Greg Hibbard

I'm not really too well-versed on what makes for a great defensive catcher. Is it pitch-framing, calling a game, holding runners - what metrics are evaluated? It doesn't seem like it's evaluated defensively like other positions. What would make Narvaez better?

It is perfectly acceptable for a pretty talented young Major league player to have a bad, uncharacteristic half-season while he is adjusting to the major leagues. This is essentially what we are talking about here, right? I mean through the first half, he was a very up and down .739 OPS hitter. He was .750 last year. So if we accept the premise that a .743 cumulative OPS would be an acceptable place for him to be at offensively in 2018, which I do, what we are actually left with is this current, 18 game, second half outlier where he is looking completely lost. Can we maybe just suppose this is an 18 game outlier?

I buried the same post at the end of the game thread, but my crude math Narvaez is now .368/.428/.547/.975 since June 1? Can that be correct??? I’ve been mostly writing off this hot streak because he’s typically not a power guy so I would expect any slump to have a severe effect on his OPS. However, the dude is just 26 and has now shown pretty good consistency with average across almost 200 games and 620 PAs, his power seems to be incrementally improving. What do people think the ceiling is here offensively and defensively?

Jesus, Narvaez is hitting .368/.428/.547/.975 since June 1???? Can that be correct???

It’s so funny that Narvaez is Mr. Automatic in this lineup

Moncada needs a day off and some extra bp.

Just put Palka in center. After all, #AuthenticFans remember the #SteveSaxExperiment

This is the same organization that once tried to field Jose Valentin in CF tho

Engel is gonna get 150 more ABs because a potentially sensational defensive play is all anyone in that dugout has left to hold on to this season

Is Jose the most seasonally statistically consistent/ highest in-season variance player ever?

He was clearly out on the replay IMO

A homer by Anderson and a single by Moncada in the same inning - it’s Christmas in August, folks

I picked a hell of a series to be able to sit and home and watch all three games

Yoan Moncada is not awful. He’s an above average player in a rookie season going through a terrible slump that is making him look at worst slightly below average.

Moncada is now 8 for his last 73, which seems absolutely abysmal, but also has 12 walks in the span and 2 of the eight hits were HR. The actually abysmal part is the 31 Ks. I just don’t understand why the coaches aren’t instructing him to swing at more close pitches, because the 12 walks certainly do not outweigh what have to be more than 12 strikeouts looking.

Man.

That’s great because I loooooove it when we ruin the Yankees’ week

OMG ENGEL

What would a Sox game be without a Moncada strikeout looking

Avi still dialed in.

Lopez vs. Sabathia Lets see if we can have some positives tonight

I think that' That's what I thought, thanks. I think this particular point is an extremely crucial one when we compare Yoan Moncada as a 23-year-old to any other 23-year-old (like Robin Ventura), or any other person with similar service time who didn't have the same circumstances. Developmentally, Yoan had to essentially take an entire year off of baseball at a crucial time - when he was 19. Add to that that he bounced around between two different minor league and major league systems (not that unusual for a prospect, but it adds more to the plate), and I think it's worth some consideration that he might need one more year than expected to develop his major league tools.

Moncada received permission to leave Cuba in June of 2014 to pursue MLB, but wasn't signed by the Red Sox until March 2015, and didn't make his professional debut until May 18, 2015. Can we assume that between June of 2014 and May 18 2015 Moncada didn't play any baseball?

After 1000 MLB PAs, you know what you have with Davidson - a 30ish homer guy. You need to see if Palka actually could be a 40ish homer guy. I'd jettison Davidson and keep both Palka and Delmonico for now. Delmonico is just finding his 2018 groove IMO.

Levine is creating news to have something to write about during the Dog Days of August.