oldtimer

We have lost a lot of games where our pitching was good. We have problems scoring against good pitching, but so do other teams so are we worse on the statistic of losing close low scoring games than other playoff bound teams?

I am trying to remember whose other salaries will be coming off the books next year. Did you take Hill, Holaday and Hanigan off our player list as I doubt they will be there? What about Rutledge? Do you think any of our young high potential pitchers will make the grade next season? It looks to be as Leon and Vazquez will be our catching duo next season. The outfield looks set with Young for Utility, the infield also looks solid with the exception of 1st and 3rd. If you believe Shaw will be at 1st and Moncada will manage to handle 3rd, then you have two utility infielders to include for salaries. Will they be some combination of Holt, Rutledge, Hernandez and Swihart (assume him to be flexible at OF, C and possibly FB)? My view is find 2 RP's that make a difference. Hard to see how the SP can be improved except to add to the depth. I'd hate to see us trade a winner and get a high price, long term contract guy who would be only a marginal improvement.

The meat of our lineup wasn't able to hit today with Bogaerts (now below a 300 BA), Ortiz and Betts all taking the collar. I read also that Moncada made another blunder not running with 2 outs. It sounds like JF has lost trust in him in game situations and that he will stay up but not get used. JF wants him to assimilate what it means to be in a pennant race situation. It's a shame the kid hasn't got his act together as he is known to have a lot of talent. Each kid has to move at their own pace and he doesn't appear ready enough to be inserted at this time. .

That's a nasty comment. Could it be that was actually shown on the live watch screen?

That was the number which showed up on the watch live screden, I didn't make that up.

They are playing better ball than the Orioles and Blue Jays so there is a good chance of that. The Tigers may be the more difficult to surpass. Lots of games to go as yet though and a lot can happen.

What really has been good news for the Sox is that Bogaerts appears to be coming out of his slump and Hanley is getting hot at just the right time. The Sox were a scoring machine tonight.

Well, the Sox blew out the Blue Jays and the Orioles lost so we are in a little better position. The Yankees are leading in theirs. Just up to us to continue to win series, the rest will take care of itself. By the way, Porcello is a 20 game winner. Great to see how well he is doing.

I wonder why JF left Porcello in for 130 pitches. Seems kind of high with an 11 to 2 lead in the 8th.

The Sox have 23 games left and all are against meaningful opponents, and yes, I count the Rays in that context, since they have been playing good ball of late. The way I look at the remaining games is that the Sox need to split or win the remaining games with each opponent. Win 3 of the 6 with the Blue Jays Win 4 of 7 with the Orioles Win 4 of 7 with the Yankees Win 2 of 3 with the Rays That doesn't sound all that daunting a task and would give the Sox 92 wins and virtually assure them of a playoff berth and a possible Pennant. The Blue Jays have a tough west coast road trip in their mix plus the Yankees, Baltimore and the Rays. Not likely to come away from that unscathed Baltimore has to go to play the Tigers and have Arizona in addition to the in division foes The Yankees with the most to do have the Dodgers at home in addition to division foes. Clearly, if Blue Jays, Baltimore and the Yankees play evenly and we hold as postulated above, we are in. The Yankees did beat the Rays last night in a close one.

The current Yankee team has changed dramatically to the one that racked up the bulk of the statistics. I would only look at what they have done since the change.

Interesting article on the potential red sox playloff roster on Boston.com. The writer (I didn't see a byline) expects 11 pitchers and 14 field players. Two catchers including Leon and Vazquez. Four outfielders with Benintendi and Young listed. Papi as DH of course and 7 infielders with Pedey, Ramerez, Bogaerts, Shaw, Moncada and Hill listed. He mentioned Hernandez but not sure who the final infielder would be. Holt, but if so who plays short if Bogaerts can't go? The pitchers were 4 starters and didn't include Wright at this time. In relief, there would be Kimbrel, Ross, Kelly, Uehara, Ziegler, Buchholz and Abad. Don't know how in the know the writer is but some names are left off such as Wright, Tazawa and Barnes. I can see the writers point on those.

Perhaps it is repetitive but I can't resist throwing in my idea of the lineup for next season. Red Sox Lineup 2017/2018 The Sox lineup should be solid for the coming year with dangerous hitting up and down the lineup. One could hope for a little more home run power, but it is not a significant negative given the OPS of so many of the likely starters. My view remains the batting order is likely to include: 1. Pedey who is a very productive leadoff hitter, who could bat 2nd and do well also. 2. Beni is unproven so this is a stretch but having a lefty with speed to follow Pedey makes it hard on opposing pitching. 3. Bogaerts is a top notch hitter who will come out of his current slump and be very productive in the 3rd slot. 4. Betts does it all. Power, BA, OPS, speed. With the first 3 in front of him there should be a ton of RBI’s 5. JBJ gives us a lefty with equal numbers to Hanley. Bradley is still on the upswing of his career and may put up even better numbers next season. 6. Hanley will probably be a DH next year in American League parks and a first baseman in NL parks. He has come on recently and since he is here with his big contract, he is a better choice than going for another ageing big bat. 7. Leon has shown great improvement this year. He is a switch hitter. When we use a secondary catcher, he can be moved back in the lineup. 8. Shaw is a good defender and hits with power. He is young enough in experience to make a significant hitting improvement next season. I hope we stay with him and play him at first. 9. Moncada is a talent that will make the lineup next year. It appears he will need time to grow into the role of difference maker. I would start him way down in the lineup and react if performance warrants it. We also have utility players who can and will add punch to the lineup to give a rest to some of our players, act as pinch hitters and as a buffer against injuries. We are fortunate to have good quality available. 1. Velaquez is my expected backup catcher. We can accept light hitting if we are getting first rate defense. His hitting may trend up a little but I don’t expect a great change. 2. Young is a guy who could be a regular on many teams. Good speed, good defensive outfielder, good major league quality hitter. Good to have a pinch hitter of his caliber as well. 3. Holt while not the best defender at any position is valuable due to his versatility. He is a major league quality hitter and can pinch hit for us. I’d guess his role is somewhat threatened by Hernandez and Rutledge. 4. Swihart is another talent that would be nice to keep on the team. He is young, athletic, can hit well and is versatile enough to play outfield, backup as catcher and possibly handle 1st base. Clearly we will need trade bait to use in acquire RP going forward and we will have pressure on the lineup from quality youngsters currently in the minors, but it looks like we can put up a very competitive lineup without signing high cost free agents. What to do with Craig, Castillo and Sandoval still haunts the FO, but I am at the point of looking at those guys as a sunken and costly lesson about signing players for big contracts when all had warts, if we had looked hard. Existing position players, currently on the roster are likely to be gone next season.

Don't rule out those "Damn Yankees".

There were tomorrows and they saw the team right the ship. Shaw added some punch. Some of the pitching we had faced was better than you gave them credit for.

The Sox are in first place with solid starting pitching and a lineup that still is producing runs as a major league leading clip. If Bogaerts gets through his slump with some home cooking and we sort out the third base questions, we can continue to make a splash going forward. We still are likely to get Benintendi back for a playoff run and with Young hitting well that is not even critical. We will have a rested Ortiz to add to the lineup for the homestand. Things are looking up.

Moncada may find himself blocked by Shaw this year if Shaw bounces back as he did last night. Still for next year with Hanley going to DH there is room for both.

Uehara made a successful appearance in last nights game.That has to be a plus for the Sox.

Really that is what JF was quoted as saying. The take on him was that he was raw defensively as a third baseman but he could hit and was very fast (base stealer). So far he has looked green, getting picked off base and a hitter with at least one major weakness hitting. The club is trying to encourage him but will sit him for a game or two to work with him on hitting a curve. The real question is when it comes time to select players for the playoffs, will it make sense to keep him as a base runner? Unless he shows more in the next couple of weeks, he may well be left out. We are in a tough pennant race. Even the Yankees seem to be making a run, so its a 4 team free for all and we need our best in every game. Will that be Shaw or Moncada, stay tuned.

Pretty sad showing for him last night. He has the talent but he still has rough edges that may indeed keep him off the playoff roster should we make it that far.

I have gone back and looked into UZR/150, something I was unaware of at the time I initiated the post, and it is very similar to what I described as being a tool that at least could measure defense relative to other players. The assignment of a + or - runs gives a method of identifying an overall player worth. I am not a great believer in stats as the only judgment of the relative ability of a player but I can see when trying to determine who to trade or who to bring aboard it definitely should be a part of any consideration.

I would also look at the quality of his ABs. I didn't watch last night but I noticed in one highlight on BB Tonight that he hit a liner down the third base line that was caught. If on the other hand a guy is striking out repeatedly and seldom making contact, that is grounds for resting him and/or moving him in the order.

On the other hand during the last two losses, our OPS has been very poor. We managed to lose two game in which we got very good pitching performances because we didn't hit well nor did we hit when it counted. Statistics tend to work for the average case but in specific cases don't mean much.

I do question why we picked up Holaday? Is it strictly a Pomeranz move? I just don't see him as adding anything to the offense, which is already short based on being in a NL park.

Thanks for the input. I will look at the UZR. Does to place any value on defensive capability? It would be of value if runs saved or lost compared to others might be good. Like I say, I will look