oldtimer

My feelings as well. What I wonder about is why, with all the expert coaches on the Sox, that his approach wasn't dealt with during the season? Maybe it is hard to do anything on the fly, but I have trouble buying that argument. When a guy doesn't have the innate ability it is one thing ( perhaps Shaw, Leon) but JBJ does have it and wasn't able to stay focussed and that cost the Sox. I sure it will come up along with player changes needed to improve the team, but should we also look at the coaches and manager to see if improvements need to be made there as well.

EE will be 34 years old next season and will be much in demand from a number of clubs. His contract is likely to be 5 years at high dollars. No doubt he is a formidable power hitter now, but how long will that last? Beltran is a good hitter with power who can probably be gotten for reasonable dollars and no more than a 2 year contract. The difference is significant and for those that want to stay within Luxury tax limits, another big long term contract might force us to lose some of the killer B's in the near future.

Question about free agency. I think our three free agents are neither A or B quality so based on my reading of the free agency rules, we can only pick up one in the A range. If we pick up Encarnacion, I believe he is an A level at his position, so we would be limited to him and could not get an A reliever or catcher should those people be of interest. I would think Beltran wouldn't be a A list FA so we might be able to pick up an A at a different position. Clearly, this is also a money thing as the contracts for A level players are high dollar. You seem to be clear of these things. Am I right about this or is it handled differently? If I am correct, then we would probably have to balance high performance FA acquisitions with trades to improve the team.

Our current catchers are good defensively but are a liability at bat. Swihart might be a solution to the hitting issue but would his defense be an offsetting liability? Certainly if we could improve our catching slot from within, without going into the expensive FA market, then that is a better solution. Leaves more resources to deal with the 3rd base issue, DH and R Pitching. At this point if we could trade for an ace SP without ruining our prospect list, then I would consider it and perhaps not pick up Buchholtz contract.

Just based on his contract alone, you have to give Sandoval a look. Possibly 3rd, 1st or DH. He bats from the left side, something in short supply next season, so another reason for giving him a look. He probably has zero trade value, so we either eat his contract or try to find a home for him. I am not optimistic about his return to acceptable form but stranger things have happened.

I think JBJ could improve his swing. Go away from the long, uppercut he developed during the season) back to a more compact swing where contact is emphasized. If he hits 260 to 270 with reasonable power, we would have a gold glove defensive outfielder who is still a threat at the plate. I would be very reluctant to include him in any trade. Personally, I think Leon reverted to his long term hitting form. He is unable to deal with a curve and often takes third strikes down the middle, seemingly unable to see the pitch well. He is 5'10" and listed at 225 lbs, so is slow. He is a good defensive catcher, but we need an upgrade with someone who can hit a little more. Vazquez is not much of a hitter either but is certainly a fine backup. Swihart may be a deep backup but not an everyday catcher.

First of all, I think JBJ needs to revamp his swing, which is both long and uppercut right now. Perhaps he went to this swing thinking he would generate more power, but instead he has become a low contact guy. If he could adopt a swing like Chase Utley (compact), he would make contact far more often and not lose a lot of power. He is a great defensive CF and has shown flashes of the hitter he could be. Definitely a keeper and a lefty to help our lineup. Pedey, Betts, Bogaerts, Beni, Hanley all make up the strength of our lineup. Add JBJ and we have 6 high quality guys. I would go for Wilson Ramos in the FA market and set up C with Ramos/Vazquez. I would prefer Beltran for DH, assuming EE to be an expensive, long term acquisition. In the pitching area, I would go after Quintana with our trade bait. If Robertson could be gotten,, then that would be great, but I suggested a couple of free agent pitchers elsewhere that I would also chase. If I let go of a starter, it would be BUchholz.

Wilson Ramos is recovering from surgery but is one of the guys we could really use. We really have good defensive catchers but with Leon looking helpless at the plate( taking strikes in critical situations and unable to deal with the curve), I would take a chance on a catcher who can hit. I would keep Vazquez and trade Leon and Holaday. Hannigan (gone anyway). I might try to keep Swihart as a deep backup. I would go after Beltran for DH. He is a quality hitter with power. EE is likely to be very expensive, want at least 5 years, not to mention pending legal issues. Trumbo might not want to be DH and while he has power, his avg. is pretty low. I would take a shot at Justin Turner for 3rd base. We currently have Shall, Hill, Holt, Hernandez, Sandoval and Moncada as possibilities. I would keep Holt, Hernandez and try to develop Moncada. I would trade Shaw and Hill while giving a look to Sandoval. I think Hanley can fill our 1st base needs so wouldn't go after one. Our outfield is solid as is second and short, so in my opinion, 3rd, catcher and DH need upgrades. I would go high for RP with Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon being my two targets. If we want a SP, which we don't have to have, but could use an upgrade, then try to work a trade for Quintana. We have some carrots to offer. Clearly the FA market will be competitive and we are unlikely to get all of the ones I am interested in. DD will have the tough job of getting value in return for whoever we are able to get, if any.

Its over now as we were swept by Cleveland. It was good to see some fight from the guys during this game and at the end. At the end of the day, the pitching needs to hold the opponents down since playoff pitching often means low scoring games. We couldn't do that even though the BP did it's job pretty well. Sorry to see Ortiz go out this early as he has been one of the greatest Sox player. What was interesting is several of the guys in deep slumps got meaningful at bats tonight. Maybe they can come away from this with a good feeling of possibility for 1017. There is a good nucleus here and DD is likely to be aggressive to fill some of the weak spots.

One other thought is that some relievers don't do well if they come in with men on base. Kimbrel may be one of those, for instance. You need to slot the guys where they can feel comfortable and do well.

Aren't you being overly dramatic. As far as I can see one person said JBJ should not be considered an all star based on his hitting slump and you infer everyone on the sight shares his opinion.

Either E-Rod or Buchholz have good enough stuff to start. JF is going with the more experienced pitcher and I'm okay with that.

The reality is the end of season performances by many of our hitters slipped off dramatically so we haven't been as good recently as the ratings for players that you cite. I sincerely hope that JBJ, Bogaerts and Leon can regain at least some of the performance that they demonstrated during a significant portion of the season. Perhaps today some lightning bolt will hit and at least one of them will find themselves and help the cause.

I don't remember for sure when the role of closer was fully established. Starting pitchers used to try to go 9 innings. Now we have a model where starters may throw 100 pitchers of maybe a few more before being replaced or if they get into any trouble, they are yanked early and we seem to have 7th and 8th inning setup men and a closer. A point here is the approach to handling the pitching staff is continually evolving and probably will continue to change as the years go by. Perhaps the idea of a shared closer role is not that far fetched. Sometimes the guys could fulfill the role of the setup man or the closer, whichever seemed to be needed the most at the time. Creative handling of the staff, if an innovation seemed to work, would soon be copied and pitchers would learn to adapt to the new reality. Look at the Yankees this year with 3 guys who could all have been closers.

Well, Texas and the Sox were rated at the top at the start of the ALDS, probably based on their records and potent offenses. Texas just was swept in large part due to weak starting pitching. The Sox have also lost two with weak performances from their starters. Kind of points to the need to have improved pitching. In our case, we chose a bad time to have our hitting also go downhill, but some of that is due to the improved pitching seen in the playoffs. There will be a competitive market for such starters who might become available through Trades next year.

Francona's stated that he would do everything he could to compete in the winnable games, referring of course to the games with the Sox. Let the future take care of itself. Showalter didn't do that, leaving his best reliever sitting when he still had a chance to win. He is rightly being criticized for that lack of action.

Let Kimbrel pout. We need quality and if we get it, the boys will have to work it out.

Instead of concentrating totally on the White Sox and trying to get a blockbuster trade, I would look to the FA market to see if we can do anything there first. Justin Turner is on the market for third base. Maybe we could avoid picking up Frazier that way and simplify the proposed trade with the White Sox. I favor picking up Carlos Beltran for DH if we can get him off the FA market. I am probably one of very few fans that think we have weakness at catcher with 4 on the books. I would look at Wilson Ramos on the FA market and keep Vazquez, allowing the others to be traded. I understand both Kenley Jensen and Mark Melanson are FA who could help with the RP. I have heard that E. Encarnacion is in a lawsuit dealing with passing along sexually transmitted disease. I would be reluctant to bring him aboard due to the big money involved, the length of contract likely and this unsettling legal situation. If we could get Quintana in a trade with the WS, I would be for it, but with a single target, our offering could be much less and not deplete our prospects so deeply.

It reasonable to say we can win one game on Sunday. The problem is we need to win 3 games and at least one of those against Kluber, who dominated us yesterday. I hope we can but who is going to energize our slumping hitters?

I have been a fan since the 1940's and have also seen a lot. It isn't being bitchy to point out the reality we find ourselves in.

The first thing I would do is look hard at the manager and coaching staff. What we have seen at the end of this season is a collapse of the team and I hope it doesn't end Sunday for Ortiz, but we have played poorly. Starting pitching, closer, hitting and even field play are all suspect. It is worth asking why this should occur and who should be held accountable? Clearly, JBJ, Bogaerts, Leon and Shaw have fallen into a funk at the plate. Perhaps Shaw and Leon are returning to their ability levels, but JBJ and Bogaerts appear to be better so need to be worked with for next year and hopefully return to what I perceive is a higher ability level at the plate. A note of caution is that be very careful about bringing in ace pitchers on big, long term contracts. We have Price now who is more of a 3rd starter than an ace. Kimbrel is another story. Great stuff but wild. Also, be wary of bringing in older field players and hitters on big, long term contracts. With that said, I would be willing to trade away Swihart, Shaw, Johnson and Owens and roster players like HIll, Hannigan,Rutledge and Marrero. In the relief area I would trade Elias, Abad, Workman and Ramirez. I would be very reluctant to trade JBJ as he still has a high upside potential. The deal would need to be very enticing to let got of him. I would keep Devers for the time being as he may fill a need at 3rd, depending on how Moncada works out. Quintana would be my SP target. We do already have a serviceable rotation so someone would wind up being pushed out. Don't know who that would be. Have looked at Robertson and I assume he is one of your targets for setup man in the 7th or 8th. Smith is returning for surgery so maybe Barnes or Hembree would fill in but Scott is a lefty or Pomeranz would fit as a long reliever. As far as lineup at the start of the season is concerned, I am assuming we don't trade JBJ away and we keep Young. Lineup: 1. Pedey 2nd 2. Beni lf 3. Betts rf 4. Beltran DH 5. Rameriz 1st 6. Bogaerts SS 7. JBJ cf 8. Frazier 3rd (on your advice) 9. Leon c Remaining 25 man roster: 10. Young of 11. Henrnadez 2nd, SS 12. Holt of, if 13. Vazquez c Other reserves: Moncada 2nd, 3rd Travis 1st Dubon SS Devers 3rd Holaday c On the longer term, the hope is that Moncada can make the jump during the year and be a solid contributor after the all star break. If we do lose JBJ, then I wouldn't plan on playing Beltran in LF. Holt would be a better choice. Getting any free agent will be a competitive situation and DD is the guy who we want to make favorable trades and acquisitions for us.

Just a reality check. Didn't we just lose 7 of the last 8 games? Hardly a competitive team at this point. Instead of doom and gloom, I see it as a reality, as it is in the books. The Pollyanna types can say their piece and be hopeful, as is their right, but the facts point in the other direction.

In view of the end of season performance of our team, we may need to rethink who we keep and who we need. Since it seems we are in a general malaise, I would also look to the coaches and managers for an explanation. Some of our poor performers are under big contracts so that is hard to fix. Others, as you mention, need to be reconsidered and their performances are sub ML level. Some of our fans might say look, we made the playoffs so we should tread lightly with changes. The reality is our end of season has been dismal to date and we never would have made the playoffs the way we are going now.

After the game this afternoon, even the most optimistic Red Sox fans have to be discouraged. Down 2 in a 5 game series is a huge hole. Signs of the Red Sox weakness showed up with the performances of Kimbrel and Price late in the season. When Porcello had a clunker, the complexion of our playoff picture turned grey. Our hitting also turned sour and for stat guys you need to look over a short period to get a true picture of what is going on as Shaw, Bogaerts,JBJ and Leon have all been underperforming. Knowing we were going up against playoff caliber pitching meant our other players would struggle to carry the team. Only if our pitching was stellar would be have a good chance. Well, today we seemed to be snakebittern. We ran into good pitching and struggled with it. While Price seemed to have good stuff, a couple of unlucky break hits got him into trouble and then he had a mistake or two and he had to be removed from the game. By then we were in a big hole and never could have gotten out of it. Interestingly, Kimbrel got used for one batter and struck him out although he looked wild to me. Also, we had mishandled balls by Pedey and Holt while every bounce seemed to go Clevelands way. Our only hitters that seemed to hit the ball well, by that I mean didn't strike out a lot and put the ball in play with decently hit balls were Holt and Beni. Bogaerts and Betts each got a hit but didn't look good at the plate. Pedey also looked bad. JBJ is not even making contact now and perhaps we should get Young into the game for the series in Boston by moving JBJ out and moving Beni into center. Leon isn't doing much either and it doesn't seem to matter which pitchers are in the game against us, we just aren't hitting well. You have to ask why we are in such a malaise but I have no answer. We may have to rethink the roster for next year in view of the performance of the team in the playoffs. I guess we have to hope Buchholz can win the next one and take it a game at a time.

He was used in medium relief and did the job pretty well. I wonder how much rest he will need between apprearances?