5GoldGlovesOF,75

He needs to re-establish his curveball. Right now he can't hit the side of himself with it. MLB batters all made it to the top level because they can hit fastballs. Barnes knows that, obviously, and is walking guys because every time he challenges someone, his gas gets vaporized.

My logic with the phantom IL is that it could get Barnsie a couple "rehab" stints in Wooster to hopefully right his world. The IL spares the humiliation of an official demotion, and lets him work on regaining his confidence -- instead of just sitting and watching in the big league bullpen every night before he finally gets back on the mound in center of diamond attention.

Robles threw 21 straight pitches maybe as hard as any human in history... while Taylor tossed one pitch and was credited with the win.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a big trade for a good starter under control, and a subsequent signing of a quality free agent infielder. But I also can't see both Whitlock and Houck in the rotation; having a lockdown two-inning reliever -- even if he only throws every four or five days -- is just too valuable for modern, overused and thus unreliable bullpens.

How close is a return by Brasier? Didn't Cora appoint him closer the first month of '19?

Hard to type after pulling out all my fingernails last night. Not only can't Barnes close anymore, right now he can't pitch. The Wild Card Sox just can't afford to use him in any leverage -- fastballs in the strike zone are bat-finders, and the last time he threw a curve that didn't bounce was before they banned the sticky stuff. August is annually the worst month of his eight-year career, with by far his highest batting average and OPS against, highest WHIP, highest ERA... with twice as many HRs allowed than any other month. If the Sox don't IL Barnes with some phantom injury so he can "rehab", maybe they should use him as an opener in Houck's next game? Hopefully, he's not actually injured. But it's disconcerting to see a closer talking so much in the dugout after getting pulled lately. In westerns, the wordy nervous guys always seem to get gunned down by the cool silent gunslingers who let their bullets speak.

"to be squeezed" is often the infinitive followed by appositives like "before the ball arrives", "right out of the webbing," or (referring to wailing wearer) "by a consoling relative, after a deflection beans the fielder"... or are those considered ah-negatives?

Duran may already have one lined up in Worcester from his time there earlier in the season. Dalbec would have to be introduced to the local action by new teammates who may not want to share at bats.

Three batters just swung at strike three curves in the dirt and reached when the ball bounced to the backstop; now it's 21.

Ever since tee-ball, the most important piece of equipment on the diamond is the first baseman's glove -- the place where automatic outs go to be squeezed. I stand by this statement as a parent who is required to stand there on the sidelines until the "game" is declared complete... or called because of dark thoughts. They should actually change the name of the position: the first baseman should really be called the catcher. On the other glove hand, at least through high school these days, catchers should now be called blockers.

You just made my head explode. Five posters just ran to bb-ref season splits yelling -- no, repeating -- "clutch!" and "choke!"

... or 6 AAA players...

Can anecdotes can be antidotes? Remember when Joe Torre batted Alex Rodriguez, the AL's reigning MVP, 8th in the batting order during the '06 playoffs? This wasn't a poster supporting opinion with stats researched from fangraphs, but a Hall of Fame manager. Maybe he was wrong, because as Big Papi likes to say: thaaaaa Yankees... lost.

You mean, after Robles comes in up by 12, and then Davis comes in up by 10... and with Perez warming up.

Batters should always look for the fastball, especially from a guy who throws hard. But when I face a pitcher who just bounced a curve, I'm expecting heat the rest of the at bat; especially, with men on base, and particularly, on third.

Technically summer is officially June 20 until September 22, so Barnes has only been lousy in part of this summer -- the part that matters most so far, namely when the first-place Red Sox blew the division lead. iortiz astutely cites, "command and control" as the issue, and from my observation, Barnes has lost his curve when it matters. More are bouncing, less are snapping in the zone, and batters have been sitting on his fastball. And I'm not talking about Semien hacking first pitch, but Springer swinging from the heels on 3-2 because he knows dead red is coming. In reverse, this is why Eovaldi continues to improve. In the past it seemed a mystery how a guy who throws 100 mph could get hit so much, but Eck and co. now rave about the mix of Nate's "five-pitch repertoire".

Three Red Sox players on MLB's Prospect Team of the Week: Yorke, Murphy and Hernandez: Prospect Team of the Week August 23 2021 WWW.MLB.COM MLB Pipeline's Prospect Team of the Week honors the best performances from the previous seven days. Any Minor Leaguer currently on an organization Top 30 Prospects list in our Prospect Rankings is eligible. It was far from a banner week for the Red Sox at the Major League level. However,

I was at yesterday's game. The bright spot on defense was when Schwarber rushed in from left field to tag out the final baserunner when the Rangers ran themselves out of a rally. Forget the excuses of the D not supporting Barnes -- it's not going to improve, and no team meeting is going to change bad hands or arms or lack of range. The reason Barnes is lousy this summer is because he can no longer put batters away. Ottavino was always inconsistent at this... but Whitlock still can do it -- for the most part. The key to the last month just may be if Cora can find another strikeout reliever, whether it's Houck with his righty Sale stuff, or Robles' 98 mph brushbacks... yes, it is that desperate. Texas deserved to lose because its closer threw an 0-2 pitch in the air to Devers. I said he'd swing at anything near his bat and all the pitcher had to do was roll the ball to home to end the game. Watching the replay from the centerfield camera angle, however, the pitch wasn't that bad -- slider on the outside corner -- but still Santana's fault because Rafie could reach it.

All the preseason pundits are finally feeling justified right about now. They just knew NY would acquire two big lefty sticks at the deadline to anchor the heart of the order, and get hot with Odor hitting .213 and playing third, a rookie playing shortstop, and their top two relievers unreliable due to injuries and rule changes. There's no stopping those pinstripes.

Interleague play and the imbalanced schedule used to irk me, even though Boston always seemed to fare well vs. the NL. But "traditional" match-ups always favored the Yankees, because the Mets sucked for so long. Meanwhile, the Sox always get the Braves, who maybe somewhere in the nation still have a couple fans whose ancient ancestors once lived in the Comm Ave area near Boston University and rooted for the Senior Circuit Nine.

White Sox lead their division by nine games; Kimbrel can blow a game per week and they'll still dance. Houston only has two more wins than Boston. Any team in the AL East advancing to the postseason has a legit shot at winning the pennant... maybe even a ring. Atlanta has been one of the hottest teams in the NL the past month, leads the NL East by 4.5 games, and the Red Sox' record is still 2 1/2 games better.

At peace with WAR: JD 2.9, Hunter 1.9. Martinez leads in most batting averages, but traditional stats are nearly identical; each with 23 HRs, 70-something RBIs. On defense, both are negative dWARs, even though Renfroe leads the big leagues in assists. Ok, Sox fans: who do you think has been a better player at the plate and in the outfield combined?

Not coincidentally, after our posts about the porous D, Speier sums it up in today's Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/08/22/sports/saturdays-debacle-flashpoint-glaring-red-sox-issue-defense/ Like I said yesterday, it's too late to make any major improvements now (except take the glove away from JD). They may still eek out a WC slot, but expect huge changes over the winter. Posters get down on Beni, JBJ and even Mookie (for his "greed"), but their D was such an underrated part of the best Sox team ever, on a staff of fly ball pitchers. And this season's outfield, as bad as it is, has been the bright area on the field...

Good comparison, but fans forget how bad the collapse of 1974 really was: 70-54 on August 23 -- egads, almost identical to today -- except that record in '74 had Boston in first, seven games ahead... then the Red Flops only won 14 more and finished third, seven games back. In '74 Rice and Lynn were September call-ups and not part of the problem. Their best player, Fisk, broke his arm in Spring Training and only played in 52 games; I remember going back to school and one of my friends commenting how the Sox couldn't have had a better summer even with Fisk (his back-up was Bob Montgomery). Suddenly, Boston completely stopped hitting, scoring three runs or less in 13 of 18 straight games (predictably, they went 5-13). The whole slump started when All-Star starters Tiant and Lee lost both ends of a double-header to Baltimore, 1-0 and 1-0... back when they played nine innings.

I'm definitely rooting for the Yankees... to show all their true warts after playing over everyone's heads for a month: swing from the heels for the fences, play below-average defense at shortstop and catcher, blow late leads, confuse Boone, and go on a losing streak like they're capable of. I'm not rooting for injuries to any key players, though, because I'm confident that will happen as usual.