CaliSoxFanViaSWside

lol Like you never make Captain Obvious posts while everyone clings to your skirt looking for Insider stuff.

I made a post just yesterday that I thought 3 or 4 40 man roster changes could still be coming and Rutherford was among the 10 or so names I listed.

I'm the 1st guy to jump on management but I try to leave the players alone. I stay out of game threads usually during the season because they are a mess of over reactions. They have books on everyone. A few ground outs in ST mean nothing. Sheets has the potential to be a big bat or fizzle out but observations on a few ST AB's don't mean anything. He's shown he can work a count and pick the pitches to drive. Players like Sheets will make outs 3/4 of the time. I'd rather analyze what he does the other 1/4 times when he's not making outs. If he's taking walks,hitting doubles and HR's against RHP then he's doing a great job. The majority of his extra base hits will probably be to RF so yes he will GO often to the right side , probably hit into his share of double plays but I'll take those outs if he's slugging .500 with a high OPS against those righties. Sheets is the Sox best shot at putting up Conforto type numbers from the left side. I'm sorry if I was hostile. There's a battle on Soxtalk that divides us into a sort of Sheets vs. Vaughn mentality. Neither one should be in the minors now. They should both get a lot of AB's but unfortunately one or the other is going to have to get those AB's in RF for that to happen. The other spot to get a lot of AB's is DH. They both deserve an equal shot to do great things for the Sox.

The playoffs for the Sox did prove a couple of things. They were the same team in the playoffs that they were in the regular season except minus their best pitcher. They hit and played way better at home than they did on the road and they couldn't beat good teams. I know the road thing happens for a lot of players. But the better teams can manage to look like better teams on the road. Sox players looked like they missed their naps. The only Sox regular position players with better road than home stats was Eloy and he was a mess when the playoffs started. I haven't looked at the pitchers. Atlanta may not have been the best team but they took control of their own destiny. They got hot at the right time and took full advantage of the pieces they picked up at the trade deadline and rode those guys to a Championship. I have no idea how to fix that particular problem . Maybe it happens to a lot of young players. TLR has been around long enough that he could grab the bull by the horns and rest guys on the last day of a home stand or use hit and runs more on the road.

That's not how you phrased it. Shellacked and what happened is what you said.

Well you can explain the book to everyone or just let us guess that you actually know anything. There's always books on everyone, then hitters adjust, then the book changes. It happened last year with him and I'm sure it will again. It's the baseball circle of life. Nothing to see here.

He pitched yesterday too. Maybe that was the reason or it's like spring training and Sox are getting a feel if he can be functional 2 days in a row or it' spring training and he might be working on something ? Anyway let me remind everyone it's Spring Training Emphasis on training not results.

SO if I combine these 2 posts he's scared to sign pitchers to long term deals but there's a better than fair chance that he sign an extension because the Sox have a history of extending their own pitchers ? Is he also scared to sign position players to big money extensions beyond more than a few FA years or sign FA agents to big contracts ?

I don't think JR needs to be scared of not handing out big contracts to anyone. Big to him is anything higher than $90M these days when the rest of baseball surpasses that many many times in the last 4 or 5 off seasons.

Perhaps you also noticed that 6 of his 17 AB's prior to this game today were against LHP and against RHP he was batting .364 in 11 ABs if we are going to draw conclusions based on small sample sizes and ST games. He's going to play against mostly RHP and rarely against LHP.

He's very good which is why I have been saying Collins better watch his back. Scouting reports going back to his Rays days said he had a good arm, blocked pitches well and framed well. He did good yesterday handling 4 different pitchers

Isn't it more likely that a speedy OF crashes into Robert ? Lumbering ones won't have as many opportunities to get close to him.

The point remains that a lot of us were looking forward to Sheets getting many AB's and possibly becoming the LH masher that we need. Also if Vaughn got the majority of his AB's in RF to accomplish it, that was good too. The Sheets getting MLB AB's crowd may not be as vocal about it as the Vaughn and Conforto guys are but we do exist. It's just more difficult speaking out against the onslaught of Vaughn should be the primary DH or primary RF and deserves as many AB's as anyone else on the team stuff. I think Vaughn will be a very good hitter while I also think Sheets can be a good HR hitting DH because he's LH, We need to find out if that is true just as much as the people who believe Vaughn needs 600 AB's.

Exactly ! No reason at all to say anything negative about the fans ever. Every fan base in our position would have fans saying the same things no matter how right or irrational we've become.

You should also be careful. I know a few mods who might mock you for having your feelings hurt or feeling sorry for yourself.But you are a medical professional so they wouldn't dare. By the way to make it clear ,I'm always good with most of your posts. No 2 people always agree 100% but I know you are a baseball fan for the love of the game and the simple pleasures it brings you.

No they aren't. They just want a mostly RH lineup with Vaughn in LF as if he wouldn't dive there too. Eloy goes to DH. Sheets in the minors. If Eloy stays in LF and Vaughn doesn't play RF then Sheets is still the odd man out at DH.

Game thread it was me .

How you can make this statement is beyond me and actually have people thinking it's a great Idea ! It's so simple ! How on earth do you tell a baseball player not to dive ? Every position on the field requires you to dive. Buxton gets hurt all the time. Do you think the Twins tell him not to dive ? Hi Andrew can you please never dive again on balls to your left, ball to your right and balls in front of you ? Please Andrew just give less than 100%, no one will mind at all. We don't actually care if it costs us games or the pitchers or fans think you are dogging it or get angry about it. By the way if we make it to the playoffs or World Series you can't dive in those games either ! Oh one more thing you also cannot ever lose your balance and fall down either. You must remind upright at all costs.

I definitely have to agree with this. I got in a lot of heated arguments about Vaughn playing the OF. I didn't like it because I didn't think he was suited for it because of his lack of speed. So many said and now still say he's above average in LF which may be true and wanted Eloy moved to DH and Vaughn in LF. Now all of a sudden he gets hurt playing the OF and there is all this outrage about it. He would be diving for balls if he plays RF or LF like any other OF does. All anyone cared about was getting Vaughn in the lineup every day last year and this year. Only when he started playing RF last year did some people start to speak up about his defense. Yes RF is a harder position to play but being unable to get to balls faster OFers could get to has the same built in problems in LF as well. If anyone was fine with Vaughn in LF how is him in RF any different ? Any OFer is going to dive to make plays no matter where you play. The faster ones make the routine and somewhat difficult catches more often than Vaughn would but they also can get to and dive for balls that Vaughn wouldn't (Buxton for example ) and would just stay upright and chase down and pick up. The crux of the matter is better defense, not that Vaughn got injured diving because he's a 1st baseman playing the OF.

CaliSoxFanViaSWside First Base Coach Members 3,180 22,921 posts Gender:Male Location:Altadena, Ca. Report post Posted 19 hours ago Hip pointer maybe ?

You don't want to start burning through his options though especially if he isn't ready to hit. They could keep Adolfo who is not a CF but he can play RF very competently and his arm is just as good as Cespedes. They both would K a bunch but if the Sox dont 26/28 man roster Adolfo he's gone . He's out of options.

No that's for ghosts. For demons they have to be exorcised or killed with the Demon Blade or an Angel could smite them.

Based on my 15 years of watching Supernatural I think demons would have to possess the individual players.

I mentioned hip pointer in the game thread. Now you made me feel smarter.

Damn and I was stoked thinking Industrial Light and Magic could be hired.