oldtimer

Beni's not hitting with authority and his body language, like throwing his bat on the ground powerafter striking out seem to indicate he is very frustrated with himself this year. He is still young and is not yet paid like he will be in future, but to put a realistic value on him we have to look at his overall game. Defensively he is a good but not great outfielder with good speed and a good arm. Otherwise, we could say he is a good but not great defensive outfielder but he can play LF at Fenway effectively. As far as his hitting is concerned, Beni doesn't pull the ball that often nor does he have much HR power. Since he isn't a power hitter, to be of special value to us as a hitter, we need him to have a solid on base percentage but this year he has a lot of swings and misses and his BA is down and falling. My take on a young homegrown player is that he may improve his OBP but is unlikely to ever deliver much power. As a result, he may be a player we can use for trade bait and replace him with someone at least as good. If our fortunes don't suggest 2019 will be a playoff year, it is a place to look to improve for 2020.

Ever the optimist!

The Sox played well enough to win yet came up short when they got into their weakest BP late. They hit two homeruns to tie and had numerous chances where a hit would win the game. The last of which, a man n 2nd with nobody out was mismanaqed into nothing. A bunt was called for and not taken followed by bad baserunning. Bad baseball resullts in more bad baseball. I went to bed after that and what resulted was predictable. Our worst BP broke down.

I went to bed and missed what I saw as inevitable. Sox down to their worst relief pitchers. So, they pllayed good ball most of the night but threw it away when getting a man on second and nobody out. It called forr a bunt to third with Mookie and Devers to follow. Instead, Cora decided to hit away, JBJ ran on a ball hit in front of him and the subsequent long fly to right was wasted. They can always walk Devers and it came down again to one man trying to hit (one in 4 chance). Bad base running and bad game management. The team should have won this one.

I play in a league in the morning. Last inning was badly managed by Cora. I am off to bed.

Despite the claims otherwise, Leon did not seem to raise the level of Sales effort. Vaz would have done as well, except he would have been blamed for Sales subpar effort.

We face the ASG starter tonight with a lineup that struggled last night. Price has been good and if he stay in that groove for 7 innings we will have some chance. I wish Beni and Betts were doing more. Tough to watch our hitters taking called third strikes with men in scoring position. We need our guys to get out there and play aggressively tonight (Pete Rose could be a model). I hate to see some of the guys losing aggressiveness and focus.

Our performance last night indicated that we have multiple problems with Pitching, offense and focus. I doubt if we are in a position this year to make sufficient trades to be a factor in the playoffs, even if we get there. We have Porcello and Sale underperforming, our BP is on the weak side and we have guys like Betts and Beni underperforming. By the end of JUly our situation should crystalize and we should know whether to still try to supplement the team this year or go to plan B and try to strengthen for 2020. The waqy we lost last night left me with negative feelings.

Another enigma is the oft presented theory that Leon is a magical potion as far as Sales pitching is concerned. It's really up to Sale to pitch better and Leon makes little difference in the equation, except Leon doesn't help the offense.

Just another example of the Sox not hitting and the pitching, both starting and relief, being weak. Losing one game to the Dodgers is not in itself a disaster, but the way it took place demonstrates the weaknesses of this team.

Hate to see us take 3 strikes in a row.

Yes, he got out of it with not a lot of damage. Not a terrible start.

He is still our best performer this year.

On the surface it looks like a decent move. We didn't give top prospects and the money is reasonable. Even if he is a rental, it is probably the best move that we could have made.

Moreland will be back as will Eovaldi. The goal is at least to play even with the Dodgers, Yanks and Rays and win the series against the Jays and Orioles. That would leave us around 13 games over 500 at the 1st of August. To do that, we need Price and Sale to Pitch like quality starters, the BP not to blow decent leads and DD to find us a 5th starter. Time is not on the Sox side. This stretch will be key to the Sox ambitions this year.

One run over 7 against this tough Dodger lineup. Cross your fingers on the BP which will have to navigate the 8th and 9th. Lets get more runs.

He got 3 sliders, the same thing as his last AB. He needed to hit the ball hard, preferably to the right side. Couldn't get it done wether it was focus or not, I haven't a clue.

Sliders to Bogaerts and JDM, changeups to Beni. Maeda is got a plan to work our hitters and they need to adjust.

This month we have 3 against the Dodgers, 5 with the Rays and 4 with the Yankees. Tough to see us coming out of this stretch any better off then we are now.

No doubt the ball manufacturers test the balls they make for a wide variety of parameters. There must be a number of certified manufacturers as MBL has to assured that a supply is available regardless of strike or other supply hazards. The results of all the ball testing is probably well known but is also being kept under wraps by MLB. I can't see that other parties (scientific test organizations) would have the resources or historical data to do a meaningful and beneficial analysis. I am suspcious of MLB ad think they probably have juiced the ball to increase the offensive output, telling themselves that is what the fans want. There are other factors such as hitter strength, launch angle and perhaps thinner pitching quality which also could explain some of the barrage of home runs being hit. So who can quantify the effect of the ball on the HR hit other than MLB and to what end?

Anyone have an expected return date for Nate or for Moreland? Who goes down when they come up?

Can't see giving away top prospects for a short term rental.

Nolan came up and was young and wild and didn't accumulate a lot of innings until he was 21. Then he had a fairly low number of innings for a few years. Perhaps that is the secret of longevity, not pitching many innings until reaching 24 or 25. His wildness along with his high velocity fastball, which was not common in those days, were a powerful combination. I read that he was up around 100 mph and once hit 105 mph. His leg action probably had something to do with the consistent high velocity. I believe he holds the record for no hitters with 7.

i see Thornburg was released, which is a sad day for him and is one of the worst acquisiitons made under DD. Those things happen, but this one was really tough for the club.

My mistake.