oldtimer

By the all star break, it ought to be very clear if the Sandoval experiment is working. If not, maybe Devers could be brought up then. I trust the coaches and managers to make that decision as they see the kid every day. in no case would I trade him.

Pedey was rusty but he will come along and give up table setters. Now if Hanley would look anything like he was last year we might get more competitive with the elite teams. We will get a look during the Houston series.

I have often thought that a stat for how many times a player takes the collar versus games played in would reveal more about a players offensive value than some of the available stats. A player can go off against weak pitching and perhaps build BA and RBI stats, but then take the collar day after day and have the same offensive stats as a guy who hits in more games and is a lot more consistent. I find no place where such a stat exists.

Our left handed batters came through tonight with Moreland and Bradley getting the decisive blows. The relief pitching held up and Kimbrel was great again. We need the wins at home after the two tough losses in NY and will a road trip facing us.

You can see from tonight that JF has made a number of moves in the lineup including sending Sam Travis to AAA. Pedroia is back so they either had to part with a guy or send Travis down so JF decided on a player with options. Now the lineup he chose keeps Betts at the leadoff, Pedroia second, Bogaerts stays in the third hole. Further along Moreland is now our firstbaseman and is hitting 4th with Beni 5th, Hanley is moved down to 6th, since he is slumping, Bradley is 7th and Leon 8th while 3rd base is 9th. We'll see if this shakeup motivates any hitters. JF said he wanted more lefthanded hitters closer together in the lineup.

Some posters on this site have argued that batting order makes little difference as far as run production. I don't subscribe to that idea and feel the order that you have put forth is a good one, and possibly the best for the pieces that we have. One obvious question is whether batting 4 righties in a row leaves us more susceptable to right handed relief. The problem is that we have little power in the lineup with Hanley being the primary power hitter and he hasn't been producing. Plus we have other weaknesses at the bottom of the order. I don't see how any mixture of our current players will compete for the title with the Yankees and perhaps some other American League teams. The coming road trip may bring our chances into better focus. We are hamstrug as well by the huge contracts we got into so the flexibility to make moves probably is not there. How long will the club go if things go badly, to bring our younger players into the team and play them going forward.?

Watching the games last night and tonight, it is pretty clear that the Yankees are much more capable pf producing runs than we are at the present time. A decent pitcher leaves us with 4 or 5 hits for a game and no one is really that much of a home run threat. Mookie is off a little right now but so is most of the lineup. If we don't start hitting better we cannot make it up with superior pitching. Instead it will be frustrating losses 3 to 1 or against the Yankee 7 or 8 to 1. There has to be frustration mounting on the club. I don't see much potential for a remedy.

I'm not as down on Porcello as you both seem to be. He showed good stuff and lasted fairly late. Yes, he went up in the zone and got him and that is command. Next time out he may pitch a gem.

It turned out that we weren't in a position to use Kimbrel last night so having him pitch a little in the 8th and then the 9th didn't cause us to miss him. He should be available tonight should the Sox show some competitiveness and be in the game late.

If we trade a catcher, I would prefer it to be Leon. I see him as having difficulty lasting for very long as a ML catcher due to his weight and limited athleticism, while some teams might be willing to go with him to fill a need. If we trade for a player it will need to involved a pickup at 3rd base. The Yankees are also in need at 3rd, at least for this year, and will be strong competition there for us. I think the Sox will be somewhat gun shy after the big money laid out for non-performers and underperformers. Craig, Catillo, Sandoval and to some extent, even Rameriz all fit into that category. I owuld be gun shy about adding high priced talent unless both fairly young and also really extremely solid.

Yes, Rutledge got two of the 5 hits tonight. Too many weak or underperforming bats in the lineup. Once behind by 5 you knew it was over. Porcello seemed to have his good stuff although his command up was not all that good so he would have needed more run support to have any chance. It's pretty clear that we could use another big bat and will the salary pressures we currently have, I doubt we will get one this year.

I think we knew the lineup has to produce among the first 5 hitters or we are dead meat tonight. Hoping for Pedey to be back tomorrow to strengthen our lineup. Whatever happens for the rest of the game, I won't criticize Farrell for trying to put his best righty lineup in.

Its a tough call, especially since CC has a cutter that has caused problems for right hand hitters as well. I do think Travis could and should replace Moreland tonight. As you point out Beni has begun to hit and JBJ is also hitting the ball hard of late. Hanley is still a power threat even though his contact rate is down. The choice is among those 3 and I think we know that jbj is the best CF we have defensively so I might give Hanley the rest tonight.

Barnes and other relievers keep getting themselves into 3 and 2 counts by wasting pitches that no batter will swing at (too far out of the zone). He could either have walked the next guy, putting the lead run at the play or ben forced to come in over the plate. Neither was a good option. By bringing in his best at that point, Farrell wanted to do all he could to prevent the run from coming in from 3rd and risking any further damage. As it turned out, Kimbrel threw perhaps too good a hard curve, struck out the batter but it wasn't blocked leading to a run and a batter on. Kimbrel did strike out the side in the 9th though to save the game. We saw Red Sox pitchers all night going into deep counts. Pomeranz threw 123 pitches to get through 5 innings. Relievers had to go 4 full innings. Scott, Kelly and Barnes all were used as was Kimbrel. Barnes should be available to pitch some tonight but perhaps Kimbrel will not be. It depends on how wants to set up for followon games. Only the manager will have reports on how each pitcher is feeling so he has to make the decision but if we are ahead late in the game, I would use Kimbrel, if at all possible.

Several times he went to the mound with players on second and once when the umpire needed a break after beig hit. Still, he did go to the mound fairly often.

We don't seem to have a separate thread to talk about the last days/nights game, so I will use this thread. Last night we saw the good in that we got a win against the Yankees in their home ball park. It was good that we have the bats to make a pitcher pay when they made mistakes across the middle as Moreland, Rameriz and beni were able to do. We also saw a lot of hard hitting from Bradley even though he hits into hard luck still. Farrell used his pitching staff pretty well to win the one in hand. Lets worry about tomorrow when that comes suited me. We have an outstanding closer, maybe the best in baseball at this time. Even Pablo fielded his position well last night. On the not so good side, our pitchers are nibblers and the Yankees, like us, make you throw strikes. We had 3 and 2 counts over and over again, so Pomeranz only lasted 5 good innings and we had to use the strength of our bull pen, probably limiting what can happen today. Also, when we go to our defensive infield, we have Rutledge and Marrerro in the lineup and neither cann hit solid relief pitching. Still, we needed to make that move and the hope is Pedey will relief that situation when coming back on Friday. With Sabbathia on the mound tonight, maybe it will be a good time to use Young and Sam Travis. If not against a tough leftie starter, then when?

However the red sox do it, they need to retain all three of their young nucleus players who have years more good baseball in them. Some of the mistaken big contracts of the past will begin to clear and give cap space for offering our young players what they are worth.

Last night, Farrell used his bull pen to get the win with a game in hand. I think he made smart moves and we got the win. One star for Farrell.

I see e-Rod has been told to rest his aching knee for from 3 to 4 weeks as part of the rehab. That throws a monkey wrench into our starting rotation and who knows how long after the rest that he can become an effective starter again.

I remember him well. He had a lot of talent but was really a little crazy. He often got into fights or into controversial behavior. I remember he won a gold glove in 1958 in cf. His most memorable stunt is whe he hit his 100th HR he ran around the bases backward. That makes bat flipping seem trite, doesn't it? I think that stunt occurred after he left the Sox and might have been with the Yankees. I still liked him as a player and he played with outfield with the likes of Ted Williams.

Yes, but Sandoval is a liability at 3rd.

He made a first attempt to breakout of the slump today and then some. He went 3 for 4 with 2 HRs and a single with a walk to boot, all off of 3 different pitchers, including a lefty. He scored 3 times, drove in 3 and stole a base. that waqs a great day and neither of his HR's were cheap. In fact it was the killer B's today that did most of the damage. We did get hits from Moreland and I think Sandoval, but then Sandoval made a poor throw on a ball that cost us. Great to come away from Baltimore with a split after going down on the first 2 of the series.

I agree. He needs to have a change which could ossibly wake him up.

We got a fine pitchiing performance from Price and this time we didn't waste it. Rutledge sat and Marrero played second with Pablo at third. Beni got a hit but is really still not back to the level of confidence he came in with. Young might help us with an appearance. Moreland is swinging at high strikes and they elevate on him and he still swings out of the strike zone. I hope he is getting coaching as they must see what is going on. Hard to put a guy in the middle of the lineup who is slumping. Maybe a day off with Sam Travis in would be worth a try. The other good news is Hanley hit tonight. We know he can be streaky. I still think he has been nursing a sore shoulder that they don't like to talk about. The Orioles have some pop in their lineup but their BAs aren't that good. We are tied in league standing with them and have a good enough team to play better in the next month. Now for finding that big bat somewhere. Devers or outside.

Great news tonight with Price looking like the guy we had hoped for. It was better than I expected and may give up a leg up on the competition going forward.