oldtimer

I'm no stat guy, but there is a stat WGDP which really compares the runs above or below the average that a player has accumulated by his ability to avoid hitting into double plays when he has the opportunity to do so. Have a speedy player who doesn't hit a lot of ground balls when in a double play situation would get a better number. It can be used as a minor adjustment to WAR.

I don't know why you feel a 4 game suspension isn't enough? The league has spoken and I am okay with their decision. Now if he was a repeat offender, perhaps a longer suspension would be justified.

Too bad we didn't trade him when his value was higher.

And yet Mooreland is doing a fine job at 1st, so the pickup was a good one and needed. Playing Pablo at first would be an experiment and he still woulld need to be platooned leaving us needing to fill 1st base. Hanley doesn't really want to move away from DH so he would have been a reluctant platoon candidate.

Moon suggested platooning Pablo as a way to improve the offense. I don't think standing pat with the same offense until sometime in June makes sense. Someone else said it. The definintion of lunacy is to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.

We play game 19 today. That sounds like 1/10th of the season plus. When will the sample size be large enough for a decision or for some action? I am not ranting that something must be done immediately but this team just doesn't seem to have the fire to generate runs. I look at our field players and see a lot of quality. Defensively, we have a terrific outfield with an excellent defensive sub in Young. Moreland is certainly a good 1st BM, and Pedroia may have lost some range but is still mid quality defensively in the league. Bogaerts is in the same boat. Good but not great defensively. Then we have Panda who has neither range or ball security. Our catchers are very good defensively. All-in-all we have one weak position. Offensively we have Pedroia who is a proven offensive player. Even if he regresses from last year he still is good. Beni is in his first full year. Nice swing, good plate discipline. He is facing lefties regularly now as well. Time will tell how good he can be but certainly adequate for now. Betts is one of the best hitter in the league but so far hasn't shown a lot of pop. I expect he will. Rameiriz is a bit streaky. He has power but seems to need a goad at times. Probably not having Ortiz around to stimulate him is a negative. Moreland has really been a positive surprise. He is up there with league leaders in BA and was leading in doubles. Great start. Panda lacks plate discipline but does make contact sometimes hard even on the balls off the plate. You wonder how he would do if he really developed discipline. Too late for that and at 214 BA, he is not giving us 3rd bm type numbers.Bogaerts is also proven and will hit, including some power. Bradley was unfortunately out for a while and needs to get back into the swing of things. Leon and Vazquez have had their moments. We have two quality subs on the bench in Young and Hernandez, both of whom can hit. So why so few runs? We lack power for certain with the fewest HR total by a lot. We feature a lot of smaller guys with limited pop. We also seem to lack that fire some teams in the past have possessed, where Cowboying Up was the rallying approach. Does the fire come from the players, from the managers, from the front office? Francona seemed to engender more but maybe just because he had Ortiz. In another thread, someone suggested it is time to try doing something else. Bunt, run more, changing the batting order, changing some of the players for bench players. No suggestions to go out and get a basher (for which i am thankful). So if more than 10% of the season goes by and we are not showing life offensively, how long will the team be allowed to continue this funk? Right now we don't look like a playoff team so how do we get there?

An honest try at answering the question raised by this thread. What about the thought the team has been unable to score a run in the regulation 9 innings for the last 3 games. What can be done? Should we be nervous this early in the season? I hope no one is suggesting we go out and pay big money for an extended contract to some has been slugger.

Pablo has tied the major league lead for errors by a 3rd baseman with Escobar with 4 and we are only 15 games in. Add to that a limited range and his defense is an issue. The season is early of course but he is hitting 224 at this juncture. Because of his contract, I believe the Sox will stay with him well into May and hope for improvement. The team has issues with the offense so it is hard to hide a guy like Pablo, meaning we meed him to produce like a player in his prime, otherwise we should investigate good looking options.

Moreland has been a happy surprise so far this season. Good pickup for us when we had a real need.

Nothing against Price, but his contract is an example of how crazy baseball staffing has become. Taking a pitcher based on past performance is one thing but to take a pitcher with a lot of innings on his resume for 7 years has got to be folly. To get an ace is extremely costly on the free agent market. The move for Sale looks like a relative bargain but pitchers are fragile and teams better wake up and keep the years down to three. More than that just winds up being a costly mistake. The same can be said for the Ellsbury FA deal the Yankees got themselves into. He is a good player but going out on a limb on a long term contract hurts the Yankees ability to compete.

The defense let us down. Porcello throws sinkers when right and gets grounds balls. Not only did we get consecutive errors, the two hits that got through may have been range issues for two of our infielders. We are what we are in the infield but Pablo now has his 3rd error in 12 games and this one on a routine play. He better get it together as we can't afford weak defense with this team.

Porcello pitched fairly well today but got two errors in one inning (Panda and Moreland) plus two ground ball hits through the infield to account for three runs while getting no run support.

Taylor has looked good so far. Don't trade him, we may need him in the BP throughout the season.

For those wishing to push Beni down the batting order as late as a couple of games ago, the managers patience paid off with two 3 hit games in a row. He is going to get on base a lot even if he is not likely to hit many home runs. Good guy to hit second in this lineup. Beni is now over 300 (314 I believe). I like his swing and with Betts also coming alive in the 3rd hole, we can cause a lot of opportunities for Hanram.

Selsky is not hitting well enough to take the DH role so maybe it will be Young. Moreland is a pleasant surprise and a job well done by DD, at least so far. Pablo takes a lot f cuts and sooner or later will run into one. He did today. Is it enough? For the time being it will be. The top of the order, not including Pedroia had an excellent hitting day. Those pushing for Bogaerts to swap positions in the lineup need to learn a little patience.

Pablo's an average fielder among 3rd basemen at best and they had hoped he would come close to his career average hitting. He had one at bat yesterday where he fouled off a few and went to 7 pitches before grounding out. Not much to recommend him right now but they will give him a long look due to the contract. We do have Marco available and I doubt if he would be less than an average fielder and he is more disciplined at the plate. The situation is a dilemma for management but they do need to stay competitive so the decision point may be as early as the end of April.

So far Pablo looks to be playing about as expected. Okay but not top fielder and a decent hitter against right hand pitching. We knew he was a free swinger when we got him but he can sometimes hit balls off the plate hard. So we got maybe an average third baseman who can hit lefties to some extent. Not worth what he is being paid and probably replaceable with a better for less money. I do agree though with giving him a long enough time to see what he can do.

Doubles Moreland is hitting. We are getting more from him than we might have expected. Hope he can keep it up. Not long before JBJ is back and that should help the offense as well.

Maybe not iffy to you, but coming in at around 235 does put stress on a body and it is a long season. I hope he can continue to do well and that Vazquez also can hit. The season has just begun and what occurs in the first few games is encouraging but not definitive.

Changing the subject, our catching situation, which looked iffy on opening day has been very solid. I hope the hitting continues. It bot h Leon and Vazquez can hold their own over a longer period, this team becomes even more formidable.

Moreland was coming back from the flu so had an excuse for the slow start. Pablo is a free swinger, but he is making solid contact. Could this continue? Wait and see. What kills me is when pitchers have two strikes on a batter yet fool around and walk them rather than come in. Batters only get a hit once in three times so a ball in play is a better result than a walk. Hembree was guilty of that. our pen is somewhat decimated with the flu as is the team. I hope it runs its course soon as we could pick up a few losses just due to the flu.

He nearly won for us today. Took bad relief pitching to do us in.

Leon is heavy for his height, not unlike some other catchers. Catching can be an especially grueling position so perhaps what we have witnessed with Leon is that he wears down as the season progresses. If that was the case, the solution might be to get him additional rest throughout the season. With Vaz and Swihart as viable replacements, it would be easy to rest Leon several games per week.

A wag might observe he is on pace for 162 error season. Give him a break, he may go 20 games without another error, I hope.

With bereavement issues and flu going around they called up Hernandez and I believe Pomeranz. Bogaerts will be out for three days and so will Barnes. Holt was sick but is now playable. It will be interesting to see who starts at short.