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Post by thelavarnwayguy on Aug 22, 2014 7:28:12 GMT -5
Bogaerts seems to be hitting right at people also. Even when he does hit the ball it seems to have horrible BAPIP luck.
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Post by station13 on Aug 22, 2014 8:21:32 GMT -5
On another note, Tazawa is only T-11th in the majors for number of games. Would have expected him higher on that list. Well that's what ties does to ranking since there are hundreds of relievers in baseball. The most appearances were by 2 relievers with 64 games. The next pact is 2-3 behind them, Tazawa is in that group. Buy why does this team needs to use their set up man so much when they aren't winning that many games for starts? He appeared about twice every series, when was the last time the Sox won a series?
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Aug 22, 2014 8:27:19 GMT -5
They officially need to do something about this. Send him down, phantom DL, something. Just get him out of there. Whatever is wrong with him, starting every day against major league pitching is not helping. I don't like it when teams jerk young players around because they're slumping but this is well beyond a slump. But why is failure today something that would hurt him tomorrow? Is is that the expectation is that if he gets good results against lesser competition he'll have more confidence and that will translate? Is it mechanical - we expect that he'll be able to fix whatever ails him against weaker competition (but not in the cage)? I just don't see the problem with failure from a development point of view, unless we think that failure itself will cause a larger issue. It certainly could do so - but I don't have any idea of knowing that, and I suspect that the team is trying to figure that out, too (though, not giving him a break leads me to believe that this is a supremely confident kid who isn't that shaken).
Obviously, a problem with individual failure is team failure, but we are, sadly, well beyond that point. The whole point of development is, you know, development. Progress. Forward movement. This is a 21 year old kid, he should be getting better. I understand that it's going to be a straight line; I expected he'd hit some rough and that he'd need to struggle against MLB pitching to learn how to adjust to MLB pitching consistently, and I generally approve of how the Red Sox have stuck with him this season. But my approval is based on the idea that if they stick with him he'll eventually turn things around, and it's been long enough that I'm starting to question that approach. I don't know if it's an issue of confidence, purely mechanical, or what, but whatever issue he needs to address is not being addressed. In other words: if you hit a wall and you decide the best way to proceed on your path is to climb over it, you shouldn't give up on climbing over it because you fell down once. But after you've fallen on your ass ten times in a row? Yeah, you might need to reconsider your approach to this wall. I think that where we are with Xander. What he's doing and what the Red Sox are doing just isn't working. It's time to try something different.
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Post by larrycook on Aug 22, 2014 8:31:53 GMT -5
Death row inmates should be made to watch the sox offense as punishment for their crimes.
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Post by joshv02 on Aug 22, 2014 8:36:22 GMT -5
But why is failure today something that would hurt him tomorrow? Is is that the expectation is that if he gets good results against lesser competition he'll have more confidence and that will translate? Is it mechanical - we expect that he'll be able to fix whatever ails him against weaker competition (but not in the cage)? I just don't see the problem with failure from a development point of view, unless we think that failure itself will cause a larger issue. It certainly could do so - but I don't have any idea of knowing that, and I suspect that the team is trying to figure that out, too (though, not giving him a break leads me to believe that this is a supremely confident kid who isn't that shaken).
In other words: if you hit a wall and you decide the best way to proceed on your path is to climb over it, you shouldn't give up on climbing over it because you fell down once. But after you've fallen on your ass ten times in a row? Yeah, you might need to reconsider your approach to this wall. I think that where we are with Xander. What he's doing and what the Red Sox are doing just isn't working. It's time to try something different. Of course, but I'm just trying to figure out why that something is demote him. Is it just to try something different -- anything? What is the value in demoting him that you want to promote?
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Aug 22, 2014 9:10:10 GMT -5
In other words: if you hit a wall and you decide the best way to proceed on your path is to climb over it, you shouldn't give up on climbing over it because you fell down once. But after you've fallen on your ass ten times in a row? Yeah, you might need to reconsider your approach to this wall. I think that where we are with Xander. What he's doing and what the Red Sox are doing just isn't working. It's time to try something different. Of course, but I'm just trying to figure out why that something is demote him. Is it just to try something different -- anything? What is the value in demoting him that you want to promote? Well, I'm not necessarily saying you have to demote him, but there's a limited number of things you can do with him. You could demote him, you could reduce his playing time, and you might be able to give him a couple weeks off via a "calf strain". And there's basically two things you can have him do to improve: face live pitching of inferior quality in the minors, or spend more time in the cage and with hitting instructors. If it's a question of confidence, maybe the minor leagues are the way to go. If it's purely mechanical, maybe he just needs to spend more time off the field getting his swing locked in again. One way or another, the guy's swing and his approach are just a mess. They're not at the level we know they can be at, and one way or another he's got to get them fixed. I'm not sure what that way is, but I'm increasingly confident that facing MLB pitching every day isn't it.
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Post by dcsoxfan on Aug 22, 2014 9:24:42 GMT -5
AAA is an easier learning environment.
My (very amateur) opinion is that Xander struggles with curveballs (although I am not sure he struggles more than most rookies), and that he has become preoccupied with identifying curveballs to the point that it is killing him against all pitches.
I think 300 to 400 at bats in AAA against lesser curveballs might help. No I'm not confident of that.
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Post by ethanbein on Aug 22, 2014 17:25:33 GMT -5
The best thing I can say about Xander is that his walk rate is back up to about 8% in August after a couple months of 3%. On the other hand, his results on contact are awful, with the little power he was showing in June/July gone right now and his lowest BABIP yet. And of course his K rate went from bad to awful after May and hasn't changed much at all. He's definitely had a little bad BABIP luck this year, but he needs to be a high BABIP kind of player or else flash much more power to be valuable with those kind of strikeouts. The power should improve a bit with age, but how much can we reasonably expect?
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