With a 22-29 record on the books, the Red Sox may already have cause to regret several recent decisions, writes Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. Whether or not the team is better set up for the long term, he says, adding Wade Miley, Justin Masterson, and Joe Kelly (as opposed to, say, keeping John Lackey and acquiring Jeff Samardzija) has not paid off in the short run. Likewise, the signings of Hanley Ramirez (who has not adapted well to the outfield) and Pablo Sandoval (who owns a .688 OPS) have not paid the dividends hoped for when the club allocated $183MM between the two veterans.
Here’s more from Boston:
- Dealing with the on-field problems is not just a baseball question, explains Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. It’s imperative for the bottom line that the club do what it can to stay in contention, which is made plausible by the fact that the rest of the divisions has been mired in mediocrity. The risk of another long season out of the race, says Bradford, is an apathetic fan base that could lose patience with the organization.
- Boston’s struggles have put manager John Farrell’s job at risk, says Christopher Gasper of the Boston Globe, even if they aren’t really his fault. The club is nearing a point where some drastic change is needed, says Gasper, and the “even-keeled and cerebral” Farrell may need to engineer a quick turnaround to keep his position. Gasper observes that, while the club’s less-than-powerful offense can hope for better luck given its league-low .269 BABIP, it has also produced a league-worst 21.1% soft contact rate (per Fangraphs).
- As if trouble on offense and in the rotation were not enough, the Globe’s Alex Speier discusses the team’s sub-par overall efforts on defense. Errors have not generally been a big problem on the whole, but advanced metrics view the Sox as one of the league’s worst defensive units. The biggest problem, says Speier, is that Ramirez has been the league’s single worst fielder by a significant margin. Remarkably, Ramirez has cost the club about one quarter of a run per game thus far, and Speier observes that there are no ready solutions (other than continuing to work toward and hope for improvement) given Boston’s current roster alignment.
- In an interview with Toucher & Rich of CBS Boston (audio link), Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe explains that Farrell is not the main issue with the Red Sox. The skipper has done what he can with the roster, says Abraham, who goes on to argue that Ramirez can’t just be shifted to first base — which might create even greater problems. Nevertheless, with the AL East underperforming, Abraham says there is reason to believe the club can stay in the hunt.
Nap to the Cards, Hanley to 1B, Rusney to LF, call up JBJ for CF, and Mookie plays RF.
That would greatly improve the defense.
Never like the Panda signing and with the success of Holt it only looks worse. Thought Masterson would have rebounded though.
I’m not sure why everyone wants to move our worst defender to a position where he has the chance to do even more damage. How well do you think Hanley will do with scooping the ball at first base? How many game do you suppose his lackadaisical attitude will lose there?
I just think a former SS/3B who is used to fielding in the IF could learn to play 1B better. Also there are really only 3 options:
1. Keep Hanley in LF
2. Move Hanley to 1B
3. Switch Hanley and Xander.
Option 1 is the spot he can do the least damage. He was a terrible shortstop. No reason to replace an average shortstop with a terrible one. The problem is he’s a DH and they signed him two years too soon. Maybe just promote Bradley put him in center and demote Castillo. It’s not like he’s hitting.
well, Ortiz has to retire sooner or later…
I would be shocked to see him retire before he gets 500 home runs. He’s 28 away. At least as season an a half left, assuming he doesn’t just retire the moment he hits number 500.
true. Knowing him, he can probably keep hitting for a long while. And since this is the AL he can keep DHing awhile.
they could always put ortiz at 1b he isn’t great but is avg there. and dh hanley full time for this season nap isn’t hitting other then the one series against angels.
If you think David Ortiz is an average major league 1B, then you must think that of Carlos Santana as well.
hes above average at 1st. he became a dh because they had other options at the time and thrived. he also stayed on the field.
watch games hes played at the position. he handles it well
lol He is a horrible first baseman. I am shocked that you even thought he was average. There is a reason why they never play him there except for inter league. And if he was average why did they sign another first baseman as a back up? If the Red Sox thought he was anything close to being average or just a bit below average they would play him there when Napolie needs a day off. Please look at facts before posting your thoughts.
no. he does not play because they need to keep him healthy and in the lineup. its in their best interest to use him as a dh because he can stay in more games.
HAHAHA Well maybe you should be a manager. You cant even convince the Red Sox front office that he is a average first baseman but you can certainly believe anything you want.
right now he should be dh vs. righties and bench vs. lefties. you havent watched him play if you think he cant handle the position.
You do realize there is not a single person who knows about baseball including anyone in the Red Sox front office that will agree with you right? I have seen him play first and he is near dead last in 1st base fielding range and stats. He has a total of 270 games at first base in his career and has committed 21 errors. If he was as good as YOU THINK (not facts) he would play allot more then that at first. Some times you have to admit your are incorrect or you can show some proof to your opinion to back it up.
And he only ever played 1 st base cause that is the only position a over weight man with zero speed and no range can play. And your original comment said he was above average at 1st and that they had better options over him. So you mean to tell me they have had elite first baseman on the Red Sox every year since 2003? And so did the Twins before that? Cause if he was above average like you claim the only thing better is elite and I cant name any elite ones they have had. And you cant make a case that 21 errors is average for 2 reasons. First one is you said he is better then average. Second reason is cause if you dont have any range and cant get to the ball to make a error does not make you average or above average.
.990 fielding percentage at 1st. league fielding percentage is .993. that bat and fielding percentage make him an above average 1b.
15 years ago he came up with a gold glove caliber 1b on a team that didnt want him.
when the sox signed him they found he was comfortable as dh, which not all players are, and at dh you arent going to ever take him out of the line up.
if you look back the origional comment was in response to a comparison to carlos santana. a man with a .911 fielding percentage.
he doesn’t have much range but he catches everthing he gets to and digs balls out of dirt really well thats avg. is he mark texiera hell no tex is 10 times the d efender ortiz is but he is adequate.
4. move hanley to 3b, panda to 1st
Playing 1B is much easier than LF
Maybe if you care about what you are doing. I’m not sure Hanley really does.
The issue with Ramirez and his defense? He was awful at SS before. Bad at Miami and got worse at LA. 1st it was his double clutching of throws with the Fish and lack of some range, then at LA later on, it was serious lack of range and double clutching of throws. The guy is a DH playing any position he’s put at, sticking him at LF is the safest place as long as Ortiz is around pretty much.
Preaching to the choir on that one.
He’s been absolutely dreadful in LF. Much worse than he was at SS. It’s obvious he doesn’t know how to play the OF. He is the single worst defender in baseball probably this year by DRS
Move Hanley to Catcher…….he’ll have to pay attention there :p
David Ortiz would make a better first baseman than Hanley.
That’s probably true.
He’s had some exposure to it with inter-league play. It would have been helpful if Ortiz was groomed into a backup 1B but all hope for that is lost since he’s much older now. I’m sure his attitude has kept that from happening the most.
He’s a career DH, I’m sure he would have been glad to play 1B when he was younger. The Sox always wanted to try to keep him healthy though.
Who would have guessed a rotation headed by Rick Porcello would not succeed?
I don’t think anyone expected the rotation to be the strength of the team. It was expected to be average but good enough to keep in games with the presumed great offense.
Instead SP have all had awful seasons except for Clay and the offense is in the bottom 10 of runs in the leauge.
Based on the R/9 the Red Sox starting pitching has, even the 1927 Yankees batting lineup would have a tough time grinding out wins from alot of those starts.
Defense and baserunning don’t count.
If you’ve been paying attention, you’d realize that the team would be exactly where it was aiming to be at this point if the offense were performing to expectations.
The rotation was never supposed to be set in stone. See that great start by Eduardo Rodriguez? The team was aiming to buy some risk/upside arms, see who sticks, and then callup the AAA arms who showed the most readiness. And that part of the plan has gone as expected.
But that offense…
They didn’t expect their starters to be this bad.
Can you show me where this was the plan in play? I never saw any Red Sox report saying anything close to this claim of yours and still cant find anything like it now.
If the offense were up to par, the pitching wouldn’t even be that big of an issue. In 19 May losses, 15 of them saw the Sox score 3 or fewer runs. 13 of them had the Sox scoring 2 or fewer.
Meanwhile, Sox pitching held opposing teams to 4 or fewer runs in 17 games in May; 3 or fewer in 14 of them.
That kind of pitching should be enough for the offense to pull out a winning record if they were playing to their potential.
I’m not sure what part of this article is the saddest, but when a guy is costing you a run every four games and “there are no ready solutions,” that’s certainly a contender for the sadness title…
At this point, maybe they should give HanRam a shot at pitching. He couldn’t handle that change much worse, and he won’t really hurt this starting rotation all that much.
Farrell may need to engineer a quick turnaround to keep his position.
Well, if that is the case, then how come Showalter isn’t keeping Farrell company?
Is it because he is in a really groovy commercial on the MLB Network?
The Natives (O’s types) are restless too!
I imagine it has to do with the Red Sox payroll vs the Orioles payroll. That and last season buys Showalter a pass at least for the time being.
Ha, maybe. However, Showalter is on my list.
Nobody said it was a good idea to fire Farrell, be thankful Showalter has no pressure to lose his position.
Why thankful?
I don’t think Showalter is at fault. He didn’t stockpile a bunch of mediocre offensive players hoping one would stick
Yes, but I don’t see good sound baseball strategy being displayed.
Showalter has been very, very good the past few years in Baltimore. If the Orioles fans are restless, they are nuts.
I think Buck is one of the 3 best managers in MLB. He would have his choice of jobs were he let go.
They are restless…well some, I certainly can’t say all.
Therefore am I …..? =P
Thanks Boston for paying millions more for virtually the same player that Chase Headley is.
Not like the Yankees contracts are great, though at least most of the bad ones have had good years or recent stretches so far, except Sabathia.
2 worst OFers in defensive runs saved – Hanley Ramirez, Matt Kemp.
You must be looking at another year for kemp or thinking of myers, kemp has only -1 DRS his bat has totally disappeared tho 🙁
Is he injured? It’s tough to see him like this. Feels like he’s getting thrown out of a game every week.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing with a injury but nothing has been said
he has arthritis in both hips
That doesn’t really explain his hitting troubles.
Hips are where hitters generate power, from opening them up on the swing. It also makes him run slower which means he beats out less infield singles and can’t stretch singles into doubles as often
yeah, I’m not buying he just suddenly has arthritis hips.
no I doubt it’s “suddenly”, but they are probably a major source of his gradual offensive decline. The Petco factor, less lineup protection, and simply a slump explain the rest of his offensive woes.
Kemp is a historically bad CF, not OF. He’s about average if you move him to a corner OF spot. It’s just CF he had struggles with.
And yet as a Dodger fan I saw and read firsthand Kemp always complaining that he is a CF and didn’t want to play LF. He wouldn’t make room for Joc that’s why we the Dodgers had to trade him.
Signing Masterson to a one year deal wasn’t horrible, given his ties to the team and the success he had intermittently with Cleveland . Paying him $9.5M after the horrible year he had last year was.
So what, they could have saved a few million on Masterson? Would that somehow have made them a better team?
Had they used the money they saved smartly, perhaps. He was good as a $1-2M guy who has had great success in the past trying to re-start his career, not as a $10M guy they were counting on to help them win the pennant. Huge error in judgement.
He’s being paid 9.5 million not 10 million. Even if they paid him one or two million, that leave 7.5-8.5 million left. They could have spent that much anyway if they wanted to. The problem isn’t Masterson’s money. They made the wrong decisions about who to sign. Pay them 100 million or 1 million, it doesn’t matter. Justin Masterson isn’t playing well, and right now he isn’t playing at all. All of his money would have been better spent somewhere else.
Bottom line they over paid for Masterson by far. He has had 2 bad years out of the last 3 and last year was HORRIBLE. 5 million should have been tops for him and that is also over paying for hope he turns around type pitcher.
That is not the bottom line. Of all the issues with the Red Sox overpaying for Masterson is like 99th on the list of Red Sox issues this year. Having that money back would get you nothing. Not having signed Masterson at all would be a way to improve your team, but the money is like 5% of total salary this year. It’s inconsequential.
Theoretically, yes. Opportunity cost. The money they saved there could have been spent on something else.
Same goes for signing both Panda and Hanley. They could have used money from one of those players and signed a better pitcher.
There is not a low enough number to pay Masterson that could have yielded anything in return to make this team more than a couple of wins better at this point.
I’m not saying he would have accepted it, but maybe Lester is back in Boston for $9.5 million more.
That hardly matters. The Red Sox didn’t not have more money for Lester. They offered him the most they would pay for his services. Having the 9.5 million more, doesn’t mean they would have given it to him. And honestly I doubt having him would have made that much difference. His hitting is historically bad and that’s more the issue than pitching lately.
I don’t understand why you would care about his hitting. The average AL pitcher gets what, 4-5 At Bats per season?
Also could have kept Cespedes and sign Shields instead of what Could be a waste of up to $195 million on Porcello and Hanley. I think the Sox would be in Much better shape right now if Cespedes replaced Hanley and if Lester/Shields were there instead of Porcello and Masterson (who I know is out right now, but you get my point)
Hindsight is 20/20 – but you’re dead on, and those were reasonable moves that could have been made.
It was a joke. And it’s really easy to say, well they should have done this and they should have done that after the fact. My point is the Masterson contract didn’t prevent them from signing Lester. It’s not like they only had 130 million left to sign Lester. They offered Lester 130 million because that is what they valued his services at. There is plenty of money left, but it wasn’t going to Jon Lester no matter what. Now making Lester a reasonable offer in spring training of 2014 could have signed him, but that’s water under the bridge. Blame whoever low balled him there.
Didn’t seem like a joke to me. My sarcasm meter was off. I’m aware the Masterson contract didn’t prevent them from signing Lester, but $9.5 million isn’t chump change and it went to a mediocre pitcher with recent injuries.
It was 90% of a joke and 10% of pitching isn’t really what is wrong with this team now, it’s hitting. The original poster’s point what that the Masterson signing wasn’t bad but 9.5 million was too much to pay him. My point was he’s a bad pitcher no matter what you pay him and I’d rather they didn’t sign him and kept all the money than signed him for 2 million. The size of the contract isn’t bad for a starting pitcher, and it’s not like it’s financially crippling. It is crippling to have to play him though.
Her comment that Lester’s hitting is bad, and that’s why the Sox shouldn’t’ve given him any more money, didn’t seem like a joke? xD
I’ve had a long day. I need a drink I think.
Right there with ya, buddy.
Who is responsible for this deal ?
I agree that decision was awful,he got away with one getting that deal, but it’s really just a drop in the bucket when you’re looking at the entirety of their problems right now.
But they were supposed to win 97 games! and Hanley was the top LF in the league pre-season!!!
Mookie Betts was suppose to have a .970 OPS
Mookie Betts has been literally everything desired (power, speed, BBs, low Ks, defense) outside of BA. And the BA is due to a crazy low BABIP. And his BABIP has been above average or better at literally EVERY stop in his career, including his MLB time last year. You know, the MLB time that was still more games than his games played this year.
In the informed baseball world, that’s called “bad luck”. It happens. He’s proceeding right on schedule.
I just replied to a question about the Red Sox D below. I’m not exactly sure what defensive position Mookie is supposed to be playing. He’s not a very good ML infielder, and in the OF he makes a lot of routine plays look difficult….if he makes them.
What Mookie has going for him is that he’s 22 years-old. If he applies himself he has years to get better.
how do you know hes not a good infielder? he hasnt had a chance to play there. he was rushed to the majors because the team sucked. he only played 45 minor league games in the outfield. he only had 99 games above A ball before joining the big league club.
Mookie Betts has not hit for power. His ISO is only .136. That’s considered below average
He does have a low K% (12.7%) but he also has a low BB% (7.6%) so I don’t know why you think he’s drawing walks
His wRC+ is only 84, which is below 100 and is below vaerage. I do agree about the BABIP being quite low though.
My point is, this year, he certainly hasn’t been “everything desired”. He’s on pace for a 2.4 fWAR which is not bad, but certainly not great.
People are ignoring all the positive signs though. Xander is finally showing some of that potential we all believed he had and is already an above average SS. Steven Wright and Clay Buchholz are at least showing that they could be mid/back rotation fixtures for the near future, E-Rod may just blossom into our ace. Also, while Mookie’s average is down, he is showing superb defense, good speed and power, and his hitting will only improve.
Rodriguez has pitched one game. Let’s hold off on using the “ace” card about him.
he said “may blossom into our ace”, which is plausible given his high ceiling and recent success in the minors.
I’m not saying he is an ace, but I’d rather give him a shot then just trade a package of him + for an older pitcher.
“E-Rod may just blossom into our ace”
You said that. And he might. Or he might be a career 4.00 ERA guy. We can’t ever know after just one start.
And I agree, it might be better to take a complete chance on him being good than taking on a huge contract and giving up lots of strong, young talent when there are many problems needing fixed in Boston.
Also, Rusny and Blake Swihart have been thrust into starting roles and can only get better…
Swihart yes, but Castillo just looks like he doesn’t have any defensive technique in the OF
Let’s see if Papi can play 1B every day next year (doubt it) then Hanley can be the DH, sign Justin Upton for LF then lay Napoli walk, upton betts and Castillo with Bradley as a 4th OF is good. Now the pitching is a different story. Cole Hamels and Johnny Cueto for a mix of prospects
Why not play Hanley at first, let Napoli walk and still sign Upton? Hanley is hitting decently
Trade Ramirez to team that another team , sent Big Papa flowers on his way out the door, and let ALL the kids play to see what you have for next year !
Proofread next time.
You wouldn’t trade Ramirez’s team to another team?
Well I’m not sure who would want the Red Sox right now. Maybe the Phillies could make a play? The Brewers?
At least now maybe the Hamels to Boston rumors will stop. Probably not as the whole division is weak, but one can hope.
But they still have Craig and JBJ available. The Phillies won’t be able to resist them much longer.
Good news is the team is only 4.5 GB out of 1st in the division and I expect a lot of players to improve ROS and see the team finishing with 82-86 wins.
However, part of me just wants them to blow up the team and aim to contend in 2017.
Well I think one prediction that most people got right was how close the AL East would be.
They’re going to have to go all-in at the deadline or in the off-season. That’s the only way they can correct all of this… to have to payroll push $200MM, especially if they want to keep their prospects.
If you think they’ll go over the luxury tax……
To say it really isn’t Farrell’s fault is a cop out in my opinion. Yes Cherington put together a bad rotation, although the have been massively underperforming with most not near their career stats. However he did put together what should be one of the best offenses in baseball. All preseason the talk was who was going to have the best offense…tigers, blue jays, or red sox. At a certain point when everyone on the team outside of Pedroia, Uehara, and Tazawa have been underperforming the blame goes the coaches for not getting the most out of most of their players.
As for the defense, this is where I have come to hate defensive metrics. Sox only have 1 bad defender, who yes have been very bad. The rest have ranged from average to very good and you can tell from just watching them. Even Xander has been flirting with above average defense this year. Outside of Hanley this defense has played very well and most of them get to just about everything hit near them with just a few bonehead errors that happen from time to time.
Napoli is below average defensively as well.
He’s actually been average to just above average since the sox got him. This year he hasn’t been as good but I still wouldn’t put him below average unless you go strictly by defensive metrics, which I believe in the eye test more since all defensive metrics are made up stats that are still very inaccurate on multiple occassions. Kind of like how every year to start the season it has Pedroia rated as a below average defender for a while, while he clearly isn’t.
That team is terrible to watch defensively – defense is more then catching the ball if it’s hit to you. When opposing teams get aggressive on offense and put pressure on the Red Sox defense, it falls apart.
They’re gonna need a Dodgers trade type bailout to get rid of some of those contracts
Dodgers had to swallow Crawford’s contract, but I’m sure they’re more than happy with AGonz. Beckett gave them solid innings before he exploded and Punto had one of his best season with them. Not saying it was a bad trade for Boston, but they did end up signing Hanley and Pablo with the money they saved from the players the Dodgers took on. They’re probably just going to sign more players to bad contracts if someone bailed them out again.
That’s not true. They signed Victorino, Napoli, and Dempster (and Drew?) with the money they saved that year. Got them a World Series ring, so I don’t think they’re complaining.
It’s what happened afterwards that caused this mess.
All of those players were signed to cheap contracts, something they would’ve probably done no matter. They didn’t start spending big again until this off-season and Porcello’s extension.
Not really true. They were shorter term at a higher AAV. None of them were “cheap” or the players in question would not have signed them. Don’t forget to add Koji to that list too.
Doubt that’s going to happen. There’s no big spender out there to make a deal with. And Selig is no longer Commissioner.
The fault lies mainly on Cherington. Bad decision after bad decision.
It was/is a very strange roster. It’s like he wanted to go all in for 2015, then stopped halfway.
The fault lies on Cherington for the rotation I will give you that (even though it shouldn’t be this bad) but not the offense. The fault on offense has to go to the coaches because this should be a top offense. Everyone except for Pedroia, Holt and maybe Xander is having a down year and are not close to their career numbers. The coaches can’t even fix swings…that’s been up to Pedroia lately.
What makes you think Cherington makes all the personnel decisions? Why is Theo Epstein in Chicago?
Do not overlook the role of “Lex Luthor Lucchino” in the BoSox’s mess.
Henry sticks his nose in as well – delivers stats regularly from what I’ve heard.
What’s up with Clay Buchholz. He’s one of the most enigmatic pitchers ever. He’s either brilliant, or terrible. He’s like the Ubaldo Jiminez of the AL East.
Oh wait…
I just can’t believe anybody thought Rick Porcello was your ace was gonna be all fine and dandy.
I can’t believe anybody thought Tanaka would still be an Ace after his injury and could be counted on to make more than 15 starts this season.
Ok Gammons, back to shining Swihart and Betts HOF plaques.
And he’s still 10x better than their entire rotation, what’s your point?
Michael Pineda has been better than the Red Sox Starting 5 combined.
Porcello/Miley/Buchholz/Kelly/Masterson = 2.2 fWAR
Michael Pineda = 2.3 fWAR
This may be my favorite stat of the day, thanks for that
Ouch.
Hit a nerve or something? I’d be more worried about BOS rotation situation than what’s going on with other team’s pieces. And Tanaka doesn’t have to be an ace when Pineda is pitching the way he has this year.
Sure pitched like an Ace today, huh? 7IP, 3H, 1ER, 0BB, 9K
So….about Tanaka 🙂
Start #5. Let’s see if he makes it to 16.
E-Rod has made Two starts and he’s already an ace in the making and is the Red Sox future ace according to Curt Schilling. This was about 1 Month after he said the same thing about Joe “Cy Young” Kelly.
Sweet. My name isn’t schilling, but don’t be salty at him because he called out Tanaka not staying healthy all season.
To go along with an overrated offense, not taking into the strong possibility of Napoli, Ortiz, Pedrioa etc declining.
I think it’s way too soon to write them off. Particularly because the division is as weak as it is, but also because they are under-performing their true talent level.. I didn’t buy the pre-season hype of a roster so filled with future HOFers that the season probably didn’t need to be played. But they aren’t this bad. As to the off season moves, you can argue that the Hanley signing is something the Steinbrenner-era Yankees would do–sign a guy to play out of position because of his bat. But he’s still a great bat, and his defense should improve somewhat. Panda is Panda–if you thought you were buying Mike Schmidt, you were fooling yourself. And for those who said to go for Headley, he’s not doing any better. Give it time. The one thing I don’t buy is the idea that Red Sox fans are going to be apathetic, regardless of what happens on the field.
There is a difference between being apathetic, and not going to or watching games. It’s just natural. More people are going to go to see a winning team. More people are going to tune in to listen to the radio or watch TV if the team is winning. I’m not talking about the hardcore fan here. I’m talking purely about quantity.
Losing brings down revenue.
I definitely agree with that–losing does bring down revenue, and that’s harder on big market teams in some ways than small market ones because there’s no payments from the central fund to subsidize losing. Most of the Red Sox (and Yankees, etc) expenses and revenues are baked in at the start of the season. Additional gate sales/concessions for attendees are low cost additions and flow much more to the bottom line.
First off, the Red Sox usually sell out Fenway – that’s not the issue. The financial problems the Red Sox have occur when the cable subscribers pull back. That has lost them lots of revenue in the recent past.
When was the last sellout at Fenway that wasn’t opening/closing day, actually? Every time I go there’s empty seats.
What I wonder is what exactly it is Boston is expected to do to right the ship that wouldn’t be too extreme. For now, the most logical thing would be to hope the offensive pieces they have start producing at rates everyone would have hoped, and actively look to improve the rotation in ways that are actually within reason, E-Rod was a good start but it doesn’t fix the entire situation. The big problem I see is that if the offense isn’t producing, is it worth making a splashy rotation add like a Cueto/Hamels? Because even adding those guys doesn’t automatically make the rest of the rotation snap out of this funk they’re in, even if it helps the situation, and banking on the rotation does no good if you’re not scoring runs to support it. I’d have to imagine the bulk of their hope comes from the pieces they already have in place.
I love David Ortiz. I defend him talking about his contract. I defend him bashing phones & lobbying the official scorer for hits. I realize he’s one the main reasons we have 3 WS titles.
That said, he needs to go.
His demise has been predicted for years. He was able to come back strong in 2013 & quash that talk, but, even though he was productive last year, the signs of a fall were there.
Ortiz can’t hit lefties. He’s also shown a stubbornness to even try to avoid the shift and hit the ball the other way. He’s now a mistake pitch hitter only. Meaning he can only hit mistakes.
Ortiz used to be able to hit the pitcher’s best pitch for a hit or foul it off. Now, he can only give in.
The Sox would be light years better with hanley as the DH & Ortiz out.
That pains me to say it.
It does MANY things:
1) Gets Ortiz’s .220 avg out of the middle of the order.
2) Gets Hanley’s horrible glove out of LF
3) Protects Hanley from needless injury
4) Puts a good LF in the OF for defense.
5) It also would make the order lighter, faster.
6) It would force Farrell to manage instead of sitting back & hoping a washed up Vet regains his form.
2013 was special. But I feel like Tim Wakefield could’ve come out of retirement and won 20 games that year. It was special. For whatever reason. Everyone who got injured in 2012, came back healthy & productive in 2013. Every player who had bad years in 2012, came back & met or exceeded their career bests.
Look at 2012, 2014, 2015… that’s who these Sox are. 2013 was special, but also unique. Those other 3 years are the “norm”
“I defend him talking about his contract. I defend him bashing phones & lobbying the official scorer for hits”
I don’t know how you can defend the latter 2. And the latter one happened in the middle of his managers press conference.
Everything else you put though is spot on.
that is very beside the point.
Well what is there to defend? You have no problem with him breaking a bat and damaging equipment, with the possibility of debris going into his teammates eye because of a strike call??
The fact that the league didn’t fine him for that is a joke.
His point is: in the past, he defended Ortiz whether he was right or wrong. But he can no longer defend him being in the lineup.
I commend him on speaking so honestly. Most fans wouldn’t be able to put their fandom aside.
Agreed. Father Time may have come for him. I’m glad Jeter retired when he did.
Jeter struggled mightily the last couple of years & was a burden on the team too.
Only in 2014, his final year. In 2012, he led all of baseball in hits. In 2013, he only played in 17 games. Now of course his numbers were bad but it’s not like you’re looking at a large sample (73 PA). But he definitely retired at the right time.
So you’re saying he struggled in his final 2 years 🙂
If you really consider 17 games a season (equivalent to 3 starts by a pitcher), then yeah. More like 1.1 seasons
I’m pretty much in this same boat, except I’ve also been fed up with all his contract “respect” talk for a while now.
No one had a problem with Lester asking for an extension at the same time as Ortiz. Why? He even said he’d take a hometown discount. He wouldn’t even engage in negotiations.
Lester lied.
Ortiz said he wanted an extension & in fact, next year will make LESS than this year. He took the hometown discount.
yet he’s hated & Lester was a saint?
Lester could’ve easily countered the Sox initial offer. & while that offer was low, NO ONE, NOT THE RED SOX, thought he’d accept. That was more than the 4 year extension Beckett signed with BOS at the same age only a couple years earlier. That $70 million didn’t come out of nowhere. Blame Lester for saying he’d take a discount. Sox put out a #, Lester – if he really wanted to stay – could’ve countered. He didn’t
correct. this is what I meant.
I agree that he should have been fined, but that has nothing to do with how good (or not good) of a hitter Ortiz is.
I guess I don’t mind showing emotion. Bashing the phone didn’t hurt anyone. It shows he cares IMO.
The time he interrupted Tito was a bit silly, but I was talking about the other times. Like when he complained about that hometown scorer in Texas who ruled a hit an error to keep alive a no-hitter. It was overruled by MLB. There was a couple other times as well that didn’t involve interrupting his manager.
When all you are is a DH, and judged SOLELY on hitting, every hit counts. So when a hit is incorrectly called an error, it affects him more than a player who plays defense. Pedroia can have an 0-4 day & still contribute to the win by making great plays in the field. If Ortiz goes 0-4 then he did nothing to help.
That’s why DH is a tougher job than folks think. A player can wipe out the bad feelings of a horrible AB by going out into the field & contributing. A DH has to sit with a bad AB for 8 more hitters.
“Bashing the phone didn’t hurt anyone. It shows he cares IMO.”
It very well could have. Just because it Didn’t doesn’t mean it should be done. Would you go through a red light if no other cars were driving the other way through the green light?
But as I said, for your other points, I completely agree. Man I wonder what he would say if he got benched. I think he would be much worse than Jorge Posada.
And I thought Hanley certainly wasn’t going to be worse than Manny in LF?
Said it before and will say it again. Signing Both Hanley and Panda made no sense.
I think he can get better than he is out there. I mean, he is currently on pace for a UZR/150 of -44.2. Is that even possible? Seems crazy to me. Though I’m expecting that to be around -20.0 by year’s end, which is still awful.
I don’t actually see any scenario where he does get better. He seems to have very little interest in playing competent D – that has been the case for many years. Watching his efforts in the field degrade from Florida, to LA, and to Boston, has been sad. Marlins fans did say his effort was declining, at the time I didn’t care because he could swing a great bat. Then I found myself being quite relieved that he signed in Boston – one less passenger to carry in the field.
With his list of injuries getting longer, he’s even less likely to start trying in the field.
This little outfield experiment is just a small detour on his road to being a DH. The guy just wants to swing a bat, not much else.
While he has been very bad defensively the biggest problem lies in his laziness in the field. I know he has been lazy in the field his whole career but I thought that since he’s finally back on the team he has always wanted to be on would get rid of the laziness. Guess I was wrong. He only cares about catching regular fly balls. Everything else he just takes an I’ll get to it when I get to it aproach.
Yup, that has driven me a bit nuts too. If the ball is hit to his left, he always let’s Betts go grab it and simply jogs to the ball.
Yeah so I don’t think he’s been worse than Manny in left defensively…he’s just been Manny plus lazy. His numbers would be much better if he would make an effort and track down more balls quicker than a jogging pace and that is correctable. You just need the coach to light a fire under him or tell him he won’t play unless he actually tries. I would still put him at DH as soon as possible, though that may not be able to happen for the next year and a half.
Yeah. I have no issue with him jogging on obvious doubles when no runners are on base. However when runners get on, they have shown the willingness to score from first because of his laziness. If he could attempt to hustle more when runners are on base that’d be great as I’ve seen a couple times where guys from first have scored on double in which they normally shouldn’t have.
I think you could do it now re. the DH. Neither are raking , that’s for sure. Platoon DH and have the other a crunch time PH. Go with Holt in LF–he’s batting around .285 with speed. At least have a strong OF “D”to support the pitching staff. Trading Nap would be a good thing, he’s a rally killer.
Hanley, Nap, Pablo and Ortiz are truly the “Over-the hill gang”if there ever was one in baseball. Very disappointing way to spend–$70 M.
I have never ever liked the Sandoval signing.
Doesn’t take a brainchild to figure a rotation of Porcello, Miley, Masterson, Laptop and Joe Kelly (if the Cardinals dump you, you know your bad) to falter.
Shelby Miller is doing terribly since being traded…
Just give this team another month for the love of God. Most of their guys have been dramatically under-performing. By the end of June they should know what they have, and how well their team will shape up. I don’t see them struggling as greatly with BABIP and RISP going forward, the numbers they were having were that of a slumping team, it should turn around.
The Red Sox lineup is way too talented to stay 12th in the AL and 24th in MLB in runs scored/game.
My thoughts exactly. The pitching mightn’t get any better, but that offence should improve greatly.
Same here.
This was one of the worst patch jobs ever for an offseason in Red Sox history. It’s like the brass just reached in a hat and hoped for the best. This team was obviously built to have a powerful run producing offense alongside a subpar(that’s being generous) rotation.
I say bring up the prospects and let’s see what the #2 ranked farm system can do.
Will say this for the Red Sox…..
Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy are one of the most enjoyable, entertaining and informative broadcasting groups in MLB, and may well be the best.
They are great. I love Remy’s Boston accent. Second only to Scully in my book.
Hawk is pretty good in Chicago.
Strongly disagree
The ERA and WHIP of each of the original 5 pitchers in the Sox rotation FROM THE LAST 3 SEASONS:
Rick Porcello- 4.08, 1.34
Clay Buchholz- 4.19, 1.28
Wade Miley- 3.74, 1.30
Joe Kelly- 3.41, 1.36
Justin Masterson- 4.61, 1.40
That’s a combined 4.00 ERA and 1.33 WHIP.
And the Red Sox are paying them nearly $40M this year.
It almost seems they thought they could buy some time until they could trade for Hamels… and then they heard the price tag for Hamels.
Where did you get these numbers from, Masterson has an ERA of 6.37 this season.
I made some clarifications. My apologies.
The Red Sox would not have kept Lackey. He was not happy with the back end of his contract and had openly talked about sitting out 2015. It was only after he was traded that he calmed down. Having said that, Hanley is a DH. It’s time to admit that Papi has little gas left in the tank. Another 3 weeks of this mess and they may as well call back JBJ, let him stay in the outfield with Castillo and Mookie. Bring up Brian Johnson, try Hembree in an 8th/9th inning role. Tell Masterson it’s been real, get Hannigan healthy, thank Sandy Leon for his time and look ahead.
Can you show a link to Lackey saying that? I have little doubt that he is a word I cant say on here but I dont think he said anything. Its a little early to say Ortiz it done.
There is no link, it was speculation by Boston sports media. Lackey is actually making less then Kelley this season, although not much.
Gasper’s point about Boston’s low BABIP and poor soft contact rate is wrong. Just today a fangraphs author crunched the data and found that there is quite literally no connection (an essentially 0 r-squared value, for the stat-minded) between how hard contact is and BABIP, or between the contact “hardness” and LD% (line drive percentage). You might have expected a connection, but there isn’t one.
So it’s worth pointing out that Boston’s team BABIP is terrible, and that’s it. Given the nature of that beast, it should get better, and a bad soft-contact % doesn’t change that.
Man we live in a terribly impatient society. This team will play better. I still think they pull the trigger on hamels. If they do that they will be a playoff team for sure. I dont think the cards would want napoli but trading him to move hanley to first is probably a good idea. Think u upgrade at 2 spots that way. Napoli to the mariners would be my best guess
So, Cole Hamels cures a multitude of woes?
Yes. The offense is better than its shown. And a pitcher that induces more strikeouts and weaker contact improves the pitching and d.
Does he pitch every day?
No but it takes a bad starter from pitching every 5. The east is a weak division. If they get him soon though. They wait another month it might be 2 late. But hamels, bucholz, rodriguez isnt really all that bad a top 3
theo……
The Red Sox are a very bad team. I said the other day – they can get Clayton Kershaw and one of the Royals top 3 relief pitchers for 2 Class A guys that aren’t going anywhere, and they will still be a bad team. They sold at the trading deadline 2 out of the last 3 seasons, and this is what they have to show for it. NG – Not Good.
And thats just not true lol. They havent played well and being bad isnt the same thing. Season is 162 games for a reason. High varience sport.
Sometimes teams “don’t play well” because they’re not very good compared to their competition. The Red Sox are a Moneyball team like the Cleveland Indians are – although the Red Sox have money. I’d say that the Cleveland Indians have more good players on their team then the Red Sox do. And I see the Indians finishing 4th in the ALC.
That’s unnecessarily harsh, Panda/Hanley/Ortiz/Porcello/Miley are all performing much worse than they ever have, you can’t sit here in good conscious and tell me that all of those 5 players would have significantly worse than normal years.
This is the worst those 5 players have ever performed?
Yeah pretty much. Not counting years they were hurt
Yeah, I don’t know where you are going with your argument haha
1 the central is a good division. Sox have a good bullpen. U get the guys to hit and adding rodriguez and hamels would be 2 strikeout pitchers improving the d by just less chances. You can’t just look at basic stats but thin about the game as a whole
I’m not a stat guy theo. The Sox bullpen is not even ML average. The team doesn’t execute well. And they play moneyball, which means lots of foul balls, a good amount of walks, little bunting and base stealing (i.e. “don’t give up an out”), and poor situational hitting as the batters are just supposed to go up there and mash. When teams are not wedded to that mantra, they’ll do things to manufacture runs when in a bad stretch, and get the team back on track.
Nice having a dialog with you.
They are the epitome of vaerage atm. But tazawa and uehara are dominant. Kellys stuff will play up out of the pen. And honestly they could trade for hamels kazmir and cueto with how deep their farm system is. I wouldng be surprised if they went after 2 of those names. The latter 2 wouldnt cost much.
You’re misunderstanding “Moneyball”. It’s not actually about walks. It’s about finding undervalued assets. KC used a “Moneyball” strategy when they built a team around bullpen, baserunning, and defense because it was cheaper and “easier” than building a team around sluggers and strong starting pitching. It was exactly the opposite of the “Moneyball” results shown in the movie or book.
O read the moneyball book when it came out. If you think the moneyball teams are built around defense and baserunning, I’d strongly suggest you watch their games.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. If you’re suggesting that “Moneyball” is not built around defense and baserunning, you’re looking at it wrong. “Moneyball” is building a team utilizing undervalued assets. The KC Royals used a true “Moneyball” approach by focusing on bullpen, defense, and baserunning – guys good at those tend to be underpaid compared to high-OBP/high-power guys. Many people wrongly understand “Moneyball” to mean high-OBP; it just so happens that high-OBP was undervalued at the time, and therefore was the key in building a good, cheap roster at the time. Once other teams figured out how important OBP was, that advantage was lost and those guys became expensive.
Red Sox starters have an ERA of 5.05. That’s the worst in the majors right now. They need way more than just a Cole Hamels to right their ship in Boston.
I’m not saying it can’t happen, but, boy, it would be awfully surprising to see Cole Hamels suddenly fix every problem they have.
Maybe if Hamels could clone himself into 4 additional Cole Hamels then the Sox would be a playoff team for sure. One pitcher can’t overcome 4 bad ones.
Maybe it’s Red Sox fans thinking, maybe it’s the nature of all fans, or those that come on this site that are saber-oriented. But every solution to a teams problem either seems to be to spend money and get some more name players in (which is what the Red Sox did last off-season), or to say some players are unlucky.
The good teams make their own luck, and their players get better,
Everyone needs to stop worrying, the team will produce at a much better rate sooner or later. The only moves I see being helpful would be dump Napoli, Hanley to first, JBJ/Craig in left. Then trade a package of Margot/Devers/Owens to get Hamels. Your rotation is Hamels-Buchholz-ERod-Miley-Porcello, Kelly moves to back end of pen with that fastball and everyone plays nice.
Who would be an option to replace Farrell if he is let go??? Jason Varitek??? the former player to manager without any other experience has been a popular and successful move for many teams recently.
Guy, they should hire Trot Nixon as manager, he’d slide head first into the mound every time he makes a pitching change.
Theo beat Cherrington out for Lester, that’s what hurt the Sox the most,
They messed up when they wouldn’t even give him a respectable offer a year ago then traded him at the deadline. He wasn’t going back after that mess.
Trade Nappy, move Panda to 1st, move Hanley to 3rd, and apologize to your fanbase for spending like drunkin sailors on everything Cuban and two players in the free agent market who are both DH’s, lol. After that fire the GM.
After doing that admit once and for all you are not a little market team and in fact you take advantage of mid market teams every year and you are what you pretend not to be, THE EVIL EMPIRE!!!!!
Hanley is the future 3B. SIgning Panda, and him getting more than Hanley will never make any sense to me. Pablo Sandoval is not a good baseball player and before his tenure with Boston is over they’ll have to eat a ton of money to get him to go somewhere else.