oldtimer

Overall record for a pitcher with a lot of innings may not be the best view of present and future capability. The track usually is downward in velocity and effectiveness. If he can be reasonably effective as a #3 starter and eat a lot of innings he will help the team. Doing that is by no means certain for a guy coming back from arm issues. He is our $30 mil a year man and will be for years to coe so I hope he can still be effective.

Beni's gone into a mini-slump. He is still making contact most at bats but without results. Hope his luck improves as a long term slump might impact his confidence.

We have used 6 third basemen this year and it is only May 12th. So far our players have been error prone and are collectively hitting near the bottom of all ML players at that position. There is only one reason for not bringing up a young player like Devers and that is the concern that early exposure might hurt his confidence going forward. By accounts i have read he is a decent fielder with a strong arm and he hits with power. The major league pitching might be too much for him at this point and we have a lot of players on contract but if he could succeed, we would be a better team.

Porcello is getting bombed tonight and Pomeranz wasn't effective in his last. Outside of Sale, E-Rod and Kimbrel our rotation and relief has looked sick indeed. My view of Price is that at this point in his career he is not much better than and 3rd or 4th starter. We haven't seen him in action as yet so it is hard to know he will return to acceptable form or not. I think you are being optimistic.

Maybe the best is for David Ortiz

Price is doing a rehab start in the minors so he should be back soon. Are we the only team where the salary in the minors and rehab is greater that that on our major league team. Price, Sandoval, Craig, Castillo, Thornburg, Smith all get the bucks. I wonder if Price will ever return to decent form let alone the expectations for an Ace. Giving a pitcher with a lot of mileage a 7 year contract is just nuts.

Perhaps there should be a separate thread on base running. The Sox have had a ton of outright mistakes this year and today was no different. First we had a lack of movement on a ball hit to second and dropped. The runner then came back to first, not seeing or being coached about the dropped ball and to make mattters worse, Moreland was doubled up not able to get up the line in time. It was a tough play but we looked bad. Much worse was Pedroia. You have to criticize a guy who has just hit a double, but then he could have easily gone to 3rd on a ball that got away from the catcher but didn't appear to be paying attention. That cost us a run as there was a single by Bogaerts. Might have cost us the game but fortuneately not. That gaff was later compounded by Pedroia trying to stretch a single into a double. Somebody tell him, he isn't that fast. I didn't see the game the previous night but understand he also ran the bases poorly then as well. Today is just one of many incidents this year. You wouldn't expect one of your most experienced players to be so careless. Thanks to good pitching and Betts, we won and we needed to.

If you look at who we picked up in the last few years and their value to the team vs money or trade value paid I would list them as follows: Sale (5 stars) Porcello (5 stars) Kimbrel (5 stars) Price (2 stars) Pomeranz (2 stars) Thornburg (0 stars) Smith (0 stars) Moreland (3 stars) Young (3 stars) Leon (2 stars) Sandoval (-3 stars) Craig (- 3 stars) Castillo (- 3 stars) Some very good acquisitions here but also a lot of misses for big money and a depletion of our farm system. Still we haven't solved our 3rd base situation and I really didn't try to list all the secondary players that have come through but there were a few others. Still having a problem with JBJ. Would a trade finding him getting his mojo back? If so that might put a bad light on our coaching. I am bothered as how we pick up pitchers only to have them on the DL for extended periods. Is our pitching program that grueling or our we dumbly taking on guys with known issues? Also how is it we trade an infielder and another team can work magic on him (Travis Shaw) when we have been unable? Is there a coaching problem here?

As are the Red Sox.

The two position players who would be totally off limits in trade talks are Betts and Beni. Both are foundation players. Bogaerts is close to that status as well. I hope to live long enough to see another team that can compete for the world series and expect both Betts and Beni to be on that team.

In August, if he is still hitting under .200 guys will still be postulating that one good month for September. What he needs is to go down and work on his hitting for a week or two. I still think he can be a hitter again but he needs to change his approach. We do need his defense and he is a great young guy so coaches, please help him get his mojo back.

Hembree has looked bad the last couple of times out as has Barnes. We need the relievers that we expected to have actually pitch in the majors. Smith and Thornburg where are you?

Sounds like the Sox might improve their regimen for pitchers. We sure have a sorry mess right now.

There has been a long time to form that opinion. JBJ has not lived up to his own expectations offensively. I do grant, as was said on BB Tonight, there are many proven ML players that are off to very slow starts offensively this year. They didn't have an explanation for it but noted a number of unexpected last place teams had guys who had good careers now hitting 220 or less. Could it be the pitching is that much better? The Cubs also have several that are way off. Still, there are guys like Beni, who have hit very well so go figure.

Robbie Ross came in and tried to give the game away. Hembree has looked bad recently.

You coach him properly and then have patience.

Sounds like an excuse for poor performance to me. JBJ has to get his head together and needs help from Chili Davis to get back to be an acceptable offensive threat. It's getting to a point where his career is on the line. He has shown the capability in the past so it is a matter of him finding himself.

Today, the bullpen tried to give the game away and thankfully Kimbrel was brought in to stop the bleeding. Having Thornburg and Smith not able to help this team has left us weakened in the pen. This sitation appears to be bad luck or back reading of the medical reports.

I agree the coaching staff bears some responsibility in the gaffs we see. What we don't know is whether the coaches did all he should have done and still the playing screwed up or not.

I think JBJ is one of the best defensive players in the league and his offensive showing when hot indicates he could hit. I long ago identified what I thought was his hitting issues and noted earlier this year that despite his statement to the contrary, he really did not change his hitting mechanics. Should he go with someone who would get his attention and have him try a shorter and more compact swing, he might hit very well indeed. In my opinion, the Sox should talk seriously with him about his career and get Chili Davis to do a swing makeover. The time to have done that was the off season, so now he is in a position where he is hurting the team and his trade value is minimal.

Thornberg has been placed on the 60 day disabled list. The curse continues.

Hanley has heated up. He has been irratic and he shows little emotion. I had thought maybe having Ortiz around to talk to might help him but he has found something else and is going off in the last few games. We have solid core hitting although jbj just hasn't got it going much at all. Even when he does make good contact the balls are being caught. Other than hiim, we are somewhat weak at 3rd, depending on who plays and also somewhat weak at catcher with Leon not hitting much and Vazquez while hitting, a bit of a question mark. The only thing I see coming along is a potential for improvement at 3rd base during the season. We still need to generate more runs.

Actually, it was 4 guys, as the first base coach should have been screaming directions as well.

Yes, thed lead runners were in a pickle though. If they run and the ball is caught, they can be caught off base. If they don't run, then Moreland is out if tagged first and then second base is tagged to put Pedroia out. If they play it half way,then probably only one of them is an easy out if the ball is dropped with the other likely advancing. If the ball is caught then probably one of them gets back safel. JBJ definitely should have run to first and if the ball is dropped take the bag. He and the first base coach were guilty of not thinking.