oldtimer

Got to win this one at this stage of the season. Didn't like Betts plate approach. Took two fastballs middle middle and popped up on a ball in on his hands. Where is the aggresssion?

Leave Workman in for 6 outs

Was Travis avILABLE TO hit for Leon?

Sales done, does Vaz come in and hit third in the 7th?

When we get 17 runs one day and none the next, it can skew the stats. I'll grant it that there is a lot to dislike about our pitching, but we have also looked bad att the plate against so so pitching all together too often. As Cora says, they have t play better in all facets of the game.

The Sox got a win agaainst the Rays due to excellent pitching by E-Rod and by the Sox getting to Jalen Beeks. Good start, but they only got 2 runs against the rest of the relief staff including a position player. It was good to get Eovaldi's feet wet but our relief did give up 4. Be interesting to see how well we do when facing their better pitching against our other starters and our relief.

The Sox currently are a team with a depleted farm system and a team who undertook long term contracts which could limit flexability going forward. Because of our successes and our spending habits, we got bottom of the barrel draft selections. Almost inexplicably, some of our promising players have had off years or worse. Team management has not been working well this year. I am happy with out WS win, but it is becoming more apparent that significant changes need to be made in several facets of the team. 1. Aging starters with somewhat declining performance under long term contracts may be a tough one to solve. It is doubtful to me that we can trade pitchers and get better. Best bet is to let go of Porcello and try to find 1 or2 decent younger starters. Porcello's loss would give us money to work with for young starters. i assume Eovaldi will return to startiing next season. 2. The BP is thin on talent and needs rework with as many as three new arms. I don't know where the money will come from but we need one of them to be closer quality. 3. In the field, we had some deficiencies that were not, and maybe could not be addressed this season. I hope that we can resign Mookie but would offer him a shorter contract and certainly less than $30 Mil AAV. His contract should be based on his performance, which is good this year, not great. The extra money for Mookie is going to be hard to find. I would look to trade Beni, JBJ. Moreland, Leon and make an effort to get better. Face facts, Pedroia is not coming back and we will eat his ill advised contract. I would keep Devers, Bogie, Chavis, Holt, Hernandez and Vaz. and try to find improvements for the others we lose. To help find those replacement, I would bring up the minor league players who have a chance to make the club in future and see if these is a diamond in the rough or two. The question of JDM is a tough one. He is with us unless he opts out (I doubt that) or we trade him. He is a very talented player but the money he represents for a DH only is exorbitent. If we are rid of a $25 mil contract, we could find a DH for less (maybe $12mil) and use the money to shore the team up in other areas. Making these significant changes would make us at least a representative team in 2020 and put us on the road to recovery in 2021 and beyond.

To get an RBI, a hitter needs to have opportunities. Some clubs don't provide as many opportunities so one has to look at that aspect when using RBIs as a figure of merit for a player.

The Sox are soon to lose another game to the Os. Just no life in this team.

Beni is striking out and popping out a lot. He seems to lack coonfidence and is not making adjustments that are helping. He needs some coaching, but he has never really had much power and he has primarily hit to left. Can he come out of it this year? I hope so but am not optimistic.

Three baserunners today in 8 innings and this team is close to the second tier of the competitive balance tax limit. Beni has not been hitting for some time now and JDM has one good game in 5. This team is missing fire. Looks like a bunch of zombies. Wait until we go against the cream of the American League.

Same dreadful pitching, whats the difference with our hitters tonight? Were they just worn out from playing and making the trip down?

The Sox were humiliated by the last place team. Price was totally off hiis game and the lineup only produced 1 hit out of the top 5 batters. The team looked tired and uninspired. One may lead to the other. It was tough to watch last night. A loss like this could be shrugged off if we were otherwise doing well. but when trying to climb out of a hole, tthe message to John Henry is don't throw good money after bad.

Throwing good money after bad is not sensible. I'd love Stroman but he can't turn this season around for the team.

Who would have guessed it. Being crushed by the lowly Orioles tonight. Time to sell.

The honeymoon for Cora and Dombrowski is over.

Price had a terrible start which will also tire the BP since he only went 4 bad innings. Moon is providing stats about how much better Sale and Price do with Leon behind the plate. Is this an outlier or are those stats just illusory?

The cllock is ticking and the end of July is right around the corner. Its hard to believe this team can get it together enough to be a factor in the American League this year. DD no doubt has plans for each scenario but cutting the expenses by letting go of the soon to be free agents will help with the reset. I am not pushing to see JDM go. He is still a very viable DH, the question I have is whether any DH is worth the money he commands.

Chavis is on the learning curve, much ike Devers was last year. Whether he can learn to hit a high fastball more consistently remains to be seen, but there is hope. I haven't been a fan of trading for a rental FA to be and losing more quality prospects, especially when we are just struggling to make the WC. Abreu would be great to have in a Red Sox unifrom but under the circumstances of resources it seems like it is a pipe dream.

If I went down the list of all field players at each position and selected a team based strictly on WAR, without seeing players names or anything beyond WAR and it was numerically better than any other team competing with it, would that team be a probable winner and go well in the playoffs? I would think other aspects like team chemistry (not measureable) management decision making and other factors come into play and are quite important. WAR is a helpful number in selecting players but can't be the only factor considered.

We are carrying Pedroia in a lost contract and of course Sandoval this year from a different era. Between them we are wasting over 31 million. In a sense, I agree that standing still, even with a WC team really means your going backwards. When you take Kimbrall out of the equation, we are going backwards rather quickly. Turns out resigning Pearce, Nunez , Leon and JBJ hasn't helped out cause and then to have Betts, Beni and JDM to have reduced years. When players have great years, it is likely the next will be good but not great. We were fortunate to have Devers become all world annd both Bogie and Vaz show great improvement. Where would we be withoout them? Then there is the pitching. Long term contracts for older pitchers can work and may still, but there is a high risk associated with those contracts.

While the Red Sox were the last team to integrate I think it is ridiculous to generalize it to racism in New England. I grew up in the 40's and witnessed more racism in the south while New England tended to support the struggle for equal opportunity.

i don't see how you think the Sox look like a better team on paper. Starting pitching is below average, BP is inconsistent and without a closer. Only Devers, Bogie, Vaz and Holt are having good years ans Holt has been there part time. The Sox are not turning this around against the Yankees and Rays. Get ready to sell.

Fat chance of that. JBJ is sliding back into a slump. Hope he doesn't but it sure looks like he is going in the wrong direction aagain.

I have been of the opinion for some time that the Sox would stuggle to make the WC game while several other contenders for those slots have been playing better. It has resulted from a weak starting pitching rotation, an inconsistent BP and in many cases, a lack of timely hitting. I do believe by the end of July, we will see the need and undertake to made several trades to lower our payroll and to get resources that may help us in 2020 and 2021. Most of the MLBB teams have front offices that havee talented baseball people, so any trade would likelyhave to be beneficial to both teams.Not so easy to pull off. I advocated a plan B be pursued in which we hold on to key assets going forward. They include Devers, Bogie and Vaz, E-Rod and Price. Beyond those, there are other players I would be reluctant to trade away as they could be important elements in 2020 and beyond. Those include Beni, Chavis, Barnes, Marco, Workman, Holt and Taylor. Betts is a special case. He is a very good player but has not performed like a great one. We should offer a good contract for him considering his real performance. If he rejects that and thinks someone will pay him significantly more, then we should actively trade him. The Same is true with JDM, he is a very good player and I would like to keep him for the duration of our contract, yet if he decides to opt out then we should get something in return. I also think that JBJ will cost more than he is worth and should be traded. Moreland, Travis, Nunez, Pedroia, Pearce, and leon should be gone and replaced. As far as the BP is involved, I would continue to watch those not mentioned to see if we have keepers there. Eovaldi is a special case who may be a starter next season or may turn into an acceptable closer I would also bring up some of our more promising Minor league players and see who among them really may have a future with the club in the next couple of years. My concept of executing plan B is to look for continuous improvement. Those we trade should allow us to improve both our starting pitching and relief pitching. Those holes we create in our team like CF, Backup Catcher, DH if JDM opts out and RF if Betts contract demands exceed how we see his worth., should be filled with better than what we lose (except in the case of Betts and JDM that might not be possible and we might have to obtain quality prospects or pitchers for them). My idea is to trim payroll, get rid of the oft injured or deadwood on the team, be decisive with our stars, look for improvement in our weak areas. In my opinion, we can field at least a competitive team in 2020 and perhaps get back on the road to being a top AL team in 2021.