Fan_since_Boggs

Also, just to be clear, Brian Johnson stays in as the fifth starter. Alright! The Brian Johnson supporters (me included) are finally happy. Johnson will get his next start against the Phillies. https://nesn.com/2018/08/drew-pomeranz-to-bullpen-brian-johnson-remains-fifth-red-sox-starter/ I suppose Johnson stays in the rotation until E-Rod comes back.

The belief that he is a lost cause as a starter. Move him to the bullpen to see if he can succeed there. If he doesn't succeed in the bullpen, you lose nothing that you haven't already lost.

I don't know about 100M for Kimbrel, but I suspect he will get something very close to Chapman level. I wouldn't be surprised if he comes in a little under Chapman (86 million) just because Chapman gives you the impression that he will hold up really well as he gets older--he is a big, strong guy. Kimbrel doesn't give you the same impression. Still, at the very least, you would think he gets offered 70 million by some team. It is worth noting that some of the big market teams won't be involved in the bidding, including the Dodgers and Yankees. Nevertheless, it only takes one team to believe they are a closer away from winning it all to make a significant offer to Kimbrel. I'm not good with closers, but could the following teams be interested: Angels, Phillies, Nationals, Cardinals, Mets? If the market for closers is depressed next year, and the Red Sox can bring Kimbrel back at a team-friendly cost, they should do it. Otherwise, get the draft pick and spend the money elsewhere. Alternatively, if the market is depressed next year, the Red Sox could try to sign Kimbrel to a one year pillow contract, letting him hit free agency again in the following off-season.

The guy who once worked for the Red Sox. He was a frequent poster on SOSH, but left the forum for some reason (probably because the forum sucks) and now posts on soxprospects.com. Eric gets things wrong (as we all do) but he is a sabermetric guy and it is kind of interesting to get a perspective from someone who actually worked for the Red Sox front office.

Stanton has been connected to PEDs? Giancarlo or is there another Stanton I'm forgetting about?

Kimbrel will want too much money. (1) Get the draft pick and spend the first 2-3 draft selections on position players. The Red Sox have some excellent pitching prospects, including Houck, Groome, Mata, and Shawaryn, but they need to strengthen their position prospects. They started doing this in June by taking Casas and Decker but they have more work to do. (2) There will be other options, cheaper options, on the free agent market that won't involve draft compensation, including D.Robertson and Z.Britton. (3) The Red Sox need to resign Eovaldi, a higher priority than Kimbrel IMO, and Eovaldi's price keeps going up and up. The Yankees, who are desperate for starting pitching, will probably chase him too. Relief pitchers are too volatile from year to year and Kimbrel is getting older. The Red Sox have their future closer in Durbin Feltman, what a great pick by Dombrowski, but they need a bridge closer, a guy who can handle the job for one or two seasons. Britton is a guy you might be able to get on a shorter deal, a one or two year deal. With his recent injuries, I don't know if he has a long term, lucrative contract waiting for him. The Yankees will have a hard time resigning Britton--they can't offer him the closer role while the Red Sox can!

Do we really have hard evidence on Ortiz using PEDs or just innuendo? I think Ortiz is in the Piazza/Bagwell innuendo category, maybe he did, maybe he didn't. He will have a hard time making the HOF, though. Some voters will be swayed by the PED innuendos and the DH thing is always a problem. Manny Ramirez's history bothers me. I appreciate and enjoyed the 2004 and 2007 world series victories, but such victories do mean a little less knowing that Manny was a PED guy and was probably juicing those years. Manny will always be a disgrace--that's his legacy. He is joined at the hip with A-Rod, Bonds, and a few others. What sucks is that these guys ruined the records. The HR records and RBI records were sacred territory and now they don't mean as much. Oh well, there are worst things in the world.....

From MLB Rumors: I think the next move is obvious: you put Pomeranz on the DL, he goes on a minor league rehab where the Red Sox turn him into a one inning reliever. He sucks as a starter and so the obvious thing to do is to see if the Red Sox can get some value out of him as a one inning reliever.

This comes from Eric Van -- he believes either E-Rod or Price go into the bullpen in October. He has high praise for Eovaldi. Interesting, he claims that Eovaldi is better than any Yankees starter. I don't know if he is better than Severino, but I would rank him higher than all of the Yankees other starters. I agree with the point that either E-Rod or Price go to the bullpen in October; Eovaldi stays in the rotation.

It is hard to get excited about Chavis -- he is still a juiced hitter. This is why players who fail tests aren't eligible for the playoffs. It was decided that the benefits of the juice stick around long enough for October baseball. A-Rod was an interesting case in point. He had a very good offensive year in 2015, a year after his suspension, but then collapsed in 2016 and retired during the 2016 season. It is pretty clear that A-Rod stopped taking the juice after his one year suspension. At that point, A-Rod wasn't going to risk a lifetime suspension and the voiding of his contract (the Yankees still owed him millions). The PEDs continued to benefit ARod in 2015, but by 2016 it was clear that he wasn't a good player without the juice and his numbers precipitously declined. We could learn so much more about the effects of PEDs if some of the users--Clemons, Bonds, A-Rod, Palmerio, Manny, etc.,--would come forward and provide details on their PED use. Unfortunately, the PED guys aren't talking.... According to A-rod's time frame, Cano should be decent in 2019, but should be pretty terrible in 2020 when the juice no longer benefits his offensive production. Of course, this is assuming that Cano stops taking PEDs. He might juice again; unlike A-rod after the Miami clinic, Cano wouldn't be risking a lifetime suspension and the rest of his contract. Chavis is a younger guy, however, and probably hasn't been juicing for years in comparison to A-Rod and Cano and so that might change the formula in terms of how long PED use continues to benefit offensive production (even after the user stops taking the juice).

I'm starting to see Andujar as a future 1b. That would open the door for Manny Machado at 3b. Or would that be too many right handed bats: Stanton, Judge, Machado, Andujar? You still have Hicks (better from the left side this year) and Didi. If they moved Andujar to 1b, I don't know what they would do with Bird. Perhaps a better strategy: trade Andujar in the offseason in a deal for a SP and sign Machado for 3b, keeping Bird at 1b. Would Hal support signing Machado to an enormous contract? Machado will definitely want a 300 million dollar contract, and might even expect more than that.

My lineup for today: Betts RF Benintendi LF Moreland 1b Martinez DH Bogaerts SS Bradley CF Nunez 3B Randa 2B Butler C You have to give Leon a day off, can't wear him out. Since Brock Holt has like 1 hit in his last 300 at bats, the guy is obviously desperate for a day off.

The White Sox are awful -- their hitters don't have a clue, no plan, no approach, they just close their eyes and swing away. Moncada can't lay off pitches out of the zone. He is good enough to avoid being a bust, but it looks like he will never be a star either. Where is the get Pomeranz out of the rotation debate? Or perhaps that discussion will take off again after Brian Johnson's start. Pomeranz's peripherals are so unacceptable--4.2 IP, 1 K, and 5 walks. The dude is going to wear out the bullpen.

Holt has 3 hits in his last 37 at bats. Cora can't give Renda an opportunity?

Agreed; I think most managers would have walked him in that situation. But not Boone.

Yankees' Aaron Boone ripped on Twitter after Red Sox disaster https://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2018/08/yankees_aaron_boone_ripped_on_twitter_after_red_so.html Some funny Twitter comments, including:

In this series, the rookie Torres went 0 for 11 with 6 Ks. On a positive note, he had 4 walks. Has the league finally caught up to Torres, figured out how to pitch him? The Yankees need a 1b if Bird doesn't improve. Bird went 1 for 13 with 6 Ks, no walks. His OPS+ for the 2018 season: 97.

Yeah, I thought Price was done after 6. When Gardner ripped a lead off single to start the 7th, I would have taken Price out. He was left in and walked Romine, which was a disaster, since Romine can't hit. I'm not sure what a quicker hook would have meant, however, since Hembree didn't look all that great anyway. Bradley is a great base runner. Good point. As far as Bogaerts goes, I'm not sure if he was running hard from the beginning, I didn't notice. I'm worried about him, though. The sample size is small, but he hasn't done anything offensively since he got hit in the hand and he made that crucial error in the field. Over the last few games, he has reminded me of the Bogaerts from last year post-hand injury. When Kinsler returns (over the weekend) maybe they should DL Bogaerts and keep him out of action for 10 days to make sure his hand fully heals.

GMs should not engage in that kind of rhetoric. Cashman is usually smarter than that.

You trust your pitcher and catcher to execute the fundamentals in that scenario. Benintendi has an OPS of .950 (against RHP) and Bradley, who strikes out 25% of the time, has an OPS of .700 (against RHP). I'm not knocking Bradley, I like him as a player, especially his defense, but he isn't in Benintendi's class as a hitter or offensive player. The drop off from Benintenti to Bradley is significant enough to justify an intentional walk to face the weaker hitter. If JD Martinez was on deck, I could understand not walking Benintendi but it was Jackie Bradley, a dude who makes a lot of outs and has contact issues.

I think he is saying that Boone must use Chapman on a regular enough basis to keep him sharp. No one disagrees with using Chapman in the 9th, but Chapman was rusty because the manager had not used him in 5 days. This is my guess. He will probably clarify his remarks today.

Yankees fan and WFAN sports host Mike Francesa had some interesting tweets: The last tweet is interesting--he appears to be blaming Boone for misusing Chapman. He will probably explain himself on WFAN on Monday. Sports radio in New York should be entertaining on Monday.

Good news: Rodriguez threw a bullpen session and looked and felt great. Also, Sale will not pitch against Toronto; instead, he will pitch against Baltimore, so they are pushing him back a few extra days it would seem (smart). Brian Johnson will stay in the rotation and will get another start against Toronto. Cora also said he doesn't want Sale to pitch against the Phillies -- he doesn't want Sale to hit. https://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2018/08/eduardo_rodriguez_injury_bosto_12.html

What about the decision to pitch to Benintendi in the 10th inning with 2 outs? Boone has to walk him there, load the bases, and face Jackie Bradley. Benintendi is obviously a superior hitter to Jackie Bradley. Thus, you can't let Benintendi beat you with a weaker hitter on deck. It is also worth noting that Benintendi is much more likely to put the ball in play than Bradley. Bradley Jr. strikes out around 25% of the time; Benintendi strikes out around 16% of the time.

The links on Andujar's defense: