vegasbob

It may only be "eye stats" but JDM used to be invincible with men on base but sure am seeing a lot of ground balls and jam shots, plus not catching up to medium fastballs. The 4 recent HR's have been muted by only 7 rbi's. That's more the fault of the guys in front of him

Fully agree , just trying to give Vaz some love for his recent exploits. JDM is a great one

Cora announced this mid-winter and his analysts back up the theory of the best hitter going #2 . Only problem I have is that Betts is not the best hitter on this team. Vaz is.

Yet another cool, wet day for Sale start, backed by a weak lineup (on paper) against a junkball LH'er. What could go wrong ?

Correct again, this lineup sucks in support of Sale. They may score 10 runs because that's baseball, but any lineup featuring Nunez, Pearce and JBJr and Chavis leading off is down 0-2 coming from the on deck circle.

A relievers own ERA is probably as deceptive a stat as the save/hold/W&L record. The real measurement of effectiveness should be "inherited runners who score" , followed by walks and HBP, followed by wild pitches (allows runner advancement)

I come back to this point : How does an FO expect to win 96-100 games with a 3 man bench consisting of Pearce, Nunez and Leon"s bat , with no regular secondbaseman , now relying on a powerful but raw rookie who has no well defined position ? Addressing the BP is a whole other conversation. I imagine DD's answer would include ; Didn't you see the same lineup players win 119 in 2018 ? I didn't know whether Pedey and his contract wouldn't be able to make it back, that Holt would be a dud and then get injured for about 2 months ? A teamwide slump to open the season ? These guys went 17-2 last year ! Alex Cora ? Can't get a better players manager and analyst than that . A soft ST ? Save it for October baseball, not the Grapefruit League . Eovaldi's floating elbow bodies, who knew ? Brewer and Thorny, gotta roll the dice sometimes . New faces ?? Why disturb the clubhouse tightness ? Hangover syndrome ? That's as silly as clutch, momentum, lineup protection and defense wins theories ! I do think that DD and Cora (and most fans) are suffering from a little snakebite after assuming the same guys would play reasonably well and competitively as they did in 2018. Kimbrel and Kelly's moving on is not the core problem. Playing up to their abilities is the challenge. Oh, and a reset next year .

You can afford JBJr's .150/.430 if the rest of the lineup merely hits to their career averages , so that your overall OF defense is optimized (Betts RF ; Beni LF; JBJ CF) . Now that Vazquez seemingly has cured the prior hitting deficiency at Catcher, JBJ is all the more affordable. Cora may be trying to send JBJ a message (no hit--no play= no future contract) Putting any mention of Pearce as an OF plug-in is laughable this year. Just play Jackie and ask the rest of the lineup to do their jobs.

Moon, with nothing but huge respect, when Brian Johnson is the answer to your pitching staff, then you are in the weeds so deep you can't see out. The season is far from over but after 25 %+ of the year, this bunch is going nowhere fast. Cora has finally found out the magic wand doesn't work, the starters were awful then 2 are out of commission, the mixed bag bullpen is marginal , RISP is sunlight to a vampire, and the bench is laughable for a team that should win 100 just showing up. Sometimes raw talent and ability does not jell as it should. This may well be one of those years.

Other than the fact there is no replacement in the system, the team could DFA either Brewer or Thornburg with little chance of them being claimed. Then, if they won't accept some time in Pawsox land, just give them a release to make room for Holt or Pedey or somebody. You don't need 13 of these guys.

Thornburg fails to cover first. Cora either pulls him now or Alex is gutless and condones this s*** by his players Tyler the DP maestro.

Must be trying to stretch out Tyler to be the spot starter

Another game joke. Thornburg actually lowered his ERA in the last inning. Now sporting a 7.50+-

Horrendous umpiring at the plate. really no excuse for this performance

I will credit JBJr's 400' arm with saving the Astro's potential 8th run with a very good throw on a fly ball that might have been a sac fly , turned into an odd DP when Speedy Devers ran down the runner.

Thornturd just keeps digging that DFA grave deeper and deeper. Totally inept. But Cora leaves him in knowing that his team is beat. IMO, when a reliever reaches 20 pitches with one out and men on base, there is little chance he will recover the inning. Maybe Tyler can prove that wrong

It's more like the Sox have no one that a strong team needs or wants. This roster is bereft of secondary guys who may be needed by contenders.

I think that .150/.450 should be called the Bradley line, only because it is so far below the Mendoza line. JBJr is there right now, so he can only become a better batter , getting to his annual hot stretch, not soon enough

Another RISP crap inning. No guts, no glory

No his head is not in it.

Bogaerts or bust. Is his head in the game or not ?

The joke in this game is that with an amazing one swing from JDM, it's a competitive ballgame in the 5th inning . But a DP would throw cold water on that idea. Which will it be ?

You mean Pope Cora, the infallible one ?

And maybe try a hit with RISP once in awhile, just to balance the good pitching.

Cora self criticized his decision to leave Rick on the mound. Had he checked his analytics , he would have realized that Springer's history vs Porcello is one of abject failure by RP. Bringing in the struggling Brasier was another mistake , IMO, as if Cora was more interested in prepping the BP for today's game with Velasquez opening. In the end it was the hitters, not Cora nor Porcello who blew this game.