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5/31-6/3 Red Sox @ Astros Series Thread
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Post by wildsox on Jun 3, 2018 21:52:44 GMT -5
I love the way Cora goes about putting players in to give them a little confidence boost. Travis got an at bat and a hit which should give him a little boost. Putting Kelly back in last night after his struggles on Friday to show trust. All great for the future.
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Post by soxfansince67 on Jun 3, 2018 21:56:57 GMT -5
So who would have guessed going into the season that Porcello, ERod and Price have more wins than Sale - who has the same number as Velazquez - and we'd be 41-19 and in first place?
Such an enjoyable season so far....
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Post by jimed14 on Jun 3, 2018 21:57:18 GMT -5
Finally. A day off after playing 13 games in a row....followed by another 13 games in a row. And the Yankees get a makeup double header tomorrow. They have another one later as well.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 3, 2018 21:58:50 GMT -5
Shame the Sox couldn't step up and make this more of a series. Maybe next year I guess ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) I have no shame. As long as the Sox are winning, I could make out to be a fool 1000 times a day. Hope the Sox keep up this good pace. They might need to in order to win the division. Edit- I really don't care about being right. I really care about the Sox winning.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 3, 2018 22:00:10 GMT -5
I think they were just giving JDM a breather in this game. Maybe he felt some soreness, but it didn't look like anything bad.
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Post by sarasoxer on Jun 3, 2018 22:00:42 GMT -5
I love the way Cora goes about putting players in to give them a little confidence boost. Travis got an at bat and a hit which should give him a little boost. Putting Kelly back in last night after his struggles on Friday to show trust. All great for the future. And sitting guys when they could use rest or to regroup....case in point with Devers tonight. I think Morton would have eaten him up at this juncture.
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Post by patford on Jun 3, 2018 22:04:04 GMT -5
Watching Hembree throw ball after ball is torture.
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Post by jimed14 on Jun 3, 2018 22:05:04 GMT -5
Watching Hembree throw ball after ball is torture. I'm just relieved that Kimbrel didn't "have" to get up to warm.
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radiohix
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'At the end of the day, we bang. We bang. We're going to swing.' Alex Verdugo
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Post by radiohix on Jun 3, 2018 22:19:02 GMT -5
I swear we could've swept this series if we had a little luck on our side and I'm not even taking Mookie absence into count! Someone like Morton has a avg Exit velocity of 87mph and we trashed him, our guys hit ropes against Verlander last night, against Cole too and went for outs...all the 100 mph batted balls against McCuller were the ones we hit. This team is so so good, it's unbelievable. We just need t stay healthy...is all.
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Post by manfred on Jun 3, 2018 22:25:58 GMT -5
Serious question: Aaron Judge has nearly twice Benny’s WAR. Is the implication that to date he’s been nearly twice as good? Because that seems... not true. Better? Yes. But only slightly. Judge fWAR 2.8 Benintendi fWAR 2.1 If you look at baseball reference’s WAR, the largest difference between the two is 1 WAR for defense. I’m skeptical that Judge was been 1 WAR better defensively. I guess this is part of my issue: these numbers are supposed to be more scientific, but they actually strike me as less reliable. There have been articles on Rout having the best season ever, but... well, he’s not.
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Post by dirtdog on Jun 3, 2018 22:28:25 GMT -5
If somebody told me they were going into Houston for a 4 game series with no Mookie, lose the game Sale pitched and still end up with a split, I'd take it in a second.
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Post by swingingbunt on Jun 3, 2018 22:28:56 GMT -5
Shame the Sox couldn't step up and make this more of a series. Maybe next year I guess ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) I have no shame. As long as the Sox are winning, I could make out to be a fool 1000 times a day. Hope the Sox keep up this good pace. They might need to in order to win the division. Edit- I really don't care about being right. I really care about the Sox winning. No worries. Everyone's wrong from time to time. You should just try being wrong less often.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 3, 2018 22:32:41 GMT -5
I have no shame. As long as the Sox are winning, I could make out to be a fool 1000 times a day. Hope the Sox keep up this good pace. They might need to in order to win the division. Edit- I really don't care about being right. I really care about the Sox winning. No worries. Everyone's wrong from time to time. You should just try being wrong less often. I am right a lot too though. I mean, Poyner making the team out of spring training. Snell throwing his hardest ever against the first start against the Sox. I call a lot of good things here too, but I get the reactions I get when I'm negative. I don't try to be that. It comes natural as a Sox fan, I think. Edit- I do remember a time when the Sox never were winning anything. The negativity probably stems from that.
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danr
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Post by danr on Jun 3, 2018 22:52:56 GMT -5
Judge fWAR 2.8 Benintendi fWAR 2.1 If you look at baseball reference’s WAR, the largest difference between the two is 1 WAR for defense. I’m skeptical that Judge was been 1 WAR better defensively. I guess this is part of my issue: these numbers are supposed to be more scientific, but they actually strike me as less reliable. There have been articles on Rout having the best season ever, but... well, he’s not. That article on ESPN the other day that compared Betts and Trout made a strong case for not giving defensive WARs much weight because of the number of variables that go into its calculation and how subjective some of those can be.
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danr
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Post by danr on Jun 3, 2018 22:58:00 GMT -5
It was a great game and with all its highlights the one that gave me the biggest kick was Sam Travis getting that hit.
However, because the Sox only have one spare middle infielder and with Nunez getting beaten up tonight, Travis' stay may be real short. They may need to bring up a middle infielder. Lin has been at leadoff for Pawtucket and hitting pretty well.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jun 3, 2018 23:36:13 GMT -5
Those last two wins were impressive.
I was very impressed with Matt Barnes tonight. Coming in to a road game with a tough a 3-4 combo with men on base, he threw strikes, and got huge high leverage outs. That was great to see.
Kind of amazing the Sox could score 9 runs given that the lineup from 5-9 was kind of sketchy, although the Sox do have vintage 1st half Holt, who is quite capable until he wears down - hopefully by then Pedroia will by really ready. Hope JDM will be alright and doesn't have an injury that will linger.
Hope the night off for Devers gives him a chance to recharge. He wasn't getting much rest so he might have been wearing down.
Those last two wins were really quality victories against a team just as good. I know the Ms are doing well and I do think they're capable of grabbing that 2nd Wild Card, but with the Indians bullpen a total mess, I think the Sox, Yanks, and Astros are the class of the league in whatever order you choose to put them in.
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Post by Oregon Norm on Jun 3, 2018 23:51:21 GMT -5
Good game. The Sox really ground them up with a relentless attack. For all the whining about ESPN's coverage, they explained exactly what I thought I was seeing as the Sox touched Morton up. The stat guys at the network gave Vasgersian and the others the data, and they highlighted it. Morton throws strikes with the curve less than half the time. So early in the count, why swing at that thing? And if you can foul it off deeper, do it. It was obvious his mojo wasn't working from the get go with almost 30 pitches in the first inning. That's Cora's work I'd wager, marching orders that turned into a rout. I listen to a lot of baseball. When I bought a new car a few years back they threw in XM with all the MLB games. I've kept that up, and when I'm on the road I'll find a game that looks competitive - say the Brewers vs. the Cubs - and listen in. I'm not a fan of Rodriguez, though he can be interesting a times. He and Mendoza, who often tries too hard, have been teamed up to give it a patina of early Today show. They bring a little more than that, but it can get tiresome. But those XM games? Many of the announcers come off like Bob & Ray but without the humor, and the programs are often filled with baseball psycho-babble, pure mindless conjecture. I'll take the ESPN broadcast any day. There's actually some useful information if you dig through the (endless) banter. The ESPN broadcast format is the suits speaking, crypto-demographers trying to spin a new audience for baseball. NESN has their own version of that, no? It gets old, but those radio broadcasts are already old and getting older. The alternative? Be thankful, very thankful, for Joe Castiglione. He's in a league all his very own...
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Post by Oregon Norm on Jun 3, 2018 23:56:56 GMT -5
Those last two wins were impressive. I was very impressed with Matt Barnes tonight. Coming in to a road game with a tough a 3-4 combo with men on base, he threw strikes, and got huge high leverage outs. That was great to see. Kind of amazing the Sox could score 9 runs given that the lineup from 5-9 was kind of sketchy, although the Sox do have vintage 1st half Holt, who is quite capable until he wears down - hopefully by then Pedroia will by really ready. Hope JDM will be alright and doesn't have an injury that will linger. Hope the night off for Devers gives him a chance to recharge. He wasn't getting much rest so he might have been wearing down. Those last two wins were really quality victories against a team just as good. I know the Ms are doing well and I do think they're capable of grabbing that 2nd Wild Card, but with the Indians bullpen a total mess, I think the Sox, Yanks, and Astros are the class of the league in whatever order you choose to put them in. That sketchy 5-9 had 7 of the teams 15 hits, and that even includes Bradley who's still in a funk at 0-4. Nunez is heating up, Holt is still hitting over .300 and Leon has been coming on also. Time to visit the box scores. It will be interesting to see how long people go on about the bottom of the lineup if they keep hitting.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Jun 4, 2018 0:38:09 GMT -5
I have zero objectivity with regard to Alex Rodriguez. I’m pretty sure he’s a terrible announcer, but if he was the next Vin Scully and I wouldn’t be able to tell. Everything he says is annoying. I don't know. Mendoza would be good at her job if she was- A) wearing a muzzle B) standing behind home plate with less clothes on She's the worst. I have, as you might guess, the highest possible bar for color commentators. They have to tell me things I don't know, and they can't miss the obvious.
The only complaint I had with the commentary tonight was too little talk about BABIP luck.
Menodoza is very, very good. She explained the story of Morton's transformation. She gave us little or no meaningless data tidbits while pointing out that Morton had given up 0 HR to LHB and Porcello 0 to RHB.
It's a little comical that you can listen to Jonny Gomes or, after a game, Jim Rice, and think that "she's the worst" rather than immensely better.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Jun 4, 2018 0:45:47 GMT -5
Beni is very, very, very hot. Xander is not. He did double in his previous at bat. Going back a little bit further, he came into this game .278 / .381 / .500 in his previous 21 PA.
It's now .304 / .385 / .562 in his last 26 PA and 6 games, 4 of them against a great pitching staff.
It's scary how far apart reality and the human brain assessment of same can be.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Jun 4, 2018 0:59:10 GMT -5
But those XM games? Many of the announcers come off like Bob & Ray but without the humor, and the programs are often filled with baseball psycho-babble, pure mindless conjecture. I'll take the ESPN broadcast any day. There's actually some useful information if you dig through the (endless) banter. A reference probably lost on almost everyone, but Bob and Ray, to my mind, are the funniest people who ever lived other than Steven Wright.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jun 4, 2018 1:02:26 GMT -5
Those last two wins were impressive. I was very impressed with Matt Barnes tonight. Coming in to a road game with a tough a 3-4 combo with men on base, he threw strikes, and got huge high leverage outs. That was great to see. Kind of amazing the Sox could score 9 runs given that the lineup from 5-9 was kind of sketchy, although the Sox do have vintage 1st half Holt, who is quite capable until he wears down - hopefully by then Pedroia will by really ready. Hope JDM will be alright and doesn't have an injury that will linger. Hope the night off for Devers gives him a chance to recharge. He wasn't getting much rest so he might have been wearing down. Those last two wins were really quality victories against a team just as good. I know the Ms are doing well and I do think they're capable of grabbing that 2nd Wild Card, but with the Indians bullpen a total mess, I think the Sox, Yanks, and Astros are the class of the league in whatever order you choose to put them in. That sketchy 5-9 had 7 of the teams 15 hits, and that even includes Bradley who's still in a funk at 0-4. Nunez is heating up, Holt is still hitting over .300 and Leon has been coming on also. Time to visit the box scores. It will be interesting to see how long people go on about the bottom of the lineup if they keep hitting. Norm, I'm well aware of how well they played today. I used the word "sketchy", but the better word would be "questionable", which I really don't think is an unreasonable word at all. I wouldn't want to see a lineup like this going forward quite regularly - and I understand this isn't the lineup they envisioned or designed. But just because they played well in a short stretch doesn't mean that I'm gaga over the lineup going forward over the long haul. Nunez is hitting better, but he's going to have to hit a lot more to have an acceptable OBP. I didn't start watching Holt yesterday. He's a good first half hitter until he tails off, which is what the doctor ordered if we get a healthy Pedroia back by then. Leon and Vazquez are below average offensively. I'm not sure what numbers you want to use that tell me otherwise. And JBJ is JBJ. He's looked better since they got rid of that leg kick. His outs are harder hit, but he's mega-streaky, so until he's consistent for a bigger duration, it's hard to count on him offensively. If Betts comes back healthy - they're trying to be very careful with him as they should be - can't rush him back, Devers can be more of a force that he's capable of being, and Pedroia comes back healthy, not to mention if Swihart can provide some offense as a catcher, those events would considerably lengthen the lineup and make me feel better about what the offense will do over the long-term. I shouldn't have to tell you that a lineup with Nunez batting 5th is less than ideal and not the way they drew things up. I'm glad they've held up over the short term. I hope that most of the the things I mention above come to pass. If they do, it will be a pretty relentless lineup.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Jun 4, 2018 1:24:49 GMT -5
Those last two wins were impressive. I was very impressed with Matt Barnes tonight. Coming in to a road game with a tough a 3-4 combo with men on base, he threw strikes, and got huge high leverage outs. That was great to see. Kind of amazing the Sox could score 9 runs given that the lineup from 5-9 was kind of sketchy, although the Sox do have vintage 1st half Holt, who is quite capable until he wears down - hopefully by then Pedroia will by really ready. Hope JDM will be alright and doesn't have an injury that will linger. Hope the night off for Devers gives him a chance to recharge. He wasn't getting much rest so he might have been wearing down. Those last two wins were really quality victories against a team just as good. I know the Ms are doing well and I do think they're capable of grabbing that 2nd Wild Card, but with the Indians bullpen a total mess, I think the Sox, Yanks, and Astros are the class of the league in whatever order you choose to put them in. That sketchy 5-9 had 7 of the teams 15 hits, and that even includes Bradley who's still in a funk at 0-4. Nunez is heating up, Holt is still hitting over .300 and Leon has been coming on also. Time to visit the box scores. It will be interesting to see how long people go on about the bottom of the lineup if they keep hitting. JBJ came into this series .345 / .406 / .552 in his last 32 PA (9 GS), and then went 3/10, 2 2B, 2 BB correcting for bad BABIP luck (I turned an absolutely killed out into a 2B) his first three games of the series against tough pitching.
So I'm not sure what "still in a funk" means.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Jun 4, 2018 1:44:30 GMT -5
Leon and Vazquez are below average offensively. I'm not sure what numbers you want to use that tell me otherwise. Vazquez last year: .348 / .378 / .467 (25 GS, 98 PA) start to June 1 .162 / .210 / .202 (26 GS, 105 PA) June 3 to July 25 .346 / .387 / .511 (36 GS, 142 PA) July 29 to end This is a dangerous hitting catcher who shares JBJ's problem of long slumps where he's shockingly, completely inept. This year's horrendous stretch hopefully ended at 146 PA. That HR was not a surprise if you realize that there is no predicting when a cold guy turns hot (or vice versa). Even with the slump, he finished with an OBP that would have been better than AL average for any batting order position than 2 through 4. He was a bit better than average for a 7 hitter and well above average for an 8 or 9 hitter. In the long run, he should be a bottom-of-the-order asset. Leon, of course, is also famously streaky.
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Post by bluechip on Jun 4, 2018 3:55:10 GMT -5
Leon and Vazquez are below average offensively. I'm not sure what numbers you want to use that tell me otherwise. Vazquez last year: .348 / .378 / .467 (25 GS, 98 PA) start to June 1 .162 / .210 / .202 (26 GS, 105 PA) June 3 to July 25 .346 / .387 / .511 (36 GS, 142 PA) July 29 to end This is a dangerous hitting catcher who shares JBJ's problem of long slumps where he's shockingly, completely inept. This year's horrendous stretch hopefully ended at 146 PA. That HR was not a surprise if you realize that there is no predicting when a cold guy turns hot (or vice versa). Even with the slump, he finished with an OBP that would have been better than AL average for any batting order position than 2 through 4. He was a bit better than average for a 7 hitter and well above average for an 8 or 9 hitter. In the long run, he should be a bottom-of-the-order asset. Leon, of course, is also famously streaky. Vazquez had a wRC+ of 93 last year, which was by far his best year. In 2016 he was at 52, this year he is at 27. His careeer wRC+ is 68. He is the definition of below average offensively. He might have had a two hot streaks in 2017, but overall his production was subpar.
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