dgalehouse

I don't know . Now I am confused. If they have 11 saves out of 24 opportunities, what happened to the rest ? These are career numbers . Certainly , there were many more hold situations than just 24 .

I know you can be charged with a blown save in a hold situation , unfair as it is . But if you have converted 11 saves out of 24 save opportunities, where does that leave you ?

Not sure about that . Those are just the save opportunities. If they have 11 saves in 24 opportunities, there would be 13 blown saves .

The idea of sitting Bradley , thereby weakening the defense , just so Nunez can DH against a tough right hander makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I don't get it . Maybe Cora was just trying to send JBJ a message . Who knows .

Thornburg is hardly the problem. He has been used mainly with a big lead or a big deficit. He has a potential upside based on his history, and it is not hurting anything to use him this way to see if he can regain his form . Let's not scapegoat him .

Here is a somewhat troubling fact : Barnes and Brasier have a combined total of 24 career save opportunities . Between them , they have 11 saves and 13 blown saves .

Here is the most important stat : Last year on this date , the Sox were in first place with a record of 31 - 15. Today we are in third place with a record of 23 - 22 . Furthermore, we are 3 -6 against the Yankees , Astros and Rays , arguably the only good teams we have played . What is the difference this year and what can be done to change things . ( The good news is that there are so many crappy teams in the league that reaching the post season is still a good bet . )

OPS is a good measure of offensive productivity. However , it is not a true stat . It is a concoction. Someone had the idea to add two stats together and create a new one . Now , it is pretty much accepted. I don't like the fact that it ignores stolen bases .

Alvarado is good , but closing games can be tough, especially so in the Yankee Stadium atmosphere. He was feeling the pressure last night .

Altuve is on the I.L. Verlander will not pitch in this series . Good opportunity here . Yankees are playing the Rays over the weekend . Sox just have to win and they will gain ground on at least one of them.

We are blessed to have here some very smart posters . Sabermetric savants , if you will . We can learn much from them if only we try . We do owe them a big debt of gratitude , even if they can be a pain in the ass with their smug sense of superiority and condescending ******** .

Of course there is prestige in batting cleanup . There can be more than one prestige spot .

My Little League coach , Mister Sherman , was the smartest baseball man ever . Taught me everything.

Sale was absolutely brilliant last night . No hit stuff. I will say that strikeouts are becoming less impressive to me now . Pretty sure that MLB will set a new record for strikeouts this season . It is getting ridiculous. Guys are up there hacking at anything. No plate discipline or pitch recognition to speak of .

Eight game sample ? Great . There is , and always has been , a certain prestige to batting leadoff . And why change something that was working so well ? It is not a well kept secret that analytics people are " strongly suggesting " some things to MLB managers these days . The batting order is not all that important, but it is an example of the situation. I really don't know if that is the case here with Cora , but it could well be . It almost certainly is elsewhere in MLB.

Two possible scenarios: One . After a hard day at Fenway , Alex Cora gets home , sits in his easy chair and reads from his favorite analytics handbook. He notices where it says that your best hitter should bat second because " studies have shown " that is ideal . He says to his wife , " Gee , I had it all wrong last year with Mookie hitting leadoff , even though it worked to perfection , everyone was happy and we won 119 games . " " I just wish I knew as much about baseball as Bill James does . Mookie will now bat second . " Scenario two . Cora arrives early at Fenway , goes to his office and notices a memo on his desk . It says that Harold and Ferdy , the Nerdwell brothers , would like to see you at your convenience. When they meet later , the analytic geeks tell him that " studies have shown that your best hitter should bat second , and Mr. Dombrowski agrees ". Alex frowns , but says " okay , Mookie will now bat second. Anything else boys ? " They reply " That's all for now . Don't forget to rest J.D. and Xander tonight . "

Lost once ? No matter what you think of the geeks , the manager should be calling the shots . I have doubts that that is the case here right now .

What if he turns out to be excellent? Some of the same people who wept bitter tears about trading prospects and " decimating " the farm , are now calling for trading Chavis for MadBum . The same people who cry about the farm system and brag about our current rotation now want to do this deal . The same people who are so worried about exceeding the luxury tax limit , now want to do this . Crazy . Crazy , I tell you .

I'm still trying to figure out how we blew last night's game . And I watched every pitch . Two thoughts : 1 - Alex Cora needs to tell the analytic geeks ," I'm the manager of this nine . Mookie will hit leadoff. That is best for this team . " 2 - Those who say they are not concerned about the bullpen are deluding themselves.

Chavis is not Middlebrooks . Harm , let's face it , the Mariners are not a good team . Many deficiencies. Last place in the A.L. West may be the destination. A big step back .

Hard to believe we somehow managed to blow that game . Sorry about that , Chris .

I vote an emphatic no on Chavis for Bumgarner . Both thumbs down.

The dedicated folks from the UZR branch of the WAR department were able to dig up long lost footage of every single game that Fred Lynn ever played . They worked tirelessly for months watching every single play of those games . Their findings should never be questioned.

Nobody went crazy except for Dempster's wife .