was at least a possible improvement. The same can be said for Moreland who got under a ball just a little but pulled it. That is really the first pulled ball for him in a while as he has been opening up and going to left. Hanley was off today, but Leon is starting to make a lot of hard contact. Maybe we are seeing a resurrgence in some of the guys hitting. It would be welcomed. Vazquez even got into the game today to play third after Marerro was pinch hit for. I wonder if the JF strategy of going with our weakest pitching against their weakest pitching made sense. I prefer to win the games when you can. A win is a win. Presumably, our strongest pitching will be up against some strong pitching on the west coast with a greater likelihood of getting beat in close games. To each their own.

The same period Bogey has been pretty bad. He plays tonight so I hope he can give us something.

Nobody out, speed on first and a tendency to be singles hitters. Opposing teams are aware of how our team is configured and tries hard to prevent the steal. We don't seem to want to try to bunt and the hit and run is a lost art. Even if our hitters could get the ball in the air it would be better than what we have been getting. Frustrating to watch but I'll bet it is fairly common among teams this year.

We are lucky to have Young as a utility outfielder who is good defensively. Beni has struggled at times of late so Young can platoon for him as a reasonble move. Young is no world beater but is a solid utility outfield. Brentz would give up defensive proficiency but does have some power. Moreland is in a deep slump and needs to sit or be sent onto the DL list until his injury is fully healed. I don't think it is totally his toe that is wrong, but time off might help. In the meantime Travis is a reasonble fill in and might actually shine. I would bat Travis back in the order. The Holt and Marerro proposed 3rd base platoon is the decision for now but Lin sits in the minors with potentially better numberss than either. Don't see anything much we can do at catcher. The platoon is reasonable but Pitchers have their favorite catcher so that also has to be considered.

I go after Neshek from the Phillies for two reasons. He could do the job in the 8th and the Rays are also interested in him. Next year we can look elsewhere.

Good win tonight with both the Rays and the Yankees losing. Pomeranz is a nibbler but he is getting the job done. Moreland's slump continues and Bogaerts status is unknown by me. Hope he gets back soon.

I wonder with the runs being so hard to come by that we dont consider moving runners into scoring position with the bunt. Again tonight, a promising inning is cut short with a double play and then a strikeout. Two baserunners in an inning and no threat.