oldtimer

Wee, BJ got knocked around in the 5th but JF stayed with him. I imagine he will be out in the 6th, but who knows.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statsplits.aspx?playerid=12161&position=SS&season=0&split=2.8 This is the fangraphs stats for the 2nd half for the years he has been a Red Sox. He has had one good year and the rest he had a BA of around 250. It would be unfair to show his 167 BA in this years 2nd half due to his injury. There is a trend there for him to suffer a substantial drop off in the second half. Look at the stats and reconcile them with his value to the team. He characteristically has a blazing hot first half, so what happens?

I had the thought that DD is anxious to show case certain players as possible trade bait. Marerro is one of those as I see Lin as more likely to be our Utility Infielder of the future. We also have Marco Hernandez in the wings on the disabled list and I was higher on him than Marerro due to the difference in offense. I also see Holt as expendable, but not so much as Marerro. We are down to less than 2 weeks to the trade deadline so something will likely happen soon. I see Bogaerts is sitting it out tonight. The hand is still bothering him, but his slump started before the hand was injured so maybe he just needs a rest.

No way the orioles would trace Machado to the Sox regardless of the stats. Better to postulate trades that have a higher likelihood of occuring.

Throwing money at players doesn't guarantee winning. Look at the terrible results with Sandoval, Castillo, Craig and Rameriz. We got a partial hit on one and have a very expensive DH to show for all that payroll. I would not jump in with both feet this year. It won't get us a WS anyway. DD should do what he can within the economics which will reset the Luxury tax and try to avoid similar mistakaes going forward.

I question whether any pickups that we are likely to make will bring us more than an American League East win. If that is so, we want to preserve what is right about the club and consider the future. We have excellent starting pitching and an excellent closer. We have Pedroia, Betts, Bradley and Bennintendi as foundation players. We have Devers as a potential additional foundation player and Lin as a high quality utility option. We have Groome as a potential home grown starter. Beyond them, we have Hanley, who is okay but no world beater and Bogaerts who is okay as well but I am losing faith that he can be a foundation player going forward. The entire remaining group is expendible, including the catchers although keeping Vazquez is probably the smartest move. So getting a rental relief pitcher for this year makes some sense. Getting help at first makes sense, but I might look at a multiyear approach there. Travis might fit in but perhaps a better option might come along. Moreland is still useful but is probably not going to be around next year. Looking at catching options if something good becomes available might also make some sense. All the rumors which fly around at this time of year usually have some basis but a lot are just GM misdirections. I believe DD is exploring many avenues as he and the FO recognize that this team has many shortcomings which in my view are not correctable for World Series contention. Do the best we can and solidify the team going forward.

I think Moreland is opening up and pulling slightly away from the ball which results in few balls pulled and driven to right. That could be an explanation of why his power seems to have dried up. He is a big enough guy to be getting some home runs but they have been missing of late.

The middle of our lineup is not hitting enough to help the team. Bogey, Moreland and Hanley combined are not getting much done. Hanley at least has contributed a few times. Pedroia is our rock and Beni has a beautiful swing. He will improve his pitch recognition over time. JBJ has come along from a long looping swing earlier and has now flattened it a bit and has been a threat. Somehow we need to couple our hitters together and move the weaker ones down if we wish to scorI am not an advocate of an all or nothing hitter who can give you 30 HRs a year but hit 200 to do it with a high strikeout total. I don't forsee a way forward but will see what DD can pull off. Improvement is needed and he knows it.

I was around but not old enough to appreciate the team although i was listening on the radio, even then.

I can't agree. Lin has more range and is a good utility man at 2nd, 3rd and short. Better than Holt defensively. Lin also has a decent plate approach and good swing mechanics. Holt no doubt has a little more power. What I think the Sox did is put Holt and Marerro on the roster has more to do with showcasing them as trade bait than expecting much from either of them. Lin has options to go down so for the time being that is where he will be. One man's opinion.

I am not certain of what you mean by credible projects if they are not based on in season performance to date, nor based on performance during the last 2 to 4 weeks. Who are the projections credible to? A for instance Moreland had a good first half but has been slumping and his performance in the second half last year was a prolonged slump. How would a credible projection be developed for him?

One of my favorite teams of all time was the 1949 Sox. I was a young fan at that time and of course Yaz had a fabulous season in 1967.

I also think he would be a good get to shore up the BP. The question is what would it take to bring him in? I think we need to look not only at winning the AL East when considering who we trade for as the probability of that happening may be in the mid 40 percentile with the Yankees and Rays in the high 20s and Baltimore and Toronto dropping out as they reset for next year. The other consideration is do we have the horses or are we likely to get enough to be competitive with the elite teams. Houston, Dodgers, Nationals. If not, lets not sell off our future to pick up any rental player this year. My thinking is to hang on to Devers, Groome and Lin as part of the future of the franchise. I don't think a Holt, Marerro, Moreland, Rameriz and perhaps Leon and young will be in our future plans, so any trade that brings us real quality for them whether now or in the time frame of stocking for next year makes sense.

Very good second game for the Sox, being able to take the second game and earn a spit, leaving the Yankees in the same position as when they came in. Price had an excellent game and had the velocity and pitched an 8 inning shutout. Kimbrel came in for the save, and while he made me nervous, he got the job done. Mookie broke out tonight against a very good pitcher in Tanaka. We needed his hitting and he delivered with 3. Pedroia was also a tough out and drove in a run. JBJ showed just how valuable he can be getting an extra base hit and also making a great catch off of Judge to save 2 runs. A lot of outfielders wouldn't have made that play. Tanaka stays low and his ball breaks in an down to lefties. We didn't get much out of our lefties but another game they will fare better. Bogaerts got a rest tonight so that was good. The BP didn't see a lot of use after a very tiring couple of days and we have Price to thank for that. The Angels beat the Rays so our position stays solid. Now DD, keep thinking about how to handle 3rd base as none of our current options is really strong there and try to come up with another BP arm as two of our guys went onto the DL this series. Hope neither is serious, but you never know about these things. One last point that I noticed and think is occurring, Moreland seems to be pulling off balls to some extent. He got a hit to left on one of those, but he seemed better when he strode and swung ahead. I will watch him again to see if it happens regularly or was just a couple of at bats. Trying to see why he has been in a slump. Tonight I can go to bed happy with the result.

Well another memorable day but if we can win the nightcap, we come away no worse than when the Yankees came in. They are not exactly killing the ball either. Our hitting for the 3 games so far against the Yankees show 2 extra base hits in 34 innings. We got four hits with one extra base hit today. Sabbathia shut down our lefties and no one really hit well. JF's attempt to rest Hanley with Young just shows that Young is mired in a slump. Don't know how we break out of our general slump but would be happy if our pitching holds up and we can scratch out a few runs. I was watching part of a Brewers game and saw tremendous spirit and energy when they did something well. It would be great to have a burst of energy and positive feeling with our guys. They are really downcast after being shutout twice in a row over 25 innings and at home against our rival at that. Tonight Holt will start at 3rd and presumably Hanley will be DH and Pedey will be at second. Even though Beni didn't hit today, I assume he and JBJ will be in the outfield. The guys are tired but so are the Yankees. It will be interesting to see if Holt stays up or (Lin/Marrero) is sent down.

Mandating a hitter to take the first pitch or two is equally stupid. Too many fastballs are being thrown over the plate on the first pitch without penalty. A hitter facing an 0-2 count is at a terrible disadvantage or even a 2 and 2 count. Give the hitters the instuctions to be aggressive once in a while to make the pitcher be careful. These hitters face 90mph heat nearly every time at bat. Last night Kimbrel threw a first pitch fastball down the middle and it was hit out.

I would hope we can leave Lin up as our Utility guy and send Marerro down, but with Holt being called up it might not work with 2 left handed utility players up. Holt is written in at 3rd for the 2nd game unless something happens in the first game.

It wouldn't be considered so if he continues in a slump. He needs to wake up and I hope it is soon.

You might say the Sox hand may be forced with hitting a major issue of late.

Not worth the cost.

I see Austin Maddox has just been brought up but know nothing about him other than he is a 26 Year old right hander and is 6' 2" and weighs 220. He was invited to ST for a look.

I think we are pretty much in agreement and also with what Kimmi said elsewhere. We pretty much need to go with the players we have with the possible exception of adding another relief arm. There is Devers waiting in the wings who may help us soon. There are also batting order changes that might help in two ways. !) string together more locked in hitters, 2) shake some guys up a little and get them to realize that they need to do better. Key guys for us who are underperforming at Betts, Bogey and Moreland. Hope we can get enough guys to play well today to win at least one of the double header.

I look at guys hitting as being a combination of Plate Approach, Swing Mechanics, Hand-Eye Coordination, Bat Speed and Raw Power. Not all of those are mutually excllusive but are convenient buckets to evaluated players. Right now I see Mookie as having a PA that has him taking way too many good pitches and his SM has gotten him looping the bat and popping up. I think he has good H-E coordination, has excellent BS but has limited RP which doesn't work out well for him when he hits to center field. He needs to work on the first 2 categories. Bogey"s PA also has him taking too many pitches and his SM doesn't allow him to generate power. his H-E and BS are okay and his RP may be better than his SM allow. Moreland's PA and SM seem okay but his H-E and BS aren't so good. Many fouls go toward the left side. He has some power but doesn't show it often since his solid contact is limited. Hanley's PA is also bad in that he takes good and swings at bad. He also swings for the fences. His SM seem okay. His H-E is just so soand he has decent BS and he has the RP aspect Pedey's PA varies, and he knows his strike zone. He will go to right when down in the count. He has excellent swing mechanics, although he swings extremely hard. His H-E is very good and he still has BS but his RP is minimal. I love Beni's approarch and also think Lin is excellent with JBJ better since he has flattend his swing. The rest are not so good. I play ball 3 days a week and watch guys at all levels and like to evaluate hitting in general.

Workman will be brought up today as our BP in depleted and probably we need another. Anyone has a guess on who the second one will be?

I totally agree. What needs to be remembered from this is to avoid long term expensive contracts with field players the likes of Sandoval, Craig, Castillo and to some extent Rameriz. If you take a chance on a guy, it shouldn't be for big bucks and long term contracts.If a guy performs for the Sox, then you can reward him. That we have had success with guys like Ortiz indicates you still can find a gem, but have to do it with care.