9/11-9/13 Red Sox @ Rays Series Thread

I think the Rays in one way get credit for the money they have allocated and they do more with less but to me I think there more a disappointment and they had a huge opportunity to restock the organization and they failed. I think one year they had like ten picks in the first two rounds. It was the last year with the old compensation rules . They took full advantage of that rule. But In one hand you let go of a lot of talent and draft a lot of kids ,then there are gonna take at least 3 to 5 years to pan out.

The Sox site has it listed as Miley, Porcello, Rich Hill.

23 games left, only 7 games back of the second WC. Weirder things have happened.

Wish we had more time to see Castillo work The Wall, and use his arm at Fenway. With the three wall balls Wed. Nite (quick response off the bat, direct routes and speed to the ball, excellent pivot and release to the infield with that gun of his) as well as the catch in Left-center, he played the position like he belongs there. After years of Manny, Bay, Jhonny, Hanley and subs, watching center-fielder Rusney Castillo play LF with allstar abandon and skills is as exciting as watching center fielders Mookie and JBJ cover CH and RF. IMO Rusney (Brusney of the killer -B's) is showing he belongs in LF.

The three of them (Betts, Bradley, Brusney ... plus Brockstar) together could develop into a force far greater than their already amazing individual selves. It is possible that all they have contributed to this winning team over the past month+ is merely prelude to what they will accomplish, offensively as well as defensively, in 2016 and beyond. I hope Dave sees this and lets this and lets this force develop organically.

One of Castillo's lightning quick one-handed catch and throws, which kept the hitter to a single, was quickly followed by a DP. That's real value in that he helped generate an out that wouldn't have happened otherwise. I don't think it's a coincidence that the Sox have a winning record ever since they made the decision to go with Betts, Bradley and Castillo.

Realistically though, the Sox would probably have to win 20 of their remaining 23 to have a shot. That's asking a hell of a lot -- the bullpen as configured now probably figures to give 3 games away between now and the end of the season all by itself.

I agree, but another way of putting this is they could pay an analyst a million dollars a year solely to figure out the optimal outfield alignment, and still come out ahead.

When they started talking about the alignment, I had a mild lean toward Betts in LF. LF is small, so things happen quickly, and I thought the former infielder with the great acceleration would be perfect out there to move laterally, charge balls, and just generally cover the relatively short distances very quickly.

But I gotta say, Castillo looks like a force out there in his own right. He looked better out there than any Sox outfielder in years, looked like I thought Crawford would look.

In the end, I'm pretty much with jmei, though. It's not a big deal. I'd put JBJ in CF because he's a cut above everyone else, and then have Betts/Castillo go rock-paper-scissors to see which one gets to chose where they play.

So all of those in favor of moving Mookie out of CF are advocates of having Marrero playing SS when and if he gets a start, right?
Logic dictates it.

JBJ WOULD HAVE caught that.

LOL
I logged to write the exact same comment
Great minds...